zenicurean: How you read this is a lithmus (err, litmus) test.

zenicurean (

zenicurean) wrote,
@ 2009-05-05 10:54:00

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How you read this is a lithmus (err, litmus) test.
A UAE newspaper on the new Star Trek film (link may contain minor spoilers). Emphasis mine:

We then cut forward a few years to Iowa and see [various things that you see in the trailer]. It’s exhilarating stuff and immediately lets us know that this is Star Trek with its phasers set to stun.

So yeah.

(18 comments) - (Post a new comment)

	Daniel [oeconomist.com] 2009-05-05 09:55 am UTC (link)
	Star Trek? Seriously, dude, that stuff belongs behind an `<lj-cut>`! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	zenicurean 2009-05-05 12:49 pm UTC (link)
	Good point. I've spayed/neutered the quote for the benefit of the trailer-impaired. I can't do anything about the social stigma of talking about Star Trek, though. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Daniel [oeconomist.com]
2009-05-05 01:08 pm UTC (link)

My suggestion is this:

<lj-cut text="St_r Tr_k discourse">A UAE newspaper on <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090423/ART/704229982/1208">the new Star Trek film</a> (link may contain minor spoilers). Emphasis mine: <blockquote>We then cut forward a few years to Iowa and see [various things that you see in the trailer]. It’s exhilarating stuff and immediately lets us know that this is Star Trek with its phasers set to stun.</blockquote></lj-cut> So yeah.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	petronivs 2009-05-05 10:56 am UTC (link)
	I don't know if I want to see a Star Trek movie which merely has its phasers set to stun... So which am I, an acid or a base? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	harper_knight 2009-05-05 12:36 pm UTC (link)
	You do realize that the beginning of your sentence there, "I don't know if I want to see a Star Trek movie.." borders on heresy? :P (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	petronivs 2009-05-05 02:30 pm UTC (link)
	I don't know if I want to see a Star Trek show which has a captain named Janeway, either. Does that border on heresy, as well? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	harper_knight 2009-05-05 02:33 pm UTC (link)
	That one doesn't count and you know it. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	zenicurean 2009-05-05 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	It's all a big slide down to "We here at Starfleet solve all our problems by modifying the main deflector shield to emit a deus ex machina beam." (Reply to this) (Parent)

	zenicurean 2009-05-05 12:47 pm UTC (link)
	Acid. Everyone else reads it and thinks something like "Oh, it's stunning! Stunning is good! That's got to rock!" The Trek fan, of course, reads it and thinks something like "But stun isn't a very powerful setting for a phraser." (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Daniel [oeconomist.com] 2009-05-05 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	Not a St_r Tr_k fan (the last St_r Tr_k film that I saw was The Search for Spock), I none-the-less read that bit about the phaser setting and thought on low power, eh? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	harper_knight 2009-05-05 02:34 pm UTC (link)
	Of course you won't be a Trek fan if you watched THAT movie :P shudder (Reply to this) (Parent)

	charlycrash 2009-05-05 02:58 pm UTC (link)
	Phraser: a deadly weapon that fires cutting insults at people. (i'll stop tormenting you now) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	zenicurean 2009-05-05 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	That will be my sidearm when the kitten apocalypse comes. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	charlycrash 2009-05-05 02:58 pm UTC (link)
	Lithmus test: a strip of paper you stick in a rock to see whether it's igneous or sedimentary. (sorry, just feeling silly :P) I don't know I feel about the movie. I'm sure I'll end up watching it though. I actually have some desire to see it, unlike the cinematic anti-audience devices that were the last couple of TNG movies. (Reply to this) (Thread)

zenicurean
2009-05-05 03:51 pm UTC (link)

Lithmus test: a strip of paper you stick in a rock

Hee. I still think "phraser" is the worse of the two, though. Or perhaps it's the more awesome of the two. Because while administering lithmus tests sounds a little boring, I one hundred per cent want to kill someone with a phraser now.

Don't know about the film. All the actors look so incredibly young for their parts. I'll probably go see it, and I'd love to give it a chance to shine on its own merits. But I imagine it's incredibly, incredibly difficult to write a Star Trek reboot and then expect to sell it to the movie-going public at large, since the fanbase, which actually provides the real money, is going to be alert for every single flaw. They'll measure it up against decades of collective mythology, reboot or no reboot.

Edited at 2009-05-05 03:55 pm UTC

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	petronivs 2009-05-05 04:45 pm UTC (link)
	I've gotten the impression that the fanbase is going to be less severe with this. Star Trek has gone through enough permutations that very little of the fanbase hasn't already been offended by something, so it's not novel anymore when they are. Kind of like the Star Wars fans after the prequels... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	f4f3 2009-05-05 06:10 pm UTC (link)
	I'm off to see it at the iMax on Thursday night, and the phasers had better be set to shred... (Reply to this)

	terva 2009-05-05 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	Today I talked with few fellow students about the Star Trek, and said that that movie is seriously trying to shrug off of all that nerd wich relates to it. And thus, it might cause severe anti-movement in the lines of the true fans. I personally probably will like the movie, as I never liked the original series and movies. (Reply to this)

(18 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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