09-03-2013, 10:57 AM
[spoiler]That's a great point about the death scene in Into Darkness. It worked in Wrath of Khan because that movie is supposed to take place something like 20 years into their careers together so Kirk and Spock are lifelong friends. In Into Darkness it's happening on what seems to be their second mission together ever. It would be like having the Khan scene in the second episode of TOS.[/spoiler]
TOS had some good "hard-scifi" style commentary, though. "A Taste of Armageddon" is one that always stuck with me. Two planets are at war and they've made war so clean and sterile that nobody felt like putting an end to it. That's pretty relevant today.
"The Return of the Archons" is another good one -- a planet being run by a computer has created a society where nobody is free to act or think on their own. They must follow the will of Landru.
I dunno what the hard sci-fi story of most of the newer Treks are, especially the two new movies. They could have just as easily done the whole thing as a modern naval movie or set in the 1800s. The only thing sci-fi about it is the setting. Half the point of sci-fi was to allow a story to be told that simply couldn't be told using modern or historical settings.
TOS had some good "hard-scifi" style commentary, though. "A Taste of Armageddon" is one that always stuck with me. Two planets are at war and they've made war so clean and sterile that nobody felt like putting an end to it. That's pretty relevant today.
"The Return of the Archons" is another good one -- a planet being run by a computer has created a society where nobody is free to act or think on their own. They must follow the will of Landru.
I dunno what the hard sci-fi story of most of the newer Treks are, especially the two new movies. They could have just as easily done the whole thing as a modern naval movie or set in the 1800s. The only thing sci-fi about it is the setting. Half the point of sci-fi was to allow a story to be told that simply couldn't be told using modern or historical settings.