Friday, May 22, 2009

Let's Do the Time Warp Again


I'm a huge fan of the new Star Trek movie. I grew up with the original movies (although, at five, I don't think I really understood much about the plots) so it was great to see the same characters doing new, awesome things. In order to do the whole 'reboot' thing, they had to fiddle around with the characters' reality. And maybe one point was unintentional--because now, the Beastie Boys might be responsible for the Vulcan nerve pinch.


"We know the new movie takes place around Stardate 2248, which actually corresponds to our Gregorian calendar. So it’s not inconceivable then that a young Kirk would have access to an antique Corvette. But what was surprising about that early scene in the movie is...the manner with which he used the Beastie Boys song 'Sabotage.'
There’s no indication in the new movie that the Vulcan nerve pinch was taught to Spock by the Vulcan elders. But we do know for a fact that around 1997 or so, The Beastie Boys wrote a song with the line: 'If you try to knock me you’ll get mocked / I’ll stir fry you in my wok / Your knees’ll start shaking and your fingers pop / Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock.'"


So maybe, instead of learning an old Vulcan trick, Spock heard these lyrics about himself and figured he'd give it a try. The Beastie Boys aren't just a bunch of immature rockers; they're the developers of an intergalactic battle move.

Okay, so it's probably not what the sound designers were going for when they chose "Sabotage" for the movie. But they did open up a whole can of worms for themselves--or at least, for the people on the internet who notice this kind of thing.

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