With the release of Star Trek Into Darkness in North America, a few people have wanted to get the perspective of TrekMovie.com. This afternoon and evening TrekMovie’s Anthony Pascale will be participating in a Hollywood.com Google Hangout and the MovieByte Podcast. TrekMovie contributors have also discussed or quoted by Yahoo, Buzzfeed, Moviefone and Wired. Get the details below.
UPDATED TREKMOVIE ON WED. HOLLYWOOD.COM HANGOUNT + MOVIEBYTE PODCAST
UPDATED: On Wednesday I was a guest on a Hollywood.com "Get Thee to the Geek" Google Hangout talking about Star Trek Into Darkness and the future of Star Wars- joined by Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt with TheForce.Net’s Eric Geller and author of the "Star Wars Craft Book" Bonnie Burton. You can watch the hangout via embed below.
Immediately following the Hollywood.com Hangout I was a guest on the MovieByte Podcast. You can listen to that below.
LISTEN: Anthony on MovieByte cast at 4:30 PT
MORE TREKMOVIE CONTRIBUTORS IN THE NEWS…
Kurtzman reveals my Into Darkness contribution…
BuzzFeed has a spoilery article on their favorite classic Trek moments in Star Trek Into Darkness which includes some comments from the writers Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman, including Alex revealing how a suggestion I made worked its way into the movie…
9. Scotty, the "miracle worker"
There’s a quick moment after Scotty (Simon Pegg) saves the day in Into Darkness when Kirk calls him a “miracle worker” — an honor bestowed upon Scotty many times in the original series and films.
Turns out, the moment was due to a superfan request.
“To be honest, one of our friends who runs trekmovie.com, Anthony Pascale, said, ‘You gotta have that line in there somewhere,’” says Kurtzman. “He reminded us that that was a classic thing, and we found the perfect place for it right there.”
Tenuto on San Francisco and Star Trek
Wired takes a look at the connection between Star Trek and San Francisoc which once again plays out in Into Darkness. TrekMovie helped Wired with some background on the article and our own contributor (and Star Trek historian) Professor John Tenuto is also quoted in the piece.
Perhaps the most attractive thing about San Francisco from Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s point of view was its significance to the U.S. Navy. Roddenberry himself was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and was ferried from California to the Pacific theater by Navy vessels, so he was well aware of San Francisco’s shipyards.
“The reason the Enterprise looks so realistic, even though it’s futuristic, is that there’s certainly these trappings of the Navy,” said John Tenuto, a sociology professor at Illinois’ College of Lake County who studies the production of Star Trek. “Although Roddenberry has a sort of progressive view of the future, those military experiences certainly appeared in Star Trek and shaped it.”
Pascale on the politics of Into Darkness
Yahoo Movies takes a look at the real world’s 9/11 connection to Star Trek Into Darkness. The piece opens with a quote from myself about how the post-destruction of Vulcan Federation is an allegory for our real-world post-9/11 society:
""I think it’s fairly obvious it’s a commentary," says TrekMovie editor-in-chief Anthony Pascale.
The piece goes on to explore those themes and possible controversies, but the article ends with this context for Trek history:
Taking on the now, if not the news, is "something that ‘Star Trek’ has done before," Pascale says, "…and it’s welcome that it sparks a debate. It makes you think."
TrekMovie looks to future with Moviefone
Moviefone is also working on an article (not yet live) about what is next for the Star Trek film franchise. They asked for a quote from myself on what I think will happen in the next film, here is what I said:
Firstly I hope they continue what they did with Into Darkness and tell an allegorical story that makes people think about our current society, although that doesn’t have to be done on Earth. Into Darkness did set the stage, which is the Star Trek crew are finally off on their five-year mission. I expect that to mean that defending San Francisco from giant black ships is left behind for an adventure in the final frontier.
I think there will be a debate on if they should do something entirely new, such as a new adversary race, or develop their own spin on something already established from the canon (like The Borg, The Dominion, The Gorn, etc). My view is that Star Trek is different than super-hero movies where they expect you to use the characters from the comic book canon. Star Trek is about exploring today’s human condition through the lens of exploring strange new worlds, emphasis on ‘new.’ So I think the fans would welcome the Abrams team fully embracing their new universe and telling us a story entirely of their making. Just make sure to drop enough fun Trek tidbits along the way.
And more importantly I think we should see these characters continue their arcs towards becoming the heroes that we knew from the original show, but not limited to that because they are different and so they allowed to stretch them in new and interesting ways.
