star trek: friendship is magic

[usuallyhats]

I saw Star Trek: Beyond at the weekend and while it wasn't perfect, I enjoyed it a great deal. Here are some of the things I loved about it:

• JAYLAH. It's like Star Trek knew that lots of my fandoms are being various shades of terrible to me at the moment and decided to give me a present in the form of a weird, cranky, fighty woman. She likes the beats and the shouting! She had a lovely arc of her own! She's going to go to Starfleet Academy! I loved that we didn't mess around going "oh no, can we trust her?" but went straight to "she can be one of us if she wants to". (ETA and she wasn't there so one of the dude characters could kiss her! \o/) Also excellent human cosmic_llin has already written two great fics about her, both of which I recommend: Signal Towers and Children's Songs (Jaylah and Uhura, language and friendship) and Carry It With You (Jaylah, Commodore Paris and the Sulus, family).


• SULU AND HIS HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER. I wanted to see more of them, of course, but oh, I loved so much that they were there. ♥ ♥ ♥ (See above re Star Trek giving me presents.) I loved Sulu having a picture of Demora at his station on the bridge, and I loved how she and his husband became the anchor point for our concern about the civilians on Yorktown.


• Uhura had some really great stuff this film and it made me so happy. I loved the way her decision to go and separate the saucer wasn't played as this huge Look At Me Sacrificing Myself For The Greater Good moment, but just her realising a thing needed to be done and that she was the best one to do it, and then going off and doing it without a fuss.


• "I tore my shirt again." ♥ ♥ ♥ This was basically the moment when I knew I was going to like this film.


• It was so FUNNY! Next to weird fighty ladies, in-character comedy is the quickest way to my heart and this film DELIVERED. The Spock and Bones show was a particular highlight.


• I liked that Spock and Uhura's romantical difficulties were a little underplayed rather than being huge and dramatic - it's a thing that they are dealing with in their lives whilst they are also dealing with the plot stuff.


• Commodore Paris! So great and also totally Tom's ancestor. This is the kind of in-joke that I am really here for.


• I went with a big group of friends, which I've never actually done for a Star Trek film in the cinema before, and it was just really nice to be part of a large group consisting mostly of women audibly and enthusiastically enjoying a Star Trek film. ♥


• The sequence of everyone working together to work out how to stop the swarm was so GOOD. Everyone got to bring in different bits of knowledge and then they saved the day with music. ♥ Overall I think the film did a really good job of showcasing them as a crew; how they all know each other's different strengths and can work out how best to use them.


• The whole crew getting to do the voice over at the end was lovely, and Uhura having the "where no one has gone before" line was perfect.


• It was just so FUN and I want to go again.

And then the SDCC Star Trek panel happened and now there's a BEAUTIFUL TITLE for the new show and a LOGO and also FOOTAGE OF A SPACESHIP and it's set in the Prime universe and right now everything is Star Trek and nothing hurts.

Comments

[usuallyhats]

Me too! I am still very much at the giddy stage, where I constantly have to stop myself from going up to people and saying "DID YOU KNOW: STAR TREK", and it's great. :D