Happy Volcano Day, Everyone! (probable SPOILERS)

Because Volcano Day is how I - a lifetime resident of Washington State - think of it. Never mind that it's also my cousin's birthday, and the anniversary of a car crash Abby and I were in in 2005; it is and always shall be Volcano Day to me. It's the reason I can't watch Dante's Peak in spite of Pierce Brosnan; I don't care how bad the science in the movie is, it seems all too plausible, especially as it begins with "Somewhere in the Cascade Mountain Range of Washington State..." It's also why the Firebird Suite is associated with Disney to me, and why I tend to skip over The Fires of Pompeii when re-watching Doctor Who episodes.

It did not occur to me today when +Laston Kirkland and I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness that it's Volcano Day. I went for the Star Trek and the Cumberbatch-y goodness, so I was a tiny bit taken aback when the movie opened with a volcano.

But it did.

Spock & Uhura, 1966

And the movie was just as epic as the name would imply.

Spock and Uhura, 2013

Now, I usually have an issue with remakes of films or books, never mind remakes of whole universes (don't get me started on Starship Troopers). But for some reason I have no beef with the Star Trek reboot; I find that I can accept it as an alternate universe and call it good. I see no issues in the Spock and Uhura relationship, for instance; it is subtly implied in the original series (and more overtly so in the Pocketbooks), and it seems fairly plausible to me. The woman is more than the telephone operator after all; she's a cultural specialist and linguist, she's extremely intelligent, and Spock has his mother's example as a cross-species relationship as being okay.

As I was very cross-fandom today, wearing my Doctor Who T-Shirt into a Star Trek movie. Also, I noticed a number of references to Who and Star Wars and other fandoms in the film itself, including a small but vital part played by one Noel Clarke. I thought it was him, but as he looked older than the role I know him best in, and I am a well-behaved movie-goer who does not search the IMDB on her smartphone during the movie, I had to wait until afterward. The references to Sherlock came fast and furious of course, with Cumberbatch playing a smarter-than-thou sociopath, with Reichenbach-style falls, while wearing a Badass Longcoat no less.

So very troperiffic.

And so very crowded; I haven't sat that close to the screen in more than twenty years, when Captain Von Tropp Christopher Plummer was a Klingon with an eye patch nailed to his skull. Of course, this is the first time I've gone to a blockbuster on opening weekend since then, too. My fellow geeks smell better these days.

In any case, it was a fun morning, and now we're on to a fairly relaxing afternoon, nothing but laundry and schoolwork on the work list; I plan on just taking it easy otherwise, getting well over this bronchitis before I start my new job Tuesday. I won't get to watch the season finale of Who until tomorrow night; please do not spoil me!