Sunday, April 12, 2009

Saavik: Hottest babe in a scifi film? I say yes.

Kirstie Alley was the perfect Saavik. Then she *had* to let success to get to her head and ask for a bigger paycheck. I was rewatching ST2 today and it just occurred to me that Saavik actually was the only Vulcan female in the history of Star Trek to have a decent hairstyle. Robin Curtis had this really horrible do that kinda looked like a mullet. Valeris was just like every other Vulcan female, rocking that horrible bowl cut thing that Vulcans and Romulans love. Only it always looks awful. I dunno, I always had a serious crush on Saavik when I watched ST2 as a kid. Alley was really great at portraying a half-Vulcan/half-Romulan hybrid. Robin Curtis just acted really wooden, which isn't the same as acting Vulcan.

Do you think it should've been Saavik instead of Valeris in Undiscovered Country? I'm totally with Meyer on that. It would've been a great callback to TWOK. The only thing is, I would've wanted Kirstie Alley to do it. And she probably wouldn't, since she was so famous as Rebecca Howe over on Cheers. Meaning an even larger salary demand. Really really would not have wanted Kim Cattrall to play Saavik. That would've been awful.

Am I being too hard on Robin Curtis? Did you like her? She's probably a nice person in real life, but she butchered Saavik beyond recognition. Let's put it this way. At the end of Star Trek 2, you felt like Saavik was a part of the crew, as much as Chekov or Sulu. That's pretty impressive. She's standing right there with them at Spock's funeral. And I felt like she deserved to be there, she'd earned her place at the table. With all that she'd done at the conn throughout the film, I thought she was a pretty great character and definitely more then just a glorified extra. As opposed to, say... Wedge Antilles, a guy who has maybe two lines of dialogue in a film and then goes on to have about 15-20 novels devoted to his life for some reason. I'm not saying that Saavik's the main reason, but people consider TWOK to be the best, and I'd venture to say that Alley's portrayal of that character is one of many factors that lift that film above the others.

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