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carpooling-the-internet · 8 months

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Star Trek fanfic recs

A long list of some of my all time favorite Star Trek fics. Not in any order. I just combed through my ao3 bookmarks for fics that still resonate with me and really blew me away. I will try to tag the authors if I can find blogs for them. If you know an authors blog I haven’t tagged, please tag them!

I dont have the spoons to write lil reviews for each fic bc theres toooooo many but maybe I’ll come back and edit some in sometime.

And eventually I’m gonna make a list like this for Sherlock Holmes and a few other fandoms. Also want to make one specific to podfics. We’ll see what happens first! This took me way longer than I thought it would…

Recs below the cut!

Star Trek TOS and AOS

The Thousandth Man (56187 words) by Ophelia_j In the wake of pon farr, the events on Vulcan are weighing heavy on Spock and his Captain. But will their attempt to fix the problem only make things worse?

The effect of sucrose on Vulcans (2290 words) by Ophelia_j After a successful diplomatic mission, Jim begins to suspect there's something wrong with Spock. Some Old Married Spirk Fluff for the 2019 OMS Challenge, for the awesome plaidshirtjimkirk.

The Eleventh Hour (8551 words) by Ophelia_j During a joint lecture at the Academy, Spock senses that Kirk is growing tired of the secrecy around their relationship and takes steps to resolve the matter.

A Crazy Little Thing Called Love (14940 words) by VTsuion The development of Kirk and Spock's relationship over the course of The Original Series, told in a series of off-screen moments.

The World Turned Upside Down (24777 words) by Jenna Hilary Sinclair On a planet torn by civil war, Kirk must battle insurgents, a Vulcan Healer, and his own heartbreak to find his way to Spock.

The Ren shat'var Trilogy (184,403 words) by CateAdams A split-second decision changes Jim's life forever, as he enters into a bond with Spock in the face of certain torture. Enemies to the Federation emerge from unlikely places, and the command team must contend with unexpected threats, as well as challenges within their own intense relationship. In this three-part series, the Enterprise races across the galaxy to confront the unknown, and Jim and Spock discover the true significance of their unprecedented connection.

First, Best Destiny - Parts One and Two (387733 words) by Ophelia_j A novel-length retelling of original Star Trek canon through the lens of one of the greatest relationships ever committed to film. Using missing scenes, episode tags, and original story-telling. Ultimately a Generations fix-it.

All the Time in the World (27856 words) by LSPINGLES The death of Edith Keeler affects Kirk and Spock in different ways. Spock invites Kirk to come with him to Vulcan to heal. Along the way the learn something about their feelings for each other.

Spice (276553 words) by eimeo It’s a question of biology. Vulcan biology. The problem with falling in love with a member of an insanely private species is that it just might take you the best part of a five year mission to work out that the feelings are requited. And then you might discover that he’s already decided that the two of you can never be together. And what are you supposed to do if he won’t tell you why?

Fulfilling the Needs of the One (Or the Both) (8741 words) by plaidshirtjimkirk Spock begins to wonder if his relationship with Jim has been one-sided in his own favor.

Touch Upon the Wonders that You See (4071 words) by waldorph Sarek does not always understand his son, but that does not mean he does not love him.

Entering Orbit (30957 words) by museaway Jim escapes to Iowa to avoid the media frenzy following the Narada incident, but a late-night miscommunication results in Spock turning up on his front porch.

Something Smart to Do (21322 words) by kianspo In which Jim finds himself fake-married to his first officer every other month. It's not his fault. Mostly. Dowries and Klingons are involved. Starfleet is decidedly not amused.

Don't Stop Believing (205901 words) by kianspo The story follows Spock from his own days as a cadet at Starfleet Academy to the ‘present day’ when he’s Kirk’s first officer and the Enterprise is on its five-year mission. Essentially, the story of Spock’s first real love followed by the story of him finding the love of his life. Ad astra per aspera.

