Trekcore’s “Into Darkness” deleted scenes investigation

As many of you may remember, Paramount Home Video and Bad Robot pulled quite the shenanigans on us consumers when it came time to release Star Trek Intro Darkness on home video. Extras were made retailer (and e-tailer) exclusive, if you wanted a commentary the only way to get that was to get it from iTunes, other special features were only available via Xbox Live, and so on. So most people didn’t get to see the deleted scenes. Well Trekcore has vigilantly assembled all the sources of deleted scenes they can get their hands on. This includes the famous “why Carol Markus has a British accent” scene, as well as the meeting of Kirk and Lucille Harewood (the young girl saved by Khan’s blood early in the movie) during the ending commemoration ceremony. There’s lots more to read in Trekcore’s two articles.

stid-ds4

Part One

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Part Two

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First?

Yay, my first first!

Glad I got to find out what’s in those deleted scenes, because it looks like I’ll never own them. I flat out refuse to purchase Star Trek Into Darkness until they put every single special feature into one reasonably priced package. It used to be standard that movie releases came with all the special features available because it made the product more appealing. Now Paramount/Bad Robot is content to screw us over so that they can cozy up to retailers. They’ve shown where their loyalties lie, and I’m showing where mine lie, and it’s not with them.

njdss4, you are not alone in that thinking.

WOW… can we get any explanation on why there was a TOS style Constitution model hanging in his office??

the rest of the stuff… meh

… or why the Vengeance, a secret ship, appears at the end of the line of models behind Marcus’s desk?

It’s too bad they don’t have video of those scenes. I already bought the Blu-Ray, so I’m not going to pay for the movie again on X-box, or whatever. I was disappointed by the lack of special features on the Blu-ray, anyway.

@5 Scotchyscotch, It certainly begs the question of “separate timelines.”

As for the deleted scenes, some should have been kept in or changed; others, sayanora!

The explanation of the accent seems like a cut-able scene, though there are so few dialogue scenes in this movie where people are just talking that maybe they should have left it in just to add a bit of substance—and, even in this scene they have Carol in a hurry to deal with the torpedoes:

Captain Kirk has Carol Marcus by the arm, escorting her through the corridors of the Enterprise.

CAROL
Are the torpedoes in the weapons bay?

KIRK
Loaded and ready to fire. What are they?

CAROL
I don’t know, that’s why I thought I might transfer on to your ship to find out.

Carol turns, stopping the walk-and-talk.

CAROL
Why, I do apologize for that. By the way, if I caused you any problems, I am sorry. I’m Carol Marcus.

KIRK
James Kirk.

CAROL
(Remembering) Torpedos.

She spins around, racing away, heading for the shuttlebay. As the pair travel through the ship, they have to traverse the catwalks running through the engine room.

KIRK
The torpedo bay’s in the other direction.

CAROL
Yes, I’m well aware.

Kirk is tired of her deception.

KIRK
Look, you can drop the accent, all right?

CAROL
No, that’s real. My father was stationed in London when I was born, and my mother raised me there.

KIRK
So, these torpedoes — they’re your father’s? Are you investigating your own father?

The pair arrive in the shuttlebay.

CAROL
When I joined Starfleet, I had access to every program he oversaw. I heard he was developing these prototype torpedoes — when I went to confront him about it, he wouldn’t even see me. That’s when I discovered the torpedoes had disappeared from all official records.

KIRK
Then he gave ’em to me.

@ 8. Chancellor Gowron

They say they have the video, but they can’t post or share it for copyright reasons.

@11 Well, I assume that they have the video if they were able to provide us with transcripts. I just wish that all the special features weren’t exclusive to X-Box and iTunes and all that other nonsense.

Why do we have to pay for material that would otherwise be thrown on the floor and never thought of again. Why not make it available without making civilized people jump thru plot holes from Abrams latest efforts in his little boy directors chair. It wasn’t even a good movie.

Even with the deleted scenes this movie was dismal. Poor writing and weak direction. The Khan story was poorly executed. The “magic blood” was almost as bad as Star Wars’ Midi-chlorians, almost. STID was an underwhelming disappointment.