All that and a really cool space battle. You need one of those!
Tenuto uses Star Trek passion for lesson to grads
Speaking of John, he introduced some Star Trek into a commencement speech he was giving to the College of Lake County graduates last weekend. Watch the fun below.
Cool..
5 times far…
Very neat! I’ll likely be at Happy Hour, tbh, but looking forward to recaps. Going to see the movie again with my sister this weekend. It’ll be her second time watching it (and she, the non-Trekkie, invited ME to see it again with her!) and my fifth.
You know, Star Trek IV had no “bad guy” and was extremely successful. The Doomsday Machine was an incredible episode and had no real “bad guy” in it. Something like that episode could make for a good movie I’d think.
Way to go Anthony!
Wait, why are you talking about the Borg and the Dominion being in the next film?
STAHP! STAHP!!! STAAAAAHP!!!!!!
I have seen it 5 times so far as well. Love Star Trek Into Darkness. Will go at least 7 times to the theatre before it departs, as I did for Star Trek 2009. I am a Devoted Lifelong Fan & think this was an Incredible Movie to draw in new Fans while paying homage to the Old. Long Live Trek!
Only caught the last 20 minutes. Bonnie was spot on about everything about Uhura and Carol, put our poor old Anthony came across poorly.
Hopefully you’ll podcast it for those of us working during this thing, sounds real interesting.
Super cool, Anthony!
I was also thinking about your “they now have so many outfits” comment from another thread. If I was seeing it correctly in the movie, the flight jackets they wear are worn directly over their colorful costumes. The patches of color seen in the jackets appear to be see-through sections that show the uniform color. So, it’s just a case of taking off the jacket.
(As usual with my notes to you, you probably already figured that out.)
Clinton
Well if the jumpsuits were worn over regular uniforms then why did Marcus have to strip down to her space undies? And in reality the actual have the color built into the little ‘windows’. So yes it would make them more practical but they didn’t show them that way.
Skaldak
Sorry you felt that way. It is hard debating a woman about women’s issues. That is why I asked Kayla to write an article about the sexism in Into Darkness, look for that soon. But Bonnie and I get along and I hope you watch the whole thing.
Anthony,
As always, you are the man in the know! :-)
I was interviewed by my local paper on STID and Star Trek in general. Do I get a mention on here? Ha ha ha…
Yay Anthony!
Sounds like fun in a bun!
Oops, meant “Fun on a bun”. Must have been a power surge affecting my processor. But still…
Yay, Anthony!
“Really cool space battle” would be key. I loved Into Darkness, but my main issue with it is a lack of space fighting. Enterprise never fired a single shot, if I’m remembering correctly. Hopefully they remedy that in the next one!
Look forward to seeing you on-screen in STIII-J, Anthony.
Being active duty military I enjoyed Into Darkness had more military lingo in it than the last previous Star Trek movies. Things like ‘captain on the bridge’ everytime the CO comes on deck really happen and made the movie that much more enjoyable to me.
#5 because it will be the Borg. Can you see this lot coming up with something new and original? Er, no, neither can I.
I have no doubt it’ll be big and flashy and spectacular but original? nah.
I have watched the four way *discussion*. Nice to see what you look like in person, Anthony. It is good to be able to put a face to a name.
Who was that woman? I am sorry but she was so loud and she just would not let others get a word in sometimes, plus she would often interrupt people. If only she had said something that has not been repeated on this site…apart from being another obsessing over that lady in her underwear scene. Sometimes, people, women in this case, can be their own worst enemies.
I had no problem with how Lt Uhura was written. She was great. It was made clear who Carol Wallace/Marcus was, what she did and why she was. Her character was underwritten. Other female characters were not well explained, if at all, not even the cat ladies who shared a bed with Kirk. I think it is good manners to at least know the names of the women he slept with…
In one of the trailers showing Harrison in the helicopter fire on the Starfleet conference room, Kirk was tending to the one woman there who was injured and I think they were talking, but that never made it to the movie. The other scene that was cut was one which told about Carol Marcus’s upbringing. We never saw that in the movie either. It seems that even when a scene was filmed dealing with information etc to do with a woman, these short scenes got cut, in favour of what exactly…:(
I love this movie, but these are aspects that could have been improved upon, without necessarily making the movie that much longer or spoiling the overall pace/effect – far from it.
cool job anthony sir, ive watched half of it so far…..very well done n interesting…luv the discussion between star wars fans n trek fans…honestly before coming to trekmovie.com i really had no idea that trek fandom was so divided/split up….with some fans hating tng…or voyager etc…..and as u mentioned some hate the jjverse….now that jj is star wars i feel bad…jj sounded like he could have helped to make trek attractions in the usa…i dont want to go to jordan to see a trek attraction….for instance..oh well…..anyhoo great job anthony…im a normal fan…i found tos when i was 11…loved it the only show on tv that meant much to me…i had lost in space toys haha….liked the toys better than the show…trek didnt insult my 11 year olf intelligence….i loved tmp…saw gene r doing arena shows before that…loved tng…all the other shows…i thought all were well done…i have to think if all trek fans supported all trek more we would have more on tv etc..