And Then I Let It Go (10632 words) by kianspo Post-Star Trek Beyond. The crew of the Enterprise gets a breather while they are waiting for their new ship. Jim uses the time to do something he had sworn he would never do.

The Lotus Eaters (93594 words) by aldora89 Stranded on the planet Sigma Nox while searching for a missing away team, Spock and Kirk find themselves pitted against a disturbing native life form. With the captain out of commission on a regular basis and Spock struggling to preserve his stoicism, staying alive is difficult enough – but when a slim chance for escape surfaces, their resolve is truly put to the test. Together they must fight for survival in the heart of an alien jungle, and in the process, uncover the mystery of the planet’s past. Slow build K/S.

Atlas (135529 words) by distractedKat Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning. A novel-length continuation of the 2009 movie told in four parts. Cross-posted from FFN. PODFIC AVAILABLE! https://archiveofourown.org/works/652116/chapters/1187249

The Word Withheld (12032 words) by j_s_cavalcante After retrieving Kirk from the interspatial rift of "The Tholian Web," Spock realizes his oath to Starfleet and his service aboard the Enterprise are in jeopardy because he has denied to himself—and withheld from Kirk—a certain truth about the nature of the Vulcan relationship called "t’hy’la."

this is what happens when you save earth, apparently (5454 words) by WerewolvesAreReal “So, why haven't you settled down with some lucky lady yet?” the interviewer asks. Maybe it's the blinding set-lights, or the fact that he hasn't slept in thirty-five hours. But for some reason Kirk blurts, “Honestly, they all end up getting jealous of Spock.”

Four times the Enterprise Crew didn´t realize that their commanding officers were married to each other and one time they finally found out (4130 words) by razzleberryicedtea In which Spock and Jim casually forget to mention that they are married, and the Enterprise crew is too oblivious to notice on their own

A Star to Steer By (32043 words) by Borealisblue Kidnapped, injured, and headed towards Romulan space, Kirk could only be grateful that his last act was saving Spock from the same fate. And all it had cost was a stolen kiss.

An Open Secret (3495 words) by TransScribe Amanda Grayson knew her son. She could read him, easily. That might've been why she had suspicions about his relationship long before he said anything. It was more likely because subtlety was not a trait Spock had inherited.

the book of love (7297 words) by miss_frankenstein When yet another away mission goes awry, Jim and Spock are left stranded on a hostile planet with nothing to do but talk. What follows is a conversation about art and literature, life and death, love and friendship.

Take My Hand (My Whole Life Too) (5981 words) by pastmydancingdays Whilst in one of the most dangerous situations of his life, Jim Kirk came to a realisation that he should have had a very long time ago. Two, in fact, and he was about to let neither go to waste. A potential epilogue to Amok Time.

Ashayam (3378 words) by Willowe Spock knows he has no right to refer to Jim as any sort of endearment, even in the privacy of his own thoughts. If he had only listened to this logic he wouldn't find himself in this position, standing on the bridge having just called his captain "ashayam".

@ophelia-j

@razzleberryicedtea

@vtsuion

@plaidshirtjimkirk

@cate-adams

@pastmydancingdays

@werewolves-are-real

@eimeo-blog

@aldora89-blog

@museaway

@kianspo

@lspingles

@waldorph

@miss-frankenstein

#Star Trek #tos #aos #fanfiction #fic recs #ao3 #star trek the original series #star trek 2009 #star trek reboot

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Finale Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains MAJOR spoilers for the Season 1 finale.

In terms of references, if “No Small Parts” was the only episode of Star Trek you’d ever seen, you would have been given a crash course on the entire franchise. Seriously, if you wanted to explain to someone, very quickly, what Star Trek was about, it would probably be easier to just have them watch the 26-minutes of the Star Trek: Lower Decks finale, “No Small Parts.” The Easter eggs and references start with The Original Series and end up with a big shout-out to the TNG movies, the infamous Enterprise finale, and one officially licensed Star Trek toy that is somehow now canon.

