Here are 3 out of 54 reader comments that were posted by readers of Arturo R Garcia's article "Back To The Future: The Racialicious Review of Start Trek" [IMO "54"reader comments appears to par with articles on that blog which engender a lot of comments]


JC wrote:

*** Spoiler Alert ***

I loved this movie. It could be better, and it could do without some of the glaring plot holes (if you can teleport to a moving starship in warp speed light years away - do you even need starships anymore?) , but it has become the first movie I'd want repeat viewing since the LOTR Trilogy.

I loved Sulu's ass-kicking even though he could be developed further (hope for the sequal!); I thought Uhura was tastefully portrayed as a smart, powerful women who has strong influence over, well, everything. Notice how she got Spock, a everything-by-the-rules Vulcan, to assign her to the Enterprise? Yeah they're a couple but he's a VULCAN for crying out loud. I do enjoy the romance though - I've always thought from the original series that the Vulcans were symbolic of Asians in the ST universe (and the Klingons were the Russians), so I've always though of Spock as an Psudo-Asian anyway. I also thought the movie is more about Spock than Kirk too.

They could add more diversity to the crew, but I suppose it would be too much of a change to add another POC into the main cast. But PoC were really everywhere in this movie - I mean if you look at the ceremony scenes where the entire Academy was presence, you can see that whites is not the majority. I also liked that the Asian paramedic early in the movie got a line or two. I was half expecting him to die.

I was a little disappointed that they kept mentioning George Kirk as the hero when the original captain of the Kelvin was just as heroic as Kirk and later Captain Pike. Maybe they did but I sure missed it. I AM glad he's of middle-eastern origin though… first casualty of the 9/11 of the 22nd Century.

I think JJ Abrams is sensitive to the issue of racial imbalance in Hollywood casting, and I get the feeling that he's doing his best to address the situation. He still has to get the movie green-lighted so Star Trek and Lost still have to feature whites has main characters - but he's really sneaking them PoC in there in non-stereotypical roles. I wish there are more of him in Hollywood.

Posted 12 May 2009 at 9:32 pm ¶

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napthia9 wrote:

..."Before I saw the movie, I was worried that Uhura was mostly going to be eye candy... Of all the cadets, she seemed the most prepared, mature and professional. Even going after Spock seemed like the sort of calculated risk that accurately evaluated the impact it'd have on their professional lives. (Also, their scenes were great! I don't see Uhura/Spock in the original series, but movieverse? Wow!) While I also want to see more female characters being physically strong and powerful, a la Ripley & Vasquez in Aliens, Uhura's non-physical strength was great"...
Posted 15 May 2009 at 3:47 am

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allheavens wrote:
.."this film is more Spock's journey than Kirk's. Spock as not yet acquire the poise of Spock Prime and Zachary Quinto invests Spock with a chilly, smoldering sex appeal that simmers just beneath the surface. Spock is beset by emotion and all its complexities. Maybe now Spock can finally be the winner of the "cool kids" sweepstakes because he is no longer just the emotional juxtaposition to Kirk's swaggering hero"...
Posted 15 May 2009 at 12:29 pm

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/05/12/back-to-the-future-the-racialicious-review-of-star-trek/#comments ¶