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First things first: where's all the Kirk/Uhura? The two of them have an awesome setup in the movie. She initially thinks he's annoying and full of himself (which he totally is)--albeit somewhat amusing and not quite as dumb as he looks--and rejects him; she spends three years pretty much hating him for being a slacker and wasting everyone's time by attending the Academy, while he spends three years working his ass off (with more than a few sexy study breaks) and doing it so casually that he looks like a huge slacker; he cites her intel as support for his theory that they're flying into a trap; together, they save the world! Leaving her to conclude that he's not as worthless as he's appeared. (Not to mention that he's a lot cooler and less obnoxious about the Spock/Uhura thing than expected, which bodes well for his being 1) not quite as arrogant as he seems on casual acquaintance, and 2) more cheerfully persistent than scary stalker-ish in his three year interest in her.)
I think part of the reason I'm so invested in this pairing is because it mirrors the evolution of my own feelings towards Kirk. He was my least favorite character in any Star Trek series for years--he was too smug and self-centered, and things went too easy for him, as if the universe were giving him a free ride and making everyone else work for it. And then I saw this movie, and it's still recognizably Kirk, with the cockiness and the arrogance and etc., but he's also likeable. Part of my response is no doubt due to Shatner-hate, but there's other stuff, too, like how Kirk gets in a brawl with four guys and gets the shit kicked out of him, and how McCoy (and, to a lesser extent, Spock and Uhura) are able to take him down a peg, where in TOS they acted more like foils for Kirk to show how right he was about everything.
(One of my favorite parts of the movie was that Kirk didn't have a "See how your Vulcan logic sucks and human emotions triumph" discussion at the end with Spock. Admittedly, it would've been pretty much the most tactless thing ever after they'd witnessed the near-obliteration of the Vulcan people. But I loved the implication that Spock was making the wrong decision not because logic can't hold a shine to gut instinct, but because Spock's own ability to think rationally had been compromised. His orders weren't illogical [with the exception of tossing Kirk off the ship, when it would've been a simple matter to imprison him on board]...but neither were Kirk's, and his recent trauma prevented Spock from weighing the two options properly. His decision to regroup with the other starships made sense--the chances of taking down Nero by themselves were slim, and Starfleet could probably have coordinated an attack that would've saved the other Federation planets, if not Earth--but it was also a retreat to comfort and order and, most likely, the abrogation of his own responsibilities as Captain, all of which must have had a very strong pull for Spock at that moment.)
All of which is to say that I have a lot of sympathy for Uhura's position; Kirk does not typically show himself in the best light, and 99% of the time that annoying guy who hit on you in that bar and who fucks around in his classes seriously is a douche. But occasionally he's a genius who's going to save the world, and Uhura's definitely gotten a chance to update her perceptions of Kirk by the end of the movie.
...and I thought I had things to say about some of the other pairings that I've been reading, but my thoughts could basically be boiled down to: "People are writing Kirk/McCoy! And Spock/McCoy! And Kirk/Sulu! And really good gen! This is awesome!" (Though not quite as awesome as it would be if more people were writing Spock/McCoy and Kirk/Sulu, but there's still time for that to change.)
Oh, one other thing. It would be neat if someone could write a Kirk/Spock story in which the mindmeld in the cave jumpstarts their relationship not because Kirk gets the Reader's Digest version of his and Spock's epic romance in the other continuum, but because it gives him insight into the depth of emotion that Spock feels, and so the idea of entering into a romantic relationship with him isn't as inconceivable as it would have been before he'd shared Spock's grief. Which seems a lot more plausible a scenario to me, considering Kirk's canonical reaction to the mindmeld.
And in non-spoilery news, am I the only person who's a little...disconcerted by the excess of bad language in some of the recent stories? I mean, it's not that I have problems with colorful language, when it's in character. But I can't see Kirk or McCoy casually using the word "fuck" three times in a single sentence. Yes, McCoy curses a fair bit in TOS, but it's generally when he's angry or frustrated, not just as punctuation in his ordinary speech. And Kirk's characterization makes him a better candidate for using bad language on occasion than most of the characters, but I just can't see him doing it to such an extreme. He's an adult--one, moreover, whose career requires him to speak with a fair amount of clarity, precision, and intelligibility--not a performative, rebellious teenager.
I think part of the reason I'm so invested in this pairing is because it mirrors the evolution of my own feelings towards Kirk. He was my least favorite character in any Star Trek series for years--he was too smug and self-centered, and things went too easy for him, as if the universe were giving him a free ride and making everyone else work for it. And then I saw this movie, and it's still recognizably Kirk, with the cockiness and the arrogance and etc., but he's also likeable. Part of my response is no doubt due to Shatner-hate, but there's other stuff, too, like how Kirk gets in a brawl with four guys and gets the shit kicked out of him, and how McCoy (and, to a lesser extent, Spock and Uhura) are able to take him down a peg, where in TOS they acted more like foils for Kirk to show how right he was about everything.
(One of my favorite parts of the movie was that Kirk didn't have a "See how your Vulcan logic sucks and human emotions triumph" discussion at the end with Spock. Admittedly, it would've been pretty much the most tactless thing ever after they'd witnessed the near-obliteration of the Vulcan people. But I loved the implication that Spock was making the wrong decision not because logic can't hold a shine to gut instinct, but because Spock's own ability to think rationally had been compromised. His orders weren't illogical [with the exception of tossing Kirk off the ship, when it would've been a simple matter to imprison him on board]...but neither were Kirk's, and his recent trauma prevented Spock from weighing the two options properly. His decision to regroup with the other starships made sense--the chances of taking down Nero by themselves were slim, and Starfleet could probably have coordinated an attack that would've saved the other Federation planets, if not Earth--but it was also a retreat to comfort and order and, most likely, the abrogation of his own responsibilities as Captain, all of which must have had a very strong pull for Spock at that moment.)
All of which is to say that I have a lot of sympathy for Uhura's position; Kirk does not typically show himself in the best light, and 99% of the time that annoying guy who hit on you in that bar and who fucks around in his classes seriously is a douche. But occasionally he's a genius who's going to save the world, and Uhura's definitely gotten a chance to update her perceptions of Kirk by the end of the movie.
...and I thought I had things to say about some of the other pairings that I've been reading, but my thoughts could basically be boiled down to: "People are writing Kirk/McCoy! And Spock/McCoy! And Kirk/Sulu! And really good gen! This is awesome!" (Though not quite as awesome as it would be if more people were writing Spock/McCoy and Kirk/Sulu, but there's still time for that to change.)
Oh, one other thing. It would be neat if someone could write a Kirk/Spock story in which the mindmeld in the cave jumpstarts their relationship not because Kirk gets the Reader's Digest version of his and Spock's epic romance in the other continuum, but because it gives him insight into the depth of emotion that Spock feels, and so the idea of entering into a romantic relationship with him isn't as inconceivable as it would have been before he'd shared Spock's grief. Which seems a lot more plausible a scenario to me, considering Kirk's canonical reaction to the mindmeld.
And in non-spoilery news, am I the only person who's a little...disconcerted by the excess of bad language in some of the recent stories? I mean, it's not that I have problems with colorful language, when it's in character. But I can't see Kirk or McCoy casually using the word "fuck" three times in a single sentence. Yes, McCoy curses a fair bit in TOS, but it's generally when he's angry or frustrated, not just as punctuation in his ordinary speech. And Kirk's characterization makes him a better candidate for using bad language on occasion than most of the characters, but I just can't see him doing it to such an extreme. He's an adult--one, moreover, whose career requires him to speak with a fair amount of clarity, precision, and intelligibility--not a performative, rebellious teenager.
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