New Star Trek Beyond interview talks uniforms, phasers, and Sulu’s big surprise *SPOILERS* *UPDATED*

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With so little information to be had about Star Trek Beyond, any tidbit of information is to be jumped on like a tribble at a baby shower. AND SPEAKING of which, today’s released information is about one special space baby in particular…

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Chris Pine, Karl Urban, and John Cho lead ET’s Kevin Frazier through the Enterprise sets, showing off the new uniforms (which Urban calls “retro”) and new phaser rifles.  John Cho – who plays Hikaru Sulu – also reveals that our favorite helmsman has a lot more on his mind these days besides warp factors.  Click below to learn more:

The crew is now two years into their five year mission, and Cho explained that everyone is feeling the homesickness of a long, deep-space mission.

At the beginning of the movie, we’re all homesick, we’re all getting into our ruts and I think we’ve been around each other too long. … Sulu has a heartache for his little baby. [He] had brought his picture to his console, which technically, we’ve been saying, it’s unprofessional. It’s in the way of the buttons.

Cho went on to note that the girl in the picture is “a cutie” and he just “got it out of a picture frame from Walgreens.” (Which is, reasonably, hilarious.)

Now of course anything non fencing-related to Sulu’s personal life was pretty much left blank, up until 1994’s Star Trek Generations, where we meet (and hear about) his daughter for the first time: Demora Sulu.

Demora_Sulu,_2293

The character was brought back for the Star Trek New Voyages episode “World Enough and Time,” which guest starred George Takei himself.


Cho noted there is “another revelation” in the film about wee Demora, but told the reporter “you’ll have to wait and see the movie.”

THAT is the kind of speculation that fan sites like ours live off: so what could it be? What is the young baby’s secret? Could she actually be Molly O’Brien sent back in time again? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

UPDATE: ET has posted another segment, where we see more of the bridge and corridor sets, and Chris Pine talks about how the film will be paying homage to the Original Series’ 50th Anniversary:

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Wow I love the link to generations

And there it is.
Big ars phasers.

I am willing to guess it turns out Sulu is raising this little girl with his husband. It would be an awesome tribute to George Takei’s work for the LGBTI+ community.

@2 what the hell are you doing?

i think the crew are stuck in a groundhog day simulation in Beyond. The ship is fine, sulu is fine, demora has aged much more than two years…

Spoilers in the headline paragraph? Come on!

#2 is one of those fans who looks to nitpick something about Beyond cause they don’t like the JJ Version of Trek, so since this was Released he has to Nitpick about the fact that the Rifles and phasers are too big…

That’s so yesterday. They should be more daring and his his spouse be transsexual.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3. Historyguy – January 15, 2016
I am willing to guess it turns out Sulu is raising this little girl with his husband. It would be an awesome tribute to George Takei’s work for the LGBTI+ community.

Yet, in TOS:

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/8/8b/James_T_Kirk_with_phaser_rifle.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110407043130&path-prefix=en

WHOOPS!!! :-)) LOL

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2. I Khan Believe it Ain’t Butter – January 15, 2016
And there it is.
Big ars phasers

Well, how about that. Some bits of info suggesting that the griping from the peanut gallery about this being a non-stop shoot-em-up was a bit….premature.

A bold prediction – it won’t be a two hour pseudo-science lecture, either. In the grand tradition of ALL Stat Trek, phasers will be fired.

Looks cool. I’m starting to get excited again, a new Trek movie is on the way! :]

Homosexual? Transsexual? This is the 23rd century! It should be interspecies quadrisexual.

My theory….Sulu is a bisexual self-fertilizing capable hermaphrodite. He got knocked up after a night of drinking and McCoy would not give him a morning after pill.

Sulu is married to Chewie!! Transfranchise!

Gotta love airhead reporters being so dang cool, saying, “Beam me up, Scotty” while standing in the turbo lift. Dork Fail!

@14. CmdrR,

“Gotta love airhead reporters being so dang cool, saying, “Beam me up, Scotty” while standing in the turbo lift. Dork Fail!”

LOL

If I was out there on the edge of Federation space, I would definitely want some “big ars phasers” in my armory, just to be on the safe side. Exploration can be a dangerous business.

