Rhi. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhivolution) wrote2011-02-07 01:20 pm
rhivolution) wrote2011-02-07 01:20 pm
thud.
As giandujakiss commented today, you get really thinky about stuff when you make a vid, and in the case of Festivids, you can't say anything until later. Sigh. Not sure if anyone cares, mind, but I do, so I'm writing it.
This may be a bit disjointed, me having been up until 3:45. Sorry. It turns far more into Star Trek meta than notes on a vid, so read if you're interested in that instead.
Notes on 'Resistance'
Regarding canon...as some of you know, I debated going back and doing a vid that was about the development of Data over time. It would have been epic, but that's just the problem--it would have been massively difficult for me to go through seven seasons worth of canon for my almost-first-ever vid. I'm having a hard enough time cherry-picking Beverly Crusher/Deanna Troi moments, and there are far fewer of those to come by. Additionally, between my OCD+ and my overblown sense of semi-professionalism, I refuse to mix the TV eps and the movies, because they look too damn different. I knew I wanted to use the Data narrative in First Contact, so...yeah.
The problem is, there's not quite enough of JUST Data in FC to make a vid. Picard's story is the privileged one, which is not to say it isn't interesting. It's just that Data's story leaves room for extrapolation; Picard tells us exactly what he's thinking, throughout the film. In that sense, Data is just a very complex plot device.
But Data is also a beloved character, so there's a lot of interesting stuff that flies under the radar, stuff that I hadn't even thought about until recently. (And god, this film is nearly fifteen years old.) For example, Data uses the ability to lie that his emotion chip provides, but he wouldn't have had that ability if the Borg Queen hadn't turned the damn thing back on for her own purposes. And even though we know and love Data, the transformation of him into cyborg means he's no longer knowable. It means that every time I watch this film, knowing the ending, I am still afraid that he did change his mind and betray Picard, in those 0.68 seconds. As he says, that's nearly an eternity.
Speaking of, I am not gonna talk about Donna Haraway and the Borg Queen, because that would just be so OTT. I HATE that essay. I don't agree with it entirely. But know that I may have been informed by that subconsciously, having read it for school so many friggin' times. In that way, I suppose, this vid is not feminist, because the canon has the female cyborg as evil, and I'm working from the canon. I suppose I did this because I wanted to return the Borg to the pre-Voyager levels of scary, before they became...well, humanised. I wanted to creep people out, which is what I apparently did for quite a few viewers, yay. Yet in doing that, I marginalize the Borg as Other.
There are whole essays here on how the Federation is informed by the US sense of 'freedom' and the Borg could represent the US' skewed view of communism/socialism. Or the Borg are technology and Picard is human fear of being usurped in a singularity.
But I feel, alternatively, if you're being optimistic...it's possible to interpret the Federation as representing humanism and a system dedicated to the greater good, making an effort to accept any identity that aspires to that good. And the Borg, in seeking the greater good, erase all identities unacceptable to their status quo.
Your call. All in how you look at it.
giandujakiss commented today, you get really thinky about stuff when you make a vid, and in the case of Festivids, you can't say anything until later. Sigh. Not sure if anyone cares, mind, but I do, so I'm writing it.This may be a bit disjointed, me having been up until 3:45. Sorry. It turns far more into Star Trek meta than notes on a vid, so read if you're interested in that instead.
Notes on 'Resistance'
Regarding canon...as some of you know, I debated going back and doing a vid that was about the development of Data over time. It would have been epic, but that's just the problem--it would have been massively difficult for me to go through seven seasons worth of canon for my almost-first-ever vid. I'm having a hard enough time cherry-picking Beverly Crusher/Deanna Troi moments, and there are far fewer of those to come by. Additionally, between my OCD+ and my overblown sense of semi-professionalism, I refuse to mix the TV eps and the movies, because they look too damn different. I knew I wanted to use the Data narrative in First Contact, so...yeah.
The problem is, there's not quite enough of JUST Data in FC to make a vid. Picard's story is the privileged one, which is not to say it isn't interesting. It's just that Data's story leaves room for extrapolation; Picard tells us exactly what he's thinking, throughout the film. In that sense, Data is just a very complex plot device.
But Data is also a beloved character, so there's a lot of interesting stuff that flies under the radar, stuff that I hadn't even thought about until recently. (And god, this film is nearly fifteen years old.) For example, Data uses the ability to lie that his emotion chip provides, but he wouldn't have had that ability if the Borg Queen hadn't turned the damn thing back on for her own purposes. And even though we know and love Data, the transformation of him into cyborg means he's no longer knowable. It means that every time I watch this film, knowing the ending, I am still afraid that he did change his mind and betray Picard, in those 0.68 seconds. As he says, that's nearly an eternity.
Speaking of, I am not gonna talk about Donna Haraway and the Borg Queen, because that would just be so OTT. I HATE that essay. I don't agree with it entirely. But know that I may have been informed by that subconsciously, having read it for school so many friggin' times. In that way, I suppose, this vid is not feminist, because the canon has the female cyborg as evil, and I'm working from the canon. I suppose I did this because I wanted to return the Borg to the pre-Voyager levels of scary, before they became...well, humanised. I wanted to creep people out, which is what I apparently did for quite a few viewers, yay. Yet in doing that, I marginalize the Borg as Other.
There are whole essays here on how the Federation is informed by the US sense of 'freedom' and the Borg could represent the US' skewed view of communism/socialism. Or the Borg are technology and Picard is human fear of being usurped in a singularity.
But I feel, alternatively, if you're being optimistic...it's possible to interpret the Federation as representing humanism and a system dedicated to the greater good, making an effort to accept any identity that aspires to that good. And the Borg, in seeking the greater good, erase all identities unacceptable to their status quo.
Your call. All in how you look at it.