Beta III and Landru

The episode opens with the USS Cerritos in orbit of Beta III, the planet from the TOS episode “The Return of the Archons.” In that episode, people all worshiped a bizarre god called Landru, but Kirk and Spock determined that Landru was a computer. Landru encouraged people to go nuts once a day during something called “The Red Hour,” which is kind of like the Trek version of The Purge. Ben Stiller also named his production company “The Red Hour,” a fact which he discussed at length in the first episode of the new Star Trek podcast, The Pod Directive, which is co-hosted by Tawny Newsome, better known to Lower Decks fans as the voice of Beckett Mariner.

Wondering about the word “return” in the episode “Return of the Archons?” Well, the titular Archons were actually humans from an Earth ship called the Archon. The people of Beta III were actually waiting for “the return of the Archons,” meaning, humans from Earth. So, with the Cerritos back at this planet, this is the third time the “Archons” have returned.

Kirk and Spock from TAS

On Ransom’s padd, when he’s talking about Kirk and Spock figuring out that Landru “was a computer,” we see an image of Kirk and Spock, exactly as they appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973 and 1974. This is the first time that exact animated series depictions of Trek characters have appeared in another Trek series.

Don’t make me paradox you into destroying yourself!

Captain Freeman’s threat to Landru references one of Kirk’s famous talking-a-computer-to-death speeches at the end of the same episode, “Return of the Archons.” Kirk also famously talked other AIs to death in “The Changeling” and “I, Mudd.”

“TOS Era”

Ransom says it’s “always weird visiting planets from the TOS era.” Freeman naturally questions him on this, and he explains it’s what he calls the 2260s because it was filled with “Those Old Scientists,” or TOS. Obviously, the joke here is that “TOS” is what fans have been calling Star Trek: The Original Series, since, well, there’s been a Next Generation or TNG.

“A Gamester of Triskelion or whatever”

Freeman says she never wants people to get taken advantage of by “a gamester of triskelion.” This references the TOS episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” who are revealed to be talking brains who make bets using a currency known as “quatloos.”

Captain Freeman Day

Boimler mentions that the Cerritos has a “Captain Freeman Day,” which references Captain Picard Day from the TNG episode, “The Pegasus.” This is the third time in 2020 that a new Trek series has referenced Captain Picard Day. In the first episode of Picard — “Remembrance” — Jean-Luc revisited the Captain Picard Day banner. And, in Episode 5 of Lower Decks, Captain Picard Day was also referenced outright.

Exocomp

The robot named Peanut Hamper is an Excocomp, a type of sentient artificial life first seen in the TNG episode “The Quality of Life.” In that episode, the Exocomps were recognized as being sentient in 2369. Lower Decks happens in 2380, so it seems like a lot has happened since then. “The Quality of Life” was also directed by Jonathan Frakes, who, spoiler alert, appears in this episode of Lower Decks.

Wesley Crusher worked with his mom!

Mariner tries to deflect accusations of nepotism by pointing out that “Wesley Crusher worked with his mom!” This is true! In TNG, Wesley Crusher became an acting ensign on the Enterprise while his mother was a member of the senior staff. Both Crushers were often in staff meetings together! Notably, this episode also ends with Riker and Troi and the USS Titan. Riker and Troi are married and serve together as Captain and ship’s Counselor.

Wolf 359 was an inside job

Mariner’s bad one-time-date tells her “Wolf 359 was an inside job.” This joke is hilarious, but you can also kind of see why people in Starfleet might believe it. After all, the guy who destroyed most of the Starfleet ships at Wolf 359 was Picard, who had been assimilated by the Borg in “The Best of Both Worlds.” Semantically, because the Borg stole knowledge from Picard’s mind and used him to take down Starfleet, they had inside information.