It is great to see ET on a STAR TREK set again. I wish they could do away with those darn bar code readers on the NEW bridge set. Hello, yes, people know what those are. They are a tacky ,tacky thing as far as set dressings go. The new bridge has to much of a female touch to it. I wish they could re-dressed that set, as I see the new redone the uniforms, which look , shall we say , just blah. The bridge looks as though it was reference to the last movie TNG bridge set with those restaurant podium things(also with bar code readers). It is just way to brightly lit. It is hard pleasing Trek fans ehh? Why is this only one movie happening? I mean we need several films. I know we are lucky to have this film to look forward too, and a new TV series, wait a minute online show to look forward too. If I were Paramount/CBS I would really get some product out there for the 50th, like Disney is doing with the Star Wars franchise. You know stand alone films. Maybe a Scotty movie, Spock movie, Sarak movie, or something new and amazing. I hope Pegg has helped write a spectacular intriguing movie, with morality drippings all over. I hope it is fun and thought provoking, and not so action packed. While ET normally does those fashions shows now, and it is really is not entertainment news like it used to be, it still is nice seeing them talking Trek again. I remember visiting the ET set back in the 90’s and they are very professional team. Please fix the bridge set and give us a new great movie to watch again and again.

Not that many bridge scenes though ;-)

Cool.

RIP Alan Rickman, the Spock of Galaxy Quest.

Big phasers and a photo of a Sulu’s baby…

I’m trying to figure out if the substance of this movie is being kept secret because there really isn’t much of it and Paramount figures (probably rightly) that the movie will get more box office by the allure of the unknown than by revealing an underwhelming premise; or if all of the focus on superficial minutiae about this movie is strategic somehow—like it’s what the fans of BR Trek are more interested in than things like story premise.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to actually get excited about big phasers and a photo of Sulu’s baby, but it must be nice.

#10 the biggest suggestion that the movie looked bad was what the studio put out- the trailer. Sorry If we leaped to a conclusion that he studio seemed to want us to leap to!

I wish I could find that clip of Nick Meyer teasing TWOK on ET or a similar show while he was making it back in 1981-82. To hear him discussing Star Trek as something meaningful and intelligent, or, even just the contrast with the trailer for TWOK, is rather stark vis-a-vis STB.

Even with antiquated production values, the WOK trailer is still so much more compelling than anything we’ve seen for STB. In this trailer we get (1) the premise of the story—it’s still mysterious, but we know it has something to do with revenge; (2) one of the science fiction premises of the story just in the few words, “genetically engineered superman”—back in 1982 that wasn’t such a common phrase and general audiences must have wondered what that was all about; (3) actual acting—like real, dramatic performances that are compelling and impart the feeling that this movie has substance to it; (4) even though it’s essentially an action-oriented trailer. Even back in 1982 Paramount was loading up the trailer of a movie that has more dramatic scenes than action scenes entirely with the latter, and it still manages to come across as having substance, because, (5) the characters teased in the trailer are interesting. The Khan guy in this trailer seems like a complicated guy and he’s obsessed with Captain Kirk for some reason (of course, fans would have been able to guess the likeliest reason): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x93yqr_1982-star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan_shortfilms

Anyway, the contrast is so severe. What keeps jumping out at me most about STB is how little there is to it. And that’s not even taking into account that it’s a 50th Anniversary movie.

@ mark daniels

What’s the point in nitpicking the bridge given the E is going to be destroyed by the 20-minute point of the movie?

Just give it a rest, grumpy old dude.

“I wish I could find that clip of Nick Meyer teasing TWOK on ET or a similar show while he was making it back in 1981-82. To hear him discussing Star Trek as something meaningful and intelligent..”

Ah, you must mean right before that revenge-action Trek movie, WOK, right?

A *paper* photo in the 23rd century? Really? They are practically relics in the early 21st century! Since the Great Bird isn’t around anymore to supply vision, Trek should hire a futurist consultant to keep things forward-thinking and forward-looking.

Wow great video…although when did Sulu have time to make a family?

Yeah I thought the trailer sucked too but I’m holding out hope guys. We NEED Trek to be good for the 50th. It only comes once and I didn’t love STID but I want the next film to knock it out of the park. With the whole Orci debacle (man we were talking to that guy right here while all that drama was happening….just bizarre lol) killed a lot of hope this thing was getting up on the right foot I want to believe Pegg, Jung and Lin really have made something special. Of course I’m still skeptical (trailer) but hope is all we have until we see more.

