The Scottish Trip.

The Scottish Chronicles I.

Later this afternoon, I'll be boarding a plane headed for Toronto, the first leg in a two-week vacation trip to Scotland, land of haggis, Scotch, kilts, and woad.*  As a bonus, I will have the unique privilege of travelling with one of the infamous Campbell brothers - yes, Cloin Campbell has decided that a visit to the auld sod (or by the auld sod, more accurately) is long overdue, and as such he has decided to make the pilgrimage to the homeland of the Campbell Clan.  He is certain that he will be greeted with open arms once his relatives are informed of his identity, although if I were him, I would more realistically keep an eye out for a carefully tied noose, all things considered.  

Sadly, Ralph Campbell will be unable to join us on this journey of discovery.  Until the authorities have stopped the manhunt** his bad back gets better, Ralph is reluctant to travel.  As a result, I'll be sitting in as an honourary Campbell brother (if we can use the word "honour" in relation to the Campbell Brothers) for the duration of the trip, a proud and awful responsibility.  I feel a bit as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have just rung me to ask if I can sit in for Pestilence over the weekend.*** 

Seriously, though, it should be a great trip. Colin and I have travelled together before, and had a lot of fun doing it.  He's very excited - he's never been over to the UK, and isn't sure if he'll find an opportunity go again, so it's a milestone trip for him.  We're starting in Glasgow, spending some time touring around Stirling (located near the site of the historic battle of Bannockburn), then going to Edinburgh.  From there, we'll head down to London for the last three days, because it seemed a shame for Colin to not see the City when we're so close.  We'll also be making a brief stop at York, so that I can once again walk the Roman walls around the city in memory of my mother and grandfather, who used to do the same walk almost every day when they lived there.

Research for the trip has been fascinating.  Scotland offers a wealth of history and legend - we'll be visiting abbeys and altars, bastions and battlefields, castles and cathedrals, and perhaps a standing stone or two. When examining maps, I was enchanted by the Celtic poetry of the towns: Kilsyth, Falkirk, Fintr, Oldmeldrum, Findhorn and Nairn, like names from a fantasy novel; and was amused to discover that Argyll is close to Paisley, which, unless you're looking at Cloin's wardrobe, it really isn't.

I'm hoping to report in once or twice during the trip with appropriate postings, but can't guarantee anything, given the dubious track record of my travelling companion.  After all, if things work out the way I'm afraid they might, not only will I not have my iPad and internet access, they'll probably take my shoelaces and belt as well - right after they take our fingerprints.

- Sid

* We're renting a car, which will require that we drive on the wrong side of the woad.
 
** In this case, the authorities are everyone from the Vatican Guard to the Fashion Police - Ralph proudly cuts a wide swath.

*** Actually, it's more like Harpo and Groucho have asked me to replace Chico for a few hours, but you get the idea.  Certainly an awful responsibility, if maybe not that proud.

Gnomic Statements VII.

Honestly, could you not have worn flats, Erica?

- Sid

Star Trek: The Next Imitation.

Christopher Pike: That's a technicality.

Spock: I am Vulcan, sir. We embrace technicalities.

Christopher Pike: Are you giving me attitude, Spock?

Spock: I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously sir, to which one are you referring?

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I freely admit that when I headed over to the Scotiabank Theatre last night to see Star Trek: Into Darkness, it was pretty much out of a sense of duty.  I was disappointed by the first movie of the Abrams reboot: too many holes in the plot, the alternate future concept didn't work for me at all, people kept beating Kirk up, and the engine room looked like a brewery. Frankly, I expected more of the same with Into Darkness, but I've had an unused twenty-five dollar Famous Players gift card floating around since Christmas, and this was probably my only chance to see this movie on the big screen.

To my mild surprise, I found that in some ways I very much enjoyed Into Darkness. It still suffers from the same sort of issues and inconsistencies as the first film, and the art direction still isn't working for me (in other words, the engine room still looks like the factory floor at Molson's) but they're starting to establish the elements of character which were the greatest strength of the original series.

One of the brilliant things that Gene Roddenberry did in Star Trek was to create the triangle of Will, Logic and Emotion represented by Kirk, Spock and McCoy. By splitting these personality traits between three characters, he gave the writers of the episodes an unprecedented tool for externalizing and verbalizing the debates and conflicts between these aspects of the human soul.

The fascinating thing about Into Darkness is that we begin to see the development of that three-sided synergy, but it's not between Kirk, Spock and McCoy - in the new version, Uhura is well on the way to replacing the good doctor in that part of the triad.  In the original series, it might not have worked, but the introduction of the romantic relationship between Spock and Uhura allows her access to the dynamic between the two men, and that relationship also lets the writers introduce a completely different level of interaction between the characters.  Spock's feelings for Uhura could humanize him in a way that would have been impossible in the original series, and force him to accept parts of his personality that otherwise would never be allow to surface.

They'll have to be careful, though, or else the Spock/Uhura relationship will be separate from the Spock/Kirk relationship, hereby losing the strength of the original combination.  Can Uhura become Kirk's confidant and friend in the same way that McCoy did? It seems far more likely that she'll need to create a different framework for interacting with the captain.

So far there's no suggestion that the triangle will become a square, that McCoy will emerge as an equal in the interaction of the main characters. There's a bit of an attempt to place McCoy in his original role, but it's not maintained throughout the course of the story - it's almost like they're doing it because that's the sort of dialogue that was written for the character in the original series.

In fact, that sort of homage to the original made the whole thing a bit strange as far as I was concerned.  Watching Into Darkness was like watching a really well done fan tribute to the Sixties version, one with a huge budget, loaded with all the right references, and with professional actors doing brilliant impersonations of the people who originally performed the roles. There were several times last night when I found myself thinking, “Wow, this Quinto guy just did a great impression of Leonard Nimoy, that was bang on!" and the manner in which Karl Urban is channeling the ghost of DeForest Kelley is more than a little eerie.

Similarly, they chose to rework one of the original episodes, albeit in the rebooted universe.  What if they continue to mine those episodes for future movie concepts?  It would be an awful temptation to rework classic scripts like The City at the Edge of Forever*, Amok Time, Balance of Terror, and so on, but I think that would be an unfortunate error.  To make the reboot succeed, they're going to have to take a fresh look at the universe created by Gene Roddenberry, and also allow the actors some freedom to make the roles their own, rather than just imitations of the original portrayals.

Which is as it should be.  Reboot or not, shouldn't they be boldly going where no one has gone before?

- Sid

* And get their asses sued by Harlan Ellison.

July 23rd, 2013:  comments closed due to just ridiculous spamming.  I'd love to blame Eastern Europe exclusively, but there's some air conditioning company in the States that seems to be a frequent flyer as well.