As he’s leaving, Conspiracy Theory Guy says “Changelings aren’t real, the Dominion War didn’t happen!” This references the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine, which was mostly perpetrated by the shape-shifting race of aliens called The Founders but more commonly called, Changelings.

Kalla system and the Pakleds

The faked distress call in this episode comes from the Kalla system. This references the TNG episode “Firstborn,” in which the Kalla system is mentioned as a place the Pakleds hang out.

However, the Pakleds themselves only appeared in one TNG episode ever, “The Samaritan Snare.” As Boimler and Freeman point out, people thought they were a joke back then, too, but it turns out, they’re not anymore!

Apparently, people eat salmon on First Contact Day

Ransom says the Pakled ship is carving up the Cerritos like a “First Contact Day salmon.” First Contact Day references the First Contact, where the Vulcans first formally landed on Earth and met humans. Why would people eat salmon on First Contact Day? Well, First Contact happened in Montana, so maybe, just maybe, there were salmon there?

Mariner’s contraband

We knew in Lower Decks episode 1, that Mariner had hidden various outlawed items throughout the ship. But, in this scene, we see way more of it. Here’s a breakdown of Mariner’s stuff.

A Tribble from “The Trouble With Tribbles” et al. Mariner later says she uses it for “personal reasons.”

A fencing foil. This references Sulu fighting with a sword like this in “The Naked Time.” It also references Mariner telling Boimler that he could become a “sword guy” in the first Lower Decks episode, “Second Contact.”

A bottle of Klingon Bloodwine

A Klingon Bat’leth

And…a “Spock” helmet. This helmet is based on a toy from the ‘70s produced by AHI. For years, fans have pointed out the helmet has nothing to do with Spock or Star Trek, despite the fact that it was sold as a real Star Trek toy. Ethan Peck jokingly unboxed one of these vintage Spock helmets in December 2019 on StarTrek.com. The fact that Marnier has one of these helmets as “contraband,” seems to imply the Spock helmet is canon. Other than Xon, this Easter egg might be Lower Deck’s deepest, deepest cut.

Peanut Hamper’s Refusal to Help

When Peanut Hamper the Exocomp says she’ll “pass” on helping save the ship, Tendi says “What about the needs of the many?” This references Spock’s famous axiom from The Wrath of Khan: “The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.”

USS Titan entrance

Although Riker’s USS Titan has been referenced several times on Lower Decks, and one officer even found himself transferred there in Episode 6, this is the first time we actually get to see Riker’s Luna-class starship in action. The way the Titan looks matches with its appearance on the covers of non-canon novels, as does its register number: NCC-80102. In 2379, Riker became the captain of the Titan and Troi, the ship’s counselor.

RED ALERT!

Riker says RED ALERT twice in these Titan scenes. Once when the ship makes its big entrance, and again when he says “We’re still at Red Alert!” This references Riker’s habit for saying “RED ALERT” really, really loud on TNG.

Riker’s first officer seems to be the same species as Linus from Star Trek: Discovery

The alien in the First Officer’s chair looks very much like the Saurian (lizard person) Linus from Star Trek: Discovery. In theory, “Saurians” have been in canon for a long time — Bones and Kirk drank Saurian brandy in TOS, and a Saurian was a prominent background character in The Motion Picture.

Romulan Ale

Mariner says that Riker is “flush with Romulan Ale.” Although Lower Decks referenced Romulan Whiskey in its first episode, this is the first reference to Romulan Ale. In Nemesis, Riker and Troi had Romulan Ale served at their wedding. So, Troi saying “We’ll talk about this,” might reference the idea that she had assumed that all the Romulan Ale had already been drunk.

Starship refit

Captain Freeman insists that she doesn’t want the Cerritos to have cosmetic changes, saying “I hate it when a ship gets repaired and comes out looking all-Sovereign-class.” This references the idea that the original TOS Enterprise looked very different after its refit in The Motion Picture. But, more specifically, it references the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise-E, the ship that replaced the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: First Contact.

