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| Changeling by pinback 09/22/2024, 5:36am PDT | ||||
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| I was born right after TOS ended, and only became interested in Star Trek when the movies started coming out. I have seen many TOS episodes, definitely not all of them, and remember virtually none of them.
I am, however, a big ST:TMP fan, bigger than most. I had heard rumors about it being "inspired by" the TOS episode "Changeling". Reading more about it, it seems TMP was originally supposed to be the pilot for a new show (which, Mulholland Drive-like, was nixed and expanded into a movie), and I've heard the similarities brushed off as "Roddenberry reexamining themes he enjoyed" or some such. Last night, just for fun, I watched Changeling to see what people were talking about. That ain't no "reexamining a theme", and that ain't no "inspired by". TMP is a straight-up remake: 1. NOMAD and V'ger are both probes sent from earth that eventually go crazy, make a U-turn, and start destroying everything in their path on the way back to Earth. 2. The initial attack on the Enterprise is virtually identical, down to the size and shape of V'ger/NOMAD's super-powered torpedo thingies, and Scotty warning that the Enterprise can only withstand a certain number of attacks. 3. When that number gets to zero, they communicate with it and it stops acting like an asshole. 4. V'ger is a big spaceship, where NOMAD is just a baby Dalek, so here it diverges a little since NOMAD can just come onto the ship instead of having to use Ilia as an avatar. But in both cases, it plainly states it's here to kick ass and return to its "creator", and it's all out of ass. 5. NOMAD incapacitates Uhura, V'ger took over Ilia. Either way, some broad's getting the short end of the stick. And not just my wife this time, heyooo! 6. Eventually Spock mind-melds with NOMAD/V'ger, which is too much for him to take and he becomes sad and introspective. 7. At the end, both NOMAD/V'ger disappear in a cloud of smoke. In NOMAD's case, it was suicide, while V'ger evolves into whatever, but even the big explosions echo each other. 8. Both end with Kirk making himself giggle (easily brushing off the billions of deaths that just occurred throughout the galaxy, but hey, we can laugh about it now.) "Inspired by", my ass. |
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