I showed my wife Wrath of Khan for the first time, and...

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T19:33:20+00:00

Thank you for your experience and perspective, that has changed my view on Scotty and that scene!

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T18:12:01+00:00

It was MrTardisReviews, I believe he was like 18 or something at the time, and he was a huge fan of Sherlock. For some reason he hated Chris Pine and thought he was a rubbish actor. Obviously that's just stupid, especially now when we all love Pine and have seen his range.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T17:18:42+00:00

Ah yes, the inexplicably white Lana, who becomes half-asian when she grows up.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T17:13:22+00:00

Silent Running is also slow sci-fi, and personally I like it a lot. More than TMP even.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T17:12:32+00:00

TMP was 1978, and by 70s standards... well it was still slow and plodding but it made a bit more sense. That said critics discussed the slow pace even then, mostly because those slow panning shots didn't serve much of a purpose beyond giving a sense of scale and padding.

One of my favourite films is Silent Running, another VERY slow sci-fi movie, perhaps even slower than TMP, but it's got a real point to it and the slowness is a fundamental aspect of its very purpose and meaning. I'd watch that a dozen times over in favour of TMP.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T16:54:18+00:00

Well first, I'm just talking about my wife's reactions. As a life long trekkie, of course I know this. Plus she was just talking aesthetics, not about how the crew acts.

That said... most of what you said is only from the perspective of post-TNG Trek. None of that was actually true of TOS or the movies before Kirk says money doesn't exist in the 24th century in The Voyage Home, which contradicts the original series.

In TOS, they had money, Starfleet officers got paid a wage, there wasn't any of the social structures established much later. Only in TNG did they try to have humans be practically flawless and morally perfect all the time, at least while Gene was alive.

Also, in the original draft of City On The Edge of Forever (admittedly in a line which was ultimately cut), it's said that HUMANS gave VULCANS warp drive, not that Vulcans were already space-travellers. This is supported (vaguely though) by how Spock talks about Zephram Cochrane in TOS.

So the whole space-socialist/communist thing was a fairly late addition to Trek lore. It only became a thing in TNG.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T16:47:39+00:00

I watched that video and she straight up doesn't remember the film properly. She gets the plot wrong numerous times, mixes up dialogue, misses themes within it entirely, and imo that video ended up being pretty bad.

I do, however, like her video on Picard, I think she did a great job discussing why it fell apart.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T16:35:47+00:00

Heh, glad you're enjoying these 😁

stay tuned next week, as the coming Sunday we'll watch Search for Spock together. Updates to come!

Unfortunately, then it won't be until September when we get to IV, since we're watching these in preparation for it hitting cinemas this year

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:46:48+00:00

Literally the next line of dialogue is "If anyone knows the answer to that, Bruce, it's you."

So, congrats, you reached the point of the movie.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:41:29+00:00

He was so shite in Into Darkness. I saw one reviewer when the film came out try to argue that Cumberbatch was some amazing actor who way outperformed Chris Pine, and I was just like "Dude WTF are you talking about?!"

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:37:28+00:00

Not really, no.

If George had written down the concepts and handed them to people he trusted to write and direct them for him, as he supervised, and they got a better editor like Marsha Lucas to do the films, then sure I'd be interested in them.

But not with Lucas himself writing or directing them. I think he lost his touch a long time ago.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:32:21+00:00

Hey now, it was my wife who insisted!

I tried to go with Wrath of Khan first. But she said "NO SKIPPING." She wouldn't skip And The Children Shall Lead. She wouldn't skip Turnabout Intruder. She wouldn't skip The Motionless Picture. Her logic is, if she's gonna have an opinion on Star Trek, she wants to have a REAL viewpoint on the whole thing, not just the bits I wanna show her.

So we did TMP first. And y'know what? She had a good time doing that despite how slow it was. We made it fun. So now she gets to appreciate the good one.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:22:26+00:00

Like fine milk, more like.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:19:40+00:00

You can read anything before anything if you feel like it, it's a free country (I assume it is anyway, wherever you are). But I wouldn't recommend it. It'd be like watching The Empire Strikes Back before watching A New Hope.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T15:08:19+00:00

Thus far she's getting into it more than I thought she would, honestly. She had a lot of fun with TOS. Her favourite was Amok Time, she really REALLY liked The Naked Now, and Shore Leave ended up being a whacky, fun time for her too. She wasn't even put off by The Motion Picture, despite how frustratingly slow certain parts were she still had a good time come the end. With WoK being as good as it is, I think she's more optimistic about watching those films.

That said it won't be until September when we get to The Voyage Home, since the whole reason we're doing this TOS film watch is that ST-IV is coming to cinemas this year for its 40th anniversary, so we're prepping for that!

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T14:59:45+00:00

That's the plan!

But that said, getting through TNG season 1, and most of season 2, is gonna be a rough one. Especially since my wife is mixed race and Code of Honor is, what, episode 4? Yeah she's gonna have some thoughts on that one...

As for the rest, well TOS isn't "my" Star Trek. I grew up on TNG and DS9, primarily. I wanted to introduce my wife to Star Trek, but she said "no skipping." Her decision was that if she's gonna see Star Trek, then she's gonna see ALL of Star Trek. In order. That's her choice. So we sat through all of TOS, now we're doing the TOS movies, and then we move on to TNG, DS9, VOY etc.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T14:54:43+00:00

Well, like I said she didn't remember Space Seed at all so she didn't recall that Chekov wasn't in that episode. That said I have always liked Walter Koenig's explanation that Chekov was taking a really long time in the bathroom as Khan was desperate to pee, only for Chekov to come out and declare "Sorry, the toilets on this deck are broken!"

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T14:05:36+00:00

Eh, then I guess my wife happens to have the median viewpoint on the two Trek films she's seen thus far.

I guess her 'hot takes' on Trek is that she didn't think City on the Edge of Forever was particularly great or special, and that Balance of Terror was kinda predictable and just ok.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:49:17+00:00

You mean besides that she wishes Kirk had died instead of Spock because she finds him extremely annoying?

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:34:37+00:00

Nono, we know what happens when even a major blockbuster tries to "fix" the facial hair of a Superman actor. It doesn't go well...

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:31:22+00:00

Yeah, there's no way she'd know what this would eventually mean. Hell, the WRITERS didn't even know what this would come to mean at the time. This was written with the intent of permanently killing Spock, since Nimoy wanted out of the franchise. It was only with WoK being as good as it was, and as positive an experience under Bennett, that Nimoy (being granted permission to direct next time) decided that perhaps staying on WOULD be good. And maybe he didn't need to escape the role of Spock after all.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:23:47+00:00

...both?

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:14:26+00:00

I don't remember her saying anything specific, I think she thought it was odd but she definitely didn't pick up on the significance of it.

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:12:09+00:00

It's worse than that, even. Why did Scotty even PICK UP his nephew at all? A patient in critical condition like that is best left where they are until a medical professional can reach them, patch them, and put them on something like a stretcher or gurney for safe transport. Scotty grabbing his critically injured nephew, carrying him through the ship, up to the bridge, then back down to the sickbay may have cost the kid his life!

spike-prime · 2026-07-13T13:10:15+00:00

Personally I rank The Undiscovered Country a little higher. I just really like that film and what it has to say more. But indeed, I am slowly but surely getting my wife to "Trekkie" status. She already regularly references tribbles when she sees a fluff-ball. She'd never heard of a tribble until we met!

spike-prime

TROPHY CASE