darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
I originally posted this response in a thread in the Trek XI forum, but I figured it would make a good topic here too:
Comments?
Don't get me wrong, I love Trek and have done since I was 9 in 1969, but
intellectualism of the the other Trek Movies
Dickens, Shakespeare, Bronte Sisters, Arthur Miller, Asimov etc, they ain't.
Perhaps not, but to dismiss them en mass as being bereft of intellecutal weight is not justified.
Take WoK/TSFS for example. I always pair them up becasue they may be two movies in form, but they are really one story.)
I don't have time right now to go on a massive typing binge and lay this out in full, so here's the "Cliff's Notes" version of my thesis:
The story is about Death, the many forms of thereof, and how we as individuals react to it. The major thematic device that showcases that is of course the Genesis Project. Again, I could expound for quite some time about the various aspects of Death covered just by the project itself, but suffice to say that ultimately it boils down to death being the doorway to new life.
More layers of exploration of the theme come from the various character arcs: Kirk, Spock, the crew as a unit, Khan, and the Klingons.
Kirk's most obvious death-related arc involves his confrontation of his own mortality, combined with his internal examination of "what could have been, but wasn't". He told Saavik that how one faced death was as important as how one faced life. Applying that to his own life, it was obvious that Kirk was seeing the flaws in the way he had been living his life (esp of late). Kirk never stopped until then to really contemplate death. ("I don't believe in the no win scenario [death metaphor].")
Spock of course, faced his death theme as a Vulcan should: logically. The interest in his death theme is to watch how it conflicts and intertwines with those of the others.
The crew as a unit was facing the death of their careers as they had known them. Some were being "beached", some were moving on to other things, but it still meant the death of the "Enterprise family", and that had an effect on them. In the last part of the film(s), they were facing the death of their careers period, due to the Genesis scandal. (this theme would come back in ST VI.)
Khan, of course, is the dark mirror of Kirk in so many ways. Khan is not just confronted with death, he is swamped by it, burried alive by it. The death of many of his followers after the explosion of Ceti Alpha VI. The death of his wife. The death of his very dreams, in that his "world to win" was reduced to a "no way out" struggle just to survive one more day.
Where as Kirk ultimately once again rejected death, Khan embraced death. Having died inside, he BECAME death. His nihillism is the counterpoint to Kirk's stubborn affirmation of fighting for life.
The Klingons were looking at death as well. Death of culture, death of independence. Kruge said it best: "warm sun, woman at your side, children playing, and overhead, flutering in the breeze is the flag of the Federation." Kruge feared that Genesis would kill the Klingon cultural soul, as it took away the reasons for them to struggle. (a common Trek theme, by the way). Paradoxically, he also EMBRACED Genesis, as the "ultimate weapon", one which not only killed your enemy, but made it as if he were never there to begin with. Not just subjugation, but obliteration.
Even (if in a very minor way) the Enterprise herself has a meaning to her death. Her day considered done, she is to "fade away", in the manner of old soldiers everywhere. To the extent that she was considered at least a metaphorical member of the cast/crew, her arc rejected "going quietly into the night", and gave her the ending befitting a proud and gallant warrior queen: in battle, striking one last blow against her enemies even in her death throes.
There are problably aspects of the theme I haven't even realized yet, and a few I have skipped over for time and space (like how all the deaths tie together to birth "new" life in the end).
Comments?
