Somehow, as a old fan, I was both uninterested and interested at the same time. Not because I don't like change, on the contrary my prejudice was because I thought tos was done and 'over' and nothing truly new could be done with the characters because I expected the writers to try to 'copy' the old thing too much. Remakes of anything, in general, don't interest me much.
However, I liked JJ shows and liked the idea of Zachary Quinto, whom I appreciated for his acting skills and charisma in heroes, playing Spock (my favorite character) so I watched and...LOVED IT!
The fact the characters are into another reality is genius and opened up so many possibilities and created so much new potential; I was eager to see more of them and kind of saw this trek as 'another chance' for the characters. It was really nice to not really know what is their 'destiny' as anything could happen since their story wasn't written yet.
Lastly, I grew to love this trek and these characters on their own and not just because of nostalgia or because they are called Spock, Uhura, Kirk etc..
Spock's story is the thing I liked the most.
Tbh this is something that didn't replicate in Discovery, where I liked the actor playing Spock, but something is 'off' and they don't make me love him like kelvin Spock (irony is that disco Spock is more like Kelvin Spock, IMO, than the guy he's supposed to be a prequel of. The difference is that kelvin Spock is another reality, so he's allowed to have his emotional development accelerated by different circumstances, while discovery makes it seems like tos Spock had a regression)
Quinto's Spock has so much charisma, and some of the smartest, sassiest, lines of these movies are his like:
Vulcan Council President : It is truly remarkable, Spock, that you have achieved so much despite your disadvantage.
Spock
: If you would clarify, Minister: to what disadvantage are you referring?
Vulcan Council President : Your human mother.
Spock : Council... Ministers, I must decline.
Vulcan Council President : No Vulcan has ever declined admission to this academy!
Spock :
Then, as I am half-human, your record remains untarnished.
I also love this line and the one I have in my signature
Spock : I intend to assist in the effort to reestablish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise. Excuse me.
How can you not love Spock
He lost his planet, saw his mother dying so he's emotionally compromised and grieving but still, the man has integrity and he still tries to control and focus on his duty as the acting captain. Kelvin Spock is something tos Spock wasn't:
a survivor.
He's younger and you can see it but he also has a maturity to him already. Everything is accelerated. Tos Spock didn't lose his mother and home planet, but it took him many years before he could accept himself and resolve some issues. Kelvin Spock' story has tragedy in it, but he becomes a resolved Spock sooner. He doesn't really deny his feelings and human side, he is less here for vulcan bs because se he knows vulcans have feelings too. He has a girlfriend, he is able to make friends sooner, he may have a far better and more honest relationship with his dad. He has the same old conflict, but it's developed in a more contemporary way.
, I hated that fans didn't like the whole Spock/Uhura pairing because I thought because this was the new timeline they could try some new things, and I liked the Spock/Uhura dynamic.
This is a misuranderstanding because I think most of the fans liked that dynamic. Even in this board, the majority were OK about it in the threads that discussed it or the movies.
Out of all the people I know who are trek fans, most liked it especially because they remembered the flirting in tos, so it was no surprise to see that getting used as inspiration for a romance into a time where you are allowed to do more with the characters than you could in the 60s.
The old fans who complain about these things tend to be those who have an idea of Spock that, frankly, doesn't even align with canon much unless you use selective memory and really take tos out of its 60s context and how much it influenced the characters. He's a popular character yet surprisingly misuranderstood by many.
Even the id-ego-superego stuff is taken too far by some.
The problem is that just like for the movies in general, there is a vocal minority of people online who make it seems 'the fans' universally all disliked these movies.
Haters ruined the party a bit (I remember there were places online where people were literally harassed for saying anything positive about these movies), and frankly I consider them in part responsible for the demise of this trek. I have noticed that even fans online who liked the movies now seem to be persuaded into thinking they flopped and were trashed by critics, in spite of both being untrue. It seems like the fans who liked the movies have to 'apologize' for their 'unpopular' opinion now.
Anyway, I, for one, loved the s/u relationship for a number of reasons.
I didn't know about it before watching because I went totally spoiler free so it was very fun to get the hints. The moment they had that scene where Uhura roasted him for changing her ship assignment I KNEW something was up and I loved waiting for when the writers would just reveal it explicitly, to see that my guess was correct. When they finally did I was 'ready' but what worked for me in that turbolift scene is how touching yet dignified the whole thing really is. The moment he hugs her back I instantly recognize I'm watching two people who actually have a relationship. A real, mature, intimate one. The contrast between who they are while on duty and who they are to each other in private is made blurry by necessity and context, but it makes it clear that the characters aren't finite as officers and their job, there is more to them. They had a life before and outside that ship, and still have it when they are are aboard it. The ship can get destroyed and created again, what is important is the people on that ship. The fact the enterprise isn't everything they have is incredibly realistic and healthy to me.
What I also loved is that it allowed me to see layers of both characters that I wouldn't see otherwise.
I was worried, honestly, they'd write a Spock who was just a parody of the original character and thus reduced to the hero's sidekick who says 'fascinating' and plays the role of the weirdo, logical alien guy. I was pleasantly surprised Spock was, instead, more a co-protagonist with his own story and different layers.
Kelvin Spock is a more contemporary version of the character who is simply allowed to access to narrative elements that Nimoy wasn't allowed to access to.
The same goes for their Uhura (who finally has a life outside of her job too and is elevated to the original trio level) and, in different ways, even their Kirk is more contemporary.
I wish they could do more with the characters.
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