Star Trek (2009). Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment: John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, with Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy. Director: J.J. Abrams. Script: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman.
Please visit The 2009 World Science Festival, 5 days, 40 events. New York City.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ (June 10-14, 2009.) Highlights: "Time: The Familiar Stranger" with neurologist Oliver Sacks. I also recommend "Infinite Worlds" -- A Discussion With Brian Greene, Alan Gurth, Andrei Linde, Philosopher Nick Bostrom, and Robert Krulwich.
November 5, 2009 at 9:41 A.M. Congratulations to N.Y.'s Yankees. Everybody in the city needed this one. Only one word was removed from this text since my previous review. I have now corrected that inserted "error."
Dennis Overbye, "The Collider, the Particle And a Theory About Fate," in The New York Times, October 13, 2009, at p. D1. ("Science Times")
Henry Fountain, "Building a Bridge Of (and to) the Future," in The New York Times, October 13, 2009, at p. D1. ("Science Times")
Only "relatively" few defacements of this review -- "approximately." More inserted "errors" must be expected. May 30, 2009 at 10:48 A.M.
I was a little concerned about seeing the new Star Trek movie. $12.00 (without popcorn), $24.00 for two, means that the average guy has to think about how badly he wants to see any Hollywood movie. Those of us who grew up with the old, original television show (reruns were on WPIX, channel 11 in New York, at 5:00 P.M. on Saturdays!) are familiar with the mythology of the series and won't put up with violations of certain codes of development and "continuity" in the show's plot lines. We know what Spock and Kirk would do and say. The same goes for Scotty, Dr. McCoy, Uhura (megababe in this movie), Zulu, Checkov and the various buxomy "ensigns" that would bring Kirk a menu to sign, periodically. All of these characters have become comfort food for the mind. This is not to mention Mrs. Roddenberry, who played the ship's nurse and later a Star Fleet doctor.
I was worried that this J.J. Abrams guy or gal would misunderstand the show. Happily, he or she (it?) did not make any mistakes. Rumors are that Abrams is a computer that has developed consciousness and gone into show business. Spielberg is listed as a producer. Was Spielberg a secret "assistant" to the director?
Mr./Ms. Abrams understands that the secret of the program is the relationships thriving among the original cast of characters. Central to the drama are Kirk and Spock, dual aspects of a single psyche (Gene Roddenberry?), but also the rich humanism and UN-like hope for all of humanity to join in the exploration of the heavens. There was a brief mood after the astronauts landed on the moon of optimism about future possibilities of the species, despite evidence of revolution and culture clash during the late sixties. Those melioristic concerns also made it into the show's scripts.
I am old enough to remember seeing American astronauts walking on the moon in July, 1969. I got to stay up late to see the planting of the flag on a New Jersey Meadowlands-like moon surface. Of course, the moon was without the buried bodies or Giants' Stadium, unlike the Garden State parallel to this bleak landscape, which now includes (allegedly) the "Xanadu" mall and a new rail link to New York city for a mere $2 BILLION.
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had great chemistry on screen. Both are excellent actors with solid stage credentials before they came to television. Shatner did a lot of Shakespeare in his native Canada. Nimoy was Sherlock Holmes on Broadway. Wynona Ryder is unrecognizable in a cameo role in this movie. We miss Ms. Ryder on screen. Hollywood: "Free Wynona" by giving her a good part in your next movie! Ms. Ryder looks seriously beautiful in an Elle cover this month. Ms. Ryder is one of those women you take out on a fantasy date to a nice restaurant and to the theater afterwards. After the theater, a walk in the city or coffee someplace downtown ... and anything can happen.
The fundamental tension in the show is the competition between reason (Spock) and passion (Kirk). There is always a need for cooperation between the two, also for shared responsibilities among a diverse and complex crew in order to achieve the objectives of the mission ("to boldly go where no man [or woman] has gone before ...") Is the USS Enterprise a metaphor for the planet earth? Or for the unruly psyche of its creator? Both.
Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984) makes creative use of Star Trek mythology to develop philosophical "points" in a theory of identity. Bob Harrison, "A Question of Identity," in Philosophy Now, July/August, 2007, at p. 6-9. Wendell Wallach, "The Challenge of Moral Machines," in Philosophy Now, March/April, 2009, at p. 6. Interestingly, Brian Greene's discussion of teletransportation of particles (The Fabric of the Cosmos) may be aligned with professor Parfit's discussion focusing on identity.
