rj_anderson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rj_anderson) wrote2003-05-28 10:07 am
rj_anderson) wrote2003-05-28 10:07 am
Pay no attention to the [Ber]man behind the curtain
Yes, it's true, as of last night I have finally seen Star Trek: Nemesis. Took me long enough, didn't it? Thing is, I haven't seen any of the TNG movies since Generations, so it wasn't like I was rushing out in a frenzy to slap down $14 so I could see it on the big screen.
I must say, however, that it was not until seeing this movie that I realized my love for Trek in general and TNG in particular had not merely waned with the years, but actually turned up its little Starfleet regulation footwear-clad toes and died.
This discovery came as something of a surprise, since I've been a Trekker since forever. I mean, I even doggedly watched a year and a half's worth of ENT before giving up on it (and "doggedly" would be the right adverb since Porthos ended up being by far my favorite character on the show). But even at that I just figured there was something rotten in the premise or execution of ENT in particular, not that I had ceased to care about the Trekiverse entirely.
By rights Nemesis ought to have done something for me. I watched TNG faithfully for seven years. I saw nearly every episode of the show, some of them three or four times. I loved Picard, and Data, and Worf. I even dared to hope that some day Jean-Luc and Beverly would stop sandbagging and get together, already. So surely, if I were going to find my fondness for Trek rekindled, the latest TNG movie ought to have done it, unless it were really claw-out-my-eyeballs please-kill-me-now bad like Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Which it certainly wasn't. In fact, it wasn't boring, or over-long, or badly acted, either.
What it was, however, is a perfect example of all the things that make me most cynical about Trek. Playing fast-and-loose with Picard's characterization, for instance, so they could show off their newest nifty gadget and work in a big chase scene. Sorry, but Extreme!Picard just did not work for me. I kept looking at him with his feral grin and funky sunglasses and wondering, "Who are you and what have you done with Jean-Luc?"
But that wasn't even the worst of it. What finally made me roll my eyes and put my brain into neutral for the remainder of the movie were the incredibly contrived and heavy-handed plot twists. As soon as they picked up Data's "brother" from the planet I knew he had to be there to make the poor widdle audience feel all better when the real Data got killed. Because this is Trek, you know, the home of the everlasting reset button, and nobody can ever really die. So as a result Data's death, which ought to have affected me deeply since he was always one of my favorite characters, made no emotional impact on me whatsoever. None.
Then there was that hysterical subplot of Shinzon being attracted to Deanna Troi and inexplicably wasting precious time and energy (including his Viceroy's) making empathic contact with her -- just so that later in the film Troi can follow that link in the other direction and use it to locate his ship. Heck, why didn't he just hand her the coordinates on a silver platter as a token of his esteem? The whole scenario could hardly have been less silly if he had.
I also had some real problems with Shinzon's motivation. "I was created, brutalized and discarded by the Romulans, so my life's ambition is to destroy... Earth!" Sure, that makes perfect sense to me. But of course TPTB know (or think they know) that the stakes wouldn't be high enough if Shinzon merely set out to destroy Romulus, so somehow they have to make it All About Humanity. Again.
Excuse me while I yawn.
Not to mention the amazing convenience of having the whole doomsday weapon sequence take seven minutes to activate (ooh, look at the pretty wings!), thus giving Picard and Data ample time to get on board and stop it. Why on earth didn't Shinzon just beam one of those miniature t-whatsit radiation devices on board and fry everybody in a matter of seconds, the way he disposed of the Romulan Senate? Beverly did say, after all, that it would only take a miniscule amount of that radiation to do it... so the need for some honking humongous radiation death ray device escapes me.
You know, the sad thing about all this is that I am not normally picky about these kinds of things. I've been known to miss or ignore plot holes you could drive a Borg cube through. But I just couldn't overlook all the problems with this film, though I had enormous fun playing "Spot the 24 Actor" (Mike!) and I was rather taken with Tom Hardy. Oh, and I even began to understand the appeal of Janeway/Picard (yeah, you know where that came from. Stop smirking,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seemag and zakhad).
