Tessa 0:18 Welcome to Sam watches Star Trek monkey off my backlog second weekly podcast where one of us reacts to a TV show that the other has forced us to watch. I'm your host Tessa and with me is Sam. Sam 0:33 Live long and prosper I guess. Tessa 0:36 You guess I guess who knows? Its Motion Picture time. How does it feel to move from the original series to the films that continued the story of these characters in the late 70s and 80s Sam 0:49 I really expected turtlenecks this week. I was sad that we didn't get turtlenecks. I know the turtlenecks are coming. I want to see the turtlenecks. In conclusion, turtlenecks. Tessa 1:00 We are definitely going to talk about the uniform change between the series and this film. released December 7 in 1979, almost 10 years post the end of the original series and almost three months after I was born, Baby Sam Shana. The film was directed by Robert Weiss, who also directed West Side Story, The Day the Earth Stood Still The Sound of Music, the Andromeda Strain, and many, many, many other movies. Sam 1:31 I just realized something in real time. Like I'm really sad that episode four of the Star Wars trilogy is the only one I wasn't alive for. I was alive for all the Star Trek motion pictures, every single one. Tessa 1:48 So what's your excuse? Sam 1:51 I've seen this movie before we've been over this. Tessa 1:55 Robert Weiss also won Best Editing for Citizen Kane, a fact that I did not know before I did the research for this episode. Sam 2:04 For somebody who's done that you think they'd let him have a cut of the film seriously. Tessa 2:08 This cinematography, which is really important to talking about this film was by Richard H. Klein, who is best known for his work on Camelot, Soylent Green in the 1976 King Kong, its people. So to give a little context for this movie before we dive right in between the end of the series in 1969, and the beginning of this film series, Paramount sold the syndication rights to TLS in order to get a little bit money of money off of their investment, which so far had not paid off well for them. But in syndication, Star Trek gained a cult following to the point that there was a letter campaign to President Ford to rename the space shuttle from the constitution to the enterprise, which is where we get the enterprise series of space shuttles. This renewed interest in the series caused paramount to become interested in reviving the series in what they were going to call Star Trek phase two. But because Star Wars happened, suddenly, everyone was about all of the film franchises instead, we're going to talk about Star Wars a lot probably when talking about this film. But to briefly summarize in two sentences, because this film does not have a lot of plot. A massive cloud of energy enters the quadrant on a course to Earth, destroying any organic life in its path. Kirk, now an admiral must retake command of the enterprise and gather the old crew and a couple of new faces to investigate the threat and save Earth once again. So before we get into the nitty gritty of this, what are your first reactions to this film, Sam? Sam 3:47 Bring me Star Wars, but do 2001 as well, that's a good idea. But make it Star Trek. Tessa 3:55 The first half of the movie reads is very Star Wars to me. And the second half reads is very 2001 A Space Odyssey. So I agree with you there. Sam 4:03 The first part of the film doesn't really strike me as very Star Wars II, it strikes me as people trying to do Star Wars, which is fun, because this is Star Trek, you know, it does neither very well. But the first half of the movie succeeds because we like these characters, and we've invested into them. The second half of the movie is really just a direct rip off of 2001 the colors in the space in the music, and the nothing happening for 17 hours. Tessa 4:34 So while we were watching this, our friend, friend of the pod friend of the Star Trek pod, Elise actually messaged me, but the scene where it's like 272,663 minutes leading up to seeing the ship is really funny to me. That's kind of how I feel about this film. There's a lot of really cool technical work, lots of special effects that are happening in this film, but it takes forever It's like, there's such a long sequence at the beginning where we're just like approaching the enterprise approaching the enterprise, we're gonna see the enterprise, we're gonna see the enterprise from this angle, we're gonna see it from this angle. There's a lot of that in this film. Sam 5:13 This feels weird to for. I don't know, if anybody who worked on the original series worked on the motion picture. This feels like you mentioned that Paramount wanted to make some money off its investment by doing syndication. I find it weird that they didn't make their $15 Back on the sets. So really, it's like, okay, so like we built a set using tinker toys. And now we have access