I really liked the Hangout. Anthony did a great job. However, I’ve said it on another thread: I agree that this movie is in a way sexist. It fails the Bechdel test, which is really sad for a “better future”. Alice Eve’s character is there for the bra scene and nothing else.
(Warning: SPOILER)
The thing with the torpedos and her father is not necessary. Let Spock and McCoy find the guy inside the torpedo and let Scotty sabotage the Vengeance a bit earlier to save the E. That is all she contributes in this movie.
(End: SPOILER)
I like this movie as an amusement park ride, but it would have been so easy to make it also a really great Star Trek movie with just a little more attention to detail and character development. If it had been 20 minutes longer for that, who cares?
Also some other ppl seem to agree:
http://thisfeliciaday.tumblr.com/post/50858883769/star-trek-movie-spoilerzzzz
i agree to some to a degree with #19, the lady had some very good points about the amount of screen and content time to the female characters but she just would not shut up, make your point let someone else say something and then have another go,carol well yeah we could of done with more background on her and yeah on the surface she is eye candy however sub textual she stood up to her father,got on board the enterprise,has brains and help resolve the story,so OK the underwear scene was a bit pointless but who comes off worse? for me kirk does, having said that if you are going with they get married and/or have kids then you can say this was to show kirk likes her and her playfulness with him is the same(remember she has a brain and he a man of action) as for uhura again she spent way to much time having it out with her b/f but she did stand up to the Klingon,Spock does say you don’t want to mass with her and kirk yeah your right look in his face and did you see the power she had without saying a word!she was no eye candy (yeah she look great) if i was in a fight i so want her on my side thank you very much.and again i see her point and i see it something she has strong views on and again she has a good point and i am not attacking her for her views just let other speak as well
Ricardo Montalban aka Khan was Mexican and they hire a white British actor. It does not work. JJ were suppose to be progressing in movies and you just took us 3 steps back. Khan was a man of color and should be portrayed as one. Ricardo Montalban spent money on a school in his country to support acting. I’m sure he was looking down puzzled and the white Khan and asking why???
After the first Abrams Trek came out, Lindelof hinted the next movie would most likely be Khan. That was proven correct.
Now Lindelof has stated that the third would be about Klingons. Based on that evidence, it sounds like the Klingons will feature heavily in the third.
I do hope it will be something about their 5-year mission being cut short to only three years as an inside joke to how the original series was cancelled after three years.
The three years can match up to real-time, as well.
#24 agreed that would be so funny to have that joke about the 5 year mission cut short i now so want it
If they’re gonna do klingon’s they should definitely consider doing a massive armada type battle sequence (aka DS9, First Contact), but on a grander scale and length… Although I’m really hoping for a mystery/adventure!
There doesn’t have to be a third movie in this series. Ending it with Into Darkness would be fine.
Let’s get back to the prime/relevant timeline. It never lived up to its potential but that doesn’t mean it should be disgarded.
Also, stop trying to make Trek a mega “Marvel blockbuster.” It never will be and it shouldn’t be. Trek is best on TV with movie follow ups after stories, characters and arcs have been established.
Right now, things are happening a*s backwards which people scratch their heads on what’s wrong.
Trek will always be the turtle that wins the race…but that does not mean you should try to outfit the turtle with a jetpack. Sorry, JJ, but that’s what you’ve been doing and not so well.
Forty years of legacy does not speak to the conclusion that this wasn’t working.
Very cool! Well-deserved.
Great stuff Anthony! Are you going to be involved in next week’s discussion about the future of Star Trek?
I swear to God, if I have to read one more comment about how a white Mexican is more adequate to play Khan (an Indian in the film) than a white British (not an Indian in the film), I will hack this site and block all you little sh+++ forever from this board.
I can see how people might interpret STID as a little sexist and racist, but I really don’t care.
Alice Eve is hot!
