- Share This Post
- submit
- 6
-
Sparkle (0)
I'm writing this right after seeing Star Trek because I don't want to forget. By the time you read it though, the film will be more than a week old. The film is lovely - sweet, in fact. It includes an appearance (slightly more than a cameo) by Leonard Nimoy, as an aging Mr. Spock. The film skids back and forth in time, much as our own memories do -- and between the young Spock played by Heroes' Zacharay Quinto and Nimoy as his older self.
For me, as I suspect for many, there was a wonderful subtext to this dashing film: that of life moving on, lessons learned, friendships nurtured. Spock of the future, bundled up in a snowy cave, explaining to his junior self* about their relationship and the passage of time. Megan Smith of Megan's Minute, tells me that many of her friends have described their pleasure, on a whole other level, upon introducing their kids to the Star Trek they knew and loved. When William Shatner was Captain Kirk, not a lawyer with a failing brain or travel agent/kidnapping Priceline spokesman.
One example: Jennie Rigg of the UK, who describes seeing the film with her small daughter. It's really lovely.
Nordette Adams, who blogs at The Examiner and BlogHer, has written about Shatner as a novelist in her own meditation on the film. In the same post, she wonders why we saw so little of Kirk's mom while Spock's, played by the radiant Winona Ryder, was so, well, radiant. She also links to many of the major Trek sites, so the post is a real multi-tasking bonanza.
Also raising questions is Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood, who wishes that women were at least as represented in the film as they were on the TV series. True, although I was having so much fun I forgot to notice.
On another front, the GameGirls offer four perspectives - all of them positive and a couple dealing with the joys of the time-travel portion of the plot. They're young women and they don't altogether relate to the slight melancholy that accompanies a long friendship as live moves on, but they are four smart women with great perspectives on the beloved Star Trek - then and now.
Far from the world of GameGirls is a media literacy teacher and advocate in Culver City, CA who is also a nun. Her blog Sister Rose, is full of remarkable observations on the film, including several about time, friendship and -- well, listen to her:
It may be sci-fi but it is also “psy-fi”. It’s about character, how
everything in life stems from learning empathy, discovering self and
one’s identity, emotional intelligence, and the integrated personality,
love and self-sacrifice for others, family, ethnic diversity, community.
In other words, not surprisingly, many of the women who saw Star Trek love the film as much as the guys - maybe more - and for vastly diverse and interesting reasons. Just perfect for the world Gene Roddenberry sought to create so long ago.
EDITED TO REPAIR DUMB MISTAKE: JRose48 reminds me that Spock was talking to an older KIRK not to himself. Clearly a little too much what the shrinks call "transference" at work here. Sorry and thanks to JR for the help0.
