Galaxy Quest...

[seawasp]

... is the subject of today's On My Shelves post! A rare, enjoyable parody!

Comments

[seawasp]

Well, if you saw my review of Star Trek (2009) you know we rather disagree on that point; I thought in particular that the cast NAILED the reboot of their characters. I haven't seen Into Darkness yet, so I can't judge.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Problem is, while I like the characterizations, I've come to realize that they're still off. It's not the actors' faults. It's the scripts.

Star Wars draws heavily from the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials. The stories are about larger than life heroes saving the world/galaxy/universe from equally larger than life villains. Star Trek draws from the Horatio Hornblower stories and Gulliver's Travels. The stories are about more down to earth heroes exploring the worlds they live in with the frequent forays into humanist subjects: politics, race, religion and so forth. Star Wars is space opera. Star Trek walks between hard SF and soft/social SF.

Star Trek (XI) is about the Smiling Trio and the crew of the Enterprise saving the Federation from a genocidal maniac with his own personal Death Star. Into Darkness is about the Smiling Trio and the crew of the Enterprise saving the Federation from a couple of madmen bent on genocidal warfare. These are space opera plots. Into Darkness could have gone for the sociopolitical story (terrorism, repercussions thereof). It doesn't; it goes for the over-the-top action.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

An intriguing argument, and one I must ponder in depth.