Or maybe it’s the design of the “future” Enterprise because Marcus (and the crew of the film) realized the one with the fat nacelles that are too close together & the neck that’s too far back is just not cutting it.

I can only hope & pray….

Great movie, its too bad it didn’t get the home video release it deserved.

Let’s see……Star Trek Into Darkness was a muddled, convoluted, contrived mess.

Now someone is asking for money for us to watch added footage of said mess.

M’yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

%#$@&^%#!!!!

I’m really liking that ship design.
It’s reminiscent of Star Trek.

Amen, Harry.

I’m pretty sure the “Pike relieves Kirk of command in a fatherly way” cut scene was included in the Japanese theatrical release (English with Japanese subtitles). It seemed very familiar when I read it.

I was hoping there was a deleted scene of Kirk’s parents as they are mentioned in the credits..maybe a flashback scene??

Still haven’t seen it… Yowza!

You can see all the deleted scenes and a blooper of dancing Klingons on youtube ‘stid deleted scenes’

star trek into darkness deleted scenes and a blooper on the link below

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stid%20deleted%20scenes&sm=3

Lets pay more for the greatest missed opportunity to tell an exciting “original” story in Star Trek Cinema History.
To any Paramount Executives who might take a peek here…Seriously, dudes, get a grip on reality .
The chosen story line of STID was the biggest mistake ever.
Fire Robert Orci as a writer before it’s too late, while you still have time for new writers to craft a truly exciting and original story line using the very talented actors you currently have.

23. The Keeper: I think that’s a little dramatic. This IS an original story, although it builds upon events that occurred prior to Space Seed. The only thing that really wasn’t original was the warp core death scene twist. And this is Star Trek, we should be used to alternate realities. It’s not as huge an issue as people make it to be. I think a lot of people are judging this movie for the movie it could have been, not the movie it is. And that’s unfair. You can like it or hate it, but hate it on it’s own terms, like it on it’s own terms. Personally, I keyed in on the Kirk story, which is phenomenal. You’ve got this bad kid does well story from the first movie, and now you have him face some challenges that really cut to the heart of his character, and even the essense of the prime Kirk character. And it looks like it ends badly. Lots of people zero on the Spock “Khannnn!” yell, but I was too absorbed in the actual death scene, and the death of all that potential. Pine did a great job with it, all the way through the movie, really. But that’s my opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. I just ask that they judge it on what they saw, not what they wanted.

I bought the first DVD, but I haven’t bought this one. It’s really a shame that the DVD doesn’t really have many extras at all. I can settle for having more on blu-ray, or maybe one exclusive disc with all the extras that was promoted through a store or pre order or something, but….come on….no commentary track? A few deleted scenes? A blooper reel? That’s ridiculous.

22. martin – March 4, 2014

Thanks for the link.

The “Captain’s Log” scene is kinda funny—Chris Pine makes it work. It shows us how immature and unready for command Kirk is, setting up what could have been a great redemption theme—Kirk losing his command, learning hard lessons and growing as a person throughout the course of the movie, and perhaps earning his command back at the very end, or even leaving that unresolved until the next movie. That could have been a good movie.

I already had this stuff months ago, I bought the XBox smartglass edition of STID before the DVD/Bluray versions were even released. Then I got a Bluray version for my birthday. Frankly I never cared much for “special features” on movies and I don’t usually bother to even watch them, deleted scenes are an exception most times, but I didn’t buy the XBox smartglass STID for them, I bought it so I could watch the movie again whenever I want.

I’ll never spend another dime related to anything having to do with this film.

Thanks for posting this.

I’m sure we’d all have been geeking over a Connie in Marcus’ office.

In fact… let the geek-fest begin with me:

SO… this is 100% proof that in JJ#3Trek we go back to the TOS prime universe. Yay!

If only…

The barrage of entitled online outrage from fans over these extras, with people taking to forums to absolutely demand that they must get them as a matter of moral principle, completely ignores the business logistics that have led Paramount to release the movie in the way that they did.

