Well Spoken Star Trek

[ZapBrannigan]

I was just watching "The Changeling," and was struck by the scene where Spock mind melds with Nomad, speaking mechanically with a somber double bass or cello accompaniment.

It occurred to me suddenly, after years of seeing the episode and never seeing it, that Spock's soliloquy was just like one of those beatnik poetry recitations in a nightclub, where a guy in a black turtleneck sweater and beret, with dark circular sunglasses, would chant a solemn existentialist poem that makes little sense but sounds "deep."

I really think you could perform Spock's Nomad mind meld word for word in a beatnik/hipster nightclub, with a cellist or double bassist playing Spock's somber theme behind you, and it would be cheered as brilliant.

Another poetic moment in Star Trek is found in "Where No Man..."

Remember those rodent things on Dimarus,
The poisoned darts they threw?
I took one meant for you.
And almost died. I remember.

That doesn't happen by accident.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Well, screenplays have metre and beats and patterns of four and what-have-you ... but I do see where you are coming from, with the Poetry Reading observations. STAR TREK isn't just pap ... there is some artistic inadvertancy at work!

 

[Metryq]

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

That was a nice, unexpected laugh to come home to, Metryq! Thanks!!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Metryq nailed the Beatnik scene.

DeForest Kelley gave a metered line reading in "Arena" when he said something like:

"This SHIP, our ENgines, our WEAPons, it's just inconCEIVable that we are imMObilized like this."

It was like the dialogue had a beat.

 

[scotpens]

Personally I've always loved the rythym of ''Who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?'' That was no accident. Gerrold might have made it an homage to the bop-de-bop-de-bop.

I thought it was more of a riff on "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder?"