to the full complement of the US defense budget. I mean, I guess to be fair, if that if you did debut, if you had that much access, whereas you had none before, maybe you would make a 17,000 minute cut of shifts and stuff. I mean, if Kubrick could do it, Kubrick could do it. You know, if Stanley Kubrick jumped off a cliff, would you do it? And would you land into the ocean with a sentience teddy bear? I think that's an actual thing from the movie. I know, the teddy bear is not sent yet. It's the Android played by Haley Joel Osment that send GEANT maybe? I don't know. And neither does Kubrick because he died before the movie got made. Tessa 6:37 So the special effects are impressive, but perhaps take up too much screen time is that the general feel of this film. Sam 6:46 So from what I understand, this film is like the first rough cut of Star Wars. Somebody needed to take what we saw and fix it. Everything goes on too long, right? And see, here's the thing I happen to know that somebody took wises cut, and fixed it. But then fix it, they broke it. Now, you're recording this. Having watched the theatrical release when we know good and well, that wises Director's Cut is better. At the time that we record this, Paramount plus is allegedly finishing up a 4k transfer of the director's cut. And we decided that we were okay with watching the theatrical cut and talking about that today. Because we will provide an update when the director's cut is released, which we will watch Tessa 7:53 an addendum if you will, an addendum. Right? Yeah, it is very difficult to find the director's cut. So we went ahead and went on with a theatrical cut. I'm kind of happy we did, because it had been a very long time since I'd seen this film. And yet, almost every scene goes on twice as long as it should be, like the scene where they run into the trouble with the warp drive, and everything just goes like, blurry for a bit. That scene is like 10 minutes long. Why did it have to be 10 minutes long? Like in the show, they just like toss him around the bridge for a bit and then the technical troubles over. Sam 8:29 Right? It's warp speed, it's supposed to be fast. Why is it slower? Why is this scene go so slowly? It takes forever. Tessa 8:39 But I do want to talk because that's that's one of the parts of the film. However, I did one Sam 8:44 of the cons one of the one of the Tessa 8:46 start over. That's one of the negative aspects of the film. Let's talk a little bit about the stuff that perhaps they did a little bit better, which I think is character work. So we haven't seen these characters for a while. It's implied that they finished their five year mission that they talked about in the original series. And then they go their separate ways Kirk is promoted to Admiral Sam 9:12 what, how can we keep him out of trouble? Let's promote him. It really truly is both the American Way and the Federation Tessa 9:23 and the Federation way. So this is actually going to be a thread that continues throughout most of the film series. So I'm curious to know what you think about Kirk's character development over the course of these films because they are trying to say something very specific about someone who's successful at a certain level of an organization, because of his success gets promoted and instantly finds himself extremely unhappy with the new position that he has given because the implication is as an admiral, he no longer gets to command. A starship. He no longer gets to go out there and explore things Have wacky adventures and sleep with alien life forms, etc, etc. So part of the plot of this film is that he uses this opportunity he capitalizes on the state of emergency that the Federation finds itself in to retake command of the enterprise and oust the current Captain William Decker, who, let's be honest, William Decker, just seems kind of basic to me. But what did you think about the Kirk storyline and William Decker, this new character that we're given who's supposed to evoke Kirk, but can you evoke Kirk? Sam 10:35 Sorry, when you say Decker, all I hear is Decherd. Yeah, yeah. So and now we're back to Han Solo, hey, look at that perfect circle. So as you know, I am an administrator, something I never ever, ever, ever wanted to be. And it's not fun, because you can't just go out and do the thing that you've trained to do. You have to like, do the paperwork and follow the rules. And well, it's really just those two things, but I hate both of those things. I know Kirk, but I also don't like having to follow rules. And I know Kirk doesn't either. So unlike the whole thing about being promoted, because you're incompetent. He did get promoted. I think, too, you know, so you could stay out of trouble. But at the same time, he is not very good at staying out of trouble. That is probably his weakest skill set. So, first chance he gets he demotes himself, commandeers