Cold war tensions were seen in the Klingons (Russians) and Romulans (Chinese) who were still potential enemies. Idea-filled scripts exploring issues in newspaper headlines during the late sixties elevated the show to cult status in reruns. Writers of the caliber of Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison made the programs incredibly appealing to embryonic geeks. Also, to cool persons -- such as myself.
We live in a different world now. Many of the cold war subtexts of Star Trek -- The T.V. Adventure have been consumed by a supernova. The appeal of the drama is still the tension between reason and emotions, science and humanities in a world with new and more baffling as well as sinister enemies. This 2009 adaptation introduces the characters at the start of their adventures. Kirk (played, I believe, by Chris Pine) is a young hothead, getting into bar fights, struggling to charm women, in search of adventures and willing to cut corners and ignore annoying "rules." Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) is the young genius, half-breed, immune to emotion and experiencing a never fully resolved quest for identity.
Captain Christopher Pike may have landed the most amazing "role" in the t.v. series. Pike was the captain in the original pilot program that never made it on to NBC. The program was subsequently shown as Spock's court martial, a double episode entitled "The Menagerie," featuring a star-turn by Leonard Nimoy. Pike was totally physically disabled after a heroic rescue operation -- something we are not shown in this movie -- making the events in this story somewhat unpredictable. Mysteriously, Pike was unable to use a voice syntheziser after his accident, although the device was fully operational for Stephen Hawking in the twentieth century.
Arguably, the time-warping plot can handle most of those difficulties concerning Captain Pike. I liked the movie. I liked Mr. Spock and (less so) Kirk in this movie. Uhura's romantic interest in Spock makes sense, given her scientific curiosity and adeptness in communications. There was an hommage to the original series in Kirk's green-skinned paramour. "She's a sex slave from Orion!" (See "The Menagerie.") Several other episodes were also honored. Classic lines from the t.v. show were used: "I'm a doctor not a physicist!" They forgot my favorite:
"I don't know whether these engines can take it, Captain!"
"Do your best, Scotty."
The word campy has been used to describe the film. I prefer the more satirical sobriquet: "tongue in cheek." Among the mirroring relations conjured by this program is the encounter by audience members with earlier versions of themselves sitting before their television sets on Saturday afternoons and making a journey to the final frontier. We see on screen not only the younger versions of Spock and Kirk, but also younger versions of ourselves. The movie itself is a time-warp. References must include everything from "mirror-neurons" to dark matter against star light in the cosmos. Giacomo Rizzolati, Leonardo Fogassi, & Vittorio Gallese, "Mirrors in the Mind," in Scientific American, November, 2006, at p. 54.
The time-warping and wormhole themes merit some commentary; specific allusions to Sartre's existentialism, which were also found in many of the original shows, were very welcome; Hawking's physics and quantum trickery were played for all they're worth, also Penrose's "mirrors within mirrors." The cameo by Leonard Nimoy was a little heavy-handed. We get it.
In what follows, I shall observe the "prime directive" at all times. I begin with the cool science stuff; I then "explore" the mega-cool philosophy-of-psychology stuff, while discussing performances and a good script. Finally, I offer my evaluations and judgments which are not subject to appeal under Star Fleet orders. There is no such thing as a "mature" approach to Star Trek.
As I sip from my "Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock" coffee mug, I set my phaser on "stun." After all, too much brilliance this early in the morning could be fatal to mere humans. (This last statement is an example of humor.)
A scary Romulan villain called Captain Niro (played by Eric Bana) is "bent on revenge" -- as they say in pulp fiction -- because his home planet, family members, and all that he has known has been destroyed by a Super Nova which Star Fleet's representative, Mr. Spock, was unable to stop. Spock's goal had been to create a "singularity" producing a black hole that might absorb the Super Nova before planets could be devoured by the exploding star.
A "Super Nova" is a star that has become a "red giant," then an explosion. A sufficiently large star could collapse upon itself, after such an explosion, producing a black hole. The singularity generated to create a sufficiently large black hole -- before this implosion of the dead star -- would itself pose great hazards to anyone in the neighborhood. A singularity is "a point in space-time at which the space-time curvature becomes infinite." (Hawking) Singularities become black holes.
Spock's effort fails. Spock and his nemesis fall into the synthetically-generated "event horizon," then into the black hole. No one really knows what would happen if you fell into a black hole. The theory used to be that you would fall "forever" and that time would cease to be meaningful (in our terms) and could even reverse itself. The notion of "falling" becomes meaningless. Temperatures millions of degrees below zero Farenheit and the near absence of light make it unlikely that life in any form would survive the experience. In a vessel, much would depend on the more creative possibilities of sci-fi writers:
"Because of the improbable conditions at the centre of a black hole, it has become the focus of all sorts of bizarre ideas that belong, not to the realm of science, but to that of science fiction. It has been proposed that in passing through a black hole it might be possible to emerge at a different place in the universe, at a different moment in history, or that a black hole is a connecting passage [wormhole] to other universes in which we might pop up like rabbits emerging from their burrows. ..."
