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Things that really took you by surprise

Aren't we a little bit oversimplifying and wrongly diminishing the importance of Uhura's station and job on the bridge by constantly referring to it as just "answering the phone" ?

It's a simplification, but it illustrates an important point: Unless the character is given something else to do, having the only female lead serve only as communications officer plays into extant American stereotypes of women only being able to serve as secretaries.

I don't know where you live, but women in America hold a variety of professional jobs. We don't need a movie to illustrate what women's roles are in society. What is wrong with being a communications officer? Or did you all sleep through the part where she replaces a MALE communications officer? I knew I should have quit reading this thread sooner because all this carping on Uhura's role is way past old. :scream:
 
Before I say what took me by surprise, I need to mention I was expecting a complete 180 from previous trek films. A completely new direction, a set of new ideas, a new story. New. New. New.

What I got was a crazy bald man from the Romulan Empire with a personal grudge against one of the main protagonists, who ultimately expresses said grudge by trying to wipe out Earth using a heretofore unknown and volatile piece of technology that requires a convoluted and time-consuming manner of deployment.

I got g#####n Star Trek Nemesis with a TOS cast and bigger plot holes. So yeah, I was surprised. I felt like a batter who was just on the receiving end of a wide-right curveball, and the pitcher followed it up by...wait of it...the exact same wide-right curveball. And I didn't swing at it the first time.
 
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Aren't we a little bit oversimplifying and wrongly diminishing the importance of Uhura's station and job on the bridge by constantly referring to it as just "answering the phone" ?

It's a simplification, but it illustrates an important point: Unless the character is given something else to do, having the only female lead serve only as communications officer plays into extant American stereotypes of women only being able to serve as secretaries.

I don't know where you live,

If you glance under my avatar, you'll see that I live in Ohio.

but women in America hold a variety of professional jobs.

And they still have a glass ceiling. Hell, when then-Senator Hillary Clinton was running for President, there were guys telling her to iron their shirts.

To claim that the fact that women occupy many professional positions means that sexism has been overcome, or that sexist stereotypes don't exist, is absurd.
 
Not a thing, other than that both have the look of having been posted with an aim to annoy. :vulcan:

Whoa, I don't think the first one was offensive; considering what has been said about Nichelle and Gene's relationship, that sounds a bit true. And Zoe didn't, or wasn't, screwing JJ.:vulcan:

But neither of them has the unfortunate implications of featuring a woman answering the phone.

For you-and only you-she's answering the phone. As was said above, she can do anything and still be communications officer. Having her be chief of security would be a lot of a stretch, considering that 'Cupcake' was doing that job quite well. And if she was made security, that leaves the question of who takes it over when she's on away missions. Also, it might piss off the TOS fans who like Uhura where she is (although I don't care for what they think much, since they all got what they wanted anyway-the return of the classic crew.)

I don't know what world you live in, but in the modern day US Navy, they still have communications officers on board ships and subs, most of them male.
 
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But neither of them has the unfortunate implications of featuring a woman answering the phone.

For you-and only you-she's answering the phone.

First off, it's not "me and only me." That criticism has been a longstanding criticism of TOS, especially amongst feminist critics and anti-racist critics, both of whom believe having Uhura as the communications officer plays into stereotypes of the black, female secretary answering the phone.

No, she isn't answering the phone, but that's something we're repeatedly told but almost never see. "Show, don't tell" is a vital role if the creators are going to avoid accidently playing into those stereotypes, and it's one that's rarely followed.

Making Uhura the chief of security would answer the longstanding question of just who is COS aboard the Enterprise anyway, while also giving the character something to do that's more directly related to an action-oriented plot, and while also avoiding Unfortunate Implications.

Having her be chief of security would be a lot of a stretch, considering that 'Cupcake' was doing that job quite well.

There was no indication that Lt. Cupcake was the chief of security.

And if she was made security, that leaves the question of who takes it over when she's on away missions.

