Getting Comfortable With Our New Kirk and Spock

Chris Pine and Zac Quinto

source: http://gallifreyburning.tumblr.com/post/39612193136

I had occasion to watch "Star Trek: Into Darkness" for the tenth or so time last night. It's kind of a go-to movie when you can't figure out anything else Star Trek-oriented to watch that you haven't already seen too many times to count. What I've found is that I've become a lot less worried about how Pine and Quinto are getting on, and more involved than ever with Scotty, of all characters, as portrayed by Simon Pegg. 

Sure, Chris and Zac have a brotherly sort of tug-of-war going, They remind me of my own brothers, constantly fighting in the living room. If you didn't hear "Augggh! Get off me!" every five minutes, then you knew something was wrong. I am betting that the next movie won't have them at each others' throats nearly as much, and that may reduce the power that the last two movies had. Perhaps they'll shift the antagonist to Doc McCoy, who used to do it in the series regularly, Which is funny: in this universe it's Kirk and Spock who are at loggerheads, not Spock and McCoy as in the original series. It's going to be hard to watch since I've gotten used to Karl Urban's saintly doctor, liking most of what Spock has to say and only cracking one or two jokes about "starting to hate that guy". 

Ohhh, yeah, they had to put those in to prep us, I'm sure. 

Back to Pine and Quinto. I like the bumbling boy-toy Kirk. he doesn't rub me right, and doesn't rub me wrong. He's just there, being the dude that he is. The real point is, he's got the Kirk mojo. No matter what the situation, no matter how many bad guys they're up against, Kirk's poker intuition seems to win the day every time. That's comforting. I mean, it'd never happen in real life, but at least you can go to see a movie and know in your heart that everything will work out all right because Kirk is in the command chair. 

Quinto is another animal entirely. He's moody, he's brooding, he's dark waters. I don't think that he's settled into Spock, meaning that he needs to work more with him. There was something about Nimoy's adventure into getting to know Spock that Quinto has yet to do Think of it this way: Nimoy worked on Spock every single day of shooting for a half a year. Then he took a little break, and went right back into it again. Day in and day out learning more and more about his character and becoming completely immersed in him. Zac gets to do that, but on a lighter schedule. He's also not living the creation of the character, but being a sort of surrogate. it's a jumping-off point - off Nimoy's shoulders into an abyss. I'm honestly hoping that he cleans up his act in the next movie. 

All in all though, I'm quite satisfied that Quinto and Pine are doing an adequate job. I'm comfortable with them now. In fact, they seem like the teenagers of the cast, when you compare them to Scotty. but then it was the same way in STOS. Jimmy Doohan was nearly twice the other actor's ages on STOS. Simon Pegg is not much older than his fellow actors, but he displays a worldliness and maturity that the boys don't. What is it about Pegg that unsettles me? Probably that as Scotty, he's under-used. Sure, he gets a few quips and some cute lines, but I'm amazed at Pegg's versatility, and I think he can do a lot more. I hope he's given something serious to do.

Whew. That was a lot of wording for just a few thoughts, but I'd like to hear what you have to say about it. Why not comment and tell the world? I think we only have a year or so to make our predictions. Okay, share!