Back on topic, I thought of another one - the away team's insertion in Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory was a hybrid of probe-riding from TNG: "Emissary" and space-jumping from ST'09.
So it's valid to say that every time two or more TOS characters treated each other with respect, professionalism, or camaraderie, they were in a more intimate relationship? That's ridiculous. This conversation reminds me of RL conversations with people who insist there is no way that adult men and women can be friends without sex being involved. Sometimes a friend is just a friend. EDIT: I call BS on the bolded part. If they honestly think Original Spock and Uhura were in a relationship on TOS, they must never have seen "Amok Time." Spock was so embarrassed about the topic of sex, he could barely bring himself to tell Kirk about it, never mind anyone else (don't bring up Droxine; that scene never made any sense at all). And there was no flirting or anything else between Spock and Uhura after "Amok Time" so I don't see any evidence whatsoever that they went past casual friends.
Huh, I was thinking Starship Troopers (book) when I read that scene. But you're take works too. Cramming people into torpedo casings seems to be a thing in Trek. Hate to think what Academy hazing is like.
I don't think anyone was saying they were in a relationship. They were just saying that the interactions we saw in those scenes were flirtatious enough that them being in a relationship in an alternate universe isn't a totally ridiculous idea. At least that was how I read it.
You got it right. Where they? Probably not. Could they have been? Sure. The foundation was there in TOS, it's plausible and it works.
Let's look at it fourth dimensionally: If there was a spark of a possible relationship between Uhura and Spock in the Prime Universe that, ultimately, went nowhere, why not explore the possibility of a relationship budding in this New Universe given the changes in Spock's family dynamic, relationship with his father and his own counsel with his future self. IOW, in the Prime Universe Spock had too big a stick up his ass to go after Uhura. In the New Verse, he gave himself a rectal stickectomy.
And, you know, we've never actually seen Spock in a long-term relationship before. Or Uhura in a relationship at all. So this is all virgin territory (no pun intended). Which is all part of the fun of starting over again from scratch . . . .
Uhm, no... He wasn't embarrassed about the topic of sex, he was embarrassed to let Kirk know that Vulcan's, who take pride in their logic and emotional control,have to "swim upstream" every seven years to mate, like animals.
Does orbital skydiving really count as an Abrams thing though? After all, Trek first attempted it in Generations and it was featured as a holographic simulation in a Voyager episode. Trek XI may be the first time it's properly shown, but it's not the first to introduce the concept.
Exactly. Plus, Spock (as far as we know ) wasn't in a romantic relationship with Kirk, and nor was he in one with Chapel. There is absolutely no reason to assume that Spock (whether prime or nu) would treat a romantic partner the way he treated Kirk or Chapel. On the other hand, Amok Time (yeah, I've seen that episode at least 20 times, by the way) quite plainly suggests that Spock might well have accepted a bowl of soup under such circumstances from someone who was his (cf. "It is undignified for a woman to play servant to a man who is not hers."). Heck, if we are going to accept all of TOS as being in-continuity, then we just need to fast-forward to The Cloud Minders (full disclosure: I've seen that episode over a dozen times), to see what sorts of details Spock is willing to discuss with works of art... err... prospective romantic partners.
Or to put it another way, in TOS the two met at an older age, both more mature and thinking like officers so what ever spark there may have been was kept in check. In Nu, they met with Uhura as a cadet and Spock not long graduated, at an age much more likely to go "well let's see what happens"
You guys have pretty much hit the nail on the head. The fans who are screaming "but it didn't happen that way!" are just not seeing that the potential was there. Ultimately, the Spock-Uhura romance and Kirk-McCoy friendship are the only actual relationships we've seen developed on screen in NuTrek. We're told repeatedly in Into Darkness that Kirk and Spock are now best friends (did I imagine hearing a line like "closest thing to a brother"? I may have) but we don't see that camaraderie between them. Throughout the film, their relationship is purely antagonistic until Kirk's sacrifice and Spock's sudden outpouring of emotion. Which is why that felt hollow to me, because we've been told we should feel a certain way about them, without any text, subtext or chemistry to back it up. The whole film excelled at "telling, not showing," which is IMO, the number one boo-boo on a writer's list of how to screw up a story. The other thing it excelled at was doing something "because it looks cool" and not because it makes any kind of sense. I've been hoping that we would get some novels set in the new reality that could go a ways towards redeeming it with good characterization and an understanding of how to craft a plot.
^They bickered like an old married couple, which more than sold me on their friendship. Good points, I'd forgotten about those. So perhaps, like Captain's Peril, it only seems like a movie reference. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kyi0WNg40[/yt]
Yeah, that one's always been random. I've never understood what point it served in the movie. Especially since it was never mentioned before or after.
I recently re-read the novelization by J.M. Dillard, who had the thankless task of making this scene semi-plausible. She basically takes the tack that Uhura, who is under Sybok's influence at the time, is not exactly herself when she comes on to Scotty. Not sure that was the original intent in the movie, but it works in the book, more or less.