Characters Spirit - Reboot compared to TOS (Possible spoilers)

[Cmdr.Druss]

Now that we have a second movie to further see their interpretations, what do we think of the reboot casts performance compared to their TOS counterparts?

Do the reboot cast capture the spirit/essence of their TOS character or does it seem like a completely new person?

 

[Kruezerman]

Yes they do but they put their own spin on it, and that's okay. Because these are new actors in a new time and so artistically they had to be a little different.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think they're excellent modernized, moviefied versions of the TOS characters. The biggest difference is that they see each other as friends first and officers second.

Kirk is based more on the classic movie Kirk than the (to be honest, rather generic and occasionally unpleasently grabby) TV series version.

Spock has probably changed the most of the main cast, although after what he's lived through it's not surprising. He's snarky and a little unstable.

McCoy is McCoy, but they're feeding him better in this timeline.

There's a lot more to Uhura. Like the "Mr. Adventure" scene from STIII expanded into a whole person. No more "I'm frightened, captain" and screaming. And she can speak Klingon.

Scotty has a bit of a chip on his shoulder now, and due perhaps to the Temporal Cold War has less hair than his older self.

Sulu's speech in ID was the coolest thing the character ever did. Less goofy than TOS Sulu, although we haven't seen enough of him to really say.

Chekov is the same as ever, but a little more humble and perhaps a little smarter - but like Sulu, we haven't seen enough to be certain.

Khan and Carol seem the most different to me, but the both were seen in a totally different situations than before. TOS Khan would probably do the same as ID Khan if put into the same situation. Carol seemed wide-eyed and innocent in ID but world weary in WoK. Such things come with age, I guess...

 

[Lance]

My impressions are they're all (eerily at times) wholely accurate to the characters seen in TOS, but not necessarily always to how those characters were actually portrayed by their previous actors. And in my opinion that's exactly how it should be. Recognisably the same guys but not a shallow impersonation of the original actors. Works for me!

 

[shapeshifter]

There are slight differences but nothing which cannot be logically explained given the different circumstances of these peoples life experience. Plus they are younger than we've ever seen them before so it follows they'd exhibit some behavioral differences.

I am pleased with these characters.

 

[Darkwing]

Nu-Kirk seems to be Gary Mitchell impersonating Kirk. Nu-Spock seems like a cross-dressed Saavik. Nu-McCoy goes back and forth between caricaturing McCoy and getting it spot-on.
The nu portrayals of Sulu, Scotty, and Uhura seem to be based on the character descriptions from TOS, disregarding the performances. Nu-Chekov appears to have tried to fix TOS' problem with not knowing what to do with him - is he the Monkee, the braggart Russian, the young supergenius, or the screaming idiot?
Nu-Sarek had no gravitas. We barely met Amanda's counterpart: "Oh, cool, Winona Ryder - oops, she's dead"
Nu-Pike was a major departure, but then there wasn't much to go on.

 

[Commishsleer]

On the most part IMO they are totally different characters with a nod to the originals.

Scotty is absolutely different. Its a shame but hey Pegg's character is cool too just not Scotty.
Thats the way I'm going. I accept they have new characters with the same name as the old but not with 79 episodes behind them.
I think they could have stuck a little more true to the original spirit of TOS but that's not the way they decided to go. They've done their best I suppose.

As harsh as the cross-dressing Saavik comment is to some extent I suppose its true, you don't get to see the inner turmoil in Spock or his humour the way you did in TOS

 

[StarMan]

As disappointing as STiD was, one thing I could not fault was the performance of the core cast. I'm sold on them.

 

[The Wormhole]

STID definitely did a better job with the main cast than XI did. There were a few scenes where Kirk and Spock actually reminded me of Shatner and Nimoy. Scotty was more than just a buffoon, and Sulu got a chance to be a bit of a badass. Both Abrams movies do a better job with Uhura than TOS ever did.

McCoy and Chekov still seem underused. It seems they really couldn't think of anything to do with Chekov and so they put him in the unlikely situation of being promoted to chief engineer. And it really is a shame they don't do more with McCoy, Karl Urban does an awesome job with the character for what little he does get.

They probably should cut back on Kirk's bad boy shtick. They're depicting the caricature of Kirk as a rebel who won't follow the rules and thinks with his dick while ignoring the fact that this guy is a professional starship captain and natural leader with a passion for space exploration. Instead we get the bad boy sticking it to The Man while trying to get every passing female into his bed.