Jax’s Death

Jax is the security chief of the USS Cerritos and unexpectedly dies in the first season of a new Star Trek show. This could reference Tasha Yar — the security chief of the Enterprise — who died in the first season of TNG. Jax’s funeral echo’s Spock’s funeral in The Wrath of Khan, but also, Airiam’s funeral in the Star Trek: Discovery episode “The Red Angel.”

Riker calls Carol Freeman his cha’dich

Like Mariner calling Boimler his “cha’dich,” in “Second Contact,” Riker calls Freeman — Mariner’s mom — the same thing. “Cha’dich” is a Klingon term that means someone is basically someone’s loyal assistant, who does their fighting for them. Picard was Worf’s “cha’dich” in the TNG episode “Sins of the Father.”

We don’t use money anymore

Riker tells Mariner “Why don’t you buy me a drink!” Mariner replies “We don’t use money anymore.” This references the fact that most people in the Federation don’t use money. Kirk says something very similar in The Voyage Home when Dr. Taylor says: “Don’t tell me you don’t use money in the 23rd century,” to which Kirk replies, “Well, we don’t!”

Tulgana IV

The planet the Titan is headed for at the very end of the episode is Tulgana IV. This is the same planet Boimler and Mariner visited in the second Lower Decks episode, “Envoys.”

Boimler has a picture of Jack Ransom in his new quarters?

It really looks like that Boimler has a round photo of Ransom in a place of honor in his new quarters. This is hilarious and weird. Does Boimler think Ransom actually was his friend?

Armus

Mariner is so angry that Boimler left the ship without telling her that she says: “I’m going to feed you to an Armus!” This references the oil-slick alien Armus from the TNG episode “Skin of Evil.” Again, this is the creature who killed Tasha Yar.

Riker is still obsessed with the NX-01 Enterprise

Riker says he is late to the bridge because “I was watching the first Enterprise on the holodeck, You know Archer and those guys.” This references the infamous finale of Enterprise called “These Are the Voyages…” which is framed as Riker interacting in a holodeck simulation that recreates the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise.

Little Risa and the Little Horga’hn

Riker and Troi talk about visiting “Little Risa” on Tulgana IV, which prompts Troi to ask if “we should bring the little Horga’hn.” This references a statue called the Horga’hn which you’re supposed to display openly on Risa if you want to well…get busy. In TNG’s “Captain’s Holiday,” Riker tricked Picard into picking up a statue.

Oh the Jazz

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Riker’s warp speed catchphrase is: “Give me warp in the factor of 5, 6, 7, 8!” He snaps and counts down to this like he’s getting ready to play jazz. Troi says “Oh the Jazz,” which seems to reference her annoyance with this obsession. In “Second Chances,” Troi mocks Riker for being unable to play a certain trombone solo correctly on a song called “Nightbird.” Riker’s interest in playing jazz, specifically the trombone, started with the episode “11001001.” Most recently, Riker was listening to jazz in the Picard episode “Nepenthe,” when Jean-Luc showed up at his house. And now that Lower Decks has put Boimler on the USS Titan, it seems very, very likely that we’ll be hearing more of Riker’s jazz trombone playing in season 2. Hit it!

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Finale Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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captainsbabysitter-blog · 6 years

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Matchmakers We Are Not

Pairing: McKirk (who’s surprised?)

Length: 828 words

Rating: G

Summary: for @yallneedtrek‘s challenge. My prompt? Professors AU with the line “you’re ridiculous.”

Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov have noticed that their favorite literature professor Jim Kirk frequently has lunch with Dr. Leonard McCoy, professor in the medical department, quite a lot. They decide a bit of matchmaking is in order...

I know this is wicked short, but writing for me has been like pulling teeth lately, so I’ll take what I can manage to put to paper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknow, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error, and upon me prov’d,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.”