As far as casting an English white actor who ruled India to the Middle East, if I remember correctly, was actually brilliant. I’m sure it pissed that side of the world off during the Eugenics War to be ruled by a smart and cunning white guy who took an Indian name. At least that is how I see the “white khan.”
The performances were solid so…I really don’t care.
Carol came to the Enterprise in an effort to stop her father.
She came under false pretense,
Carol risked her career doing that
in the end ,her efforts led to serious injury .
So she risked her career and her life , that shows a fair amount of courage on Carol’s part.
Also,what happened on the Vengeance might lead to Carol & Kirk getting together .
There might have been a purpose to what happened to her in terms of the future of the characters .
Kirk felt guilt over not protecting his crew, well, he couldnt protect Carol on The Enterprise or The Vengeance.
That could lead to their romance .
They seem intrigued with the Gorn, which I always thought was an underutilized race in the Star Trek universe. I’d love a Gorn and/or Tholian-themed movie.
Maybe throw in some Andorians and Tellerites in too. Let’s explore some of the forgotten races in Star Trek.
Of course, my worry about that is that it would be very fan-centric, and thus perhaps less likely to draw outsiders like, say, the Klingons, would. But maybe you could have some sort of story line with both the Klingons and the Gorn or something
Something I’ve wondered about recently when I saw the demographics for STID saying they need younger fans. Does anywone feel concerned that Trek fans are a dying breed? I’m 46 and have been a loyal Trek fan for 41 years. The kids these days have so much more to invest in with so many more franchises available than my childhood had.
Now I’ve got three kids and my 12 y.o. has been turned on to Trek and likes it a lot, but the thought that our fan base will be slowly dying off concerns me on the future of Star Trek.
#34 –
I think you’re hitting on an important topic here. Many of us “old” Trek fans have been watching the series since we were very young. I’m 38 and have been watching since I was about 4 years old.
The target audience for TOS was clearly teenagers/young adults. It was sexy and scary and exciting, as well as being socially relevant. But while the demographic shifted in the early 80s with the maturation of the core audience, Star Trek had pretty much been coasting on it’s built-in base of fans ever since.
What we’re seeing now is sort of the same thing we saw with Star Wars in the early 2000s. You had (have) a large group of people who were 5 when they first saw Star Wars, who are now in their mid to late 30s, angry that Star Wars is no longer made for them. This is happening with Star Trek. For maybe the first time since the original series, the target demographic has been shifted backwards, away from the aging original core of fans, and that angers people to whom Star Trek is no longer directed and marketed.
I’m not saying it is wrong to feel that way. But times change, and that’s a fact. There are different social issues now than there were. People process information faster than we did before. But the thing that remains constant is that the companies footing the bill for this franchise need to make money. Even the original TNG fans are in their 30s now. Many of the original fans of TOS, who were in the target demographic for 1966, are in their 60s now. Many have been burned out by decades of the same TV budget films and forehead-of-the-week storytelling on television. That group is shrinking.
This is not a comment on the relative value or quality of Star Trek then vs Star Trek now. Simply an observation that times have changed, and Star Trek is finally changing with it. Star Trek’s heyday, in fact much of its history, is steeped in Cold War tradition. 16 year olds in 2013 have no memory of the Cold War. 16 year olds today live in a world where the relevant social topic is extremism, terrorism, and counter-terrorism. Attitudes towards women (despite the apparent backsliding in Into Darkness) and minorities has changed even since the 1990s, to say nothing of the 1960s.
Star Trek needs to change with the times, or die.
Is that fair to the old fans who have been there since the Cuban missile crisis or the fall of the Berlin wall? No, of course it’s not. Do the old fans have a right to be upset that Star Trek is no longer “theirs?” Sure they do. But at some point us old fans need to accept that Star Trek was made for us 30 years ago, but the same market we belonged to back then is not the same market that consumes entertainment today. We can either adapt, or lament the death of our childhoods in misery. I choose to adapt.
My kids enjoy Star Trek as well. They are 12 and 14 now. They mostly like the new ones, as might be expected. But they also watch the old stuff with enjoyment. But I don’t think we can expect a modern audience to have the same thrill, the same buy-in, on entertainment that is culturally decades removed from their own point of view. There is a difference between appreciation for history and the investment we make in the present culture we experience every day.
Maybe you agree?
I have to agree with a few people here and say if the next movie is going to be about klingons then i hope it will be epic! I do not want to see the borg or the dominion in the next movie because thats spilling the story all over the board!