the ship. reassigns, the the captain of the ship to multiple jobs demotes him then on assigns him from those jobs as the people he likes show up. I get all that right. Yeah. Tessa 11:58 Basically what happens? Yeah, that is the plot of the first part of Sam 12:02 this. Love to do that. That That sounds great. That sounds like the best way to be in charge. Tessa 12:06 Yeah. And there's no he doesn't seem to be answering to anyone. Like he was Sam 12:10 like he ever answered any. The only person he answered to you know, his bones and Spock. It's true. It's true. Neither one of Tessa 12:22 them are here right now. Yeah, they are not with him at the beginning of this movie, it seems that our triad has gone its separate ways. Sam 12:29 Oh, we're calling it a triad now. Tessa 12:32 Rupal triad, Sam 12:33 whatever, trying to make couples happen. Tessa 12:36 Oh my god. So Kirk decides that he's he's going to leave, right. And so he asked to reunite the Dream Team. Most of the Dream Team is already still on the enterprise. So Scotty is the one who brings him up to the enterprise via shuttle. He's the one who has been overseeing this redesign of the enterprise, this overhaul of the ship. First, what do you think about Scotty in this film? Second, what do you think about the upgrades that the enterprise has gotten? Sam 13:04 Scott, he's great. I don't care about the upgrades. What I do know is that they had to upgrade the ship. Because once again, we're not spending $15 on sets and models, we're actually going to spend movie money on this. So I like that the the best plot explainer for that is a upgrades to the ship. Tessa 13:25 I mean, the only thing I'll say on this is that the ship design looks a little bit more like the enterprise that we see in the next generation, we get the freestanding warp core, we actually get to see the warp core, which we don't get to see in the original series, we get to see some of the hallways and elevators look a little bit more similar to the way that they're going to look in future series. Right out it. But Sam 13:45 yeah, this is a soft reboot of the entire thing. And as not good as this movie is. It is very, very good. In that you pointed out to me that the theme used in the movie is The Next Generation theme. You pointed out, I noticed that the size and scale of the ship on the inside, matched. You know like we've watched the Orval and I know that it's like a functioning mini society. And I got you got no clue of that on the original enterprise. So this is good. It's good that they did a soft reset to you know, this is something Star Wars never did. And it suffered for it. You know, there was never a time where Star Wars course correct. It was always let's just steer into the skid off the cliff into the ocean with the teddy bear in the center and Haley Joel Osment, right, bring it all the way back. That's what I do. So good for Star Trek. Bad for studios not letting acclaimed film directors have the final cut of their own film fools. You learned nothing Tessa 15:00 How do you feel about Scotty? Basically, if Kirk has been promoted out of the place that he wants to be, Scotty seems to have found a way to like cling to Chief Engineer status of the enterprise. They're gonna have to pry that ship out of the cold dead. Sam 15:15 He tried to promote him. They tried. You think so? Yes, they did. Tessa 15:19 Did he get into another fight on shore leave? Sam 15:22 No, no. But he said make me and when they came to make them, the various wrenches got thrown at their heads. This is Tessa 15:30 great. Yeah, they can't take that away from him. No. So we also get to see very in very small roles, but we still get to see them. Check off Sulu and to her so the original gang Sam 15:43 haircut got a haircut. Tessa 15:47 Check off. Yeah, in 10 years, he got a haircut, right? Yeah, yeah. Walter coding was a little disappointed by the, how small his role was in this. I think he decay and Nichelle Nichols all kind of one of their roles to be expanded a bit. But instead, a lot of the screentime got given to these new characters. How do you feel about the way that they're presented in this film? Sam 16:11 So on the original series, it feels like you have the main lead, the two co leads, and then you have a bunch of characters who aren't leads, but they're supporting characters. I think that to me, Scotty is the top of that list of supporting characters, followed by her, followed by Sulu, and then below that is check off. So like that, that's to me what it felt like from the original series, and you didn't see everybody on every episode, of course, right. But kind of knowing the pecking order here. I don't like that these two new characters jumped over they I don't really care about Chekhov, I you know, Anton Yelchin is cool, but that's a completely different franchise of Star Trek. I just don't care about check