Things that really took you by surprise

[Sci]

We find out who's running security, and Uhura gets to do more than just stand around saying, "Hailing frequencies open."

Is there really anything wrong with having Uhura standing around saying "Hailing frequencies open" though? Y'know, any actual problems other than feeling sorry for the actress?

Yes. First off: Female characters in a franchise that is supposed to be about an egalitarian future should not be depicted as basically being high-tech secretaries. They should take as active of roles in the plot as male characters.

Secondly: It's a waste of screentime and character development to have a character in an action-adventure film series who does not participate in the adventure.

 

[captcalhoun]

how fucking shit it was.

 

[Jeyl]

I think Uhura was given a much larger role in ST09 than ever before

......."The Lorelei Signal"

Can't really get much larger than that when she TAKES COMMAND OF THE ENTERPRISE and saves the day!

 

[Sci]

I think Uhura was given a much larger role in ST09 than ever before

......."The Lorelei Signal"

Can't really get much larger than that when she TAKES COMMAND OF THE ENTERPRISE and saves the day!

Fair enough that she had a large role in one episode of the animated series.

But that doesn't change the fact that for forty years, 6 films, and 79 TOS episodes, she was little more than a cardboard cutout.

 

[F. King Daniel]

What suprised me most was that they didn't "undo" the distruction of Vulcan (and the death of Amanda, which was an unexpected gutpunch). As cool as the scene was I was 100% sure they were gonna go back in time and undo it at the end. During the scene where young and old Spock chat it hit me like a ton of bricks.

 

[Jeyl]

Is there really anything wrong with having Uhura standing around saying "Hailing frequencies open" though? Y'know, any actual problems other than feeling sorry for the actress?

Ya. She's the only female character in the whole cast that didn't get written off or killed. And since there is no interest in a new Star Trek series or any other brand of spin-offs, she is likely to be Star Trek's only female character for a looong time. Let me emphasize that.

The only female character. And what better way to take her character in a new direction by keeping her in the same useless post that she's always been reduced to with other crew members doing her job?

How about having her be the First Officer? I think it makes sense. Knowing a great deal of languages and being second to none with communication skills is a great trait for a First Officer to have. That way Spock can keep his Science Post and beam down with Kirk on away team missions without leaving the ship captainless. Naw. For some reason Spock has to be both First Officer and Science Officer. Why? I don't know. Maybe everyone doesn't like the idea of women being First Officers (See "Number One").

 

[Shazam!]

how fucking shit it was.

LOL

Yes. First off: Female characters in a franchise that is supposed to be about an egalitarian future should not be depicted as basically being high-tech secretaries. They should take as active of roles in the plot as male characters.

Secondly: It's a waste of screentime and character development to have a character in an action-adventure film series who does not participate in the adventure.

Ya. She's the only female character in the whole cast that didn't get written off or killed. And since there is no interest in a new Star Trek series or any other brand of spin-offs, she is likely to be Star Trek's only female character for a looong time. Let me emphasize that.

The only female character. And what better way to take her character in a new direction by keeping her in the same useless post that she's always been reduced to with other crew members doing her job?

How about having her be the First Officer? I think it makes sense. Knowing a great deal of languages and being second to none with communication skills is a great trait for a First Officer to have. That way Spock can keep his Science Post and beam down with Kirk on away team missions without leaving the ship captainless. Naw. For some reason Spock has to be both First Officer and Science Officer. Why? I don't know. Maybe everyone doesn't like the idea of women being First Officers (See "Number One").

I like how the argument is basically "because she's a woman."

Sulu should also have more screentime because he's Asian. And Chekov because he's Russian. And Scotty because he's Scottish.

 

[JarodRussell]

All those TOS characters are not reflecting our current society. Which is why this should have been a full blown reboot or a sequel with a new crew and ship. Uhura in the 1960s was revolutionary, today she's just reduced to whatever this was what I saw on screen.

 

[Sci]

how fucking shit it was.

LOL

Yes. First off: Female characters in a franchise that is supposed to be about an egalitarian future should not be depicted as basically being high-tech secretaries. They should take as active of roles in the plot as male characters.

Secondly: It's a waste of screentime and character development to have a character in an action-adventure film series who does not participate in the adventure.

Ya. She's the only female character in the whole cast that didn't get written off or killed. And since there is no interest in a new Star Trek series or any other brand of spin-offs, she is likely to be Star Trek's only female character for a looong time. Let me emphasize that.

The only female character. And what better way to take her character in a new direction by keeping her in the same useless post that she's always been reduced to with other crew members doing her job?

How about having her be the First Officer? I think it makes sense. Knowing a great deal of languages and being second to none with communication skills is a great trait for a First Officer to have. That way Spock can keep his Science Post and beam down with Kirk on away team missions without leaving the ship captainless. Naw. For some reason Spock has to be both First Officer and Science Officer. Why? I don't know. Maybe everyone doesn't like the idea of women being First Officers (See "Number One").

I like how the argument is basically "because she's a woman."

Sulu should also have more screentime because he's Asian. And Chekov because he's Russian. And Scotty because he's Scottish.

Actually, the argument is not, "The character should get more screen time because it is a female character." The argument is, "The character is written in a sexist manner, and this depiction should be changed to a non-sexist manner."

 

[Kegg]

- I had absolutely no objections to the Spock/Uhura romance thing. I was all for it. Unfortunately it just didn't do anything because of how rushed it felt.

The whole movie's a little rapid fire. I thought the relationship worked fine, but YMMV.

- And furthermore, why didn't she step in-between Kirk and Spock when Kirk was berating him? This guy lost his mother and his entire planet to a mad man.

Everyone there knew well enough not to get involved. That scene was clearly between Kirk and Spock.

