Your favorite Saavik?
Wiki (Wiki proper) Saavik rundown:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saavik
(ps. sorry, it should be “Robin Curtis”)
predicting a unanimous poll winner…
I posted Other. This is for a couple of reasons, I never really warmed up to the Saavik character. Also, Kirstie Alley didn’t repeat the roll because she did not want to be “stuck” as the Star Trek Chick the rest of her career. I felt this was somewhat shortsighted by her given how her career has ended up. She could have done the role again & still done other things given her success on Cheers.
If I may borrow a line from my friend Emily, Kirstie Alley blows with the power of 1000 suns. :mad: At least Tori was cute. Nuf said.
Kirstie Alley…mos def
the way she says “damn” is hot as hell
I want to say my vote for Kristie Alley I think came down just to the fact I like Star Trek II so much, because I also think that Robin Curtis did a great job as Saavik, even more so given she had to walk into a role that was already played by someone else.
I, for one, voted for Kirstie Alley just because she’s smokin’ hot. (Sorry, Uchiha.) Cavatar’s right: Curtis did a great job of portraying Saavik. But I couldn’t vote any other way.
It’d have been fun, BTW, to have included Kim Cattrall’s I’m-really-Saavik-but-we-didn’t-want-to-further-confuse-the-fans Valeris in this poll. That might’ve shook things up a bit.
I voted for Robin Curtis, and the only reason there is that I think Curtis played a better Vulcan than Alley. We went back and watched Wrath of Kahn after the Podcast and I have to say that she did a better job than I recall, but I always felt that Alley’s Saavik was a little too emotional. (Yes, I agree Kirstie Alley is hot, and hot Vulcans are definitely hot.)
FWIW, The wikipedia article mentions that part of the backstory established in Wrath of Kahn says Saavik was part Romulan… Who knew?
Oh, and BTW: As of this writing, I’m the only one who voted for Robin Curtis…
I voted for Kirstie Alley, because in the 2yrs between ST-II -Khan and ST-III, I probably saw Wrath of Khan a half a gazillion times and Kirstie Alley, was indelibly burned in my brain as Saavik.
Well I knew from the beginning. Was always a great bit of info to explain why she would act the way she did.
Also I was second to vote for Curtis. Met her a a local con. A very nice and wonderful person to meet.
It is also in a deleted scene, spock says “She is half Romulan Jim.” I think that it is still on you tube.
However I do not believe that it canon, but I could be wrong. I also would like to add that Alley did a better job playing a half Vulcan where Curtis I feel played a better pure Vulcan.
Yeah, but all the same I’m glad they made Valeris a new character. I would have hated to have been left thinking, forever and always, that Saavik was a traitor… not to mention, Valeris’ pure-blood-Vulcan xenophobia would not have been in character for Saavik, who seemed very open to working with humans (she seems fairly close to David in ST III – and, if you read the novelization, you know she is!)
I’ve read that was Rodenberry’s argument as well, that he didn’t want to turn Saavik into an enemy after we’d already accepted her as a protagonist.
Huh. Yeah, it sounds like something GR would have argued, although he never wanted to have our “heroes” turn out to be baddies. I wonder what he would’ve thought (or did think) about [spoiler] the “Klingon” assassin in ST VI turning out to be Col. Wolf (give it up for Rene Auberjonois!) in the director’s cut of the film – and if that’s why the character was excised completely from the theatrical release. [/spoiler]
Roddenberry had NO SAY on trek movies and was not solicited for oppinion. He didn’t create the character and had no ownership of the property. He was involved in Star Trek , in name only, until TNG. He didn’t like (actually hated TWOK because it made Starfleet …and I quote him…“look like a military” which is stupid since he gave them all ranks and uniforms. And, he didn’t like any of the later movies) anything about the movies. He thought that Star Trek was supposed to be boreing ass first two seasons of TNG. With a time travel movie to stop the Kennedy assination.
OK… I just finished ST VI. I hadn’t seen it since it came out. So I wasn’t sure what Chuck meant.
When I first read Chuck’s post, I forgot about Valeris and her role in the movie. I thought they just introduced a new character, and it was a cosmetic thing. If I could retcon the Saavik poll, I’d include Valeris.
Now that I’ve seen VI: The Undiscovered Saavik – which is great, by the way – I’ve gotta say: Chuck makes a helluva point. I was initially going to say that Saavik wouldn’t do [the Valeris thing], that her moral fiber was stronger. But after thinking it through, maybe she would have. In fact, if we take choose to see her as half-Romulan, it even makes more sense that she would. Even if we read her as pure Vulcan, it’d still make a helluva twist.
(I’m being oblique and vague so as to avoid spoilage.)
So I now choose to pretend that Valeris was, in fact, Saavik. That makes Vi an even better continuation of the II-III-IV arc.
ps. In the Trek II opening credits, it’s neat to see “And introducing Kirstie Alley” credit.
Nah, I respectfully disagree. You shoulda stuck with your first instinct. It’s like in the Harry Potter books: the “purebloods” are the ones who are out to get everyone else, not the “mudbloods.” Saavik, if she is a Vulcan-Romulan hybrid (and I choose to believe she is), would inherently have a leg up on understanding the wonder of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations – so something like what Valeris did would be repugnant to her. Plus, one gets the feeling that she knew Spock better than Valeris did. In fact, as I was starting to rewatch VI today, I thought, “Wow, what a lapse in judgment Spock made picking that one to be his successor!”
I voted Kirstie Alley. She has great off-duty hair for a Vulcan (the turbo-lift scene with Kirk, and the quick “Did she change her hairstyle?” between Kirk and Bones immediately thereafter is just classic Trek), and she had the guts to pilot a starship out of space dock (hell, Kirk’s beloved Enterprise no less, with Kirk standing on the bridge!!) Alley did a fine job, imho, of playing a new character in an established beloved ensemble cast without coming across as a complete tool.
What Topgun said. 
As I recall, McIntyre adds the following exchange in that elevator scene, after Saavik leaves and McCoy says, “Wonderful stuff, that Romulan ale.”
KIRK: Yes. It’s a great memory restorative.
McCOY: Oh?
KIRK: Makes me remember why I never drink it.
BTW, I must say that, although I get the “gist” of McCoy’s remark – it is some kind of innuendo – it doesn’t quite make sense. Is it, perhaps, the only remaining on-screen “evidence” of Saavik’s half-Romulan heritage? Otherwise, would a reference to a drink he and Kirk shared the night before (?) make sense in the flow of the conversation?
Yes, I know I shouldn’t think too deeply about such things, but that’s what geeks do, right?