off. Let me say that one more time, so I've said it three times. I don't really care that much about Chekhov. I think Scotty got about the same about the amount of screen time I would have expected. I thought it was odd that he or her didn't get more screen time. I guess they thought bald cap was going to be the the bring in the sex appeal to the movie, I guess, which was a huge miscalculation if that's what they were trying to do. But honestly, I'm, I'm genuinely surprised for that very misogynistic reason. Tessa 17:52 Yeah, it is kind of odd. The other two major female characters of the franchise who again, were not very important. You didn't see them in a lot of episodes, but they were still named characters that most people recognize are of course, Janice Rand and nurse chapel. Nurse chapel is now a doctor. We do get to see her in one scene and McCoy does reference the fact that she has now become a medical doctor. And we also following Dr. will follow a doctor. And we do actually surprisingly get to see Janis Rand who we hadn't seen since the first season of the show. But she is a transporter technician now and she is involved in that terrible horrific accident that happens in the first act where people are like mangled in the transporter. Sam 18:37 That's such a weird thing. It's so bizarre that that happens. This franchise is not equipped to deal with horribly maimed and disfigured people. Yeah, it's not not equipped to deal with the ramifications of this. It's like, hey, so we broke the the transporters so you could have a chance to have that 27,000 minutes seen. And I guess to justify that we're going to kill two people, but actually, let's not kill them. Let's just destroy them without killing them. And do nothing with that. Tessa 19:20 And then and then Kirk gets to be like, it's not your fault. Lieutenant Rand notify their families are adults. strange scene. So getting back to the people that I know you care about. Kirk immediately calls for McCoy who after this horrible accident, justifiably is a little leery of getting into the transporter, but Kirk talks him into doing so he shows up in a full beard and space hippie costume. They don't actually say what he's been doing since he retired from Starfleet, only that he wouldn't have come back to Starfleet for anyone but Kirk, what do you think McCoy Sam 20:00 I'll tell you what he was doing. What was he doing? He was being too old for this. That's what he was doing when he was the sum total of what he was doing. Tessa 20:09 What did you think about his appearance at the beginning? When he comes up through the transporter? Sam 20:16 I mean, and yells at Kirk, I get it. Tessa 20:20 Makes sense to me. Yeah, yeah, that the flared pants and the beard. Yeah, when she shaves off almost immediately gets back into. Sam 20:28 I mean, you know, we're going to talk about Spock here in a minute. Literally everybody who's not a part of this mission who comes back to be a part of the mission dresses better than they do once they put these stupid uniforms on. Tessa 20:43 Let's talk about the uniforms. Should we not what did you think about the white beige and brown uniforms? That changed throughout the movie they change Sam 20:56 out the man every time it's worse. Okay, first of all, bro, bro. Bro. Put your nobody wants to see that put like put the the tunic part that hangs over you don't want to see the all that's I don't want to see that not interested? That has to be a violation of uniform code. And if it doesn't this isn't a utopian society. Short Sleeve white tunic. It looks good on George Takei. That's not the point. Is this the enterprise or the luck boat? I mean, this every time they change it gets worse too. It Tessa 21:40 does. They're bad colors. They don't really look good on anybody the colors in there is kind of a weird call back to the blue uniforms with the braid because Spock wears one for a brief period of time because it has the gold braids on them and then I love how like one of the uniforms will change on the on the bridge and then they'll unlit the all the other ones will start changing. It's almost like Kirk see someone change their uniform and go that'll look good on me and then like starts copying? Sam 22:08 No, I seem to remember spending several minutes talking about the campiness and queerness of a certain costume in the original series. I really think that somebody said we're not doing that bring back the sparkles. I think they deliberately went in like the opposite direction. I think somebody somewhere gave a note to take all the camp out of it. Tessa 22:38 You would be correct. Actually, the costume designer didn't like the colorfulness of the the uniforms in the original series, and didn't think it matched the new interior and aesthetic of the of the franchise. You know who else hated the uniforms though and was very vocal. Sam 22:54 Literally