 

[Commishsleer]

They probably should cut back on Kirk's bad boy shtick. They're depicting the caricature of Kirk as a rebel who won't follow the rules and thinks with his dick while ignoring the fact that this guy is a professional starship captain and natural leader with a passion for space exploration. Instead we get the bad boy sticking it to The Man while trying to get every passing female into his bed.

I agree. I'm over it. I get it. Kirk gets the babes. I want to see more of he's deserved of his command. I sound boring, I know.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They probably should cut back on Kirk's bad boy shtick. They're depicting the caricature of Kirk as a rebel who won't follow the rules and thinks with his dick while ignoring the fact that this guy is a professional starship captain and natural leader with a passion for space exploration. Instead we get the bad boy sticking it to The Man while trying to get every passing female into his bed.

I agree. I'm over it. I get it. Kirk gets the babes. I want to see more of he's deserved of his command. I sound boring, I know.

Other than Galia, has he "gotten" a babe in either film?

 

[alexianyc]

They probably should cut back on Kirk's bad boy shtick. They're depicting the caricature of Kirk as a rebel who won't follow the rules and thinks with his dick while ignoring the fact that this guy is a professional starship captain and natural leader with a passion for space exploration. Instead we get the bad boy sticking it to The Man while trying to get every passing female into his bed.

I agree. I'm over it. I get it. Kirk gets the babes. I want to see more of he's deserved of his command. I sound boring, I know.

Other than Galia, has he "gotten" a babe in either film?

He's shown having a threesome with two Caitians.

 

[OBXTrekkie]

I agree. I'm over it. I get it. Kirk gets the babes. I want to see more of he's deserved of his command. I sound boring, I know.

Other than Galia, has he "gotten" a babe in either film?

He's shown having a threesome with two Caitians.

I'm with you guys here. I love Chris Pine's portrayal of Kirk but I hate the way he's written in the second film. The whole threesome scene was totally unnecessary, and was one of those "What...seriously???" moments for me.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I agree. I'm over it. I get it. Kirk gets the babes. I want to see more of he's deserved of his command. I sound boring, I know.

Other than Galia, has he "gotten" a babe in either film?

He's shown having a threesome with two Caitians.

Forgot about that. I must be getting old.

 

[Lance]

STID definitely did a better job with the main cast than XI did. There were a few scenes where Kirk and Spock actually reminded me of Shatner and Nimoy.

I'm afraid I do have to disagree with this. For me, Pine's portrayal in the 2009 movie was indisputably more Shatner-esque than what we got in STID, from the Kobyashi Maru sequence right through to the bits in the end of the movie where he had taken full control of the Enterprise, he reminded me far more of the (future) capable Starship commander from TOS in his STXI portrayal. By contrast, STID NuKirk felt to me like a step backwards, almost like his entire characterisation had been rewound back to that early bar fight scene from the first movie. I was disappointed with that aspect of STID.

 

[Yeoman Basha]

At the beginning of STID, the writers definitely regressed Kirk's character because they wanted to give him the story arc of re-earning the captain's chair. The party line that I heard in several interviews was that Kirk got the captain's chair in the first film, but he truly earned it in the second film.

And to be fair, there was a lot of criticism after XI that Kirk had become captain too fast, so the writers were trying to address that. But IMO they laid it on too thick at the beginning of STID. Kirk starts the film by accidentally stunning his and McCoy's "ride" leading to the crazy jump off a cliff, and then we get Scotty chastising Kirk for putting the Enterprise at the bottom of the ocean. We also get a line from Sulu when the shuttle is failing, where he says something to the effect of, "I told the captain that the shuttle wouldn't be able to take this." Followed by Kirk's nonchalant, "So they saw us, big deal." Then of course the threesome with the Caitians, and it's also strongly implied that Kirk had a fling with Christine Chapel and dumped her.

So yeah, the writers went overboard with the immature playboy stuff in the early part of STID, but it was all in the name of giving Kirk a character arc where he could grow up (having Kirk's surrogate father die was part of that, too) and truly earn his position as captain of the Enterprise by the end of the film. I have faith that Kirk will be more mature in the next film, especially since I do expect a romance with Carol Marcus is in the cards.

 

[The Wormhole]

STID definitely did a better job with the main cast than XI did. There were a few scenes where Kirk and Spock actually reminded me of Shatner and Nimoy.