I would honestly like to know why she didn't intervene like Bones did earlier.

It'd make the one time Bones intervenes redundant. Bones needed a scene where he had a spat with Spock, because honestly it's one of the most iconic things from the series. And if she had intervened they'd be going over the same ground.

Really, they're balancing the character screentime here. Give Uhura more stuff to do in addition to what she's already doing, and Bones/Sulu/Chekov would all become further marginalised. They don't get the character stuff she does, but they do need to justify their top billing by doing something, damn it. TOS has never been an ensemble, but the 'little people' do sort of matter and arguably no Star Trek film has been as conscious of that as this one.

The only thing about Uhura's depiction that struck me as could even be construed as sexist is that when the boys - Kirk and Spock - go off to save the world, she's the one giving Spock a farewell kiss and staying behind. Alright, it made sense to me - even with her expanded role, this is a Kirk/Spock film, not a Kirk/Spock/Uhura film.

As for giving Uhura a new job, well, she's Uhura. 'Hailing frequencies open captain', indeed, for better or worse it's her signature role. That said I do hope she remains very prominent in the film series - Saldana's definitely proven she's got what it takes to be a leading lady with this first picture.

To put this another way: Yes, she's the only lead female role. She's also the only lead female role, which is doubtless why she has been given the expansion that she has. Movies these days do tend to not get by on Lawrence of Arabia depictions of women, basically.

 

[Shazam!]

"The character is written in a sexist manner, and this depiction should be changed to a non-sexist manner."

It's not sexist to expect the communications officer to monitor communications : /

 

[Jeyl]

As for giving Uhura a new job, well, she's Uhura. 'Hailing frequencies open captain', indeed, for better or worse it's her signature role.

I seriously doubt anyone would complain if her duty was more important than just saying "hailing frequencies open". In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone would prefer that over her 'signature' role.

That's another thing that surprised me about this movie. People are happy with Uhura being the background character who serves only the male's love interest while they go out and save the galaxy and she stays behind to does nothing* (Thank you Kegg).

*Monitoring your frequencies? Really?

 

[John Picard]

I was shocked that there were actually sombreros worn by many of the background characters.

 

[thumbtack]

how fucking shit it was.

LOL

You know, you're starting to make the browncoats sound rational and well-reasoned. You did not want a reboot. We get it. Now, leave poor Uhura alone. She's just a working girl trying to make ends meet on a Starfleet paycheck. She works hard for the money. So hard for it, honey. So you better treat her right.

I'm sorry, Ms. Saldana. They're still angry. Please, just ignore them and resume being hot.

 

[Shazam!]

leave poor Uhura alone

 

[Sci]

"The character is written in a sexist manner, and this depiction should be changed to a non-sexist manner."

It's not sexist to expect the communications officer to monitor communications : /

But it is sexist to deny the only major female character the opportunity to do more than just monitoring communications.

Worf was able to monitor communications just fine whilst heading up ship's security. Uhura can, too.

 

[Kegg]

I seriously doubt anyone would complain if her duty was more important than just saying "hailing frequencies open". In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone would prefer that over her 'signature' role.

Well, you can give her a bigger role without making her change her job. Have her beam down with the captain to where-ever the action is, maybe have a fight scene of her own. Or give her command of the Enterprise during a sequence. And so on.

Basically, she can be like Princess Leia. 'Princess' isn't the most pro-active job title, but when you're hefting a blaster side by side with the boys does it really make a difference?

There are just a lot of ways to give Uhura a more prominent role in the movie without changing her job description. And hell, neither Sulu nor Chekov's requiste hero moment had anything to do with their jobs - Sulu went to do some swordplay, Chekov used the transporter.

 

[Sci]

I seriously doubt anyone would complain if her duty was more important than just saying "hailing frequencies open". In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone would prefer that over her 'signature' role.

Well, you can give her a bigger role without making her change her job. Have her beam down with the captain to where-ever the action is, maybe have a fight scene of her own. Or give her command of the Enterprise during a sequence. And so on.

Basically, she can be like Princess Leia. 'Princess' isn't the most pro-active job title, but when you're hefting a blaster side by side with the boys does it really make a difference?

There are just a lot of ways to give Uhura a more prominent role in the movie without changing her job description. And hell, neither Sulu nor Chekov's requiste hero moment had anything to do with their jobs - Sulu went to do some swordplay, Chekov used the transporter.

But neither of them has the unfortunate implications of featuring a woman answering the phone.

 

[Kegg]

But neither of them has the unfortunate implications of featuring a woman answering the phone.

Well, 'Princess' definitely carries certain implications. Leia's character arc in the original movie is the classic helpless damsel in distress routine. It's turned on its head because she's fairly tough, intelligent, resourceful and a good shot.

Likewise, if Uhura beams down to the planet to phaser away a couple of Klingon warriors, does it matter greatly her main job is as a linguistic interpreter who answers the phone?

 

[Sci]

But neither of them has the unfortunate implications of featuring a woman answering the phone.

Well, 'Princess' definitely carries certain implications. Leia's character arc in the original movie is the classic helpless damsel in distress routine. It's turned on its head because she's fairly tough, intelligent, resourceful and a good shot.

And Star Wars gets away with that because it's an epic myth, a fairy tale, set in outer space. Star Trek, on the other hand, is about a professional space service, and having the only major female star being the woman who answers the phone makes for some very sexist implications. The solution to that is to give her something more to do.

Likewise, if Uhura beams down to the planet to phaser away a couple of Klingon warriors, does it matter greatly her main job is as a linguistic interpreter who answers the phone?

But if you're going to have her do that anyway, why not just give her the Chief of Security title, then? I mean, if she's beaming down to alien planets and kicking alien butt, she's already doing what we'd see her doing as Chief of Security anyway.