Roy E. Peacock, "A Plurality of Singularities," in A Brief History of Eternity: A Considered Response to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (Suffolk: Monarch, 1989), p. 97.
Scientists and Star Trek fans have been pondering these issues for some "time":
"I have written at length about the fictional fun one can have with wormholes in The Physics of Star Trek, so I will not repeat these discussions here. Suffice it to say that wormholes, if they actually were able to exist, would allow not only distant regions of space to be connected, but also distant regions of time ... both past and future!"
More fascinating thoughts have been pondered by Star Trek-loving scientists, including Professor Hawking, who was a guest on the second generation version of the program that featured Patrick Stewart as Captain Pikard -- "Make it so, number one!"
" ... in Star Trek lore warp drive is associated not with the dynamic warping of our own three-dimensional space, but rather with the probable existence of extra dimensions."
Hence,
" ... while black holes and wormholes are fascinating implications of the possibilities of curved space, which in some ways can mimic various phenomena one might hope would result from the existence of extra dimensions, as I have emphasized already numerous times curved space itself neither implies nor requires the existence of any extra dimensions. Instead, black holes and wormholes demonstrate that even a seemingly pedestrian three-dimensional space can be far stranger than meets the eye."
Lawrence M. Krauss, Hiding in the Mirror: The Quest for Alternative Realities, From Plato to String Theory (By Way of Alice in Wonderland, Einstein, and The Twilight Zone) (New York & London: Penguin, 2005), p. 149.
Stephen Hawking's mind-expanding journey was unforgettable for those of us who "boldly went" where others feared to go back in the eighties when we read his book. Much of Hawking's theoretical speculation has since been confirmed or shared by others:
"But what would happen if and when the universe stopped expanding and began to contract? Would the thermodynamic arrow now reverse and disorder begin to decrease with time? This would lead to all sorts of science-fiction like possibilities for people who survived from the expanding to the contracting phase. Would they see broken cups gathering themselves together off the floor and jumping back on to the table? Would they be able to remember tomorrow's prices and make a fortune on the stock market?"
Stephen Hawking, "The Arrow of Time," in A Brief History of Time (London: Bantam, 1988), p. 149. Roger Penrose, "Cosmology and the Arrow of Time," in The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 314-347.
Abrams is using the black hole and time-journey metaphor as a device to designate the psychological journey of self-becoming undertaken by the two leads, who are embarked on an "inward" and "outward" journey -- a journey whose destiny is the journey itself, that is, their self-discovery produced by a personal dialectic: Logos, Athens (Spock) and Mythos, Jerusalem (Kirk). This is the duality or tension in Western civilization which has always been divided between "Athens" and "Jerusalem." (Leo Strauss)
See Shadia B. Drury, "Esotericism Betrayed," in The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (New York: St. Martin's, 1988), pp. 186-192, then Leo Strauss, The Argument and the Action of Plato's Laws (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1975), pp. 140-156 (" ... if the mythoi ... are assigned the same status as the logoi."); for a corrective to Strauss, see Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Idea of the Good in Platonic and Aristotelean Philosophy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 104-126. ("The Dialectic of the Good in Plato's Philebus.")
The Sartrean theme ("I await myself in the future") is embraced by the elder Spock's advice to the young Star Fleet officer who is (was?) his younger self. The wisdom of age is "balance" -- this is a Chinese insight -- bringing into interplay reason and emotion through what Hindu mythology describes as "agents of karma." Kirk's friendship for Spock; Spock's friendship for Kirk. Humanity's hunger for knowledge and power is balanced against responsibility to the universe and our fellow creatures. ("'The Matrix': A Movie Review.")
Metanoia is the term for the psychological journey of self-becoming represented in the hero's adventure as described in universal mythology. This involves a descent into a black hole -- which is a metaphor for death -- then return to life. The bringer of wisdom to the self is the survivor of this death-to-life journey. For example, Gandolf in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The ultimate example of this journey is the central Christian narrative concerned with death and resurrection. Many other "death and resurrection" stories may be found in world mythology. The Kirk character plunges into the "whirlwind of emotion." (Buddha's phrase.) Spock's descent is into the "cold vastness of reason." (Science, Philosophical logic.) All of these descents are really one. Spock and Kirk are Orpheus descending into the underworld, then returning to the kingdom of the living. The Enterprise is Eurydice.
