Movies That Hate You: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

[Dusty Ayres]

I came across this blog, and this review of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country that was printed in it sounds interesting:

An explosion of one of the Klingon’s moons is encountered by the USS Excelsior. After surviving the destructive maelstrom, Captain Sulu receives a message from the Klingons to stay away from the site. He orders Commander Rand to send a message to Starfleet Command regarding the situation.
Several months later, the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise-A is called into a meeting with the top brass of Starfleet Command, where they are given a bombshell of a mission: Escort the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to Earth, who has sued for peace on behalf of the Klingon Empire. The negotiations were held in secret by the Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his son Captain Spock. Kirk is extremely reticent about the mission, since he has never forgiven the Klingons for the death of his son David Marcus on Genesis. He does, however, take on the assignment and they are joined by Spock’s newest protégé, Lt. Cmdr. Valeris.

Movies That Hate You: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

 

[Mr Silver]

I'm gonna be a dick and nitpick that apart lol

*Excelsior didn't encounter the Explosion, they encountered the Shockwave

*It wasn't "Several" months it was two months (or 2 weeks if your Tuvok)

*How can you Sue for Peace?

*It was purely Spock who was involved with the negotiations IIRC

*Valeris is a Lt not a Lt Cmdr

 

[SonicRanger]

That excerpt is the less interesting part of the entire review... How about we skip to the part where the blogger claims that Star Trek is just as racist and misogynistic as the rest of Liberal Hollywood? Or that the film makes the minorities and women either traitors, racists, or incompetent? Or that Sulu spends most of his time berating his crew? How about the claims "Women not named Uhura in this film are just as subordinated or traitorous. That is, unfortunately, if they have any spoken dialogue to begin with. People of color not named Uhura are all bad guys"?

 

[YARN]

*How can you Sue for Peace?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_for_peace

 

[Green Shirt]

*How can you Sue for Peace?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_for_peace

The less you blow.

 

[Ensign Phaserbait]

*Valeris is a Lt not a Lt Cmdr

Valeris was "supposed" to be a Lieutenant. However she wears the Lieutenant Commander's rank, probably because the uniform was supposed to be for Saavik. But since they changed the character midstream, we end up with this.

 

[InklingStar]

*Valeris is a Lt not a Lt Cmdr

Valeris was "supposed" to be a Lieutenant. However she wears the Lieutenant Commander's rank, probably because the uniform was supposed to be for Saavik. But since they changed the character midstream, we end up with this.

She wears a Ltn. Cmdr. rank pin with an Academy collar. The costumers were just not paying attention.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

That excerpt is the less interesting part of the entire review... How about we skip to the part where the blogger claims that Star Trek is just as racist and misogynistic as the rest of Liberal Hollywood? Or that the film makes the minorities and women either traitors, racists, or incompetent? Or that Sulu spends most of his time berating his crew? How about the claims "Women not named Uhura in this film are just as subordinated or traitorous. That is, unfortunately, if they have any spoken dialogue to begin with. People of color not named Uhura are all bad guys"?

Well, I had to start somewhere, and that was it. But I will say that the writer is gasping at straws just like the lady that wrote the infamous article about Firefly and Joss Whedon accusing him of being a rapist. Sadly, this is what passes for media analysis these days. No wonder the left and progressive movements have problems getting their messages across and being taken seriously by the wider world.

 

[Pauln6]

Lol, hilarious - but in one respect the blog is slightly correct: considering that the show is meant to espouse equality, Star Trek has always been apalling at demonstrating equality of the sexes or (alien) races on screen. It's partly just the way things went - Janice Rand was dropped originally partly due to events going on behind the scenes, Majel Barett bowed out as a sort of understandable protest at Roddenberry being sidelined around the time of TWoK, Saavik was sidelined because Nimoy decided to return to the franchise, and they never bought in any women to plug the gaps left by these characters so we ended up with a male-heavy cast. Then, to cap matters off, the majority of guest characters are male (e.g. in STVI how many of the 'guest' starfleet officers and crew are male and how many are female - even Sulu's crew is almost exlcusively male - and how many Klingon women do we see?).

