In a recent post with more pictures from the New Star Trek there was a lot of people saying they looked good. I was one of them. I love the new look and I am eagerly awaiting this film.
However among the comments were these TWO concerns that stood out as negatives toward the film and I felt I wanted to address them here so we could discuss them.
Recasting
The feeling is that Kirk can ONLY be played by Shatner, and Nimoy is the only guy who can play Spock. The examples given were of situations where someone would replace the character in a sequel. The problem is that Kirk cannot be in a sequel since he died in Generations. There cannot BE another movie with Kirk in it. And Spock is playing himself, until he meets his younger self. (and Next Generation doesn’t deserve more after Nemesis – stupid Data subplot)
Back in the glory days of the Dukes of Hazzard we got some replacement “cousins” while Bo and Luke were written out of the story (contract negotiations) They were Coy and Vance Duke, and were practical clones of Bo and Luke. They were not accepted by the fans and eventually the original good old boys were back and all carried on as normal.
Recasting failures can be poor choices, but we don’t know that Pine and Quinto are poor choices.
Also, these are the characters in a completely different time in their lives, much like we accepted Daniel Craig in the role of Bond (even though he isn’t the same as the other Bond actors) we accept him for his portrayal of the role because that role IS different from the other Bond eras. They are not REPLACING Kirk and Spock, they are portraying a younger version.
This is not an issue of another actor trying to play Kirk in a sequel with Kirk in it. This is a different Kirk. A younger Kirk. And his life will be different from this point on based on the events of the movie, so this is a new Kirk. It doesn’t have to be the same.
When River Phoenix played a Young Indiana Jones, we were excited to see a glimpse of what Jones was like at a young age. (I would have loved to see a TV series or Movie franchise based around River Pheonix as Jones)
Too Young
Now there is a younger version of Kirk and Spock coming our way and people are automatically discounting them with ridiculous claims of “High School Musical Trek” and “Trek90210” and that is just grasping for a reason to hate it. These characters are not being played as teens. The actors are not teens. The story is not a kid story, just younger than we have seen them in other incarnations.
It is utterly ridiculous to assume the movie is about those things when it has never once been said that this movie will take place in their teenage years.
Keep in mind that Pine is 28 and Quinto is 31. And they are playing younger versions of a 37 year old Shatner’s Kirk, and Nimoy’s 35 year old Spock.
The argument is that Pine is too young to BE a starship Captain. I don’t recall there being an official guide that says in Starfleet, you have to be a certain age to be Captain. Guess what kids, canon says James Tiberius Kirk received his first Captain’s title at the ripe age of 31. That is close enough to Pine’s actual age of 28. So you have nothing to complain about there. If anything this is an appropriate aged actor to play the part of a Starfleet officer gaining his first command.
As for the rest of the cast. Well they are all older than Pine, so really there isn’t much to complain about there.
Adults playing the parts of adults, depicting a point in Star Trek history peiced together from canon throughout 10 movies. No issues.
Other issues
We don’t know for sure how it will play out, but according to canon Spock already served for 11 years under Captain Pike, which may very well be the case. This movie will start with Kirk getting command of the Enterprise, and perhaps Spock just comes with the command. It is also possible that since we already know that old Spock goes back in time to talk to his younger self. This might result in young Spock seeing Kirk out.
The colour of his shirt. Yeah, Kirk has a Black uniform instead of the deep yellow we commonly see him wearing in the original series. Its a shirt. Seriously. A shirt? If that is all you have to complain about then I would think you should be happy that you don’t have more to complain about.
Overall
In the big picture of it all these are all very minor things to complain about. This is not a remake, it is a sequel. Yes the sequel will mess with the time continuum and change history. But this is the best way to do a reboot and have that reboot become PART of the canon. The original is not ignored, just headed in a new direction.
I predicted this nearly two years ago and I am still waiting for my royalty cheque.
So enjoy Star Trek and save the silly kneejerk reaction to make up things about the movie that just doesn’t exist and we can focus our attention on real concerns. Which I am not seeing much of yet.
And that makes me happy.
