In the original script Thornton was written as a poor guy who scrapes together the money to attend college with his son. Harold Ramis read it and told them it was funnier if he was obscenely rich. He was right. That note changed the entire movie. Harold Ramis was just brilliant when an idea just needed one rough edge polished, and this movie is a great example of that.
Captain Pike really threw up his hands and grabbed his temples and said IT'S A DRY HEAT; HOT ENOUGH FOR YA in conversational equivalent. Is this a thing a starship captain would say? I submit to you it is not.
In which we still can't find a safe space within the narrative because it's all so not STAR TREK and a little too much Alex Kurtzman for me to ever be able to put on my STAR TREK pajamas, pour a sifter of tranya, and relax. Work it out, Skydance.