Valeris' betrayal would have made more sense as Saavik and been more controversial but it had nothing to do with her sex - it would have been an evolution based on the character's history. Valeris was a woman pretty much because the character was tweaked from the original concept.

 

[sonak]

First off thanks for the link to that "Firefly" article, I got a good laugh out of it. It comes across almost as parody. She keeps asking why the "black woman" (I guess the author only sees people as part of categories) takes orders from the "white man" and addresses him as "sir." Errrrrrr.... Because he happens to be the captain, he outranks her, and is her boss, maybe?


As to the ST VI article, what does it really say when we see comments about how an actor who happens to be black is cast as a villain in a movie or TV show? Does this mean that they can only be cast in heroic roles? This the kind of lazy, patronizing racism that while not as destructive as the overt, discriminatory kind, is pretty annoying.

Learning NOT to see people as part of made-up, socially constructed categories is the way out of racism, not reinforcing those categories.

 

[Pauln6]

I saw a movie called Boomerang in the early 90's I think where Eddie Murphy was used as a plaything by his female boss, Robin Givens. The movie's approach to gender stereotypes was as subtle as a brick and didn't really score any points for me but one thing I noticed was that Murphy seemed to work in an office block where all the background characters were black. Initially, I thought they were being racist because two wrongs don't make a right but I came to understand the point that they were making - namely that Hollywood casting agents need to make sure that their background actors are representative of the population.

NuTrek actually doesn't do too badly when it comes to background actors but the same can't always be said for the older Trek movies. The problem with Trek still remains the skewed predominence of European or Jewish male actors in the speaking roles. It may be mild racism brought on by the predominence of those kinds of actors to choose from in the USA but I can't believe that they're short of actresses to play speaking parts - that really is just sexism.

 

[Mr Silver]

Ok I get the whole "sue for peace" thing....

And yes I did a quick image search, it does appear Valeris is wearing Lt Cmdr insignia, anyone know why this was? Costume Error, etc?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

WOW that "review" is idiotic. The writer obviously had a pre-conceived axe to grind and was desperately looking for examples in the movie that justified it -- whether or not they made any sense whatsoever. He/she conveniently overlooks that three major members of the conspiracy (Ambassador Nanclus, Major West and General Chang) were all played by white men. And that Azetbur, a major female character, becomes leader of the Klingon people and does a pretty good job of it from what we see.

Brock Peters was given prejudiced dialogue as Admiral Cartright precisely because Nicholas Meyer knew it would have extra bite coming from one of the stars of To Kill A Mockingbird. And he was right.

And this quote really makes me wonder:

It is interesting that Nimoy chooses to play this scene for comedy, as it is the only one that could have showcased both Nichelle as an actress and Uhura as a character.

This person apparently didn't even watch the film closely enough to notice that Nimoy didn't direct this movie. Yes, he was a producer, but the director is the one who decides how scenes will be played (particularly when he's also one of the co-writers).

Shoddy writting like that just makes me mad.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Ok I get the whole "sue for peace" thing....

And yes I did a quick image search, it does appear Valeris is wearing Lt Cmdr insignia, anyone know why this was? Costume Error, etc?

Costume error. No one noticed the mismatched insigna & collar until after they'd done a signifigant amount of shooting, and it wouldn't been too expensive to reshoot.

 

[Cyke101]

It seems that much of the review is concerned more with elements of institutionalized racism popping up in Trek than it does on anything that could be construed as intentionally hostile by the filmmakers towards any group; basically, most accusations the reviewer makes come in the form of things that the filmmakers wouldn't be aware of (say, having a Token Black Guy in film/TV seems to be more out of habit than out of PC-ness or subjecation of black people anymore these days). It's important to take into account certain consequences with story choices, but also the tone of the creative atmosphere back then, which the reviewer does anyway by citing Hollywood as a whole.

