I watch movies, and not the same way as others.
Seriously, I read a post about things fiction writers should keep in mind (I can’t find the link), and it points directly at the rebooted Star Trek. It’s garbage, IMHO. Nowhere near as good as the original series.
You see, there are things that can happen IRL, and things that can’t happen. Some things make sense, and others don’t. A perfect example is gravity control. Without some form of that, rapid travel from star to star is not possible. Star Trek has artificial gravity, so they can “realistically” accelerate rapidly and get places without taking generations to get there. That makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is the tripe they try to ram down our throats in the new movies. I won’t detail all of it, but a few things just don’t “fly.” For instance, who thought up the idea about driving a starship off a cliff to get it to fly? That, to me, makes no sense. Another one is Spock making out on the transporter pad. If they’d put that AFTER his home planet of Vulcan got sucked into a black hole, you could make a case for it. That case was never made.
Another minor thing: What’s with all those side-ways-pointing lights on the bridge?
Probably the biggest annoyance for me is how Kirk was promoted. A CADET, who is under review, essentially stows away on the fleet’s flagship and is put in overall command a half-hour later. I don’t care how gifted a leader he might be, there’s no context where he can make knowledgeable decisions.
But let’s assume for a moment. I can do that. The promotion would only be a “field” (brevet) promotion that needs to be confirmed by the hierarchy before it can become permanent. There isn’t a military-like organization anywhere that would confirm that appointment. There’s such thing as ego, and the Federation would have a lot of folks who’d get their nose out of joint about Kirk getting to command the fleet’s flagship. Resentment would abound.
Flash forward a couple of movies – uh, “years.” This captain (with a pay grade of O-6), is up to be promoted to Vice Admiral (O-9). And the person offering it to him is a commodore (Rear Admiral of the Lower Half, or O-7). Have I mentioned ego? How many holding the rank of “commander” (pay grade O-5) would be lobbying against Kirk for those two movies – uh, “years”? How many favored captains would be wanting to “do in” Kirk’s career because of his rapid rise from cadet to captain? How many admirals have been grooming “their” candidate for flag ranks?
I watch movies to escape reality, but they have to have some kind of basis IN reality. It’s called suspension of disbelief. If you can’t suspend your disbelief in something like that, the movie just makes no sense.
And I’m not going to watch another piece of trash like that again.
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