Paramount absolutely did NOT botch this release – it’s about the bottom line and the fact is that Star Trek Into Darkness was #3 in 2013 for Rentals and Digital Purchases and according to iTunes, it was the #4 best selling film of 2013.

As for all the negativity STID is the most critically acclaimed summer blockbuster of 2013, with overwhelmingly positive reviews, 87% of critics liked it and 90% of the audience liked it on RT. It had a respectable box office performance, making it the most-watched Trek film ever!

30. James – I see what you’re saying as far as Paramount “not botching” this release….but I wonder….will there be hard feelings over this sort of release that echo into the future? Now, I’m sort of ignorant about this…I don’t buy many DVD’s, and don’t keep up with all the facets of releases, but is this sort of release a new trend in the industry? I mean, releasing different extras through different media/stores? I mean, I don’t have a blu-ray player, so I could live with the fact that there are extras on the blu-ray that are not on the DVD. But, seriously, getting something as basic as a audio commentary on Itunes? If STID came with extras, I would have bought it. It didn’t, so I just rent it from the library when I want to watch it. Obviously, a lot of people didn’t feel the same way I did, and bought it, which is great, because I want the franchise to stay as profitable as possible. But back to my rambling point, do you think this multiple copy/multiple platform scattering of extras is going to become standard and unavoidable through out the industry, or do you think it’s going to turn people off to the point where sales drop (or don’t meet expectations)?

Oh they botched it alright,what about all the people opting not to buy this and wait for the proper release instead,like me? lol! No,they screwed up,BIG time. Business wise they might not have,but of course they wanna get the fans’ money a few more times. I can wait. Loved the movie,but I’ll watch a downloaded version someone gave me till I get the proper release. Plain and simple.

J-R!

Was hoping the deleted scenes might contain McCoy’s missing character arc, but I guess it never existed…Anyway, I can see why these were cut, but I think they should have left the little girl scene in. The fact that that family just disappeared from the narrative after the first twenty minutes, or however long it was, was a weakness.

I did like the scene of Uhura dancing with the Klingons, and I think that should have been the whole movie.

Several words:

I’ve have not bought Into darkness and now i know why…

Interesting comments all. So, do we think STID would have been a better, more complete film had they not cut this stuff out? Can’t see these vids at work, but just how much time are we talking about here? Is there more substance that just explaining her British accent? (which was the very least of the gripes I had with this film)

@24. martin

Thanks a lot for the link.

Here are the deleted scenes from that link :

=======================================

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 01 – Captain’s Log

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTNjd6AMO_U

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 02 – Thomas Calls Marcus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nocOwybJoTw

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 03 – Kirk Watches Pike Get Shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8S5O0K8Jc

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 04 – Kronos Fight Before Khan Arrives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ew41unlpZE

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 05 – Carol’s Accent Explained

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1WbA8Ek6A4

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 06 – Scotty Talking to Hangar Control

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2mJ4jSwJo

Star Trek Into Darkness Deleted Scene 07 – The Harewoods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJaVTX6HAFo

=======================================

After watching these scenes, I think they should have kept the Captain’s Log scene in the movie.

#32

You are either a plant or an apologist. The Bluray release of this movie has been a disaster. There is no need to comment further on the content of the film itself.

I won’t buy this movie until it is either packaged with the extras in one place or I find it in the bargain bin for $5.

I will say that the best part of the movie would have been the TOS “style” Connie. Figures that they cut it out.

@34. You mean the tiny minority of whiny little pain in the a__es? I would say the fact that STID was the best selling DVD/Bluray for more than a month after its release shows clearly that those people had no appreciable effect on STID sales.

Maybe not,but I bet that in the back of their minds,Paramount knowing they could’ve had just that little bit more money,must be very annoying for them,lol! And I don’t believe it’s a tiny minority……minority,sure,but not tiny. But who cares. Some like a proper release with everything in one place,and some just like to watch the movie and don’t care about extras one way or the other. And I bet a LOT of these whiny little pain in the a_es,as you call them,secretly bought the dvd or br even if they said they wouldn’t. LOL! I have the movie,but it will remain a download till the next release.

