Macguffins in Trek

[austen_pierce]

Hi everyone. We're talking about the Nexus in a thread and I was thinking about a poll on the greatest Macguffins in Trek movies. I'd like to turn this into a poll, but I'd like some seed ideas first. The Genesis device comes to mind. What do you think?

 

[BillJ]

Red matter!

 

[2takesfrakes]

T&A

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Bajoran Orbs

Morphogenic Matrix

Q

Section 31

 

[publiusr]

Genesis Device.

 

[Lance]

Spock's brain.

 

[GalaxyX]

No, there's something worse than red matter:

The fact that traveling at warp 10 turns you into a salamander.

 

[Greg Cox]

Spock's brain.

You win.

 

[GalaxyX]

Spock's brain.

You win.

Maybe I just don't see it, but what's wrong with Spock's Brain?

I thought it was inline with the theme of most TOS episodes, and it had some gems in it:

"Brain and brain!!!! what is brain?!?!"
"Jim! it's so simple! A child could do it!"

DeForest Kelley was awesome

For a really horrid episode, try "Catspaw"

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Spock's brain, Q, the Orbs and the morphogenic matrix didn't appear in the movies. Should I move this to GTD?

 

[Lance]

Spock's brain.

You win.

Maybe I just don't see it, but what's wrong with Spock's Brain?

I thought it was inline with the theme of most TOS episodes, and it had some gems in it:

"Brain and brain!!!! what is brain?!?!"
"Jim! it's so simple! A child could do it!"

DeForest Kelley was awesome

For a really horrid episode, try "Catspaw"

Naw, I meant it literally, Spock's brain itself is a MacGuffin in the episode "Spock's Brain".

Meta on so many levels!

 

[Commishsleer]

Hi everyone. We're talking about the Nexus in a thread and I was thinking about a poll on the greatest Macguffins in Trek movies. I'd like to turn this into a poll, but I'd like some seed ideas first. The Genesis device comes to mind. What do you think?

I'm going to reject the idea of the Genesis device being a macguffin (even though I don't really know what a macguffin is).
Terraforming a planet has been a concept used in quite a few science fiction movies - Alien, Blade Runner, Avatar, Total Recall (original). I gotta think the 'device' being able to have the power to transform an entire planet in minutes was done to keep the interest of the viewer.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Spock's brain, Q, the Orbs and the morphogenic matrix didn't appear in the movies. Should I move this to GTD?

Sure!

Lance already won the thread.

Other candidates from TOS:

- The (di)lithium crystals in "Mudd's Women"
- The cloaking device in "The Enterprise Incident"
- The zenite in "The Cloud Minders"

 

[Warped9]

Vger, and to some extent the Enterprise herself.

The Genesis device

Spock's Katra

Whales

God

Valeris (as an unknown conspirator) and Chang's BoP

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I thought about naming the whales, but I think they are somewhat of an exception, because an integral part of TVH was the anti-whaling message. You can't have an anti-whaling message, if the nature of the whales is irrelevant. On every other level, though, I agree that they're a MacGuffin ....

 

[Maurice]

Here's a list of Hitchcockian MacGuffins as a point of comparison.

 

[Mudd]

Sherman's Planet/the quadrotriticale in "The Trouble With Tribbles."

The development project and grain are terribly, terribly important - except that they aren't, they're just an excuse to pull Kirk and the Enterprise crew into harmless comedic interactions with the bureaucrat, the Klingons and the tribbles and to keep them there.

 

[CorporalClegg]

If we limit it to just the films, than Genesis is really the only answer.

The whales remain the main focus, or least drove the plot, throughout the entire second act.

Red matter is really more of a magical hurtle. For one thing, it's never really sought. Nero already had it, and the heroes never tried to go after it.

The other thing is both red matter and the whales (and katra for that matter) remain important to the main plot. OTOH, one could ostensibly take Genesis completely out of the film without altering the narrative much.

Hell, I've made the argument that the TWOK would have been better for it. Khan goes to Regula not for Genesis, but to hurt Kirk's family like Kirk hurt his. But I digress.

The fact that traveling at warp 10 turns you into a salamander.

Maybe I just don't see it, but what's wrong with Spock's Brain?

I thought it was inline with the theme of most TOS episodes, and it had some gems in it:

"Brain and brain!!!! what is brain?!?!"
"Jim! it's so simple! A child could do it!"

DeForest Kelley was awesome

For a really horrid episode, try "Catspaw"

You do know what a MacGuffin is?

 

[Lance]

Spock's Katra

I had forgotten. So in a manner of speaking, Spock's brain is a MacGuffin in both "Spock's Brain" and in "The Search For Spock"!

 

[CorporalClegg]

Technically the Katra isn't the McGuffin since it isn't they thing they're after. They (Or Bones, rather) have it the whole time. So you could actually say Spock's body is the McGuffin. But "it" becomes the primary, driving character of the second and third acts.