STVI Question: Valeris revealed

[Jeyl]

Forgive such a bad question, but how exactly did the plan to expose Valeris as the traitor work? I heard the intercoms saying "Statements to be taken" on the two yeomen who were killed, but I don't understand why that makes Valeris come into Sickbay with a phaser in hand. What was she going to do? What was she expecting?

 

[Wally]

Didn't the PA also imply that they were still alive, but not awake? I believe Valeris was showing up to finish them off before they could reveal her treachery.

 

[Timo]

Yup. But she should have been expecting a heavy guard around the two "unconscious patients". So, would she have been trying to shoot her way through? Crude and not necessarily very effective - she'd have to come up with one hell of a cover story when other guards rushed in and saw her standing on top a heap of corpses, or in an empty but charred room where previously there had been multiple guards and two important patients. If she did have such a plan, why didn't she act on it? Why didn't she vaporize Kirk and Spock on the spot?

One might argue that she did have a plan that would allow her to come out clean after killing the guards and patients. But when, instead of surprising a bunch of nameless guards, she herself was surprised by Kirk and Spock, she must have realized that the secret was out. In that sense, it's perfectly logical that she did not shoot Spock; she'd have won nothing by that, as her cover was blown and her survival extremely unlikely even if she killed the top officers.

One is then only left to wonder what her cunning original plan was. Come in and kill everybody with her phaser, then blame somebody else? Come in, stun some people, subtly kill some others, and then blame somebody else? Come in, subtly kill the patients with a hypospray or somesuch while the guards notice nothing, and only pack the phaser as an insurance if something goes wrong?

She might also have been attempting a suicide mission: she would be exposed and killed, but the specifics of the conspiracy would be safe. But that's unlikely on two levels: one, the two assassin goons wouldn't have known anything beyond those facts that would incriminate Valeris, and two, she didn't opt for a suicidal rampage once she was exposed.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jeyl]

Oh, so the intercom said they were alive? I didn't know that's what it meant. Every time I watch that scene I think the Intercom said that the two yeomen were dead and we needed statements and Valeris came in saying "Screw it" and decided to vaporize the bodies on full kill setting.

 

[cardinal biggles]

The line in the shooting script that you can find online makes it even more obvious:

Attention: Court Recorder to sick bay. Yeomen Burke and Samno have been shot and wish to make statements. CODE BLUE URGENT; deposition required at once for Yeomen Burke and Samno. Wounds are serious. Court Recorder to sick bay on the double.

I'm at work right now, so someone will have to look up the actual line of dialogue as heard in the movie, but it's roughly "Code Blue, urgent. Court Recorder to sickbay. Statements to be taken at once for Yeomen Burke and Samno. Code Blue, urgent."

 

[Grant]

I don't think it was a matter of her being tricked--it was her facing her destiny. I'm sure she knew it was a trap, but she had to go and if not finish the co-conspirators perhaps kill Spock & Kirk. But of course she couldn't kill her mentor despite her feelings about peace.

 

[Praetor]

The line in the shooting script that you can find online makes it even more obvious:

Attention: Court Recorder to sick bay. Yeomen Burke and Samno have been shot and wish to make statements. CODE BLUE URGENT; deposition required at once for Yeomen Burke and Samno. Wounds are serious. Court Recorder to sick bay on the double.

I'm at work right now, so someone will have to look up the actual line of dialogue as heard in the movie, but it's roughly "Code Blue, urgent. Court Recorder to sickbay. Statements to be taken at once for Yeomen Burke and Samno. Code Blue, urgent."

It went:

"Now hear this. Now hear this. Court Recorder to sick bay. Code Blue, urgent! Statements to be taken at once from Yeomen Burke and Samno. Repeat. Court Recorder to sick bay. Code Blue, urgent! Statements to be taken. Repeat. Statements to be taken from Yeomen Burke and Samno."

From here.

They repeated it enough to make sure Valeris heard their names.

I think Valeris's mission probably was one of suicide, but ultimately one she could not complete out of loyalty to Spock. Indeed, her 'confession' and apparent willingness to testify might indicate a change of heart. Then again, Valeris may have agreed to beam down to Khitomer in the hopes that she would be killed by the other assassin.

It still works better had it been Saavik, IMO.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

It still works better had it been Saavik, IMO.

Agreed. Valeris was a good enough character, but her being the traitor was way too obvious. Having it be Saavik would have been much more of a surprise and would have held a more emotional impact for the audience.

 

[Trevacious]

It still works better had it been Saavik, IMO.

Agreed. Valeris was a good enough character, but her being the traitor was way too obvious. Having it be Saavik would have been much more of a surprise and would have held a more emotional impact for the audience.

I thought it should've been Chekov. It would've explained his slowness during the investigation and packed an emotional punch. (Heh, and provided one last scream for the road during the mind-rape scene, if they'd still have such a scene once Chekov was revealed as the conspirator.)

 

[Timo]

I don't think using Saavik would have preserved the surprise any better - but at least it would have given the betrayal a greater emotional impact. They couldn't use a regular (although I do like the Chekov idea), but having a "recurring guest star" do the evil thing is more effective than using an one-off guest.

Also, Valeris strangely prevaricates between logic and emotion in her actions. Killing the assassins is pretty ruthless, as is the original assassination plan and the idea of instigating galactic war. But then she stops being ruthless and goes to emotional mode when faced with Spock. That would work much, much better if there already were emotional rapport between her and Spock. The movie doesn't quite succeed in building one during the early scenes; with Saavik, the groundwork would already have been laid.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Oso Blanco]

If it hadn't been a trap, they would never have mentioned the names of Burke and Samno over the intercom. It was so obviously a trap that it's hard to believe that a Vulcan fell for it.

 

[Praetor]

You know, I'm liking the idea of Saavik as a mislead, and Chekov as the actual culprit.

Not that they'd have ever done that, of course.

 

[wade8069]

Agreed. Obviously, it was a trap. Maybe she was insane at that time.

 

[Timo]

In a conspiracy like this, there'd be players in for just themselves, in for a cause, and in for a little bit of both. Valeris probably liked to think she was in for a noble cause - and killing Gorkon and killing the assassins would serve that cause. When the trap was set for her, would she have been thinking in terms of the cause, or of her own survival? The two probably were at odds...

It's up to us to decide whether she acted like she did because she got cold feet (i.e. didn't do the suicide that would have best served the cause), because she got a sudden pang of conscience (perhaps at first limited to "I'll not kill Spock", then extended to "Maybe working for Cartwright was a bad idea"), or because she thought that her work was already done and Cartwright's war was inevitable and self-survival could thus go up a notch or two on her agenda. I'm all for the combo where she at first thought she'd do a suicide mission into the trap as a final service to the cause, and then didn't have the strength of will to kill Spock, and then rearranged her priorities. But other combos are certainly possible and plausible as well.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Praetor]

I'm all for the combo where she at first thought she'd do a suicide mission into the trap as a final service to the cause, and then didn't have the strength of will to kill Spock, and then rearranged her priorities.

I agree, Timo, and good assessment.

 

[Basil]

Even if it was a trap, what was she to do? Risk their revealing knowledge of the plot if it was not? When they were so close to the objective? Also, recall that she said others would jam ship-to-shore transmissions, suggesting on some level that accomplices were available to make certain the conspiracy continued, at least till the assassination of Gorkon's daughter, the primary point of the mission. Her decision not to fire seemed pretty straightforward -- she could betray the Federation for her cause but not kill Spock because of feelings for him, echoed in the reciprocol by Spock's anger upon confirming her guilt and anguish after the mindmeld.