Serenity vs. Star Trek

[Rackon]

Wow, this strange thread has gotten even stranger.

 

[Chrisisall]

Yeah, ain't it cool?!

 

[Pauln6]

The assumption about what Janice Rand's character would be like is based entirely on her persona in the few TOS episodes she appeared in, and so has no real relevance to how the character might be reimagined in the new version of Trek. Certainly yeomen in general went obsolete after TOS and there's no more or less reason to expect that Rand would be a security officer than that she'd be a back-up communications officer enabling Uhura to go on landing parties.

Or - here's a thought - let them invent a new character altogether.

Yes, this is true - my vote is that she should be at least security-trained from a practical perspective. The original version is just too girly and would need to be updated to be more relevant. Security has a wider scope - I like to imagine Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy character in a red mini-skirt. No reason really, I just like it. But coincidentally, I think that Janice in that vein would be very effective and still have enough shades of the original - sassy, sexy, damn fine coffee, look at my legs, judo chop etc.

A new character would be ok but the argument cuts either way. If the alternate reality removes the shackles, why do we need a new character?

 

[Michael Chris]

As to the comparison between the death of Wash and the death of Amanda/destruction of Vulcan. They aren't even remotely comparable in my eyes. Wash's death was about a million times more emotional.

 

[Chrisisall]

As to the comparison between the death of Wash and the death of Amanda/destruction of Vulcan. They aren't even remotely comparable in my eyes. Wash's death was about a million times more emotional.

I agree, and it's weird that the loss of a planet would weigh in so lightly as compared with the loss of an individual. There are two possibilities: JJ was unable to make us care to that degree; JJ was unwilling to make us care to that degree.

 

[trevanian]

As to the comparison between the death of Wash and the death of Amanda/destruction of Vulcan. They aren't even remotely comparable in my eyes. Wash's death was about a million times more emotional.

I agree, and it's weird that the loss of a planet would weigh in so lightly as compared with the loss of an individual.

It's really a specialty thing ... probably a job for Roland Emmerich.

Seriously, I think to sell the death of a planet, you almost HAVE to do something artsy and stylized, like when NY gets nuked at the end of FAILSAFE, with the freeze frames of life as the bomb drops. Or to invoke something that was corny as all getout but effective, the way ARMAGEDDON has Willis seeing subliminal flashaheads of his daughter's wedding as the bomb goes off.

 

[Chrisisall]

It's really a specialty thing ... probably a job for Roland Emmerich.

Seriously, I think to sell the death of a planet, you almost HAVE to do something artsy and stylized, like when NY gets nuked at the end of FAILSAFE, with the freeze frames of life as the bomb drops. Or to invoke something that was corny as all getout but effective, the way ARMAGEDDON has Willis seeing subliminal flashaheads of his daughter's wedding as the bomb goes off.

Very good analysis. Seeing a ball deflate just doesn't do it.

 

[trevanian]

It's really a specialty thing ... probably a job for Roland Emmerich.

I interviewed the guy about his new one, 2012, and I did have to ask, was there a reason he kept doing these 'man vs nature' 'man vs alien' 'man vs judgement day' kinds of things instead of the usual man vs man thing that other people do with their drama. He didn't miss a beat, he just said, 'everybody's got themes.'

I get the idea he is very glad to have his niche. Here's a guy who a quarter-century back, was happy as a clam to get his itty bitty first movie mentioned in a paragraph of CINEFEX, and before a decade passes, he's getting the cover. I looked that first pic up and it is called THE NOAH'S ARK PRINCIPLE, so he seems to have come full circle with the ark aspect in the new one.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Uhura will do a lot of pouting, frowning, snogging, and agonising just to stay on screen in the sequel. One of the reasons I'd like Janice on board is that she is mobile and could easily run around in the background as part of a security team.

Well now, these are both assumptions - the assumption about Uhura is a reasonable one but hardly fated to be so, as the producers (and/or studio) are probably looking for an "Elizabeth Swann" or "Hermione Granger" or "Mikaela" sort of female character to build a following for.

The assumption about what Janice Rand's character would be like is based entirely on her persona in the few TOS episodes she appeared in, and so has no real relevance to how the character might be reimagined in the new version of Trek. Certainly yeomen in general went obsolete after TOS and there's no more or less reason to expect that Rand would be a security officer than that she'd be a back-up communications officer enabling Uhura to go on landing parties.

Or - here's a thought - let them invent a new character altogether.

Funny, though--Chekov's great moments are at the transporter console--both when he saves Kirk and Sulu and when he fails to save Amanda. Janice Rand actually has more canonical experience at the transporter console than Chekov.

As to the comparison between the death of Wash and the death of Amanda/destruction of Vulcan. They aren't even remotely comparable in my eyes. Wash's death was about a million times more emotional.

I agree, and it's weird that the loss of a planet would weigh in so lightly as compared with the loss of an individual.

It's really a specialty thing ... probably a job for Roland Emmerich.

Seriously, I think to sell the death of a planet, you almost HAVE to do something artsy and stylized, like when NY gets nuked at the end of FAILSAFE, with the freeze frames of life as the bomb drops. Or to invoke something that was corny as all getout but effective, the way ARMAGEDDON has Willis seeing subliminal flashaheads of his daughter's wedding as the bomb goes off.

Spock himself addresses this in "The Immunity Syndrome"--something like "how much easier it is for you humans to feel the death of one than the death of a million." It's not dramatist's fault, it's built into the species. As for Amanda, she shows up three times in Trek--four, if you count TAS. (And this is an almost entirely new Amanda; we don't know her a tenth as well as we did Miss Jane Wyatt. ) She hardly compares to Wash, who was the everyman, semi-comic relief character on Firefly, much like Miles O'Brien was on DS9. For what's it's worth, I felt for Spock and her death affected me about as strongly as George Kirk's did.