A Meaningless Title

Had the urge to watch the Wrath of Khan last night (New movie? What the hell are you talking about?!), and I think I’ve got a new contender for my least favourite Star Trek character:

David Marcus.

I mean, what is he even doing in the film? Alright, there’s the themes of death, resurrection, growing old – but you’ve already got Genesis, Kirk’s birthday, the Enterprise being literally crewed by cadets to illustrate those themes, having Kirk’s literal son pop up seems to be just an overly literal way of handling that.

Then there’s his characterisation. He fears Starfleet – “Scientists have always been pawns of the military” – but I have no idea where he gets that from; Carol Marcus basically rolls her eyes at that, so he’s not getting it from his mother, and considering how much his project relies on Starfleet to do the grunt work, it’s more than a little hypocritical. But then, at the end of the film, after watching Kirk risk his life, save the day, and lose his best friend, he decides to magnanimously admit that hey, his dad’s not such a bad guy after all. That’s not a character arc; that’s being a dick for 90% of the movie then at the end being slightly less of one!

And all of his dialogue feels like it should belong to other characters – hell, in his last scene, he’s literally quoting Saavak! The scene would have been so much stronger if it had actually been her talking to Kirk; Spock’s protégé and friend mourning his loss together. He has no reason to be in the movie. He has no arc, no motivation, and steals time from better characters.

Alright, maybe I’m just overly harsh because the rest of the film is so close to perfect; David feels so much like an afterthought, he sticks out like a sore thumb…

An unrelated quibble: When, exactly, could Khan have possibly learned a Klingon proverb?!

With the confirmed death toll now standing at 181, and dozens of fires still burning out of control, Danny Nalliah, pastor of the unfortunately named ‘Catch the Fire Ministries’ and general asshole, decided to make a statement about the bushfires.

Charming.

Now, some of you might be saying “But wait a minute, didn’t the bill decriminalising abortion pass more than three months ago? What took God so long to notice? And didn’t the ACT decriminalise abortion years ago? And what’s with the flooding in Queensland, then? – they’ve got the strictest abortion laws in the country!”

And some of you might be saying “But wait, isn’t the idea that Satan can act openly in the world with God’s consent theologically troubling for a variety of reasons?”

And then, some of you might be saying “THE HELL WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU SICKENING BASTARD?!” I think there’s a fair bit of merit to that position…

Rant time.


On the plus side, in Ancient Greek today we had a fun discussion over whether in the passage we’re translating thanatos should be translated as simply ‘death’ or if death is being personified enough to justify a capital D...