In music, repetition legitimizes; in Star Trek, Spock legitimizes.

(Full disclosure, Iā€™ve watched many Adam Neely videos but havenā€™t actually watched the one above.)

Spock has been deployed again and again when Star Trek has ā€œpushed the envelopeā€. When JJ Abrams wanted to launch a new Star Trek film franchise, he brought in Leonard Nimoy to have Spock pass the torch. When Alex Kurtzman wanted to launch a new serialized streaming Star Trek series, he wrote it about Spockā€™s sister (with Spockā€™s father appearing from the first episode), and brought in Spock himself in the second season.

And when they needed to make the big swing for the fences and literally do a Star Trek episode where everyone is singing as if in a musical, who is the very first character to sing? Yes, of course, itā€™s Spock.

The first Very Short Trek episode, ā€œSkin A Catā€, continues this trend. In this, Paramountā€™s first officially non-canon official production (and debatably their silliest slice of Star Trek yet), the only character voiced by their ā€œnormalā€ actor is ā€“ yes, you guessed it ā€“ Mr. Spock.

Whenever the in-universe era permits, Spock is consistently invoked whenever Star Trek breaks new ground.

We can even extend this analysis retroactively all the way back to the beginning: when Star Trek was ā€œrebootedā€ for the very first time ā€“ after ā€œThe Cageā€ was rejected, and the premise reworked into ā€œWhere No Man Has Gone Beforeā€ ā€“ only Mr. Spock and the Starship Enterprise herself were carried through into the new version, creating a lineage that indelibly legitimizes ā€œThe Cageā€ as Star Trek, even in spite of massive changes otherwise.

(And indeed, the Starships Enterprise play a similar legitimizing role across the franchise ā€“ if an Enterprise appears, itā€™s Star Trek.)

So, here is the question for us: why does Spock enjoy this particular ability to reify something into being Star Trek? Why is it he ā€“ not Kirk, not McCoy ā€“ that gets called on when the showrunners want to ā€œbulk upā€ on their Star Trek bona fides? Why is it that, if Spock does it, itā€™s Star Trek?

  • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    why does Spock enjoy this particular ability to reify something into being Star Trek? Why is it he ā€“ not Kirk, not McCoy ā€“ that gets called on when the showrunners want to ā€œbulk upā€ on their Star Trek bona fides?

    I think itā€™s because Kirk, McCoy etc are humans; when we think of Star Trek, we think of alien races, alien planets, exploration of new civilisations. The captains / staff change but Spock remains, because heā€™s an excellent bridge between the human and the alien; also, his insistence on logic which is tinged with human emotions makes for a rich potential pallete of storylines / comedy. Not to mention the iconic look which combines alien and human features. Itā€™s familiar and alien all at once which makes it memorable.

    IMO :)