Spock's Death
- In the original Star Trek series, alien characters in the series were used as a metaphor for racial struggles among humanity.
One of the articles in my last blog post says, "Star Trek rarely depicts racism among humans, preferring to project it as a problem
within an alien species or between two species. Second, the allegory of racial struggle
hints at a liberal-humanist ideology, especially in regard to the implication in the dialogue
that Earth has overcome its "primitive" past. In the fictional future of Star Trek, the
people of Earth have united across class, gender, national and, as noted above, racial lines" (Bernardi 61).I think this is important to understand when analyzing this scene because it makes the fact that it is Spock, an Vulcan alien, to save the ship even more important as it challenges the norm for most action movies. It is not the white hero of the story that saves everyone, but the green, pointed eared alien.
- The grief Kirk experiences at Spock's death is based on years and years of friendship development in The Original Series of Star Trek.
- Kirk and Spock are older and approaching the end of two long careers aboard the Enterprise.
Star Trek into Darkness (2013)
Kirk's Death
- In this version, Spock and Kirk's role's are reversed. I believe this was an attempt on the writers' and director's part to provide a twist in the story so it wasn't exactly the same as the original movie, and to offer the audience a reimagining of how this famous scene would have gone if Kirk were on the other side of the radiation chamber. However, I think this reversal of roles is problematic when the racial metaphor of the alien is taken into account. In the original movie, Spock saving the ship was empowering as a symbol of racial and inter-species unity, but in the new version, the writers replaced Spock with Kirk. Suddenly the end becomes just another typical story line where the white action hero saves the day. The thoughtful challenge and metaphor of the original movie no longer applies in this scene.
- Kirk and Spock's relationship is still fairly new. They haven't had the same history they did in the original, and yet the writers treated the exchange between them in this scene almost identically to the original. This could represent a shift in the way we view relationships in the 21st century.
- Kirk and Spock are young and at the beginning of their careers. Makes Kirk's death tragic in a different way than the original because of the injustice of an early death. Also is interesting that movie is targeting a younger audience.
References
Bernardi,
D. (1994). Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations: Diegetic Logics and
Racial Articulations in the Original Star Trek. Film & History, 24(1/2),
60-74.
Abrams, J.
J. (Director). (2013). Star Trek into
Darkness [Motion picture]. Hollywood.
Meyer, N. (Director). (1982). Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [Motion picture].
United States: Paramount Pictures.
Links to Videos
Wrath of Khan (Spock's death scene)
Star Trek into Darkness (Kirk's death scene)
Really good information, and an awesome job putting this together. I would say, knowing Vrooman, that you might want to dumb it down a little, decrease the word volume a lot more yet keep in the specific points. Other than that, you're on the right track.
ReplyDeleteGreat information, the points that you had are definitely spot on. The one thing that I would recommend is that instead of whole sections of content from another source, would be to get straight to the point if at all possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to see that you have a clear idea of what you want to present and i think you have some really great points. I do think that less is more and you could probably have less information from the artciles you read, because it might make it difficult for other people to understand. Other than that I think you will have a great final product.
ReplyDelete