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ysobelA sidestep about my fannish history: I found Star Trek sometime in, er, junior high maybe? Before DS9 came out, so it was just TNG and TOS, and I obsessed over both of them. TNG made an easier obsession because it was running on network tv every day (quite an incentive to finish my homework *cough*) and I got to the point where I could see a short clip (sometimes as short as a single camera shot or a line of dialogue; longer if it was just "stock shot of Enterprise going vwoosh") and instantly be able to name the title, season, and plot summary. (And could also give title/season for any plot summary and vice versa.) TOS made an awesomer obsession because it had Vulcans. (I ... er ... totally do not admit to having a period of time where I claimed to be half-Vulcan.) I also devoured a lot of the novels, leaning towards TOS (especially Vulcan-related) with a bit of TNG on the side.
(Amusingly, the concept of fanfic had not occurred to me -- I encountered it in college and went "oh!" -- so instead I had what was basically origfic with the serial numbers filed off, but it was definitely TOS-based -- there was always a Kirk-equivalent and a Spock-equivalent and a Bones-equivalent, regardless of whatever else -- and while slash, also, had not occurred to me, in retrospect it was totally a three-way BFF situation.)
And then there came DS9, and Voyager, and my obsessions turned to other things, because I was *finding* other things, and finding fandom (I ... will also totally not admit that it was a stunning revelation when I found out that other people liked Star Trek too), and because the franchise was kind of dissolving, and I watched about half an episode of Enterprise and gave up because it wasn't what I loved.
And then there was this movie, and I have fallen in love all over again.
It's not that there aren't issues. (A lot of other reviews, which I have gorged myself on, have pointed out the dearth of females, and the fact that even Uhura, when she isn't being a kick-ass xenolinguist zomg, is partly there as defined by her relationship with Spock.) But the movie left me with so much squee.
I ... was partly expecting that, given that the general reaction I've seen has been squee rather than "ew that wasn't worth it". But partly not. There are things that other people have loved that have left me cold (and vice versa).
But I wasn't expecting some of the awesomeness. And given my serious obsession with Spock and all things Vulcan, I wasn't expecting ... I'm not sure. I need to process that some more.
But the destruction of Vulcan...
I was expecting a reboot of that. Given that this is Star Trek, where (especially with TOS but also a lot of TNG) there's a magical reset button at the end of every episode, given that the movie canon established black holes as time travel (and by the way, how come one red-matter-generated black hole technobabbled its way to a time travel mechanism and the others just destroyed shit?), given that this is *Vulcan* ... I was expecting it to be fixed.
Not that it would have reset things to the original universe, of course. Kirk would have still grown up without a dad. Spock would have still held the memories of watching his mother and his whole planet die. But still...
I feel like I should be mourning Vulcan.
I feel, kind of, like I've lost a home I grew up in. Even though it was fictional, even though I didn't ever live there, even though everything in Universe Prime still exists...
... *flail* I don't know.
(The weirdest thing is, I wouldn't feel the same way if they'd destroyed Earth, which *is* my home. heh. Though I was a little surprised that the collapse of the drill thingum didn't come down on top of the bridge...)
(Amusingly, the concept of fanfic had not occurred to me -- I encountered it in college and went "oh!" -- so instead I had what was basically origfic with the serial numbers filed off, but it was definitely TOS-based -- there was always a Kirk-equivalent and a Spock-equivalent and a Bones-equivalent, regardless of whatever else -- and while slash, also, had not occurred to me, in retrospect it was totally a three-way BFF situation.)
And then there came DS9, and Voyager, and my obsessions turned to other things, because I was *finding* other things, and finding fandom (I ... will also totally not admit that it was a stunning revelation when I found out that other people liked Star Trek too), and because the franchise was kind of dissolving, and I watched about half an episode of Enterprise and gave up because it wasn't what I loved.
And then there was this movie, and I have fallen in love all over again.
It's not that there aren't issues. (A lot of other reviews, which I have gorged myself on, have pointed out the dearth of females, and the fact that even Uhura, when she isn't being a kick-ass xenolinguist zomg, is partly there as defined by her relationship with Spock.) But the movie left me with so much squee.
I ... was partly expecting that, given that the general reaction I've seen has been squee rather than "ew that wasn't worth it". But partly not. There are things that other people have loved that have left me cold (and vice versa).
But I wasn't expecting some of the awesomeness. And given my serious obsession with Spock and all things Vulcan, I wasn't expecting ... I'm not sure. I need to process that some more.
But the destruction of Vulcan...
I was expecting a reboot of that. Given that this is Star Trek, where (especially with TOS but also a lot of TNG) there's a magical reset button at the end of every episode, given that the movie canon established black holes as time travel (and by the way, how come one red-matter-generated black hole technobabbled its way to a time travel mechanism and the others just destroyed shit?), given that this is *Vulcan* ... I was expecting it to be fixed.
Not that it would have reset things to the original universe, of course. Kirk would have still grown up without a dad. Spock would have still held the memories of watching his mother and his whole planet die. But still...
I feel like I should be mourning Vulcan.
I feel, kind of, like I've lost a home I grew up in. Even though it was fictional, even though I didn't ever live there, even though everything in Universe Prime still exists...
... *flail* I don't know.
(The weirdest thing is, I wouldn't feel the same way if they'd destroyed Earth, which *is* my home. heh. Though I was a little surprised that the collapse of the drill thingum didn't come down on top of the bridge...)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 04:23 am (UTC)I kept clinging to the fact that "this is star trek, all the good guys have to live so they can go forth and journey and
make more moviesyou know, be the crew of the Enterprise!" but after destroying Vulcan, the only faith I had was that Kirk and Spock would make it.no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 05:29 am (UTC)Star Trek is the Holy Grail of fandom, full of plots I don't like and characters I don't understand. My brother was a Trekkie (and apparently a ficcer, some years ago!) and I always felt like I wasn't hardcore enough to be a Star Trek fan. He went to conventions; I just learned to drop dead at the sound of a phaser.
So I'm happy to have the new universe to play in.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 06:48 am (UTC)I'm also feeling Really Old -- I watched TOS *first run* (ok, I was 6 - 9, but still) and re-discovered it in re-runs at 12. I could never truly get into TNG (though oh, I wanted to!) because whatever it had that made TOS so magical and compelling to me just wasn't there.
I am still going to go see it, at do my best to let it suck me in and tell me it's story on its own terms, but I'm not expecting it to be unalloyed squee.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 07:23 pm (UTC)I totally do not admit to having a period of time where I thought of myself as dVel'nahr. *grins at you*
I grieve with thee, daughter.