{"id":5834,"date":"2013-05-18T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-18T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5834"},"modified":"2022-10-25T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T12:55:20","slug":"star-trek-into-darkness-comes-with-too-much-baggage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/star-trek-into-darkness-comes-with-too-much-baggage\/","title":{"rendered":"J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness comes with too much baggage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long term Star Trek<\/a> fans may bemoan the fact that the latest films have ejected much of what was previously considered essential ingredients. Gone are the spacey metaphors for what a moral utopian society might look like, not to mention the years of established chronology and backstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to old timer Trekkers I say: too bad. Trek ran itself into the ground years ago as the Voyager<\/em> and Enterprise<\/em> series disappeared up their own backsides. It was long past time for Star Trek to undergo shock therapy to adjust to a new era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But given the mostly clean slate set up by J.J. Abrams’ first film in 2009<\/a>, I wish Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em> had struck out for new territories instead of largely retreading the original series episode “Space Seed” and the movie The Wrath of Khan<\/em>. The return of the titular villain in Khan<\/em> held a great deal of weight for Trek fans in 1982. A character from the often campy and casual ’60s television series was treated with a degree of seriousness, as Kirk et al were forced to deal with the consequences of actions taken and forgotten years prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we encounter a “new” Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) for the first time in Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em>, what does it mean to non-fans? Little beyond a possibly faintly familiar name. If the point of rebooting Star Trek was to give it some meaning for modern audiences not versed in Trek lore, even this supposedly fresh Khan comes with too much historical baggage that is poorly explained here. Even as a long time Star Trek fan, I was a little at a loss to understand who exactly he was based on the evidence supplied by exposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Star
The Star Trek Into Darkness cast is earthbound.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Any degree of consistency between franchise entries is rare. Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em> shares a great deal with its predecessor, for good or for ill. The good being that it is handsomely, nay, expertly made. The ill being that its plot barely holds together. Admiral Marcus’ (Peter Weller) diabolical scheme makes little to no sense. As I understood what was shown on screen, he had two separate goals: to speed along a possibly inevitable war with the Klingons, and also to kill a cryogenically frozen army of genetically enhanced supersoldiers left over from World War III. He attempts both schemes at the same time, in the least efficient way possible. I blame Hollywood’s current can-do-no-wrong golden boy Damon Lindelof<\/a>, who is also rumored to have been responsible for the incomprehensible plot issues with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of incomprehensible issues, the title “Star Trek Into Darkness” is just plain nonsense. But I still found it a rollicking good time, as I did with the the original 2009 film, and wish there was less of a long gap between them. Now that J.J. Abrams<\/a> is preoccupied with a very different “Star —-” franchise, that gap may be even longer, or we may see Trek taken over by another auteur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long term Star Trek fans may bemoan the fact that the latest films have ejected much of what was previously considered essential ingredients. Gone are the spacey metaphors for what a moral utopian society might look like, not to mention the years of established chronology and backstory. But to old timer Trekkers I say: too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1859,1915,853,469,1991,458],"class_list":["post-5834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-1859","tag-benedict-cumberbatch","tag-damon-lindelof","tag-jj-abrams","tag-peter-weller","tag-star-trek"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-into-darkness.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1w6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1777,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/star-trek\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":0},"title":"Set Phasers to Awesome: J.J. Abrams reboots Star Trek","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Like the 1966 Corvette a reckless young James Tiberius Kirk commandeers in an early sequence, the new Star Trek is precision-crafted for speed, sex appeal, and total awesomeness. Kirk launches that beautiful machine off a cliff, but thankfully director J.J. Abrams never does the same with the movie. Star Trek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Star Trek","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/star-trek-2009-spaceport.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/star-trek-2009-spaceport.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/star-trek-2009-spaceport.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/star-trek-2009-spaceport.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/star-trek-2009-spaceport.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5731,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/star-trek-the-motion-picture-was-always-out-of-step-with-the-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":1},"title":"Star Trek: The Motion Picture was always out of step with the times","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"??? With a release history more tangled than a TNG time travel plot, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finally available in its most complete form yet: a 2022 4K remaster of the 2001 Director's Edition of the 1979 film. Got that? Engadget has the full details, but in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Star Trek: The Motion Picture","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-motion-picture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-motion-picture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-motion-picture.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-motion-picture.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-trek-motion-picture.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-dork-report-for-april-21-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":2},"title":"The Dork Report for April 21, 2006","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"CSS Beauty, a great web design resource I hadn't seen before. Watch the layout rearrange itself as you resize the window. Neat! Secretary of State, check, unlikely teen hero, check, super-hot and super-smart codebreaker, OK, fine. But who's going to play the dog that survives as humans around him are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Dork Report"","block_context":{"text":"The Dork Report","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/dork-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Dork Report","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5743,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-smothers-all-hope-and-wonder\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":3},"title":"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker smothers all hope and wonder","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"December 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My brilliant wife had the following absolutely perfect appraisal of the first two entries in the new Star Wars trilogy, which I will paraphrase here: \"Most of the criticism of The Force Awakens was absolutely correct, but I loved it anyway. Most of the criticism of The Last Jedi was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5203,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/star-trek-vi-the-undiscovered-country-1991-movie-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":4},"title":"Why can’t Star Trek always be as good as The Undiscovered Country?","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"December 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Please let me know if there's another way we can screw up tonight.\" Not only is Nicholas Meyer's The Undiscovered Country my personal favorite Star Trek movie, I may go far as to argue that it is the best. It truly ticks every box of what makes Star Trek Star\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/star-trek-undiscovered-country.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/star-trek-undiscovered-country.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/star-trek-undiscovered-country.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/star-trek-undiscovered-country.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/star-trek-undiscovered-country.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/mission-impossible-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":5834,"position":5},"title":"J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III is preposterous and exhausting","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A few disconnected thoughts on J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III: I rue the day Terminator 2 (aka \"T2\") came out and was a big hit; now every pre-ordained blockbuster comes abbreviated: ID4, LXG, AVP, X2, X3, and now of course M:I:III. Like most summer action blockbusters, M:I:III is at first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mission Impossible III","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/mission-impossible-iii.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/mission-impossible-iii.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/mission-impossible-iii.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/mission-impossible-iii.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/mission-impossible-iii.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7323,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions\/7323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}