It was never a problem on TNG when Worf -- who also performed the functions of communications officer -- went on away missions. Why would it be for nuTrek?

Also, it might piss off the TOS fans who like Uhura where she is

They blew up Vulcan. I think we've already crossed the Rubicon of "what will the TOS purists think?"
 
Wait - If Uhura hadn't heard the transmission about the Klingon ship everybody would have been sunk. That has to count for something.

Kyt - Amarillo, TX
 
Wait - If Uhura hadn't heard the transmission about the Klingon ship everybody would have been sunk. That has to count for something.

Kyt - Amarillo, TX

If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.
 
Wait - If Uhura hadn't heard the transmission about the Klingon ship everybody would have been sunk. That has to count for something.

Kyt - Amarillo, TX

If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.

Actually, she did, that was why the lab was shut to the cadets after she made the discovery, presumably while the superior officers studied the info and tried to get their heads around what was happening. However, since Nero attacks Vulcan in the next day or so, it's likely the connections may not have been made by Starfleet Intelligence quick enough to give any real preparation to the rest of Starfleet.
 
Wait - If Uhura hadn't heard the transmission about the Klingon ship everybody would have been sunk. That has to count for something.

Kyt - Amarillo, TX

If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.

Actually, she did, that was why the lab was shut to the cadets after she made the discovery, presumably while the superior officers studied the info and tried to get their heads around what was happening. However, since Nero attacks Vulcan in the next day or so, it's likely the connections may not have been made by Starfleet Intelligence quick enough to give any real preparation to the rest of Starfleet.

And it's really idiotic to think that a cadet would not alert the superiors for such an incident. Maybe there was even a supervisor in the lab with the cadets.

But I suppose some need movies to spell out every single thing for them.
 
Wait - If Uhura hadn't heard the transmission about the Klingon ship everybody would have been sunk. That has to count for something.

Kyt - Amarillo, TX

If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.

Actually, she did, that was why the lab was shut to the cadets after she made the discovery, presumably while the superior officers studied the info and tried to get their heads around what was happening. However, since Nero attacks Vulcan in the next day or so, it's likely the connections may not have been made by Starfleet Intelligence quick enough to give any real preparation to the rest of Starfleet.

Yes, making up stuff yourself makes my point invalid.


And it's really idiotic to think that a cadet would not alert the superiors for such an incident. Maybe there was even a supervisor in the lab with the cadets.

But I suppose some need movies to spell out every single thing for them.

Well, since we're there... You are an idiot, too. :)
 
If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.

Actually, she did, that was why the lab was shut to the cadets after she made the discovery, presumably while the superior officers studied the info and tried to get their heads around what was happening. However, since Nero attacks Vulcan in the next day or so, it's likely the connections may not have been made by Starfleet Intelligence quick enough to give any real preparation to the rest of Starfleet.

Yes, making up stuff yourself makes my point invalid.

Yes, ignoring stuff that happens in the movie makes my point invalid. :rolleyes:
 
And it's really idiotic to think that a cadet would not alert the superiors for such an incident. Maybe there was even a supervisor in the lab with the cadets.

But I suppose some need movies to spell out every single thing for them.
It's never stated that she alerted her superiors though. You may as well not have the movie as it was a given that they'd win, but I guess we needed that spelling out to us.

It's all well and good calling people idiots for not putting 2 and 2 together but I personally would find it far more interesting if Uhura was harbouring guilt over the destruction of Vulcan rather than her washing her hands clean of the whole thing. At least that would give the actress something to cling to and use rather than sitting there answering the phone.
 
If Uhura had forwarded that information, instead of just casually telling it to her roommate, nobody would have died.

Actually, she did, that was why the lab was shut to the cadets after she made the discovery, presumably while the superior officers studied the info and tried to get their heads around what was happening. However, since Nero attacks Vulcan in the next day or so, it's likely the connections may not have been made by Starfleet Intelligence quick enough to give any real preparation to the rest of Starfleet.