The silence that rang out at the end of the impassioned recitation was equal parts awe and confusion. Jim grinned at his class of glassy-eyed students and continued on, “For those of you that don’t recognize Shakespeare’s more obscure sonnets, that was Sonnet 116. Today we start our section on poetry- Shakespeare, Lorde, Dickens, Hughes, and many, many more! Now I hear those groans and I’m telling you now that this won’t be your typical literary take on poetry. I won’t have you pouring over the hidden meanings behind Robert Frost or agonizing over the angst and symbolism hidden in Poe. My goal here is to introduce the idea that everyone has a favorite poet whether they realize it at this moment or not.”

Class continued as it always did; Jim lectured on the nuances of the various forms of poetry, giving as many examples as he felt his students needed and answered questions as they came until he caught a glimpse of someone waving through the door about ten minutes before the end of class. He couldn’t help but smile as he said, “Alright I think I’m getting enough glassy eyes for now. Next class, I want each of you to have a poem of your choice picked out. Now don’t get something too short because you’ll be working on that poem for the next three weeks.”

In the mad dash to leave, a few students noticed the man waiting for them to vacate with lunchboxes in hand. Pavel leaned in to whisper, “Who’s that?”

“That’s professor McCoy,” Hikaru murmured back. “He teaches undergrad bio and a bunch of classes in the med department. I had him last semester he’s brutal. Wonder what he’s doing here?”

“Well he’s got lunchboxes?” Pavel points out. “Maybe having lunch with the professor?”

The two of them hung around outside, curious to see what would happen next, but it was just the two of them heading to Jim’s office across the hall to eat lunch and chat. That didn’t stop the roommates from continuing to talk about it long after they returned back to their dorm.

“Now that I think about it, I remember Jim showing up a bunch during bio last semester.”

“Maybe they’re dating,” Pavel suggested as he flipped through a textbook for the right chapter.

“With the way Jim looks at him? Maybe. I don’t think so, though.”

“Maybe they should be.” It was the perfect excuse to let himself be distracted from physics, but he still tried to focus. Instead, he snapped the book shut and turned to Hikaru. “Maybe we should try to get them together?”

“Exactly what I was thinking. But how the hell are we supposed to do that?”

It turned out they were terrible matchmakers. Or maybe matchmaking was just better left to professionals (which they clearly weren’t) because every attempt seemed to backfire.

First it was the fake love note from a secret admirer. That just led to Hikaru being sat down by Professor Kirk who, not unkindly, informed him that not only was his (handwritten) note inappropriate, it could get him into trouble with the ethics board if someone started making accusations.

Then it was Pavel hacking into email accounts and making plans with what he thought were flirtatious overtones, but that must just be how they talk to each other. Spying on their impromptu “date” just generated frustration when the two men ate and talked as amiably as they ever did.

As the semester dragged on, their attempts became more and more overt. The rest of their classmates seemed just as interested in these romance novel-level shenanigans and began helping to come up with new and interesting ways to push their professors together.

By the end of the fall semester, everyone seemed disheartened and were ready to give up.

Jim and Leonard watched it all with an air of bemused interest.

“Think we should tell them?” Len asked with a smile as the same student passed through the courtyard where they say bundled up in scarves and coats against the impending winter chill.

“I told them that if everyone gets at least a B on their final paper, I’d give them a surprise. I’ll tell them then.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Len huffs back.

“And you married me,” Jim counters with a grin.

Tagging: @auduna-druitt @pinkamour1588 @thefanficfaerie @yallneedtrek @bookcaseninja @zaczytanka-fangirl @ravencourt @chook007 @awkward-danii @cheesybadgers @whatif-animagineblog @ussihavelovedthestarstoofondly @missesworldchamp @aishahiwatari @marnieforever @reading-in-moonlight @gracieminabox @thevalesofanduin

Want to be added to my tag list? See the link in my blog description!