Additionally,the blog is far from the first to ever complain about Uhura's incompetence in the film (let's start with Nichols herself). Or for calling the film disgusting for having a sexy shapeshifter turn into Shatner

With that said, even though I still list STVI in my top three favorite Trek films, my only complaint about the review is that the author lists Valeris among those who never strayed from their preconceived roles -- yet finding out Valeris is the traitor is a huge plot twist, the one that majorly changes the film from murder-mystery to action. If Valeris had stuck to the preconceived role, someone else would have to be the change between the second and third acts.

 

[sonak]

Has anybody else on this thread checked out some of the other reviews on that site? The reviewer is pretty disturbed, and seems to focus obsessively on minority/gender roles in the films they reviewed.

Although I do agree with the point made in the ST VI review, that information gathered from the meld with Valeris should be inadmissable as the product of a coerced confession.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Has anybody else on this thread checked out some of the other reviews on that site? The reviewer is pretty disturbed, and seems to focus obsessively on minority/gender roles in the films they reviewed.

Nothing I read there made me eager to read any more from the site.

Although I do agree with the point made in the ST VI review, that information gathered from the meld with Valeris should be inadmissable as the product of a coerced confession.

That was another thing that bugged me about the review. How does the reviewer know this? For all that's been revealed over the years, maybe the Federation makes allowances for Vulcan mind melds in a court of law.

 

[Cyke101]

Has anybody else on this thread checked out some of the other reviews on that site? The reviewer is pretty disturbed, and seems to focus obsessively on minority/gender roles in the films they reviewed.

I haven't read the rest of his reviews, but I wouldn't mind seeing more blogs reviewing films on a minority/gender basis. I'm reminded of the Bechdel Test, which brushes through films in terms of female interaction; it's important to note that straight up, the test is unconcerned about the quality of the film (which might have helped with the review in the OP if the author outright stated that).

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/22/the-bechdel-test-for.html

Now, that clip shows a lot of movies that I myself love (STXI, for example), but it shows Hollywood's historic gender inequality.

 

[FarStrider]

This blogger's concerns are about race (and gender!) fail in Hollywood in general, and science fiction in particular, which is why his/her review deals with those issues. A lot of his/her criticisms are valid. You may not like them, or want to see them as such, but if you are a minority, looking to see yourself on screen, the general message that mainstream movies puts out is that you are invisible, or a token or a traitor or incompetent. . . just because YOU don't see it as a problem, doesn't mean that there isn't a problem there. I think a lot of people should read that blogger's other series: Analysis: the Tropes of Women of Color in Sci-Fi. . . it might not be comfortable reading, but I'd be interested to see if anyone can come back with evidence that refutes the blogger's claims rather than knee-jerk dismissal.

~FS

 

[Pauln6]

I haven't read the rest of his reviews, but I wouldn't mind seeing more blogs reviewing films on a minority/gender basis. I'm reminded of the Bechdel Test, which brushes through films in terms of female interaction; it's important to note that straight up, the test is unconcerned about the quality of the film (which might have helped with the review in the OP if the author outright stated that).

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/22/the-bechdel-test-for.html

Now, that clip shows a lot of movies that I myself love (STXI, for example), but it shows Hollywood's historic gender inequality.

Lol - interesting test - a lot of the movies don't surprise me, Hollywood has a tradition of 'token female syndrome' where you have one or two high profile female characters amidst a sea of male supporting characters. I'm surprised that the X-men movies failed the test though - Storm actually taught a class of students containing female pupils which may be a bit tenuous but I think her conversations with Jean related to Wolverine's health so that failed the test.

NuTrek might have scraped by if not for the fact that Uhura's conversation with Gaila moves on from plot-related material to Kirk under the bed. The writers really fumbled the ball on gender equality when you look at the possible characters that could easily have used easily within the context of their own plot (Number One as Pike's first officer who gets taken out in the battle to make way for Spock and Kirk; T'Pau as one of the Vulcan elders rescued by Spock; and Rand as Pike's yeoman spring to mind).