it must be bunnies

http://bilbobobbins.tumblr.com/post/46023527249/fyeahlilbit2point0-cleoselene

feignedwisdom:

mswyrr:

bilbobobbins:

Has anybody seen the original series? It’s a generic action series set in space. That’s it. Now, that doesn’t make Star Trek any less awesome than it is, but these movies are based off of the original series, not say, Next Generation. Next Generation was more about the exploration and touchy-feely stuff that people love about Star Trek. TOS was more about   Kirk being a badass and wacky antics and SOMETIMES feels, but way, way less than TNG had. TOS set up the whole thing, TNG took it farther and read deeper into the characters, alien species, and all that good stuff. So, people need to stop deriding these movies for sticking to the action-y roots of the original series. If they wanted to make a movie based more off of exploration and science, they’d make a movie based off of the origins of the TNG cast of characters. And really, look at the movies that came before this one and it’s predecessor. They had deep plot and fun to them, but you know what they also were? Action movies. 

Side note: It’s Star Trek. Look at the differences between the different series, and the different themes they presented. It doesn’t just have to be about one thing.

As I recall, there was plenty exploring going on in TOS. Their exploring often got them into trouble, but they were out there “going where no man had gone before,” not fighting a war, not always all about fighting. And while TNG reads as more “touchy-feely” because it was speaking from the liberal side of the spectrum of politics from its more recent day (“no man” becomes “no one”). But what you have to remember is that TOS, though not perhaps as “touchy-feely” to us, was pushing the envelope within its 1960s context. I’m not an expert, but two examples of progressive writing are Kirk and Uhura and the first interracial kiss on television and also, connected with that, depicting a racially and nationally diverse crew, including a Russian crew member during the Cold War.

Considering how terrifying thw political situation was, TOS was a radical vision of a very different future where all humans (and even some aliens!) could get along and live together in respect.

Just because the ’90s is closer to us and we can feel how TNG was pushing it’s progressive agenda doesn’t mean that the agenda of the 1960s show didn’t have its points of pushing on things. They just perhaps don’t read as quite as progressive anymore because times have changed.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

GENERIC ACTION SERIES SET IN SPACE. 

I am literally angry with rage. 

Look, I’m not even REMOTELY a fan of TOS, but what are you? 12? The Original Series came into existence in the late 60s. This is a show that depicted a future in which a BLACK WOMAN, AN ASIAN GUY, AND A RUSSIAN GUY on the starship motherfucking Enterprise, the flagship of the Federation. This is somebody’s dream of the future in the fucking 60s.

A BLACK WOMAN was on the television doing shit that didn’t involve housekeeping. Ever heard the story of Whoopi Goldberg seeing Uhura on screen and running around the house screaming THERE’S A BLACK LADY ON TELEVISION AND SHE AIN’T NO MAID.

There was Chekov, a RUSSIAN, being the pilot of the starship motherfucking Enterprise, when the US at that moment was still in the midst of the Cold War. The show aired in 1966. The Cuban Missile Crisis was in 1962. A future where a sovie commie bastard is on the starship motherfucking Enterprise? WHAT? 

Last but not least, Sulu. Holy shit, an Asian character played by an Asian actor. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961. Contains what pretty much anyone has a brain would consider to be one of the most egregious examples of yellowface in classic cinema. Sulu is smart and articulate and buff and holy shit he FENCES. Everything Asian characters aren’t back then. Hell, barely so even now.

Yeah yeah, we lulz all the time about Shatner’s bad acting, the terrible production values, the wtf plots. But it was fucking revolutionary. You know what would be the modern day equivalent? A starship Enterprise with Middle Eastern and North Korean characters/actors. (Please do not come at me with Captain Robau in the reboot; I loved him, it was great to see Faran Tahir not playing a terrorist for once, but Robau died in like 5 minutes and the whole opening sequence was to set up George Kirk’s heroism) 

How many people of color have cited the original Trek as being their inspiration, when most of then popular culture and society sentiments tell them that they’re nothing more than hated, ugly, stupid creatures without worth to greater society. Sentiments THAT STILL EXIST TO THIS DAY. Tell me that 20 years from now somebody is going to cite the reboot as being their aspiration to become an astronaut. 

Yeah, I fucking hate it too when people harsh my squee, but don’t fucking defend the reboot with an argument that shows that you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Every single series of Trek (minus Enterprise, always always minus Enterprise) regardless of their focus has been about ASPIRATION and HOPE. A concept of humanity as being motherfucking better than its basest desires and its pendant for destruction. That there is a baseline from which you cannot and should not descend to, because WE AS HUMAN BEINGS ARE BETTER THAN THAT. The reboot is beautiful and squeeful and hell, I loved it too when it came out and holy shit Chris Pine and Karl Urban and YAYAYA Zoe Saldana etc etc, but do not fucking tell me that it offers any of the morality and complexity that any of the series did. It’s Summer Action Blockbuster, and I will happily enjoy it for what it is, but I’m also REALLY FUCKING SAD that Trek, for all its dreams, has been reduced to this. Sorry about harshing people’s squee, but this shit is HARSHING MY FUCKING LIFE. And I will not fucking apologize for being ANGRY~ or OVERREACTING~ This show gave me, gave TONS of people, hope when they had no hope, dreams when they’ve been told that they can’t have any. Trek isn’t always unicorn and rainbows, and it sometimes, and on occasion spectacularly, failed, but it always tried. Reboot doesn’t even try. So you’re goddamn right I’m going to bitch about it when I feel like it. 

(via settiai)