This weekend a new television version of Alice in Wonderland will be seen in America, even as Tim Burton in Paris is rumored to be working on another film version of this classic. I am not surprised that this masterpiece is suddenly powerful, again, since realities are in question in that story and for all of us living as well as thinking at this postmodernist moment in history. I cannot imagine how anyone can begin to fathom all of the puzzles hidden in that so-called "children's story" without a knowledge of Bradley's philosophy of logic, higher mathematics, Victorian academia and politics (the work is certainly a political allegory), Freud and Jung, also much more.
The chemistry between the leads in "Star Trek" allows the plot to take off. Rules, orders are set against equity; wisdom and the eventual collapse into disorder (entropy) leads to renewal of the dialectic. The Romulan villain is lost to hatred. Hatred is the ultimate black hole from which there is no return. Spock and Kirk must plunge into the "inner black hole of madness" in order to achieve a peaceful balance that is a shared identity with you, the audience members, who are presumed to reside in the world of normality.
Abrams knows that every person forking over $12.00 is secretly hoping to beam aboard the enterprise -- and for that measly sum, plus the price of the super-combo, you will experience warp drive in this movie while becoming a Star Fleet cadet. Want some Twizzlers?
" ... the neo-Jungian or metanoia theory construed madness as an inner journey, or one occurring in 'inner space,' rather than as a social artifact occurring in the social domain. [Outer space.] In his own words: 'This journey is experienced as going further in, as going beyond into the experience of all mankind, of the primal man, of Adam and perhaps even further into the realm of animals, vegetables and minerals." (Kirk being chased by a lobster.)
Daniel Burston, "Normality and the Numinous," in The Crucible of Experience: R.D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 121.
The Sartrean-Langian themes of mirroring selves become obvious in the final confrontation between Spock 1 and Spock 2. Also, the crucial point is that a machine-like life of logic or one of wild emotionalism are equally "insane" options, whereas balance is the goal of successful integration:
"Analytic-positive reason cannot make the dialectic intelligible, but analytic-positive reason can be understood in terms of dialectical reason. The validity of dialectical reason rests on its own translucency. It cannot be validated by any other form of reason, for the 'principles' of dialectical reason do not fall within the framework of any other form of reason -- they are not 'laws,' simple givens, or induced rules, or categories."
It follows that "logic" requires "intuition" as Plato taught us in the Phaedrus:
"If dialectical reason exists, it can be, from the ontological point of view, the synthethis of multiplicity into a whole, that is, a totalization."
R.D. Laing & D.G. Cooper, Reason & Violence: A Decade of Sartre's Philosophy 1950-1960 (London: Pantheon, 1971), p.102.
Jean Paul Sartre's famous letter to R.D. Laing states: "Like you, I believe that one cannot understand psychological disturbances from the outside, on the basis of a positivistic determinism, or reconstruct them with a combination of concepts that remain outside the illness as lived and experienced."
To understand a subjectivity you must enter that subjectivity. This is an interpretive challenge that involves deciphering a personal hermeneutic. Acting? Every work of art poses a similar challenge. Humanity is an illness that must be lived and experienced -- an illness which is always fatal in the end. This "entry" is only possible by means of an invitation, not invasion. Understanding and not manipulation is essential to all genuine communication. (Jung, Habermas, Gadamer)
Actors will teach you this hermeneutic wisdom. No evil behaviorism on this Star Ship. Finally, the older Spock's wisdom is delivered to his mirror-image:
" ... existential psychoanalysis will have to be completely flexible and adapt itself to the slightest observable changes in the subject. Our concern here is to understand what is individual and often instantaneous. The method which has served for one subject will not necessarily be suitable for use for another subject or for the same subject at a later period."
Jean Paul Sartre, "Existential Psychoanalysis," in Existentialism and Human Emotions (New York: Kensignton, 1987), pp. 78-79.
There are no generic persons. You will have to feel your way to truth and being. No "one size fits all" therapy, so-called normality, or gender-identity for free persons in the universe. This necessitates the prime directive: "No interference with the values, lives and cultures of other life-forms." This may have something to do with privacy.
Uhura wins the babe competition in this movie. On the minus side, there were no evil beautiful female life-forms in this story. Usually, Kirk has a romance with an evil female alien, placing his life in peril for Star Fleet. Weapons have been more interesting in the past with cloaking devices, evil twins, mind/body exchanges and gender issues explored. Aside from these reservations, the movie was a thumbs-up experience for this humble carbon unit.
"Live long and prosper, Mr./Ms. Abrams."