I'm afraid I do have to disagree with this. For me, Pine's portrayal in the 2009 movie was indisputably more Shatner-esque than what we got in STID, from the Kobyashi Maru sequence right through to the bits in the end of the movie where he had taken full control of the Enterprise, he reminded me far more of the (future) capable Starship commander from TOS in his STXI portrayal. By contrast, STID NuKirk felt to me like a step backwards, almost like his entire characterisation had been rewound back to that early bar fight scene from the first movie. I was disappointed with that aspect of STID.

What I was referring to specifically was the scene after the Enterprise takes off from Earth where Kirk and Spock are discussing happiness. In that scene Pine and Quinto play off each other in much the same way Shatner and Nimoy did, which I feel was missing from XI.

So yeah, the writers went overboard with the immature playboy stuff in the early part of STID, but it was all in the name of giving Kirk a character arc where he could grow up (having Kirk's surrogate father die was part of that, too) and truly earn his position as captain of the Enterprise by the end of the film. I have faith that Kirk will be more mature in the next film, especially since I do expect a romance with Carol Marcus is in the cards.

Like you said, they went overboard with it. A far more suitable way would be just to have Kirk violating the Prime Directive to rescue people who would have died. That would have been a better characterization of Kirk, someone willing to ignore the rules to do what he believes is right as opposed to the bad boy punk who doesn't believe rules should apply to him.

 

[Lance]

STID definitely did a better job with the main cast than XI did. There were a few scenes where Kirk and Spock actually reminded me of Shatner and Nimoy.

I'm afraid I do have to disagree with this. For me, Pine's portrayal in the 2009 movie was indisputably more Shatner-esque than what we got in STID, from the Kobyashi Maru sequence right through to the bits in the end of the movie where he had taken full control of the Enterprise, he reminded me far more of the (future) capable Starship commander from TOS in his STXI portrayal. By contrast, STID NuKirk felt to me like a step backwards, almost like his entire characterisation had been rewound back to that early bar fight scene from the first movie. I was disappointed with that aspect of STID.

What I was referring to specifically was the scene after the Enterprise takes off from Earth where Kirk and Spock are discussing happiness. In that scene Pine and Quinto play off each other in much the same way Shatner and Nimoy did, which I feel was missing from XI.

Fair enough. I do agree actually, the character interplay is certainly stronger in STID.

 

[Commishsleer]

At the beginning of STID, the writers definitely regressed Kirk's character because they wanted to give him the story arc of re-earning the captain's chair. The party line that I heard in several interviews was that Kirk got the captain's chair in the first film, but he truly earned it in the second film.

And to be fair, there was a lot of criticism after XI that Kirk had become captain too fast, so the writers were trying to address that. But IMO they laid it on too thick at the beginning of STID. Kirk starts the film by accidentally stunning his and McCoy's "ride" leading to the crazy jump off a cliff, and then we get Scotty chastising Kirk for putting the Enterprise at the bottom of the ocean. We also get a line from Sulu when the shuttle is failing, where he says something to the effect of, "I told the captain that the shuttle wouldn't be able to take this." Followed by Kirk's nonchalant, "So they saw us, big deal." Then of course the threesome with the Caitians, and it's also strongly implied that Kirk had a fling with Christine Chapel and dumped her.

So yeah, the writers went overboard with the immature playboy stuff in the early part of STID, but it was all in the name of giving Kirk a character arc where he could grow up (having Kirk's surrogate father die was part of that, too) and truly earn his position as captain of the Enterprise by the end of the film. I have faith that Kirk will be more mature in the next film, especially since I do expect a romance with Carol Marcus is in the cards.

I'm not sure he will have a romance with Marcus perhaps the twist will be that its McCoy and Marcus. But I think you have great points on Kirk heading towards maturity.

I don't have that much problem with Kirk having a 3-some or dating girls. I'm more concerned with the 'disrespect' he has for these girls. More problems with him leering at Marcus, saying 'hello Ladies', forgetting Chapel's name and I'm also condemning him for that deleted scene in ST09 where he mixes up Gaila and another Orion girl .
At the risk of sounding like a boring feminist you just don't see Kirk interacting with women much in a positive fashion.
It doesn't worry me that much though. I'm not invested in these 'one-night' stand girls but it makes me think less of Kirk's character. I wonder if there are fans of the movies that admire nuKirk's interaction with the ladies.

 

[serenitytrek1]

Other than Galia, has he "gotten" a babe in either film?

He's shown having a threesome with two Caitians.

Forgot about that. I must be getting old.

Apparently Kirk has screwed Nurse Chapel in this timeline.