I too wasnt happy to see the enterprise getting her ass handed to her. If she is the flag ship then you would have thought she would have teeth!
I too would like to see different aliens such as the andorians or tellarites in the next movie. After all they are the founders of the federation and i would like to see more vulcan officers as well other then spock.
@35 Great points all of them, and I agree. My kids as they finally are getting in their teens have been turned on by Trek thanks to their dad. If asked they prefer JJ’s Trek to all previous incarnations, but I assume the big spalshy films JJ has made is what there used to as film goers whether its Nolan’s Batman or Avengers, etc…
My 12 y.o. told me as we were leaving the theater he liked STID better than 2009’s Trek and he liked that one too. I think one of the reasons my kids like JJ’s Trek the best is because they would rather see a 30 something Kirk (Pine) as opposed to an elderly Kirk (Shatner). I guess it’s a stretch for them to believe an older Kirk from Trek movies 1-6 would be a badass at that age. I purposely didn’t talk with him about the plot holes and how Khan was a disappointment for ME, so not to ruin his movie experience. I can come to Trek Movie and discuss plot holes, lol. He was shocked when Cumby was revealed as Khan in the movie and he didn’t see it coming. He’s seen TWOK and so he knew who Khan was in the Trek universe.
I like NuTrek and while it doesnt quite feel the same as my old Trek my view is any Trek is a way better option than No trek.
I got the impression that Bonnie Burton tried to dominate the discussion
Great interviews Anthony!
In regards to your comments about Kirk sacrificing his life to save the falling Enterprise, I agree, though I didn’t think about this until after the show.
You are correct that one simple line like in TWOK would have been really effective.
One thing that would have worked would be a line where one of the crew announces that the ship will crash into a heavily populated area of the planet. Then, there is a reason why the escape pods, and transporters don’t matter and Kirk is not only saving his crew but the people on the ground from a falling ship. The only way to prevent the ship from falling on those people is to restore power through the warp core.
I am just going to imagine that this actually happened, but we didn’t see it in the movie! ;)
Though, that might have been implied with the crash of the Vengeance.
Nice job Anthony.
The gal in the red shirt needs to take a sedative with regard to Uhura.
eeesh….
I dont think that Khan in the marketing would have changed anything.
The mainstream-audience does not care if the villains name is Harrison or Khan, and the Trekkies will see the film nonetheless.
BTW, i had a different experience, when Harrison revealed himself there were many sighs and facepalm reactions in that cinema (myself included)
@36 ken:
I agree: I really do NOT want any TNG, DS9, Voyager, or ST: Enterprise villain like the Borg or dominion. I hope the next adversary is either Klingons, another TOS villain, or a brand new one. Just no Borg or Dominion!!
BTW: I begged and pleaded for no Khan four years ago, but they never listen to me.
Anthony, you were spot on. Besides being shrill, domineering, and obnoxious, Bonnie was constantly contradicting herself.
I would argue that Alice Eve’s underwear shot is not necessarily gratuitous because of her and Kirk’s “past” so to speak. If it wasn’t Carol Marcus, maybe some random ensign, I would agree.
And if you ask me Uhura going up against 15 Klingons and also beaming down and facing Khan alone is more than just “Spock’s girlfriend”.
all the trekkie crowd cheered n clapped when cumberkhan revealed who he really was…it was a sneak peak wed nite at 8…crowd seemed to luv the movie from beginning to end..
There are different ways at interpreting the otherwise “STID blink and you miss underwear shot”. The way they filmed Alice made it look a bit off, as someone else pointed out. When they filmed Chris in bed with the women, you were looking straight at his face then down and around.
JJ Abrams said it was all fair. Same for male as for female.
No, it was not, JJ Abrams! Shirtless Kirk got less screen time and we saw less of his body than we saw of Alice/Carol’s. Next time, perhaps we could see Kirk just in his underwear, filmed from the feet up. Now that I could enjoy.
I guess it is all about satisfying the majority of heterosexual men and their desire to get a look at a lovely looking (near naked) woman but women who may wish to see a lovely looking (near naked) man are ignored or given an inadequate scene.
The fact that JJ Abrams can’t see the difference and tries to make “amends” by shovelling a deleted scene (out of context) of Cumberbatch/Khan in the shower and not shown from head to foot either, is what makes him and his team sexist. Women are so often prepared and happy to give many a man what he may want or desire. How about playing fair and returning the favour occasionally? You had the opportunity here with this movie. You blew it…:(
Shame on you.
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