#mckirk #jim kirk #leonard mccoy #tia writes

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Visions of Dune: Bringing the Ultimate Sci-Fi Epic to Life

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The story of 2021’s Dune begins with a kid falling in love with a book. Before he was the world-famous film director of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve was a teenager who devoured sci-fi novels. When he was “between 13 and 14,” he remembered seeing “these eyes.” The iridescent blue eyes were on the face of a man staring at the young Villeneuve, painted by Wojciech Siudmak, for the 1970 French paperback translation of Dune. Villeneuve was utterly mesmerized by the cover. “When you’re a kid, the covers can really make an impact,” he says. “The artists that were drawing them were so talented that even though I had never heard of Dune, I was drawn to that title and the simplicity. I was always attracted to the desert.”

Like many serious readers of science fiction, Villeneuve’s obsession with Dune began free of artistic pretension. “I instantly fell in love with it for several reasons,” he says. “The way Paul is trying to find his identity while finding his home in another culture, with the Fremen. I was fascinated by the way they need to survive and adapt…I have always been in love with biology, the science of life, of nature. The way Frank Herbert used biology was insanely beautiful. To me, reading Dune is like a paradise. The book stayed with me all these years.”

When you talk to Villeneuve now, childhood giddiness illuminates the corners of everything we’re talking about. Yes, Villeneuve loved Star Wars, too (“The Empire Strikes Back is always good for the soul,” he says). But what makes Dune so much different from other popular heroic epics is that, despite the escapist sweep of the story, its underlying message is anything but escapist. The story of Paul Atreides is not an aww-shucks hero’s journey. In her 1978 review of Star Wars, Ursula K. Le Guin referred to the protagonist of that film as “Huck Skywalker.” And when you think of the story of Dune in that way, no one would confuse Paul Atreides with any member of the Skywalker clan.

The story of Dune concerns a powerful family—House Atreides—being pushed into a terrible situation on the planet Arrakis by opposing forces on all sides. Smack dab in the middle of that is the notion that Paul could—and will—initiate a huge uprising against his enemies at some point in the future. Paul, and his parents—Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac)—set out to do good, but create even more conflict as a result.

“At the very core of Dune is a warning,” Villeneuve says. “Anyone who is trying to blend religion and politics—that is a dangerous cocktail. I think Herbert wrote it as a warning, [against] leaders that pretend to know what will happen, who pretend to know the truth, who might be lacking humility. When someone behaves like a Messiah, you have to be careful.”

A Boy and His Sandworms

One of the messiahs of Dune is a guy destined to have multiple names: Muad’Dib, the Kwisatz Haderach, and, of course, Paul Atreides. On our planet, he’s known as Timothée Chalamet. Ferguson says that Chalamet’s unique qualities as an actor were the “essential” elements that make the movie work. “Timmy brings the smaller to the grander,” she says. “He’s carrying this huge movie, and it’s lazy of me to use this word, but he brings such an indie feel to it.”

When it comes to “indie” films that nearly everyone knows about, Timothée Chalamet is one of the most famous male actors on the planet in 2021. From his roles in Call Me By Your Name to Little Women, Chalamet has the kind of star power that is subtle and undefinable, because as Ferguson points out, he’s not playing the role to seem like a big movie hero. Paul Atreides is the opposite of a Han Solo or Captain Kirk type, and so is Chalamet. “I always tried to bring Paul Atreides back to the ground,” Villeneuve says. “I told Timothée, you are the hero, of course, you are a tremendous fighter. But I think you have the burden of having a very strong instinct that will be boosted by spice.”

Chalamet reveals that in terms of becoming that “tremendous fighter,” some of his hand-to-hand training happened in a wine cellar while filming Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. Chalamet also asserts that working with Villeneuve on Dune didn’t feel like being involved in a Hollywood blockbuster, and that transitioning from The French Dispatch to Dune made perfect sense. “It felt like working on a high-level indie,” Chalamet says. “I haven’t worked with the Coen Brothers, but I imagine it would be like this, just on a bigger scale. The Dark Knight is what made me want to act. It has incredible behavioral specifics. It has incredible performances and in the middle of it are sweeping cinematic sequences. In a way, Dune is like that. When you can get on a project of this size that has this much dramatic integrity, working with one of the best directors in the world right now, it’s exactly what I wanted.”

