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K/S, then and now: nature or nurture?

  • May. 13th, 2009 at 9:03 PM
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
I'd been idly speculating about how long I could keep my journal a Star Trek XI-free zone, sort of like when you see how long you can hold your breath. And then I saw [personal profile] laurashapiro 's post linking to an SF Chronicle piece celebrating not the slashiness but rather the bromance of Kirk and Spock, and it got me thinking.

Here's my question:

Did the new movie's Kirk and Spock simply inherit the original series' slashiness as part of Star Trek's DNA, so that they don't even need to generate their own subtext or UST and can just live off of the legacy of the original characters' aura, like the slash pairing version of a trust fund kid?

Or did Chris Pine's Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock go out and earn their slashiness the old-fashioned way, refusing to ride on the slashy coattails of Shatner & Nimoy?

Maybe a little of each? Or do you see the slashiness of Pine!Kirk and Quinto!Spock as different than that of Shatner!Kirk and Nimoy!Spock -- a K/S 2.0, maybe?

I'm asking because I can't tell -- I don't actually remember whether there was any dialogue, any moments, any lingering glances or "weird about each other"-ness between Kirk and Spock that an ST:TOS-naive baby slasher or proto-slasher would pick up on if they were discovering slash for the first time.

Though hey, who knows what goes on with kids these days! Maybe slashiness itself is just different now than it was 40 years ago?

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Comments

princessofgeeks: Shane and Ilya looking at each other in the living room of the cottage (Default)
[personal profile] princessofgeeks wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:28 am (UTC)
I disagree with you -- I thought Quinto nailed it. I did not see any disconnect between his spock and SPOCK. Which is so amazing. so very very amazing.

Pine was not Shatner, but there were tons of shoutouts to Shatner.

It was a patchwork of difference with the characterizations of the team -- held together by the production design. an amazing achievement.

but i'm still all OMG NO about them choosing to destroy Vulcan. That was, pardon the expression, overkill IMHO.

love your posts.
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:36 am (UTC)
Fannish opinion seems to be on your side -- everybody that I've read loved Quinto, and was mostly relieved that Pine didn't mimic Shatner's acting style. ;)

One thing that bugged me about destroying Vulcan was what it means for the whole Hollywood law of escalating sequels. You've not only destroyed a planet, you've destroyed Spock's planet -- so what's the next movie's big threat going to be? A solar system, a galaxy, the entire time-space continuum?

*cheers to you*