anyone with a soul? Michelle Nichols? Tessa 22:58 Hey, go very much hated them. She actually said they weren't or her. Well, they Sam 23:03 weren't. They weren't. Tessa 23:04 I did appreciate that. She still had her hoops. I wonder if Michelle Nichols had to fight to keep those hoops? Yeah, I do. We also get a whole new cling on look at the beginning of the Hey 10 years. Sam 23:18 Why Orientalism Hello? Tessa 23:21 This Hello prosthetics. Oh, yeah, so we briefly get to see the Klingons at the beginning. They're the first three Klingon Klingons Sam 23:31 they got a new costume and a new pronunciation good for them. Tessa 23:34 Three clean on birds of prey are the first casualties in the weird space cloud invasion of Sam 23:42 the invasion. Fighters. Tessa 23:46 What did you think of the nuclear gone? Look? Sam 23:48 I mean, this is the clean on look. I mean, that's the other thing. Like I know what this is like, Oh, look, it's clear. God's good Tessa 23:56 for them. And they speak Klingon, which is an actual language. Sam 24:00 Yeah. Yeah. Because that's fun. Tessa 24:04 All right, we have to get to the third of our triad, who we see at the beginning of the film trying to complete the Vulcan right of kullanarak. He is on Vulcan trying to purge all emotion. He's worked very hard to get here. And they basically say you're not ready. You still feel things. This cloud this entity calls to you? Yes. feelings for Kirk. And so he shows up, like a shuttle like Deus Ex Spock. Sam 24:34 It's textbook actually isn't that one, two and three? Yeah. And then later and then and then letter Nimoy directs four and five. So I mean, like this really is Deus Ex bot. Tessa 24:44 Actually, Leonard Nimoy directs three. Shatner directs five and doesn't know how to direct a movie. So we're going to talk about that later. Anyway, he shows up and he is very passive aggressive in his treatment of Kirk The rest of the crew who are genuinely delighted to see him like all of the smiles on all of the faces, including McCoy's, who he has bickered with for all these years, and he is such a jerk to them. And it's hard not to see the ways in which he blames them for his inability to completely purge his human side. What did you think about Spock's thread in this? Sam 25:22 I still don't even know I still don't understand all this stuff. It's like, bros half human. It's not gonna happen. Like this whole, like, purging human emotions. Well, I hate to tell you, dude, but you're half that app. If you 10% Maybe. But not half, you're never gonna, it's You're a fool. Tessa 25:48 I mean, Vulcans also have powerful emotions. It's not like they're born emotion. Sam 25:51 I'm just saying that. Okay, if we're actually going to tell a story here, like invent a narrative about what happened. So, you know, after Kurt got promoted in the band broke up, right? I mean, basically, everybody had to go their separate ways. I mean, people stayed on the ship, I suppose. But everybody who left went their separate ways. And spark just didn't know what to do with himself. So he was like, path of least resistance. I'll be a Vulcan. I mean, that's the only thing that makes sense. Like, if you sit here, I mean, big brain. Spock actually sat and thought this through, he'd realize it's not possible. Tessa 26:28 What do you think about the way that he seems to blame Kirk and the crew for his inability to achieve this perfect state of logic? Sam 26:38 I feel like this is a much more healthier way of getting angry than he did in the original series. Number one, he just got irrationally angry. He went from like zero to like 1000. Instantly. This is better. Tessa 26:53 Doesn't hurt anybody doesn't attack and yeah, so that's fine. So he thinks that this cloud Yep, is an A machine entity, which it turns out to be and that he can learn he may be learn, get find his answer for this. He's very vague about what exactly he expects to find. But it turns out that this machine cloud, which we're going to talk about in a little bit, is doesn't understand emotions is completely logical, doesn't understand organic life forms at all. In fact, that's why it's been purging them, right, because it just thinks that they're extraneous to real life, which is machines or, or synthetic matter. And Spock realizes through a direct mind meld encounter with this being vigor as it's called your venger deja vu Beecher, as it's called, that. That's not what he wants. Right? He doesn't want to live in that existence. So we get this very tender emotional scene between him and Kirk, where he says, It Vidya will never understand this feeling as he's holding Kirk's hand. What do you think about the way in which that scene has been read in which they will never understand this feeling between us? Let it be I was not alive. But from what I understand. Being gay in the 70s, there wasn't a lot of text, you had to rely on your subtext? Sam 