Recent Comments
Re: “Vulcan: The Soul of Spock”
Colin Powell is Spockish in his soldierly cool masking streaks of mischief and hostility. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsN61h6iVwo
Matt, this lovely essay gets at the heart of the original series' appeal and longevity: Like the original Star Wars trilogy, the mythic elements and sci-fi fetishism fall second to the characters and their simple, universal struggles. We can laugh at the papier mache rocks and tribbles and a thousand other camp targets, but the psychological suspense of the Spock/Kirk/McCoy friendship remains solid. It's really what fans fear losing in a re-imagined, reloaded version.
I like that you carefully tune out ancillary media/marketing/cultural noise (while helpfully identifying it) to get at what's substantial in a pop product like Star Trek. I'm not too surprised that the substance is mostly in what the actors create with their characters over time. You'll find in a lot of hidden riches like that in 60's television (which, imo, whips contemporary Ho'wood's butt).