J-R!

If you live in Canada, you don’t need to buy the DVD or the blu-ray, you can watch STID on Netflix Canada.

All of the deleted scenes are on youtube as Martin pointed out on his comment #24.

The only scene that they should have kept was the “Captain’s Log” scene. It was a fun & good scene.

@Matt Wright, was my post where I put all the deleted scenes together removed or still in the moderation pipe ?

oops , never mind, the comment is back now :)

36. Yanks

I don’t think the deleted scenes necessarily make it a better, more complete film. Directors have to take in mind the pacing of the movie, the overall time, what’s important, and what’s not. The Marcus scene just proves what I assumed anyway – this Carol Marcus was raised in England because her father was stationed there at some point. When you look at the movie and see that Adm. Marcus is stationed at the London HQ, and his daughter has a British accent, it’s not necessary to say that on film. Now, I’m not disparaging you personally, because like you, I think most of us Trek fans want things cemented in dialogue. I’m just talking about the editing process.

The big problem I think is that all of this stuff wasn’t included on the blu-ray release, and to get the complete extras/outtakes/bloopers/commentaries, you would have had to go to several different stores and use several different media platforms. That’s just ridiculous. I mean, it’s one thing to put some extras on the DVD, put more on the blu-ray, and maybe put some exclusives on the download. But to have people go to Target for this, Best Buy for that, XBox for this, Itunes for that, it’s ridiculous. Now, that’s not to say it won’t produce a nice profit, which it apparently has, even ignoring whatever money they got for the side deal excusives they cut, but really, I wonder how strategies like this work with fans long term. Are people going to eventually get used to their being content that they can’t get with whatever they choose to purchase, and purchase what appeals to them? Or are people going to stop purchasing altogether, and maybe even start stealing what they want through piracy? I’m not sure about all the technical aspects of it, but this produces a more compelling case for piracy (although I personally don’t agree with it), I could care less about movie prices – you want to see the movie, you pay for the ticket. Ticket too much, wait till it comes out on video, Netflix, HBO, network television, etc. But, they’re just playing with our emotions on this *LOL* Yes, bonus content isn’t owed to us, but it’s kind of like making you go to several different screenings of a movie to see the blooper scenes or after credits scenes that are typically shown during/after the credits of the same movie.

The problem I have with the argument – if a product gets 90% of critical approval, it must be good – is that I have seen where the product had major flaws. I am thinking about Skyrim and Mass Effect 3, which both got great reviews, yet were in the former a game that was extremely buggy and in the latter was less cohesive and not as thought out as the earlier installments.

Audiences have different expectations of what a film or tv show should be. They want a faster pace to their stories and less tolerance for those things which slow down the pace. For some of us, those slow moments were one of the reasons we came to love that show. The most successful of the original Star Trek films, The Voyage Home, didn’t have many action set pieces. The focus was on the charactes and them solving a problem. The film was dominated by dialog. I don’t think we will see a film like this again in Star Trek.

The scene when Carol’s accent is explained would have been helpful and provided some fiber to the story. So far both JJ abrams films have lacked in dialog that builds character.

when it does happen it is rushed and feels geared towards teens. For example while in the Mudd ship- the argument between Spock and Uhura came across as juvenile.

44. Steve-O – March 4, 2014

Helpful? Yes. Necessary? No. It probably ended up on the editing floor because they figured that audiences could figure it out for themselves, so they could trim it for time/flow purposes

I don’t know how you could possibly say that this and the other film lacked in dialog that builds character. Even the scene between Spock and Uhura (which was probably done in a way to appear juvenile/petty for comedic effect) spoke volumes on where Spock was mentally and emotionally after the destruction of his homeplanet. That’s good insight on his character. I think it’s fair to say that most of the character elaborating dialogue and development has focused on Kirk and Spock though. Maybe Uhura a little too.

45. LogicalLeopard

“they figured that audiences could figure it out for themselves”

you could say this about most scenes from any movie. My point is- moments like this develop characters. They make you care about what happens to them, and they give you time to breathe between the next fireworks show.