Chalamet says that beyond fight training, immersing himself into the world of Dune and “spending time with the props,” was important to feel a connection to the objects of Paul’s world. He also didn’t shy away from the idea that this was yet another adaptation of a beloved book. “I learned that from Greta Gerwig when I did Little Women. Nobody minds another good movie based on a good book.”

But for Chalamet, the journey isn’t quite over. “I’m champing at the bit to film Part 2,” he says. “I read all of Dune Messiah in lockdown. I’m ready.”

A New Dune, For Everyone

Perhaps unfairly, being really into Dune carries with it a kind of connotation that only the truly nerdy at heart get why science fiction devotees are so obsessed with the spice. John Hodgman makes two jokes about “Third Stage Guild Navigators” in his book Medallion Status. In Russian Doll, Nadia uses the phrase “Jodorowsky’s Dune” as a nerdy password to gain access to a back room. When Patrick Stewart was cast in Star Trek: The Next Generation, to his fellow castmates he was “the guy from I, Claudius,” while to writers like Michael Chabon, he was “the guy from Dune.” Unlike Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, the broad appeal of Dune has always been tentative. But, in addition to Chalamet’s favorable comparison to The Dark Knight, Villeneuve makes it clear that the purpose of this Dune wasn’t to just make book readers happy.

“It would be so easy to make a Dune movie only for hardcore fans,” Villeneuve says. “My goal was to please the hardcore fans, that they feel the spirit, the poetry, and the atmosphere of the book—but to make sure that someone who had never heard about Dune would also have fun and understand the story. I had to make sure that everyone would be on board right at the beginning.” To that end, the new Dune sports a radical narrative shift from the source material. In this version, the opening narration and framing of the story is given by Chani (Zendaya), a member of the Fremen tribe, native to Arrakis.

Villeneuve describes this as one of his “bold” decisions but stresses that the narrative point of view doesn’t change the story at all. Logistically, the story of Dune is about House Atreides coming to take over the spice mining on the planet Arrakis. The native Fremen have been abused and tortured by previous occupiers, House Harkonnen, so in the new opening narration, Chani wonders “who will be our new oppressors,” a line not spoken in the book. Instead, the narrative framing of the novel is from the quasi-historical point of view of Princess Irulan, a woman Paul eventually marries for purely political reasons. So, what Villeneuve has done by giving the opening narration to Chani is flip the point of view from the aristocracy to the working class.

Villeneuve also says that elevating Chani’s role, and the roles of several of the female characters, was all because the movie required “bold” decisions to become the best film version of the story possible. “A book and a movie are totally different mediums. I had to make certain decisions. This is why I decided to make the first book into two movies. I had to condense some ideas to tell the story in the most eloquent way possible so that it will be understood by everybody,” Villeneuve says. But he’s also quick to point out that adaptation is not the same as leaving things out on purpose. “When you adapt it’s an act of vandalism. You will change things. But, from the beginning, I said to the crew, to the studio, to the actors: ‘the bible is the book. We will, as much as possible, stay as close as possible to the book.’ I want people who love the book to feel like we put a camera in their minds.”

Ferguson’s Lady Jessica is arguably the character who sets the story of Dune into motion. In this future-world, the mystical matriarchal order of the Bene Gesserit can control the sex of babies that are born into its sisterhood. And in defiance of her orders from her fellow Bene Gesserit, Jessica had a son, instead of a daughter. Jessica asserting her right to choose, in essence, makes it all happen. Ferguson believes the emotional power of these stories is more important for audiences than the nitty-gritty specifics. “We can go into some kind of nano version of ourselves, but if it doesn’t read through on the screen, to the audience, it isn’t worth doing.”

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