TWOK "I'm delighted, any chance to go aboard the Enterprise..."

[JonnyQuest037]

OT: That's an interesting turn of events. Steal a ship, disobey orders, destroy the stolen ship, and then get command of the newest ship of the line. How'd that come about?

Spoiler: Kirk getting the Excelsior

As Admiral Turner put it to Kirk in the issue where he was assigned the Excelsior, "You've disabled this ship at least twice, God knows what else is wrong with it!" Kirk's assignment was referred to as a shakedown cruise.

As to why there wasn't immediate fallout from the stealing the Enterprise and the Genesis fiasco, basically Kirk shrewdly leaked some information to get the press on his side. Starfleet was pretty much forced to wait until all the hoopla died down and partly assigned Kirk & crew to the Excelsior to get them out of the way in the meantime.

(I need to find a copy of these old comics, I think...)

I highly recommend them. Do a search for the DC Comics trade paperback The Mirror Universe Saga. VERY clever writing by Mike W. Barr.

 

[Dukhat]

Now, George Takei claims Shatner deliberately "sabataage"d the scene, but I have the audio from the workprint—which includes this exchange—and Shatner's line delivery is fine

Is this audio clip something that can be shared? I'm genuinely curious to hear it.

Go to 8:20. George mentions it in detail.

Actually, when I said audio, I meant an audio cap from the actual cut scene in question.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

It's an inconsequential line and moment in the film. It's throwaway. And that's probably why it was cut.

I've always felt that George fought for the wrong things for his character in TWOK. In the climatic battle in the Mutara Nebula, there was an opportunity for to show why Sulu is the best helmsman in the fleet. It should've been Sulu who suggested that Khan's tactics were "two-dimensional" thinking and propose a way to take advantage of that.

It would've been a nice moment for Sulu in the film rather than some line about getting a promotion.

And we don't get a real demonstration of Sulu's actual helm skills until Trek '09.

 

[Maurice]

Eh, arguably he did in TFF when he raced the shuttle into the hangar super-fast. Yeah, it was a crash, but still, really, the only other time we saw him do anything special as a pilot.

 

[The Old Mixer]

He flew a Huey.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Eh, arguably he did in TFF when he raced the shuttle into the hangar super-fast. Yeah, it was a crash, but still, really, the only other time we saw him do anything special as a pilot.

Oh yeah. Totally forgot about that momentarily.

 

[Elder Knight]

Eh, arguably he did in TFF when he raced the shuttle into the hangar super-fast. Yeah, it was a crash, but still, really, the only other time we saw him do anything special as a pilot.

So far as what we see, all Sulu did was push a button when Kirk told him to.

The director hardly tried to highlight the man's navigational skills.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

And we don't get a real demonstration of Sulu's actual helm skills until Trek '09.

That's the one where Sulu only gets assigned to the Enterprise because another helmsman gets sick and the first thing he does is leave the parking brake on, right?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

And we don't get a real demonstration of Sulu's actual helm skills until Trek '09.

That's the one where Sulu only gets assigned to the Enterprise because another helmsman gets sick and the first thing he does is leave the parking brake on, right?

Yep!

But he did do that nifty fly into Titan.

 

[Maurice]

And we don't get a real demonstration of Sulu's actual helm skills until Trek '09.

That's the one where Sulu only gets assigned to the Enterprise because another helmsman gets sick and the first thing he does is leave the parking brake on, right?

Yep!

But he did do that nifty fly into Titan.

And steered around all that starship wreckage with only one major scrape.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Well, we did see Sulu's hand-to-hand combat skills while Kirk was hanging off the mining platform. Of course, a nitpicker would say: "Oh, so because he's Asian...suddenly he's an expert martial artist!"

Which may be true to an extent, but I still thought it was a badass scene.

There is still the scene where he briefly takes command of the Enterprise (which has seatbelts!) in the 2013 film; a cool scene in an otherwise mediocre picture.

Overall, Sulu has always been an underutilized character.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Well, we did see Sulu's hand-to-hand combat skills while Kirk was hanging off the mining platform. Of course, a nitpicker would say: "Oh, so because he's Asian...suddenly he's an expert martial artist!"

Which may be true to an extent, but I still thought it was a badass scene.

There is still the scene where he briefly takes command of the Enterprise (which has seatbelts!) in the 2013 film; a cool scene in an otherwise mediocre picture.

Overall, Sulu has always been an underutilized character.

Nevertheless, I did like that Sulu was better at hand-to-hand combat than Kirk. And Kirk is my favorite character, but I like it when he has to struggle a bit to win.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Well, we did see Sulu's hand-to-hand combat skills while Kirk was hanging off the mining platform. Of course, a nitpicker would say: "Oh, so because he's Asian...suddenly he's an expert martial artist!"

Which may be true to an extent, but I still thought it was a badass scene.

There is still the scene where he briefly takes command of the Enterprise (which has seatbelts!) in the 2013 film; a cool scene in an otherwise mediocre picture.

Overall, Sulu has always been an underutilized character.

Nevertheless, I did like that Sulu was better at hand-to-hand combat than Kirk. And Kirk is my favorite character, but I like it when he has to struggle a bit to win.

Indeed.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Takei's Sulu showed a hint of such skills when he went into a martial arts stance in one of the episodes...think it was in "That Which Survives". He also made quick work of the guard who called him "Tiny" in STIII.

 

[OpenMaw]

He also made quick work of the guard who called him "Tiny" in STIII.

I love that scene.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

He also made quick work of the guard who called him "Tiny" in STIII.

I love that scene.

Takei originally didn't want to do the scene. He thought it demeaned Sulu somehow and then when people cheered, he realized he was wrong.
John Cho... he made Sulu even cooler!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

John Cho... he made Sulu even cooler!

And ironically, he and Chris Pine apparently became fast friends on the set ST '09. It's nice that we have one set of Kirk/Sulu actors who can get along...

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

John Cho... he made Sulu even cooler!

And ironically, he and Chris Pine apparently became fast friends on the set ST '09. It's nice that we have one set of Kirk/Sulu actors who can get along...

Yeah. It's fun to see Pine & Cho goofing off in the ST '09 behind the scenes material.

 

[Jon1701]

He also made quick work of the guard who called him "Tiny" in STIII.

I love that scene.

He also knows "the crew complement of a Bird of Prey", another line of dialogue that smacks of "let's give George something to do"

I don't recall Sulu having any aptitude for that before...

 

[Maurice]

I put this together for you, using the relevant snippet of the audio from the workprint.

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A fun little note, the temp music around this docking sequence was "Hornpipe" from the movie Down To The Sea In Ships by Alfred Newman.

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