Oh and liked the second clip with Takai and Sulu’s daughter. See once you’re a Trek character you always have work somewhere lol. And man I think that’s the most we seen from that dude’s personal life after nearly 50 years of Trek. Crazy. Did they ever explore what happened to his other daughter?

@ Anthony Thompson

OH, AND LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE FROM TOS MOVIE CANON:

http://www.blastr.com/2016-1-5/william-shatner-says-hes-not-beaming-aboard-director-justin-lins-star-trek-beyond

WHOOPS !!! :-)) LOL

(….in my previous post, look at the photo and see the paper photo of David on Kirk’s desk)

I’m so glad they nixed the awful looking uniforms they had been using. That was probably the biggest thing in the first teaser that made me think, “Hmmm, well, it’s not all bad now.”

# 18. mark daniels – January 15, 2016

” It is great to see ET on a STAR TREK set again. I wish they could do away with those darn bar code readers on the NEW bridge set.” — mark daniels

After Paramount paid them to rebuild it in Vancouver with the d*mn things, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect them to go away if Paramount’s planning on any more TREKs. I mean we do realize by now that to severely damage Enterprise on screen they don’t have to actually do it to that expensive new set they just built?

*

# 24. Prodigal Son – January 15, 2016

” What’s the point in nitpicking the bridge given the E is going to be destroyed by the 20-minute point of the movie?” — Prodigal Son

See above. So apparently we don’t realize that by now?

#26 Anthony Thompson. Yeah, a paper photograph! I was wondering about that myself. Except for the TOS pilot, where there was a printer of some sort, I don’t recall seeing paper EVER on the Enterprise. Images were alway digital and displayed on computers or holographic.
Maybe a paper snapshot is a clue about a plot twist. Maybe the “baby” was born during some time warp trip back to the 20th Century, like in Star Trek IV.
How poignant! A “baby” who would be either a cryonically preserved old lady or dead and gone by the 23rd Century.
But on the other hand maybe the filmmakers really are THAT stupid, thoughtless, and unimaginative. Nostalgia=Kodak.

@ 26. Anthony Thompson

While I really think that almost everything in the reboot looks shitty and just too contemporary (unlike 1960s TOS, when because of various constraints the stuff just couldn’t look much futuristic anyway), there are still instances in Trek, whether in TOS, (TOS) movies, or other Trek shows, where we can see framed photos and, as everyone knows who has ever watched Trek movies and series, paper books. Paper isn’t dead in the 23rd and 24th century, after all.

Nice…elements of TOS design are creeping into not just the costuming (though I loved the uniforms of the last two movies, these ones look a little stiff) but the bridge design as well. The black surfaces, and the reds added in here and there to displace some of the stark white and blue.

And baby Demora Walgreens Sulu is really cute! I’m surprised they actually released a detail like that so early on. Thought maybe the Cho was trolling ET at first, but when you pause it you can see the photo is cut and mounted in a way that makes it look a little futuristic. It’s not just on a piece of paper. Interested to see more of this little character thread.

Cyg….we get it, it just sucks that Paramount didn’t send you a copy of the script so you could slap the constipated critic seal of disapproval on it. Are you this bitter in real life?

RE: Photo of Sulu’s daughter. TOS constantly referred to computer tapes, so why is it that much of a stretch that Sulu would want an tangible memento of his daughter, as opposed to something digitized? It actually goes a long way toward humanizing the character, something that episodes of TOS like ‘Shore Leave’ also tried to do. For what little that has been revealed, it’s a positive affirmation of one of the strong attributes the director brings to this movie, the ability to get the audience to be able to connect to an ensemble cast.

Complainers are gonna complain. It’s what they do.

@27 Tiger,

Well, there was that entire year after STID where the Enterprise was being rebuilt, and Kirk was being resurrected with Khans blood, so I presume the crew of the Enterprise had earned a well deserved leave, and didn’t have much else going on.

@Cygnus. So when did you get to read the script so that you know the film is about revenge hmm? Assumptions make an a$$ out of you.

None of this tripe give me any comfort that this movie is going to be good.

#26 Anthony Thompson A *paper* photo in the 23rd century? Really? They are practically relics in the early 21st century! Since the Great Bird isn’t around anymore to supply vision, Trek should hire a futurist consultant to keep things forward-thinking and forward-looking.”