So, anyway. It looks like that's it for Trek, where I'm concerned at least. I can no longer bear the contrived machinations of TPTB, their continual ducking of consequences. I'm too spoiled by good writing now, thanks to shows like 24 and Alias, and I can never go back.
Sorry 'bout that.
I must say, however, that it was not until seeing this movie that I realized my love for Trek in general and TNG in particular had not merely waned with the years, but actually turned up its little Starfleet regulation footwear-clad toes and died.
This discovery came as something of a surprise, since I've been a Trekker since forever. I mean, I even doggedly watched a year and a half's worth of ENT before giving up on it (and "doggedly" would be the right adverb since Porthos ended up being by far my favorite character on the show). But even at that I just figured there was something rotten in the premise or execution of ENT in particular, not that I had ceased to care about the Trekiverse entirely.
By rights Nemesis ought to have done something for me. I watched TNG faithfully for seven years. I saw nearly every episode of the show, some of them three or four times. I loved Picard, and Data, and Worf. I even dared to hope that some day Jean-Luc and Beverly would stop sandbagging and get together, already. So surely, if I were going to find my fondness for Trek rekindled, the latest TNG movie ought to have done it, unless it were really claw-out-my-eyeballs please-kill-me-now bad like Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Which it certainly wasn't. In fact, it wasn't boring, or over-long, or badly acted, either.
What it was, however, is a perfect example of all the things that make me most cynical about Trek. Playing fast-and-loose with Picard's characterization, for instance, so they could show off their newest nifty gadget and work in a big chase scene. Sorry, but Extreme!Picard just did not work for me. I kept looking at him with his feral grin and funky sunglasses and wondering, "Who are you and what have you done with Jean-Luc?"
But that wasn't even the worst of it. What finally made me roll my eyes and put my brain into neutral for the remainder of the movie were the incredibly contrived and heavy-handed plot twists. As soon as they picked up Data's "brother" from the planet I knew he had to be there to make the poor widdle audience feel all better when the real Data got killed. Because this is Trek, you know, the home of the everlasting reset button, and nobody can ever really die. So as a result Data's death, which ought to have affected me deeply since he was always one of my favorite characters, made no emotional impact on me whatsoever. None.
Then there was that hysterical subplot of Shinzon being attracted to Deanna Troi and inexplicably wasting precious time and energy (including his Viceroy's) making empathic contact with her -- just so that later in the film Troi can follow that link in the other direction and use it to locate his ship. Heck, why didn't he just hand her the coordinates on a silver platter as a token of his esteem? The whole scenario could hardly have been less silly if he had.
I also had some real problems with Shinzon's motivation. "I was created, brutalized and discarded by the Romulans, so my life's ambition is to destroy... Earth!" Sure, that makes perfect sense to me. But of course TPTB know (or think they know) that the stakes wouldn't be high enough if Shinzon merely set out to destroy Romulus, so somehow they have to make it All About Humanity. Again.
Excuse me while I yawn.
Not to mention the amazing convenience of having the whole doomsday weapon sequence take seven minutes to activate (ooh, look at the pretty wings!), thus giving Picard and Data ample time to get on board and stop it. Why on earth didn't Shinzon just beam one of those miniature t-whatsit radiation devices on board and fry everybody in a matter of seconds, the way he disposed of the Romulan Senate? Beverly did say, after all, that it would only take a miniscule amount of that radiation to do it... so the need for some honking humongous radiation death ray device escapes me.
You know, the sad thing about all this is that I am not normally picky about these kinds of things. I've been known to miss or ignore plot holes you could drive a Borg cube through. But I just couldn't overlook all the problems with this film, though I had enormous fun playing "Spot the 24 Actor" (Mike!) and I was rather taken with Tom Hardy. Oh, and I even began to understand the appeal of Janeway/Picard (yeah, you know where that came from. Stop smirking,
seemag and zakhad).So, anyway. It looks like that's it for Trek, where I'm concerned at least. I can no longer bear the contrived machinations of TPTB, their continual ducking of consequences. I'm too spoiled by good writing now, thanks to shows like 24 and Alias, and I can never go back.
