Do you like the Spock Prime "Phone a friend" scene?
- Thread starter Agenda
- Start date
I'd call it a bit of a wash. I thought the Spock/Spock interaction was nice, and in terms of Nimoy's lines, a definite improvement on what I thought was some terrible writing in the cave scenes in 09. However, the timing was pretty forced and Old Spock somehow managed to set Khan up as some unbeatable titan of an enemy without actually providing any useful information.
Nearly knocked me out of my chair. Kinda like a certain scene in The Dark Knight Rises...
I loved it.
I loved it.
*Shrugs*
As much as I love Spock, old or new, I felt it wasn't needed. Much like making Harrison Khan, Spock gave this new era of Trek an old guard blessing, his return felt strictly to be fan service. Which is fine, but personally I would have left it out. Literally, nothing in the exchange, or what is implied in the exchange, is paid off later. NuSpock could just have easily come up with the idea to trick Khan, and it would have played very nicely into the role reversal theme already present in the film.
As much as I love Spock, old or new, I felt it wasn't needed. Much like making Harrison Khan, Spock gave this new era of Trek an old guard blessing, his return felt strictly to be fan service. Which is fine, but personally I would have left it out. Literally, nothing in the exchange, or what is implied in the exchange, is paid off later. NuSpock could just have easily come up with the idea to trick Khan, and it would have played very nicely into the role reversal theme already present in the film.
While it didn't derail the movie or anything like that, I personally disliked it. It sorta makes the nu Trek Spock look incompetent, and it seemed like sort of a bold assumption on his part that his counterpart would've also encountered Khan. And as others have said in other threads, it sorta paints Khan as this Joker-esque bad guy that he never really was. He had two appearances, one of which was admittedly very awesome, but that's it.
I don't know if Nimoy's demanding these cameos or under some kind of contractual obligation -- but it was gratuitous. It mostly seems to be there so Prime Spock can reassure the audience that Khan is menacing and dangerous. Its ostensible in-story function seems to be to inspire NuSpock to an act of desperation, but he shouldn't have needed it by that point; all the pieces were in place for NuSpock to make that leap by himself.
Yes, the scene obviously ended while they were in mid-conversation, which was by design. NuSpock asked "How? [did you defeat Khan]", leaving the impression that nuSpock learns about the circumstances surrounding Prime Spock's death. Later in engineering, the dying Kirk tells Spock "It's what you would have done" (because it was the only "logical" course of action). You can see Spock shocked by that statement, if you watch closely, as if he was saying to himself "Holy sh!t! That's exactly right!".
DonIago said:
True. And, if he really didn't want to tell them, he could have called on some STIV dialogue.
nuSpock: "Did you ever encounter someone named 'Khan'?"
oldSpock: "If I were human, I believe my response would be 'Go to hell!' Spock out!"
In an interview, Nimoy said the difference between this cameo and the one he turned down in GEN was that in GEN the lines could've been given to any character (and basically were). In STID, he believed the story lent itself to the idea that Spock would contact Spock Prime about Khan.
His take on the necessity of the scene was that it cleared up any ambiguity for Spock about what kind of person they were dealing with. Hearing Spock Prime's personal experience made it known without a doubt that Spock was dealing with a maniac.
By the way, Nimoy also says he believes Abrams picked up "Star Trek" and elevated it, and he's grateful for that. If Abrams ever phoned him again, he'd take the call.
Here's the link to the entire interview:
http://www.startrek.com/article/exclusive-interview-leonard-nimoy-talks-star-trek-into-darkness
His take on the necessity of the scene was that it cleared up any ambiguity for Spock about what kind of person they were dealing with. Hearing Spock Prime's personal experience made it known without a doubt that Spock was dealing with a maniac.
By the way, Nimoy also says he believes Abrams picked up "Star Trek" and elevated it, and he's grateful for that. If Abrams ever phoned him again, he'd take the call.
Here's the link to the entire interview:
http://www.startrek.com/article/exclusive-interview-leonard-nimoy-talks-star-trek-into-darkness
Yes. I do. Do you?
So you're saying that people discussing this are losers with no lives? And yet here you are ... you want to rethink that position?
As for Spock Prime, it was dumb, fan-wanky nonsense. These films are supposed to be a reboot, but throwing in a Prime timeline character goes against that. Imagine if in The Dark Knight Batman calls up Adam West's Batman for advice on taking down the Joker? That's how Spock Prime's scene felt to me.
On further thought, I realized that this conversation couldn't have really been that productive anyway.
nuSpock: "How did you defeat him?"
Spock: "We flew into a nebula and were able to destroy his ship with a few phaser blasts and torpedo shots."
nuSpock: "You mean the USS Vengeance, right, that huge, hulking, uberpowerful dreadnought that ripped our ship apart even with shields up?"
Spock: ".... Uh... Um... Sorry, I think you guys are SOL." - click
nuSpock: "How did you defeat him?"
Spock: "We flew into a nebula and were able to destroy his ship with a few phaser blasts and torpedo shots."
nuSpock: "You mean the USS Vengeance, right, that huge, hulking, uberpowerful dreadnought that ripped our ship apart even with shields up?"
Spock: ".... Uh... Um... Sorry, I think you guys are SOL." - click
I loved it. It was infinitely better in every way than watching Spock google Khan, or an equivalent to the "Space Seed" briefing scene.
Plus, it answered one of the big questions left over from the '09 movie - what becomes of Old Spock's future knowledge? We now know he's sworn to secrecy... well, unless something really important comes up
(I just wish we'd gotten Greg's Old Spock-focused novel The Hazard of Concealing in between movies!)
Plus, it answered one of the big questions left over from the '09 movie - what becomes of Old Spock's future knowledge? We now know he's sworn to secrecy... well, unless something really important comes up
(I just wish we'd gotten Greg's Old Spock-focused novel The Hazard of Concealing in between movies!)
Come on, man - that was uncalled-for.
And the more judicious response to the question would have been to leave it unanswered.
As nice as it is to see Nimoy again, they really should have done a better job writing him into the movie other than "I have sworn a solemn vow never to discuss my timeline. But since you are asking, I'll make an exception. Just this once."
Honestly, since the plan is supposedly to do a trilogy, they should have left Spock Prime out of STID thereby making his appearance in the third movie all the more special and profound.
Honestly, since the plan is supposedly to do a trilogy, they should have left Spock Prime out of STID thereby making his appearance in the third movie all the more special and profound.
Yea, shortly after the release of ST'09, so many fans were debating it was Spock-Prime's duty to rattle off everything he knows about BIG dangers that might happen. So, if they didn't go back to the well at some point, there would be complaints that Spock-Prime should've been asked. This way, they addressed it, and showed it had little to no impact (IE: "There, We've done it, don't expect us to go there in STXIII or beyond")
Similar threads
- Poll
