Sci-Fi or Action?

Isaac Asimov sometimes said of science fiction that it was, "That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings." You can interpret that as narrowly or broadly as you like.

 

Let's not forget Planet of the Apes - the entire original film series - may have been heavy on sociopolitical drama, but the majority of the framework, and means to move the story were filled with strong sci-fi hallmarks. Then, there's Westworld, Silent Running, Fantastic Voyage..the list goes on and on.

There's no way to toss all older productions into the same very light sci-fi of nuTrek, which set out to be more Michael Bay Meets Star Wars, which just so happened to have Trek-ian visual trappings, than a genuine production honoring the legacy of the source (which does not mean copy+paste, before anyone posts that).

 

There really is, if one is honest in the analysis.

 

Hardly. None of the aforementioned films strayed as far into what is now recognized as the over the top, Bay/SW/action zone than nuTrek. Even within the concept, no other Star Trek production has ever recieved this kind of public criticism in nearly 50 years of the concept. ST has recieved blows for other shortcomings, or just bad ideas, but not the action tag.

...and that includes First Contact.

 

What is so bad about the action tag? I loved watching Kirk fight the Gorn in Arena, getting his ass handed to him by Spock in The Naked Time and This Side of Paradise, getting his ass handed to him by Finnegan in Shore Leave, getting his ass handed to him by Ron Tracy in The Omega Glory...

The action/space ships/cool monsters was what actually lured me to Star Trek all those years ago.

From my perspective, what Abrams has produced is "Star Trek" with a much higher budget and better production technology.

 

Every one of the scenes were just that--scenes. The overall tone of the episode was not Bay-like, noisy, over the top action, which was not the point--the story--the drama was.

Arena:the fight is not the actual setpiece, but Kirk's behavior before and after the fight is the episode.

The Omega Glory:Kirk fought Tracey, but that was by no means the tone or drive of that script. The eerie teaser, Tracey's brutal behavior and the civil war was the story.

That was a minor part of TOS. A series which was pretty much about all of those elements all of the time was Lost in Space, as it was THE 1960s template for the kind of loud, thrill / spectacle over substance of today's nuTrek--not exactly thought provoking sci-fi that TOS was more often than not.

 

Yeah, Abrams's films have captured the feeling of the original Star Trek TV series to a degree that previous Trek films never did.

 

I think the best scifi is scifi that has smart action.

The heroes win because they're clever and outwit the opponent, not because they're the best at shooting people.

That's what Star Trek circa 1960s-2005 is.

 

Ah, short memories. So, no recollection of how TWOK was received in certain fan circles when it first came out, I take it.

 

"Indiana Skywalker Meets the Son of Star Trek" from Best of Trek #7, reads like a criticism of the 2009 movie. I laughed my ass off at how little fandom and fan complaints have changed over the years. Wrath of Khan was apparently a popcorn action flick, which would never stand up to repeat viewings like the original 79 episodes did...

 

A lot of trekkies were furious about it - "Meyer and Bennett don't know Star Trek, and they're trying to turn it into Star Wars."

Oh, and fans nitpicked the details - "Regula One is a ST:TMP model turned upside down - you can see upside down trees inside the windows. How lazy!" and "proper Star Trek terminology is shuttlecraft, not 'space shuttles.'"

There was a petition campaign objecting to Spock's death.

By "a lot," of course, I mean no more than one out of ten and of course most of them paid to see the movie - exactly as with the Abrams films.

The complaints by TOS fans about TNG were of a different type, but a minority complained vociferously about it as well. Eventually most of them subside because the enthusiasm of the vast majority carries the day.

 

I remember people (and even some critics) complaining that WoK was less "cerebral" and more violent than TMP and that that it was more of a space opera shoot-em-up against a dastardly super-villain . . . .

 

This! But then why was Ellison so up in arms about the show? Was he just so sore about the rewrite of TCOTEOF? His comments seemed to go beyond that episode.

 

The former.