What makes a movie kiss memorable? Romance? Body heat? Tentacles?
This is the eighth in my series of Favorite Kisses on Film (or "movie kisses of taste" as mangled by a Japanese-language web translator).
I got the idea of compiling a list partly from enjoying The Sheila Variations: "15 Best Movie Kisses". When I started my list, I figured it would look something like her collection of classic clinches. I'd even already written about seven of the movies on her list: Rocky, Notorius, The Big Easy and Streetcar Named Desire, To Have and Have Not, Gone with the Wind, and Casablanca, though I didn't necessary write about them in terms of romance.
I notice, though, that after 8 posts on the topic, it's not the classic kisses that are tempting me to blog about them, wonderful though they are. Maybe because they've been so thoroughly covered? I don't know, but as I'm about to put together my second kiss involving a female who has tentacle-like appendages (Laliari from Galaxy Quest is the other), I wonder...
Today's kiss isn't even a kiss, exactly. It involves the mysterious, sensual, bad-to-know Borg Queen, left, (interview with Alice Krige) and the true-blue android, Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), of the starship Enterprise.
They meet in a really spooky erotic scene in Star Trek: First Contact (1996).
(I never got into The Next Generation series, but this is such a good sci-fi movie, it stands on its own.)
The Borg are cyborgs (part machine, part flesh) who make up a collective entity, like a bee hive. The Borg Queen is the only one who thinks for herself. She's like a sexy version of Stalin. Hard to imagine, but she is. The Borg seek to assimilate all living beings into the collective. The Borg Queen uses Data's desire to be human to lure him to cooperate, seducing him by grafting a living piece of human skin into the circuitry of his mechanical arm.
Then she blows across the bare patch of skin.
Can you see here? The skin shivers, the fine arm hair rises in response.
And Data for the first time in his machine existence experiences physical sensation.
Besides sight and sound, it's hard to convey the senses on film. Movie kisses may be arousing, but they rarely actually capture the sensation of touch. This one truly does. It's my choice for Movie Kiss #8, even if it's not technically a kiss.
There is an actual kiss between the Borg Queen and Data later, however, which I had entirely forgotten, until I came across it looking through the screencaps. It's amusing so I'll include it here.
Borg Queen: Are you familiar with physical forms of pleasure?
Data: If you are referring to sexuality, I am... fully functional, programmed in... multiple techniques.
Borg Queen: How long since you've used them?
Data: Eight years, seven months, sixteen days, four minutes, twenty-two...
Borg Queen: Far too long.
At the end, the Borg are put out of commission and Captain Jean-Luc Picard rescues Data, who betrays the Borg Queen. Data tells Picard that the Borg Queen had succeeded in seducing him into considering her offer of partnership, for a time.
Picard asks, "How long a time?"
Data answers, " 0.68 seconds sir."
And concludes, "For an android, that is nearly an eternity."
This is the eighth in my series of Favorite Kisses on Film (or "movie kisses of taste" as mangled by a Japanese-language web translator).
I got the idea of compiling a list partly from enjoying The Sheila Variations: "15 Best Movie Kisses". When I started my list, I figured it would look something like her collection of classic clinches. I'd even already written about seven of the movies on her list: Rocky, Notorius, The Big Easy and Streetcar Named Desire, To Have and Have Not, Gone with the Wind, and Casablanca, though I didn't necessary write about them in terms of romance.
I notice, though, that after 8 posts on the topic, it's not the classic kisses that are tempting me to blog about them, wonderful though they are. Maybe because they've been so thoroughly covered? I don't know, but as I'm about to put together my second kiss involving a female who has tentacle-like appendages (Laliari from Galaxy Quest is the other), I wonder...
Today's kiss isn't even a kiss, exactly. It involves the mysterious, sensual, bad-to-know Borg Queen, left, (interview with Alice Krige) and the true-blue android, Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), of the starship Enterprise. They meet in a really spooky erotic scene in Star Trek: First Contact (1996).
(I never got into The Next Generation series, but this is such a good sci-fi movie, it stands on its own.)
The Borg are cyborgs (part machine, part flesh) who make up a collective entity, like a bee hive. The Borg Queen is the only one who thinks for herself. She's like a sexy version of Stalin. Hard to imagine, but she is. The Borg seek to assimilate all living beings into the collective. The Borg Queen uses Data's desire to be human to lure him to cooperate, seducing him by grafting a living piece of human skin into the circuitry of his mechanical arm.
Then she blows across the bare patch of skin.
Can you see here? The skin shivers, the fine arm hair rises in response.
And Data for the first time in his machine existence experiences physical sensation.
Besides sight and sound, it's hard to convey the senses on film. Movie kisses may be arousing, but they rarely actually capture the sensation of touch. This one truly does. It's my choice for Movie Kiss #8, even if it's not technically a kiss.
There is an actual kiss between the Borg Queen and Data later, however, which I had entirely forgotten, until I came across it looking through the screencaps. It's amusing so I'll include it here.
Borg Queen: Are you familiar with physical forms of pleasure?
Data: If you are referring to sexuality, I am... fully functional, programmed in... multiple techniques.
Borg Queen: How long since you've used them?
Data: Eight years, seven months, sixteen days, four minutes, twenty-two...
Borg Queen: Far too long.
At the end, the Borg are put out of commission and Captain Jean-Luc Picard rescues Data, who betrays the Borg Queen. Data tells Picard that the Borg Queen had succeeded in seducing him into considering her offer of partnership, for a time.
Picard asks, "How long a time?"
Data answers, " 0.68 seconds sir." And concludes, "For an android, that is nearly an eternity."
This is just to say I'm reading your posts.
ReplyDeleteI'm not anonymous--I didn't click the right button. Don't freak.
ReplyDeleteI was about to launch off into why androids would not accept 'nearly an eternity' as a viable comment, but thankfully I havent!
ReplyDeleteTNG is much better than the opriginal series though, isnt it?
(lights blue touch paper. Retires.)
Heh heh heh!!!
Eek. Thanks for saying it was you, Nancy--I might have thought it was a Borg--they're all anonymous.
ReplyDeleteMr. Allseasons:
You are evil.
But I wish you HAD written about androids and eternity. : ) What a fun theology paper that would make...
P.S. How wonderful! I googled "light blue touch paper and retire"--I'd never heard it before. It's from old instructions for setting off fireworks (on Guy Fawkes Night).
ReplyDelete