“Even the scene between Spock and Uhura (which was probably done in a way to appear juvenile/petty for comedic effect) spoke volumes on where Spock was mentally and emotionally after the destruction of his home planet. ”

As I said my perception is that it came off as juvenile and out of place. It may have spoken volumes about Spock, but i didn’t have time to digest any of it. Poor placement maybe?

I have enjoyed the new films, but this is the issue I always find myself trailing back to- I need more scenes that are dialogue driven and last more than 45seconds a clip..

32. James – March 4, 2014

I don’t know anything about the marketing logistics, but what you said here isn’t really correct:

As for all the negativity STID is the most critically acclaimed summer blockbuster of 2013, with overwhelmingly positive reviews, 87% of critics liked it and 90% of the audience liked it on RT. It had a respectable box office performance, making it the most-watched Trek film ever!

Regardless of the numbers, if you read the actual critical reviews—which I and others have posted at this site on several occasions—you will see that even the critics who recommended the movie as a fun “thrill-ride” were very critical of the movie as shallow, lacking in substance, having a non-sensical plot, and so forth. Again, those were the critics who “LIKED” the movie. You have to remember that the rating system at Rotten Tomatoes is binary: the critics either recommend the movie or they don’t. That a movie receives a high percentage of recommendations doesn’t necessarily imply that a high percentage of the critics thought highly of the movie, but simply that a high percentage of critics thought that it was “good enough” to recommend seeing.

Of all the things that can be said of STID, one thing that cannot be said is that it was “critically acclaimed.” Really, the opposite was true. The critical consensus was basically that STID was a visually-titillating thrill-ride, but little beyond that. Critics largely recommended the movie based on its production values and in spite of its dramatic, narrative and thematic values.

Microsoft and Paramount awaken Khan to help them form a more militarized entertainment juggernaut.. Um… sorry for that.

A few things. One. I’m pretty sure we all agree Paramount has treated Trekkers badly here. Except for James at 32. Hey, James I liked STID too but seriously trying to milk every cent from Trekkers is more than just a little greedy. You get more from your franchise by being occassionally nice. Mass Effect 3 did not charge for multiplayer maps, weapons or charcaters. Okay, that day one DLC stunk but the point is that ME3 did not try to milk every last cent from the fan. I predict no fan revolt for Mass Effect.

And fans do revolt. Remember New Coke? Right. No one does. What Trekkers should do is not buy every DVD version that came out. Buy just one. I didn’t know about XBOX Smartglass having deleted scenes but I love Blu-Ray and will not pony up the dough to rent STID through XBOX. The problem is that if Paramount keeps it up, there maybe a fan revolt. They dump a couple of new writers with no resumes on us. Then this. Feeling excited about the fiftieth anniversary Star Trek movie?

I’m lucky that I do game on XBOX but… I have to use a laptap or smartphone to get the deleted scenes to work. Plus it requires Windows Eight. Nope. Forget it. Too much trouble and money for deleted scenes. On the other hand, if Paramount charged additional money for a Specail Edition Blu Ray than I am there. But listen up, Paramount, I’m not going through the trouble of paying for STID again for the deleted scenes.

Thanks Trekcore for uncovering the scenes. They’re interesting. i understand why they were cut. But I’m more ambivalent about them then say cutting the scene in Aliens where Ripley finds out that her daughter died while she was in hibernation. Can’t believe that was cut out.

The one scene that looks amazing is of Admiral Marcus. There’s a beautiful looking Constitution class starship above him. Agree with the discussion over the change then for the new Enterprise. Did the alternate universe change Starfleet to become more militarized. Is the new Enterprise a reflection of that? It could be consistent with the theme in STID where Scotty reminds us that Starfleet’s first mission is to explore.

And is there more deleted footage? I looked at the UK trailer and there are two important scenes not in the movie. One. Admiral Marcus tells Kirk Starfleet i’s not about vendettas. Kirk says maybe it should. Two. McCoy questions whether Kirk is going after um.. Harrison. These scenes remind me of “Arena” where Kirk lets his emotions control until the end of the episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYj_FO86Ls#t=61