Yes, really. See Kirk’s bedroom in Trek 6. A framed photo of David, in glorious, perish the thought, black and white! How backwards of Nick Meyer, not unlike his fire extinguishers and “no smoking” signs…how could his movies possibly be good Star Trek??

@28. Prodigal Son,

“@ Anthony Thompson

OH, AND LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE FROM TOS MOVIE CANON”**

It was well known that James T Kirk was pa$-$ionate about history & fond of antiques as it was shown in WOK for example with the reading glasses & the hard-copy book gift from Spock.

Sulu on the other hand has a pa$-$sion for botany & swordplay. Having a paper photo isn’t that problematic for a guy that likes ancient martial arts.

** Writing in all caps is lame.

#28 Prodigal Son “@ Anthony Thompson

OH, AND LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE FROM TOS MOVIE CANON:”

Exactly!!

#33 In TOS the use of paper books by defense attorney Samuel T. Cogley in “Court Martial” is considered eccentric at best and ridiculous at worst.
The movies used props like books and spectacles as examples of antiques.
On the Enterprise itself, forward thinking sci-fi writers showed almost all records displayed on tablets or computer screens.
In “Amok Time” we see 23rd Century Spock gazing at his betrothed on a computer, not whipping out a photo from his desk drawer.
I live in the 21st Century and I am capable of painting a portrait using the same methods as the Renaissance Old Masters but I wouldn’t tack an oil on canvas to my desk at work. (Although I might hang an oil painting on a wall, as an antique might be displayed.)
The use of a paper photo in the 23rd Century is another example of writers who have no concept of what science fiction is. Just like the costume designers in ST:09 who gave all of the women cadets late 20th Century vintage underwear.
No imagination!

Two years into the mission? I wonder if we’ll hear any references to Organians, Hortas, Gorns or Doomsday Machines? (Even better…it would be so cool to see a 21st Century interpretation of a Horta on-screen.)

Beam Me Up Scotty !

Um…That’s a turbolift.

At least they didn’t go for the cheesy FX and dissolve.

Guess everyone forgot about Kirk’s photo of David in ST VI or Picard’s family album in Generations? This is hardly a break from ‘canon’.

37. Who cares – January 16, 2016

@Cygnus. So when did you get to read the script so that you know the film is about revenge hmm? Assumptions make an a$$ out of you.

The trailer that I was ana|yzing in #23 is the WRATH OF KHAN trailer, the link of which follows my little ana|ysis. And obviously we all know that TWOK is about revenge.

That we do not know what STB is about is part of my point. The WOK trailer shows us that you can tease the audience with the basic premise of the movie in a trailer without spoiling the mystery or giving too much away. And yet, everything that’s been put out for STB so far—from the theatrical trailer to the TV promotional pieces—has communicated strikingly little about the movie in terms of substance. We’ve been told that it’s about Kirk and the gang fighting a new set of bad guys in outer space, that there will be more scenes (than in the previous BR movies) with the pairing of Spock and McCoy, and, here, the most exciting information of all: big phasers and a photo of Sulu’s daughter. I don’t know about you, but that’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for in a Star Trek movie. I can’t WAIT to see those big phasers in action. Or, just sitting there on the wall of the Enterprise armory. You know, either-or. That they’re big is what excites me. And obviously also that they’re phasers. Big phasers.

Horrid uniforms… *Sigh* Star Fast Trek Furious…

Interesting how ET’s story morphs:

http://www.etonline.com/news/180156_exclusive_star_trek_beyond_pays_tribute_to_leonard_nimoy/

“The film itself is kind of tribute enough. Leonard was a special, special man. I think his spirit has been infused in this incarnation from the beginning, from the first film. We miss him dearly. We wish he could be a part of this, but we know he’s in a good place.” — Chris Pine

I wonder if they’ve added more for the weekend edition?

# 44. David Oakes – January 16, 2016

” Um…That’s a turbolift. ” — David Oakes

Yes, but is it a turbolift on the Enterprise or the Franklin? Because, as we know, asking to be beamed out of elevators is almost a cliche.

@ VukcanFilmCritic

Hey Mensa, :-)

Check out my posts 28-29. TOS movie canon already established the crew members – in this case Kirk himself – can have old style paper photos of family members on the E.

You are a poor student of TOS movie history.