Star Trek: Axanar

As far as "pink skins" goes, it is a generic identifier for humans based on the first humans the Andorians met. I think it is really reaching for people to be offended.

 

Don't presume to speak for what other people find offensive and to declare it "reaching" as a pat way of dismissing it.

 

Which is why I declared: "I think".

 

Since they seem to be deriving some of their ideas from the FASA history of the Four Years War, it would have been cool to refer to Kharn with the title "Thought Admiral". It would have been a nice nod to John M. Ford's work, from which FASA got a lot of source material about Klingon culture. He certainly fit the profile for a Thought Admiral as I recall it.

 

I watched it again today and still thoroughly enjoyed it. The production values are obviously excellent, and there's no truly "bad" performances in the lot. The one thing I will say is that I didn't think Garth had much gravitas. On my second viewing especially, I was thinking: "one of these is not like the others."

I get the point of trying to make the character humble, but it just felt like he was a little out of his league; I had trouble accepting at face value the glowing admiration the other characters had for him and his leadership.

That said, this is a retrospective documentary (in style), so we could well see a very different Garth in the actual production.

The "gravitas observation" doesn't diminish how much I enjoyed Prelude, and it doesn't make me look forward to the finished film any less. This is exciting stuff.

 

I got the same feeling initially, too, when I saw it but after mulling it over, I'm starting to think we're projecting blustery-crazy Garth (and misinterpreting it as gravitas gone amok) from TOS onto this Garth, pre-TOS.

IIRC (I can't remember specifics) he didn't go over-the-top batshit crazy until after his accident that wound him up amongst a shape-shifter species that helped him heal by teaching him that ability. He may very well have been a very soft spoken strategic genius in his "previous life", loved by his personnel and peers alike - the one does not preclude the other.

Remember that, after he came out of the mind-correcting chair at the end of WGD, he was quite chill, sedate and laid-back, much like how he was portrayed in this. There was nothing to indicate if that was purely an affectation of the machine, or if that was his original temperament before the accident. So little is known about him, it's really anybody's guess what kind of a commander he was back then. In retrospect, I don't find it out of character or awkward at all.

 

That was really well done!

 

Just watched Prelude to Axanar. Here are my thoughts:

-Overall, I think the performances were excellent. Some have criticized Alec Peters' rather subdued performance as Garth of Izar, but I enjoyed it. His tone seemed the most conversational, which seemed appropriate for the documentary format. I also enjoyed Richard Hatch's Kharn quite a bit. I must echo the sentiment that it was refreshing to see a Klingon character speak in something other than an exaggerated, near-operatic manner.

-The effects were generally good, though there are a couple of shots where they do look a little video-gameesque. That's really a minor quibble, especially since the overall quality is very good.

-I just find myself particularly enamored of the idea of "Star Trek as documentary". I appreciate that it's possible to break out of the old storytelling molds that Star Trek has used for so long and that there's more than one way to tell these stories. I can't wait for the finished product.

At the beginning of the video, I saw a reference to the United Federation of Planets Historical Society. This actually clears up a small mystery for me. I work for a printing company in Van Nuys, California. About a month or so ago, I came upon some stickers for the Historical Society that I had to package, but I didn't know what they were for. At first I thought maybe it was some kind of fan group that was trying to create some kind of comprehensive Trek history. I thought about posting about it on TrekBBS but never did. Now I find myself glad that I didn't, as I might've unintentionally spoiled something if I had. I might have one of the stickers stashed somewhere (don't worry, Alec or whoever ordered them, we print extras of everything).

 

They are at war. I doubt that the Klingons would be too concerned with the niceties of diplomacy with the enemy they are trying to defeat in battle. They would demonize the Federation and Starfleet Command every chance they could.

 

Fighting ranges are too short IMO (as are the misses at such close range).

You can have dramatic looking fights by opening the fight up to dozens of kilometers between the vessels by good camera play, plus having torps fly longer and catch up to the target/targets is dramatic in itself. Even beyond visual range can be done for some of the battle (and the further the range the more easier it is to explain misses, especially with bolt weapons that don't seek the target).

The models and effects are top notch though.

 

This. Calling someone in the Federation a Klingon name would have no real effect. Why would I care if they called me, "hukhokhuk"? If you're trying to offend someone, you're going to try to offend them with something they understand.

 

^^^ This is why I always get a chuckle when propaganda "news agencies" run by North Korean, Iranian govt's, etc. always tend to use really broken and over-dramatized flowery language like "we will rain a glorious holy and righteous fire down upon the souls of the besmirched infadel" and dumb shit like that, but sometimes even less understandable than that - like they put it through Google Translate and didn't bother to grammar check. Green and blue squiggly lines everywhere! "Queen bitch whore" feels like it's actually along those lines, sloppily stringing semi-random words together at a feeble attempt to cause insult by a culture who is clearly using it as a second or third language and not quite understanding colloquialisms and other cultural/lingual eccentricities. That's why she recounted the story with a wry smile. That's why I laughed when I heard it.

 

I simply don't understand how this threw people out of the film.

 

Bad words ahead. I would hardly describe someone calling a woman a bitch or a whore as a means to "demonize" them. That is more in line with slut shaming. The big difference between demonizing and slut shaming is that one is meant to make something out to be threatening and dangerous, while the other is solely about degradation, mockery and give the impression that this person has very low standards of decency. While you can certainly say that slut-shaming can be used on the male gender as well, Axanar's case is very female specific with it's use of "queen" (Female ruler), "bitch" (female dog) and "whore" (female prostitute), all used back to back.

And Axanar is not the only Star Trek 'thing' that has shown Klingons in war, and I don't recall the use of the words bitch or whore ever being used to describe a female klingon enemy.

 

There are certain allowances you have to make for fiction. It's more dramatic to see the ships framed together, so that's how you see it. It's more dramatic to hear ships moving and phasers firing, so despite the reality that it wouldn't happen, people like sound effects.

As for misses by torpedoes, I've always assumed starships have countermeasures which jam torpedo guidance.

 

Considering Star Trek is primarily a TV franchise and considered family entertainment, I'm not surprised. Though "bitch" has been used to describe a Klingon female, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

There is nothing in Axanar that I would consider even mildly offensive. YMMV.

 

Oh really now

 

I have to say, that prelude managed to make my jaw drop quite a bit.

 

Got to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be that good. I knew Axanar was doing some quality, but PTA really exceeded what I was expecting. Congrats to everyone involved.

 

So...Klingons at war then?

It's slut shaming to you because you want it to be, but to her it was a sign that she got their attention. I've seen the strongest women I know take the word "bitch" as a sign of strength. For God's sakes, women love that word because of the rebelliousness and personal strength it signifies. My own mother calls herself the Queen Bitch, and I can tell you now, after raising two kids (both through college), having three brain surgeries, and now taking care of her father (who had three strokes and two heart attacks), that she IS the strongest woman I have ever known. So stop this false outrage, because it's utter bullshit.

Although "Queen Bitch" would've sounded better, "Bitch Whore" doesn't flow and annoyed me.

Star Trek VI. Mr. Scott. Somebody already posted the lines.