I've just finished my annual review of Trek movies and I seem to be having a hard time enjoying TUC. I think most of my problems stem from the writing. I acknowledge the idea of the cold war analogy as being a great idea. I think the scenes with the big 3 are strong. However, in addition to the obvious nits: "Right standard rudder"; phasers in the galley; "only Nixon can go to China", I have some issues with story points that seem to be there for no other reason than to further the story. For example: Kirk leaving his cabin door open while putting his stuff away and recording his (damning) personal log. I thought the doors on the Enterprise would have stayed closed after he entered the cabin. It seems like the only reason it stayed open was for Valeris to be able to hear and record the log. (Maybe later on in the movie it could have been determined that whoever modified the torpedo bank log could have also hacked into Kirk's personal log).
The scene with crewman Dax. Okay, nobody on board knows anything about this guy and his race? So, we find the gravity boots and we're all just going to wait for him in his cabin to interrogate him? Why not do a quick personnel check on the guy and send security to get him. The scene seems a bit forced and a little bit hokey.
The books. My God, the books. Isn't it a bit insulting to us and the characters that the wonderful crew of the Enterprise can't come up with a few lines of Klingon? Why do we have books? Don't we have computer files on Klingon? I'm not talking about the Universal Translator (which they do mention), but books? I've always assumed that Khan knew of "old Klingon proverbs" from his extensive review of memory tapes in "Space Seed." Heck, Marc Okrand's Klingon dictionary is a small paperback. Don't you think that Starfleet would spend some time at the academy training it's cadets on a few simple Klingon words. If Klingon's can memorize Shakespeare, why can our hero's know enough to get by? Again, a forced scene.
Finding the bodies of Samno and Burke right in the corridor in which the main characters are walking seems a bit too convenient. And, the follow up announcement on the loudspeaker for the court reporter (do starships have court reporters? I thought they just used the computer) to go to sickbay and take statements from Samno and Burke is such a blatant trap, I'm suprised that Valeris fell for it. I mean, this consipracy included one of the top guys at Starfleet, top guys of the Klingon Empire and the Romulans. If Valeris fell for that ruse, they chose the wrong person to deal with their dirty work.
In the Director's Version:
Operation retrieve. I have no problem with this other than why would we be sharing this plan with the Romulans?
Scotty, "I bet that Klingon bitch did it." It seems so out of character for Scotty or anyone in the Trek universe to use that line. I cringe everytime I hear it.
Spock's mind rape of Valeris. It's bad enough that he forces himself on her, but to do it on the bridge in front of everyone else seems wrong.
As much as I think that TFF was an abortion, I'm starting to like it a little bit more that TUC. I think I feel that way because I expected more from Meyer and Nimoy. Meyer saved the franchise with TWOK. His part in the screenplay for TVH was excellent. Nimoy did a great job with TSFS and TVH and the idea for this one was a good one. I don't know. Maybe after 17 years and repeated viewings it's easy to pick it apart. I guess I just can't buy into this being one of the great TOS movies.
