this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Spock ejected Kirk on a planet with an M-Class atmosphere that also had a Starfleet outpost nearby to the landing zone. Kirks survival wasn't guaranteed but he wasn't exactly marooned and left for dead.
If he wasn't leaving him for dead would have sent him to the outpost. Not off in the middle of some ice wasteland with deadly monsters. He didn't even give him a phaser did he? Kirk had to just fight it?
Well, first off, the escape pod explicitly stated to wait in the pod until Starfleet retrieved him. We also don't know if there was a phaser in the pod or not. Kirk came out of the pod with a duffle bag that contained cold weather gear and a communicator. There may have been a phaser but Kirk might have chosen not to use it. Kirk saw it running at him and decided to run from it. While running, something even larger showed up and continued to chase Kirk. Also, I can't say that I'd have chosen to shoot it. The first creature was huge but the second was enormous. There's a chance the phaser would work, sure, but there's also just as much of a chance that it would just piss it off. Considering the distance it was coming from, I'd also have chosen to haul ass to look for shelter.
But even then. your theory makes too heavy an assumption. Mainly that the escape pod can be landed either at the outpost, within close distance, or that atmospherics of the planet won't impact the location of the drop pod. It was a cylindrical escape pod. In space it would have some ability to maneuver using thrusters but once it hit the atmosphere they would have become virtually worthless. Minor course correction maybe, mostly orientation of the pod, but not enough to hold to a perfect course.
Kirk was put in an escape pod that landed within a couple of hours walk from a Starfleet outpost. The pod had a homing beacon and a warning was played to Kirk to stay in the pod and wait for retrieval by Starfleet authorities. Kirk put himself in danger. To say he was left to die is pretty huge stretch of what happened.
Damn. You laid that out well in true Trekkie fashion. I yield.
I wish I could say I'm not being a pedantic ass, but I probably am. I just like giving things, in universe, the benefit of the doubt.
That's must be hard, when talking about the Kelvin stuff.
Why?
Because, it's not great writing by Trek standards?
There is no 'Trek standards'. It's a fallacy. The same Trek standard you point to also created Code of Honor, Threshhold, Twisted, The Last Outpost and plenty more godawful examples of writing. Even if you did want to compare it to a 'Trek Standard', it's very disingenuous to hold up the movie franchise to the TV franchise. You'd need to compare it to other Trek movies of which there are good and bad.
But the standard of writing is also completely irrelevant. The writing doesn't need to be good, or bad, for me to give things the benefit of the doubt. The point of me doing that is that what happened happened. Those events are canon now. I could focus on ever minute detail, thereby dragging myself and everyone else into a pit of infinite misery by bitching and moaning, or I could just make logical assumptions and fill in the gaps. Sometimes those gaps are bigger than others but it's never 'difficult' to give something the benefit of the doubt. I just be an adult, accept the new canon, and then find the way that makes sense with the information previously established.
I'm too old to whine about fictional media that I like. Especially when my whining gets nothing done. Criticism is fine but constantly pointing out how it could have been better does nothing other than drag everyone down.
What you say us very true! And I said that liking the Kelvin movies, except Beyond that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Should I try watching what came after 2016? I head bad things about Discovery, but good things about SNW and Lower Decks
Of course. It's still Star Trek. I'd just recommend giving Discovery two seasons. If you don't like it by the third then you won't like it. It starts off rough, like a lot of Trek, but rapidly finds its footing. Lower Decks started strong because it's an animated comedy. Hard to fuck that up. Strange New Worlds also had the benefit of using Discovery Season 2 as it's 'backdoor pilot season' so they knew their footing from the get go too. Picard Season 1 and 2 struggle but have their own interesting stories. Season 3 is a work of fucking art. Short Treks are fun for fleshing out the world a little.