28:22 I don't know. I guess that's the problem with this film, and maybe it'll be sorted out a little bit in the Director's Cut. I'm struggling to come up with anything to say about it, because I don't think it did anything for me. If I don't have the same level of emotional investment, that say you or any other big time Trek fan has this doesn't really do anything for me. It's very cold and philosophical. And frankly, Kubrick Ian, I don't care. Tessa 28:53 So you weren't affected at all by the reunification of the gang? Sam 28:57 No, that was fine. But like, as you're describing everything that happens after that, like reading the thing about Voyager and reading that as some sort of, yeah, yeah. It was nothing. This movie could have been over when they got back together. Fair enough. Fine. Tessa 29:16 Fair enough. So actually, Spock was not in the original screenplay for this film, because namely, because Nimoy had said, when TLS had finished that he didn't want he wasn't interested in reprising this role. But wise after reading the script, and what talking about it with his children, both of whom were huge Trek fans, his children told him you cannot make these without Spock, Spock, it is not worth making a Star Trek film without Spock. Well, it isn't. And so he went to Leonard Nimoy, who actually at this point had sort of come all the way back around on the character and said okay, like I am actually interested in in reprising this character. And in doing this again, Sam 30:00 I mean, you really can't. I mean, when JJ Abrams tried to make, you know his film course he had new Spock, but he had old Spock too. Tessa 30:09 Yeah. Leonard Nimoy for a lot of people is not only Spock, but is the heart of Sam 30:15 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Kinto is somebody who notably looks like Leonard Nimoy. I think the discovery dude kind of looks like him. Right, right. Yeah. Tessa 30:25 Yeah, yeah. And the new guy in strange new worlds. He's Gregory pecks, grandson or something like that. He also kind of looks like him. We'll talk about that as we as we go along. All right, finally, we get to new cancer. Sam 30:42 18 of Sam watches Star Trek. Tessa 30:45 We get to new characters season 32. Yeah, right. We two new characters. We get Stephen Collins as Willie Willard Decker. Who is this Kirk wannabe? Who gets demoted as you pointed out and has to like fill all these roles. I love how delighted he is when Spock shows up and it's like Spock just like I volunteered to be your science officer and Will are decades like okay, and we also get Persis come Bata as Ilia, the Delta navigator of the enterprise, Sam 31:16 if you were trying to create emotional stakes by building a character, two characters, so that I had some sort of reaction to win they have to merge and basically die at the end of the movie. You failed? None I feel nothing. Oh, they took her and she died. Okay, great. You Oh, yeah, I don't care. Tessa 31:46 Like when they first took her, you were like, Wait, who got what? Sam 31:49 Let me count heads here. All the important people are here. Well, I don't care what happened then. Tessa 31:54 So actually, also, combina had to shave her head for the role that is not a bald cap cap that she's wearing, she actually had to shave her head, she was worried about her hair growing back, right, because we didn't know very much about that at the time. And he didn't shave his head Gene Roddenberry looked into insuring her hair. In case it didn't grow back correctly, the insurance company was like we can't insure someone's head of hair, there's no way to be able to measure whether it comes back in the same way as it went out. This was a whole thing. This is how Gene Roddenberry did business. Let's talk about the actual plot insofar as there is a plot. To me, this feels like an episode of the original series stretched into a feature length film time slot, we get a bad pacing and all we get a mysterious creature. This cloud, we find out that it's a machine that it doesn't understand organic life or emotions. It takes Ilia and kill basically absorbs or kills her uploads its date, her data into itself creates a robot version of her, they find out after a long period of talking that this is actually the Voyager space probe, which got lost and was picked up by a machine planet that gave it all Sam 33:16 to get lost in space. Tessa 33:19 Lost in Space, and it got picked up by a mechanical world that basically was like, Oh, you're a machine. We're gonna give you all these upgrades. And so it comes home to Earth to try to figure out its purpose. Right? Spock says that it's a child trying to figure out we've seen this plot before, right? Well, you've seen it a couple of times. This is something that that this is a storyline that Star Trek will come back to over and over again. Were you surprised by the reveal that it was the