Yes, making up stuff yourself makes my point invalid.


And it's really idiotic to think that a cadet would not alert the superiors for such an incident. Maybe there was even a supervisor in the lab with the cadets.

But I suppose some need movies to spell out every single thing for them.

Well, since we're there... You are an idiot, too. :)

:razz::razz:
 
Yes, ignoring stuff that happens in the movie makes my point invalid. :rolleyes:

What happened in the movie:
UHURA: Strangest thing... I was in the long range sensor lab.
GAILA: Yeah, I thought all night...
UHURA: I was tracking solar systems and I picked up an emergency transmission.
GAILA: Really?
UHURA: Yeah. From a Klingon prison planet.
GAILA: No.
UHURA: Yeah. A Klingon armada was destroyed, 47 ships.
GAILA: So, you're not going back to the lab tonight?
UHURA: Gaila, who is he?
GAILA: Who's who?
UHURA: The mouth-breather hiding under your bed.

What you made up didn't happen and was never mentioned. But it's all good thing for Kirk, because it makes Uhura and Starfleet seem totally stupid, so he can be the only one who makes the correct conclusion. Especially Pike, who was about to get killed on the Kelvin, wrote a thesis about the incident, and couldn't connect A to B. He's the Captain of the flagship. He would have been briefed about an attack on 47 Klingon ships, had Uhura forwarded it to superiors. But, well, I'm making that up.
 
It's never stated that she alerted her superiors though. You may as well not have the movie as it was a given that they'd win, but I guess we needed that spelling out to us.

She was told to leave the lab after the discovery was made, seems that it was fairly easy to guess why they'd suddenly decide to close the lab when there seems to be no other reason.

Is there an online source with the script available? If so, we could use it to see if they made the explicit link, but I didn't think it was really necessary. Obviously, you'd disagree here.
 
She was told to leave the lab after the discovery was made, seems that it was fairly easy to guess why they'd suddenly decide to close the lab when there seems to be no other reason.

Is there an online source with the script available? If so, we could use it to see if they made the explicit link, but I didn't think it was really necessary. Obviously, you'd disagree here.

She was not told to. And the script is not the movie. There are a few transcripts out there, though, one of which I already quoted.
 
And it's really idiotic to think that a cadet would not alert the superiors for such an incident. Maybe there was even a supervisor in the lab with the cadets.

But I suppose some need movies to spell out every single thing for them.
It's never stated that she alerted her superiors though. You may as well not have the movie as it was a given that they'd win, but I guess we needed that spelling out to us.

It's all well and good calling people idiots for not putting 2 and 2 together but I personally would find it far more interesting if Uhura was harbouring guilt over the destruction of Vulcan rather than her washing her hands clean of the whole thing. At least that would give the actress something to cling to and use rather than sitting there answering the phone.


It's never explicitly stated that she alerted superiors but, I'm sorry, for me it was a logical and easy thing to deduce while watching the movie and didn't need it spelled out at all.

And why on Earth would Uhura feel guilty for the destruction of Vulcan ?
She didn't do it obviously and simply knowing of the Klingon attack is hardly enough to figure out in time there will be an attack of such magnitude on Vulcan lightyears away the next day.

It would be unnecessary angst for the sake of angst and really not interesting at all.
It's not washing her hands, it's being rational and not beating herself up for something she is not responsible for.
 
It's never stated that she alerted her superiors though. You may as well not have the movie as it was a given that they'd win, but I guess we needed that spelling out to us.

She was told to leave the lab after the discovery was made, seems that it was fairly easy to guess why they'd suddenly decide to close the lab when there seems to be no other reason.

Is there an online source with the script available? If so, we could use it to see if they made the explicit link, but I didn't think it was really necessary. Obviously, you'd disagree here.

We don't hear if she was told to leave but Gaila said she was supposed to stay there all night...and she returned early after her discovery

So, it's another one of those things that are easy to see.
 
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