From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Star Trek's Classics && Analogies
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Summary: What is an analogy?  Federation : USA :: Klingus : USSR
Keywords: analogies, stuff
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 03:50:56 GMT

In article <1992Apr12.211119.26656@acsu.buffalo.edu>
v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>In article <1992Apr12.192107.5923@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, 
Kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes...
>>[City on the Edge of Forever]
>>I thought Shatner's acting was fine here. This episode is still one
>>of the most hard hitting Trek episodes I've seen.
>
>     Fine? God. "His head was...(inhale)...caughtinanautomatic...rice picker."
>     With the head cocking...  Please.  I would laugh but it's too bad to
>     even do that.  I will say that Shatner gave the performance of his
>     career in TWOK - nicely layered, and for him, that's a compliment.
>

This was one of best among the old episodes.  Unlike Star Trek VI,
we actually get to see Kirk's anguish.  Kirk had to choose between
humanity and his dearest love.  Either way, Kirk loses.  At the end
of the show, Kirk says, bitterly, stoically, and fatalistically,
"Let's get the hell out of here."  He did what had to be done:
allowing his lady friend to die in order to save humanity.

>>>         _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_
>
>>Urgh. Definitely not top 10 for me, not even top 20. Once the immediate
>>impact passed, I found it a supremely forgettable movie. The perestoika
>>...
>     I don't see it that way at all.  _Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home_
>     was a supremely forgettable movie.  _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_
>     is a supremely forgettable movie.  What V?  
>     TUC, I think, was imaginative and very intricately weaved politics,
>     classic literary epic situations and nostalgia.  
>     I thought Chang was a fantastic warrior, cut from the same mold as

That's just the point.  All the regular actors (Shatner, etc.)
acted poorly.  Only the "non-regular" actors like the one playing
Chang performed well.

Come on.  Are you saying that you sensed Kirk's anguish at the beginning
of the movie in which Kirk is making his unbelievable soliloquy about
the pain of losing his son?  I didn't sense any of his anguish.
The whole thing seem faked.

Compare this pathetic bit of acting to the exhibition of genuine anguish
in the "City on the Edge of Forever", where Kirk also deals with his
anguish.  (Spock gives his haunting comment after McCoy wild-eyedly
queries Kirk, "Do know what you've done?"  Spock says, "He knows,
doctor.  He knows.")

>     Kirk but on different ends of the same spectrum.  Christopher
>     Plummer was just incredible in the role.  No one else could get
>     away with quoting so much Shakespeare and making it work!  
>     I don't agree that the perestroika theme was jumping on the
>     bandwagon, because Star Trek has used the USSR-US relations as
>     a major allegory for 25 years.  ...

It goes deeper than that.  The full analogy is

   Federation:  United States of America
   Klingus:  USSR
   Romulus:  China
   Vulcan:  Japan

I've noticed that few avid fans of Star Trek have accurately made
this analogy--particularly with regards to Romulus and Vulcan.  
Please do note that the analogy is very accurate.

Romulans and Vulcans may physically look alike, but the mentality
underneath is very different.  Very different.  The same applies to
the real life counterparts.

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