Voyager space probe? Sam 33:48 Okay, so you know me. You can't be surprised when you don't care. Actually, I do remember how I felt when I realized it was a take me to your leader situation. I'm just like, Oh, you're kidding. And he doesn't understand because these humans can't possibly be the leaders which fair? Fair, I get fine. Like, oh, this is a huge misunderstanding. The Voyager space probe wants to go home and, and. Okay, fine. Tessa 34:28 Did you like how Kirk basically held it held the information it wanted hostage in like a magnificent example of Kirk bluffing his way out of a problem where he was like, Don't destroy Earth. I have the answer that you want. But I won't tell you unless you immediately back down. And then the machine calls his bluff. And he's like, Well, I don't know what the answer should be. What should the answer be guys something like Hodel trying to figure it out. Sam 34:56 You're making this I'm just imagining a monkeys episode. now and this would be much better if it was among Yeah. So what a bold move to reboot the franchise with this. Remember the marketing campaign like humanity begins now Tessa 35:14 that's at the end of the film to Sam 35:16 watch the trailer. Tessa 35:17 Right. But that actual that actual lettering is at the end of the film, whereas like humanity's future is just beginning rows. It is supposed to be very 2001 Space Odyssey, Sam 35:28 because yeah, which also ended poorly. So I guess that's fine. Right? So Tessa 35:33 Decker volunteers to merge with this entity to create a new life form. So basically, the Star Trek crew helped birth in a new baby life form. He does this because he's in love Guylian he wants to be with her be part of her, whatever. So it's like the three of them merge into a life form. My question is he chose to do that Voyager chose to do that. Nothing about her participation in this was consensual. Sam 36:00 Is that a question? Yes. Why? It's obvious. Tessa 36:04 How did that make you feel? I know you don't care about the character. But what do you think about this like, Sam 36:09 does feel kind of unfair. I mean, the thing about it is is like you bring in two new comers and you want me to care about them. This isn't a horror movie. You're not pulling a psycho on me. It's like haha, establish Carrie. Oh, look, she's gone. That's not I don't know who this is. I don't know who this actor is. I don't care about this character. I'm here for these guys. As you said I didn't Yeah, I was like, Wait, who? What happened? Who's got all baldies missing? Tessa 36:45 I thought for a second you were gonna say I care about these guys and their high jinks. Sam 36:50 There were no high jinks. In this movie. Tessa 36:53 This movie definitely suffers from a lack of high jinks. Yes, Sam 36:57 they were very serious. They were making a serious film. A serious film about Star Trek. And that is two things that should never go together. Never. Never. Tessa 37:15 All right. Any final thoughts on this film Sam 37:18 mean? No. Tessa 37:21 Is that a question? Aye. Aye, do I distinctly remember you saying I hope the extra 10 minutes in the director's cuts are all musical numbers. Sam 37:31 I said that yes. Oh, that was good one Tessa 37:34 because of West Side Story. Sam 37:37 Right West Side Story sounded music right, Kurt? A few of my favorite things. They start snapping at each other now. That'd be great. Yeah, I'd watch that movie. Tessa 37:47 Yeah, what's Spock's musical number? Sam 37:51 Now, no favorite things really is his musical number. I think so. And and Kirk does the cop thing from West Side Story. When he's like taking the ship back. Like, there's actually a scene where he argues with Starfleet, and he breaks into that song there. Officer Krupke Yeah, that's I'm really not terribly familiar with either of these musicals. So I'm really stretching here. The name song. Unknown Speaker 38:17 Yeah, Sam 38:18 that's that we do that when we get on the ship the first time. Yeah, we could do this. Tessa 38:22 Yeah. Star Trek The musical. They've never done a Star Trek The musical. Sam 38:26 I mean, that seems wrong. It does seem Tessa 38:29 wrong. You would think after what 3233 seasons, they would have done one musical. Yeah, yeah. We've had people saying I don't want to like mislead you, but not in like, did not in a musical context. Next up on Sam watch Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry is out. They booted him as creative control over the next film. Yes. Ricardo Montalban is back in. He returns us con in Star Trek to the Wrath of Khan. You can find me on Twitter at suela Tessa anticlimactic I know. But where was I supposed to go from there? Kind of like this movie. You can find me on Twitter at suela. Tessa Swehla spelled SW e HLA. And you can find Sam at Sam underscore Morris nine. Until next time, live long and prosper. Transcribed by https://otter.ai