barry@ames-lm.UUCP (Kenn Barry) (06/04/84)
[<+>]
I saw ST III at a 5:00PM showing opening day. The theater was
nowhere near full, and there was no line. There was a considerable line
waiting for the next showing when we left, however. I would guess that
ST III will make enough money to insure the making of ST IV, but it won't
break any records.
On to my main point. A couple of people have objected (here come
da SPOILER) to Spock's being resurrected, on the grounds that it vitiates
and destroys the nobility and tragedy of his death, and was a 'deus ex
machina'. I disagree. While it's true that it's generally a bad idea
dramatically to bring back a character you have killed off, I think this
was a special case, for the following reasons.
1) Spock was not human, and it has looong been established in
ST that he has some strange mental abilities. This makes it different
than resurrecting a normal human.
2) His using McCoy for temporary storage of his essence was nicely
foreshadowed in ST II (just as Leia's being Luke's sister was hinted
at in EMPIRE), and so was not pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
3) Spock began his transformation from mere physical being to
archetypal symbol long before ST III. I suspect that Bennett et. al.
had been noticing for some time the success of the larger-than-life heroes
of the STAR WARS saga, and wanted something like an Obiwan for ST. Spock
is obviously being transformed from an oddly-lovable alien into Something
More. Death and transfiguration is normal for mythic heroes. They always
die to save their people, then return as a unifying symbol of their culture.
Didn't anyone but me notice the Christian symbolism when David and Saavik
discover the empty casket on the Genesis planet?
In short, I do not see the death and resurrection of Spock as
a carte blanche to kill off and resurrect any other ST character they
have a mind to; if they do it to anyone else, that would be bad drama,
but I doubt they'll do anything like that. I do expect that the Spock
character will continue to develop into a preternatural culture-hero
figure. Unless, of course, Nimoy is tired of the role.
Kenn Barry
NASA-Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA
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