9/6/09

Spock/Uhura: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Part 1: The Good)

Spock/Uhura: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Part 1: The Good.

As you’ve noticed, I am kind of an S/U shipper and unabashedly so. To be honest, I don’t care too much about fanon breakups and whatever one needs to make Kirk/Spock (or Kirk/Uhura or McCoy/Spock) to happen. Hell, I've written McCoy/Uhura, so I have no room to speak (I must admit it's because I haven't gotten my head around Spock as a character yet). I should clarify that my only beef with K/S is in regard to it being made canon in the Reboot universe, because it epically bugged me with the tension between the two and how big of a screw-up they would likely have trying to explain how Uhura deals with it.

Anyway.

I like S/U because, though student/teacher, it isn’t “ick nast” like many others are. It’s pretty obvious that they see each other as intellectual equals and they enjoy each others company. And the way Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto play the two has chemistry all over the place (if you see any premiere pics of them together, this is soooo obvious). The kisses in the film weren’t wooden, and “I’ll be monitoring your frequency” became a pretty heartfelt line.

I guess we can start with that as the beginning of The Good. However surprising that was (though if you thought it was surprising I’m surprised at you) for you, it was nice to see Nyota Uhura have someone appreciate how awesome she is. And being the equally awesome Mr. Spock is really something.

If you are unfamiliar, Spock/Uhura was what people in TOS wanted to make actual canon, but it was the 60’s and there was no way anyone was trying to do an interracial couple then. There’s a few cute stories about it floating around the intertubes, but I won’t be using them for this.

Continuing with the good, there’s been plenty of good fan response (I’ll get to the bad fan response later). Especially with women of color and well…some women in general. To be honest, I don’t hang around a lot of circles with ST fanboys. I’m sure they don’t really care. I was of course happy because…

Excuse my capslock…

OH MY GOD THERE’S A BLACK WOMAN IN A MOVIE DATING SOMEONE WHO ISN’T BLACK AND THERE ISN’T AN “OMG GUURRRLLLL YOU’RE DATING THAT WHITE BOY” SUBTEXT.

Praise the Lord (Raptor Jesus, Cthulu, whathaveyou).

I consider this a pretty big step, especially since Uhura is A: From Africa (Kenya, to clarify) and B: Not a “racially ambiguous” character. Yes, she has bone straight hair, but who knows what kind of hair treatments are available in the 23rd century. Zoe is about my complexion as well, so there’s also that sort of “YAY” moment about it. There are very few minorities in sci-fi, and when one is portrayed in a way that doesn’t make the populace gouge their eyes out, I think we’ve made some progress.

So, the good?

-Uhura isn’t just someone who sits and hails frequency, also bagged the finest Vulcan in Starfleet (yeah he’s the only one, but he’s still smoking)
-Spock is given a love interest that won’t die (she better not |:<)
-A Black female character is portrayed in a non-stereotypical way (though the miniskirt is a bit of a peeve)

…there’s more but I can’t put it in neat little bullet points.

The next part of this will be The Bad, in which we delve a little in S/U backlash before we go deep into the quicksand with The Ugly, where the racism and sexism of fandom shows itself quite happily.

Thanks for reading!

4 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed reading your insights. I hope you continue. Please write more soon.
    ^M^

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey!

    Just wanted to let you know, I LOVE reading your entries. I'm not a student of sociology at all, but you make your points very clear, and of course, I love Trek, so it's great to read about the two in an entertaining, educational (edutainment?) and easy-to-understand way.

    I understand being busy with school (student at university), but just wanted to say keep up the awesome work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, I'm Catie

    I went as a complete newbie to Star Trek 2009, and something about the characters of Spock and Uhura in the relationship that never seemed to work onscreen.

    However, I'm finding I agree with you on so many levels here! I really love the character Uhura, and seem peeved at the same things you've mentioned in passing about what the movie did to her.

    Spock I identify with the most (don't really want to go into details, sorry), yet I just couldn't seem to make S/U work, either on my own or through a number of other S/U fics that I've been directed to read in order to see how it is seen by S/U shippers.

    So far, this is the first S/U thing I've read that has made some sense to me. Still doesn't make them click or work as a romantic relationship (at least, not long-term), but thumbs up for helping me in the quest to wrap my head around the Spock/Uhura relationship as it is now canon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just hurray for STX1 Uhura! I really have the feeling that she is pretty close to where Nichols would have taken the character if she'd been allowed. The Uhura/Spock was the highpoint of the movie for me and definitely some of best acted scenes.

    ReplyDelete