I just registered today, though I've lurked here and there on various trek boards over the years. I started on TOS (in re-runs) and have watched all the movies and following versions many times over.
I've reading alot about Spock and Sarek's "emotional" responses in this new star trek, and how the characters are changed.
One thing to think about is this. If Sarek truly loves Amanda (which we get to see 100 years later, in TNG), isn't it logical to assume that he sees some value in humanity and human emotions?
Second. If he sees some value in it, being that Spock has a fully human mother, the logical thing to do would be to let her dote on him emotionally and handle any and all emotional questions/issues that Spock might have. She would be better equipped to deal with it, and Sarek gets to maintain his Vulcan logic.
Amanda's death changes everything. Not just emotionally, but logically. Sarek's admition of love and softening, makes logical sense.
As for Spock, well, he's always been an imperfect character, though probably the most beloved in the series. One thing I have never understood (and perhaps somebody here knows the answer to this question), is what was the original reason for making him half-human.
TOS never really deals with this, and treats Spock as if he was completely Vulcan. Was it simply to explain his presense on the Enterprise? Did they think, in the 60's that it was unbelievable to have a completely alien person on a ship full of humans, so make Spock half human just to get him on board? Or did they have plans for his human side that never really got explored?
I was skeptical of a TOS reboot from the beginning, mostly because I like seeing the trek universe evolve, and getting new characters. I've liked them all, though I like DS9 and TNG the best. I even liked Enterprise. With that said, I think a TOS reboot almost DEMANDs exploring Spock's human side more. The fact that it was so unexplored doesn't really fit in with the way the Star Trek series progressed after TOS.
Warf, who was fully Klingon, but raised by humans we got to see evolve and change. And we learned early on that he really had quite different attitudes than other Klingons, and did not really fit in with them.
Warf's half-Klingon girlfriend had clear traits of both raises, as did Torres on Voyager, who had many episodes dealing with those issues.
And Alexander is certainly no Klingon warrior.
Troi never seemed to be very fond of Betazoid traditions and the other half-betazoid we meet in TNG is simply using his abilities to cheat in negotiations.
There was Gul Dukat's half-bajoran daughter, whose entire reason for existance in the show was to tell "caught between two worlds" stories
And, just being off the top of my head, I'm sure there have been many other half-breeds, and/or characters living apart from their culture. The argument could probably be made about Seven of Nine, or Data, or the Holo-Doctor as well basically telling the same type of stories.
The point being, since TOS, any character that was been different than their own culture in some way has had a ton of time spent on developing those differences. Spock never really got any...At least not any that were explained.
I liked the new Star Trek movie, much more than I expected to. I'm interested to see where it goes. The timeline has definitely been altered. Although, the problem being with time travel based plots, is that you never can count on things to stick. I mean, in the 3rd movie they could find out that they have to go back before Nero comes back in time and stop him, thereby putting the timeline exactly back to the way it was, leaving this trilogy as not much more than a "mirror universe" episode.
I've reading alot about Spock and Sarek's "emotional" responses in this new star trek, and how the characters are changed.
One thing to think about is this. If Sarek truly loves Amanda (which we get to see 100 years later, in TNG), isn't it logical to assume that he sees some value in humanity and human emotions?
Second. If he sees some value in it, being that Spock has a fully human mother, the logical thing to do would be to let her dote on him emotionally and handle any and all emotional questions/issues that Spock might have. She would be better equipped to deal with it, and Sarek gets to maintain his Vulcan logic.
Amanda's death changes everything. Not just emotionally, but logically. Sarek's admition of love and softening, makes logical sense.
As for Spock, well, he's always been an imperfect character, though probably the most beloved in the series. One thing I have never understood (and perhaps somebody here knows the answer to this question), is what was the original reason for making him half-human.
TOS never really deals with this, and treats Spock as if he was completely Vulcan. Was it simply to explain his presense on the Enterprise? Did they think, in the 60's that it was unbelievable to have a completely alien person on a ship full of humans, so make Spock half human just to get him on board? Or did they have plans for his human side that never really got explored?
I was skeptical of a TOS reboot from the beginning, mostly because I like seeing the trek universe evolve, and getting new characters. I've liked them all, though I like DS9 and TNG the best. I even liked Enterprise. With that said, I think a TOS reboot almost DEMANDs exploring Spock's human side more. The fact that it was so unexplored doesn't really fit in with the way the Star Trek series progressed after TOS.
Warf, who was fully Klingon, but raised by humans we got to see evolve and change. And we learned early on that he really had quite different attitudes than other Klingons, and did not really fit in with them.
Warf's half-Klingon girlfriend had clear traits of both raises, as did Torres on Voyager, who had many episodes dealing with those issues.
And Alexander is certainly no Klingon warrior.
Troi never seemed to be very fond of Betazoid traditions and the other half-betazoid we meet in TNG is simply using his abilities to cheat in negotiations.
There was Gul Dukat's half-bajoran daughter, whose entire reason for existance in the show was to tell "caught between two worlds" stories
And, just being off the top of my head, I'm sure there have been many other half-breeds, and/or characters living apart from their culture. The argument could probably be made about Seven of Nine, or Data, or the Holo-Doctor as well basically telling the same type of stories.
The point being, since TOS, any character that was been different than their own culture in some way has had a ton of time spent on developing those differences. Spock never really got any...At least not any that were explained.
I liked the new Star Trek movie, much more than I expected to. I'm interested to see where it goes. The timeline has definitely been altered. Although, the problem being with time travel based plots, is that you never can count on things to stick. I mean, in the 3rd movie they could find out that they have to go back before Nero comes back in time and stop him, thereby putting the timeline exactly back to the way it was, leaving this trilogy as not much more than a "mirror universe" episode.
