jlh | wow it's some really short star trek aos meta with bonus picture!

The original series is structured to be about the trio—Kirk, McCoy and Spock. And the original movies, in many ways and for many reasons, shrink that focus down to Kirk and Spock. I know some felt that Uhura replaced McCoy in the trio in the new movie, but I disagree. I think the new movie—AOS—is a quad:

I've always felt that Uhura was added without taking anything away from Bones, and that great Spock/Uhura essay that showed her parallel role to McCoy's illustrates that. We're familiar with the Roddenberry quote about Kirk, Spock and McCoy being three parts of one person—courageous/logical/humanistic. While I was thinking about that the other week I listened to a talk about four means of service mentioned in the Gospels—heart, soul, mind, and strength. It struck me how well those four ways map to this new foursome—McCoy heart of course, Spock mind, Kirk strength (or action) and Uhura soul (as we saw sometimes in TOS). It's a structure that works for me, and one I think about often as I write them.

These thoughts were originally posted this on