World Premiere/Advance screening discussions [SPOILERS GUARANTEED]

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Enjoy your mediocrity, Dennis.

One of these days you'll actually express some enthusiasm for something that you consider exceptionally good, and I'll have a baseline against which to evaluate your...evaluations.

The fact that you don't like this explanation for the nickname is just that - a dislike. It has nothing to do with the intelligence or other quality of the piece.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

With regards to the erosion of viewers from DS9, I do put part of the blame on the attitude of some fans.

TNG had a huge audience of casual fans - it was quite a popular show with entire families, which was one of the things Paramount valued about it marketing-wise. It wasn't trek fans that really abandoned DS9, it was the big audience - and the expressed attitudes of the fandom didn't have much impact on that.

I'll just say this, I'm in my senior year of high school, representing the target audience for this movie, and I've never heard of the term "sawbones" until now. Considering I don't know what it is, I can pretty much tell you no one else under 25 will either.

And there's no reason that they should. Got nothing to do with "mediocrity" and everything to do with the fact that the world, and of course language, changes every day. That alone - the world always changing - accounts for 90% of fannish complaints about this movie. Pretty pathetic.

 

[SeamusShameless]

I'll just say this, I'm in my senior year of high school, representing the target audience for this movie, and I've never heard of the term "sawbones" until now. Considering I don't know what it is, I can pretty much tell you no one else under 25 will either.

I'm 22 and I've heard the term "sawbones". Did you study the Civil War in history class?

 

[FarDreaming]

Lazerlike42-- Thanks!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'm 22 and I've heard the term "sawbones". Did you study the Civil War in history class?

I'm in my fifties and have heard the phrase "23 skidoo." So?

Working that into Kirk's conversation in this movie would make as much sense as "sawbones."

 

[SeamusShameless]

What does "23 skidoo" have to do with Kirk's background, though?

 

[FarDreaming]

In a sequel: it is possible Spock can be well-written, and follow up on the events of the first movie OR Spock could be well-written and the events of the first film not be mentioned at all. Or he could be poorly written. In any event, the events of the film do not "lock" Spock into anything other than what the writers choose for him. It is entirely possible to get a Spock/McCoy/Kirk dynamic that is similar to TOS by way of the events of the first film, if that's what the film makers choose to do.

So what you are saying is that it's okay with you if the characters just pick themselves up, dust themselves off and go forward in the next movie as if nothing has changed from the Prime line ? That the destruction of Vulcan and the death of Amanda can be nothing but one-time gimmicks, shock-value stunts for this first movie, that have no further relevance for the characters and no repercussions in any future ones?

Maybe that works for you, but I sure do expect more from the writers to make the "Abramsverse" a viable and believable one to me!

 

[Franklin]

Cetainly if we still know what it means today, it could still be used by some folks 200 years from now.

Anything might be true 200 years from now. "Sawbones" is archaic now, and there's no real humor or wit to be derived from using it.

This is one of the most time-wasting aspects of fanon - some people become so attached to their expectations and assumptions that rather than being pleased when some aspect of a story surprises them or goes in an unexpected direction, they become protective of the assumption and in some cases invent some fairly closely-worked out rationalizations for why the writers were wrong to do what they did. I watched idiots do this with the later seasons of "Buffy," which was particularly sad because that series was so energetically off-kilter and counter-intuitive all along and would have been a lesser show without that quality.

Look, it's something to argue about. OK?

For what it's worth (and that's little), an archaic word can be one that hangs around for a long time beyond people really knowing where it came from simply because of its specialized meaning.

It would be sad to find out the writers came up with the story only because they assumed too many in the audience (or Kirk) wouldn't know what "sawbones" really meant. I mean, as a nickname for a surgeon, it's the cat's meow.

I think it's a silly reason for the nickname, not funny. But it's not boycott the movie silly.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Look, it's something to argue about. OK?

Exactly. What else really matters, where Trek is concerned?

I think it's a silly reason for the nickname, not funny.

A silly nickname? What next?

See, thing about obsessive fans is that they like the Trek universe neat and tidy and logical and easily understood - this is certainly the single most defining characteristic of fascination with the "Trek Universe." It also helps if the writers pander to the conceit that fans are unusally bright or socially conscious. This presumably helps to compensate for the fact that reality isn't any of those things, and neither are they.

 

[Captain59]

For anyone who has read Countdown and also saw the movie, is there anything in Countdown that is also in the movie, or does the movie pick up completely after the comic?

Thanks!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I understand that "Worst Person In The World" is referenced, and in the third act Olbermman delivers one of his Special Comments about the Vulcan government.

 

[EJA]

So what happens to Kirk's mom?

Any indication of what happens to Kirk between the time we see him drive the car over the cliff as a kid, and when we see him in the bar where he meets Uhura and Pike?

Do we see Spock's pet sehlat in the movie?

 

[Captain59]

Oh...who is it that appears to be getting ready to have sex...is that Kirk and Uhura? Do they do the deed?

 

[EJA]

Oh...who is it that appears to be getting ready to have sex...is that Kirk and Uhura? Do they do the deed?

I think that's Kirk and an Orion cadet.

 

[Neopeius]

Enjoy your mediocrity, Dennis.

One of these days you'll actually express some enthusiasm for something that you consider exceptionally good, and I'll have a baseline against which to evaluate your...evaluations.

Firefly.

Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes.

Macross

My wife.

Go to town.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

What does "23 skidoo" have to do with Kirk's background, though?

The same thing "sawbones" does.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A thought that's just occurred to me: We know that a clone of Earth exists in the episode Miri. Well if there can be another Earth, why not another Vulcan? Maybe in the new timeline, such a duplicate world could become the new home of the refugees from the prime Vulcan? They'd have no trouble interbreeding with the planet's indigenous Vulcans, thus ensuring their race's continued survival in the Trek universe.

That would be cheese.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

There may have been 10,000 successful evacuations from Vulcan during the crisis, but you have to figure that there are already millions or billions living off-world.

 

[Pavonis]

^ yeah, they're called Romulans.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

^ yeah, they're called Romulans.

Yep.

The universe is already lousy with Vulcans by the era of Star Trek: Enterprise. I'm sure they're still out there.