Sorry 'bout that.
no subject
While "Nemesis" is fresh in your mind, you should read
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Ooops, could you see that from over there?
But those sparks are hard to deny, aren't they?
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Only thing is, I can't help but think that Janeway would be the dominant one in that relationship... a thought which I find profoundly disturbing, given that Picard has never struck me as a wimp.
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I was ready to leave the movie after that scene -- I only stayed for the Funky Romulan Chickie. About whom, I just remembered, I wrote half a fic. Really should finish that up and post it, provided that I haven't done anything stupid like sort her into Slytherin...
no subject
Wow, even I didn't think it was that bad...
Yeah, let's all give up on Trek.
(Anonymous) 2003-05-28 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)But just a random Ra-Ra for Deep Space Nine, where characters grow, where actions have consequences, and where outbreaks of smarminess are kept to a minimum.
There may be hope for televised sf drama yet....
Erin
http://www.sitehouse.net/vivid
Re: Yeah, let's all give up on Trek.
I got into the Odo/Kira stuff not so much because I liked Kira (in fact I could barely stand her) as because I liked Odo and he clearly liked Kira, and who am I to stand in the way of a canonical 'ship? However, the way that (I hear) they "resolved" that one in typically idiotic fashion made me glad I'd stopped watching the show again.
Ooh! Speaking of televised SF, I've just remembered I haven't watched the latest episode of "Shada". *dashes off*
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(Anonymous) 2003-05-28 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)Anyway, I hear ya. The producers of Trek need to learn some very important things. Firstly, that the fans *made* them, and angering the fans is not the way to go. Secondly, they can never, ever, hope to compete with the expense special-effects affairs being produced nowadays, so they should stop trying to rope in the everyman and concentrate on why everyone liked Trek in the first place, why people still like the original series even now, though their special effects were done with cardboard and a marker.
The more Trek there is the more betrayed I feel. Data's death(because he was my favorite character) devastated me, not because he died, but because he died so stupidly, in a stupid, plothole filled plot that was completely unnecessary, in a lame attempt to copy STII. It's not fair.
Enterprise also makes me want to tear my eyes out, and I agree that Porthos is by far the best character, and the show would probably be improved if it was all about him just being cute. :P
My thoughts are basically that there is a certain amount of trust you have to place in an author/producer. While you have it, you can forgive many things, continuity errors, plotholes. My trust in Bermaga is gone, to such a degree that I hesitate to accept Nemesis or later parts of Voyager as canon.
For similar horror, see: Dune prequels.
~Chresimos
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The producers of Trek need to learn some very important things. Firstly, that the fans *made* them, and angering the fans is not the way to go.
Unfortunately, I think it's too late for them to get a clue and start hanging out at Television Without Pity, or wherever else the fans are voicing intelligent criticisms. I think they still feel quite secure that there will always be Trekkers and Trek will always sell, no matter what stupidity they foist upon us. And perhaps they're right about that -- after all, ENT hasn't tanked yet, and heaven knows it deserves to.
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Oh, want to join me and RL friend Louisa in rewriting the whole of Enterprise as a series called "Uber-Beagle From The Stars" in which Porthos is allowed to display his considerable talents far more widely (but dibs I the episode where they land on a planet where the natives conclude that given Porthos has the looks, charm, charisma, focus and diplomatic abilities which the rest of the crew so noticeably lack, Captain Archer is merely his interpreter, and the crew have to play along with this for the whole episode)?
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I would PAY MONEY to read that script. Especially written by you. Hee!
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*drifted in from
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And hi!
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Hello! Also a Trek fan here, which got me reading this entry and the comments. I liked Nemesis okay, but after watching some TOS on DVD, I have to say--it wasn't "Journey to Babel," was it?