Since first seeing it some... Oh I dunno, thee weeks ago, I've
gradually been coming to terms with Star Trek Into Darkness.
Of course, this amazing summer movie has been nothing short of an
event, whether you liked it or not. The thing is, I absolutely
fucking loved it. Went to the cinema, saw it in 3D,
waved my arms about, probably shouted out loud a few times, and cried
at the appropriate moments. I did say I was going to see it
again and take notes on all the 'Old Trek' universe references, but
the time has been and gone and it's now no longer on at The Plaza on
the cheap night. What I did do however, was track down
the classic 1967 episode of The Original Series Space Seed.
I don't really need to watch Star Trek II Wrath of Khan
again (it's not a necessity at least), because various parts of that
film are BURNED INTO MY MIND AND WILL NEVER GO AWAY. Because of
being steeped in Trek history, I basically have three major problems
with the film:
The emotional crux of the film is
essentially empty
Not only is it empty, but
it becomes a race for the McGuffin
- It is one reference after another and cherry picks elements
from the above mentioned Khan stories
Also a really funny thing I came across in one of trawls
through the internet is that this film is like the John Harrison Ford
action movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the film opens
with the protagonist being chased by angry natives, and closes with
the superweapon being safely locked away... Who says Hollywood has run out of plots? Anyway.
Are you sitting comfortably? Are you ready to hate me,
possibly yourself and maybe everything you know already? Let's
go then. Don't worry though! Because I hate absolutely
everything already, so I am way ahead of you. DID I MENTION
I WILL SPOIL LITERALLY EVERYTHING IN THE FILM JESUS CHRIST YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EVEN READ THE TITLE.
We open to a brilliantly shot set-piece with Bones and Kirk
pegging it through a jungle away from spear-toting natives, cut with
Sulu and Uhura in a shuttle, about to dangle Spock (dressed as a
disco ball) into a Volcano. Turns out the Enterprise has been
sat in the sea for the best part of two days, on a self-ordained
mission to rescue the planet from the cataclysmic eruption of said
volcano, by dropping a cold fusion bomb that freezes the eruption.
The one important moment in this section is where we end up with
Spock stranded in the volcano READYING HIMSELF TO DIE after the
immortal line
- "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...
Or the one."
FORESHADOWING no? Anyway, it wouldn't be much of a film
(seeing as this is an impersonation of Wrath of Khan rather than
The Search for Spock) if they killed Spock off before the
opening titles, so of course, they raise the leviathan from the waves
and rescue the green blooded son of a bitch. We know that this isn't the only Star Trek sequel that does the old bait-and-switch on Spock dying. For once we get to
see the great and mighty ship in the atmosphere, which is something I
really liked! I remember that they put landing gear on the
crate in Voyager, but I only saw the one episode where they
landed the big ship? There may be more, I didn't see every
single one.
Okay. We get introduced to 'John Harrison', the man with the
magic blood (remember that). The ultimate expression of Sherlock Holmes - cold,
calculating, intellectually superior, misanthrophic, a gifted
tactician and a talented combatant. Just say if you know any
old Star Trek, just say, who else do you know fits all those
categories? No... It can't be him? Anyway. He
orchestrates the explosion of some super-secret research facility in
the basement of London, not a stone's throw from Wren's St. Paul's OF
COURSE IT'S STILL THERE Seriously guys they still have red buses.
Sherlock also performs a daring assault on Starfleet high command
(only seconds after the comedy block-head Kirk works out why they've
all been gathered there on that day ahead of everyone else in
Starfleet including Spock) before beaming off to the Klingon
Homeworld when Captain First Officer Kirk knackers
up his snub-nose starfighter (transworld beaming because Starfleet
pinched the transwarp equation without crediting Scotty - some sort
of satire on Intellectual Property rights I think), only moments
before Kirk swears REVENGE. The Wrath of Kirk! After a
tense meeting with Admiral Marcus, as portrayed by Robocop (check the
desk out for yet more classic references), Kirk gets his Captaincy
restored, his Spock returned, the Enterprise given back... and orders
to kill 'John Harrison'. Further to this, the Enterprise is
armed with 72 super-secret long range proton photon
torpedoes (does that number mean anything?). When this magic
missile payload appears in the engineering section, Scotty won't sign
for them! Not at this address mate! He's not happy
because they won't let him look at the secret ingredients. The
upshot of this is that Scotty gets kicked off the Enterprise,
complete with his little wee Ugnaut man. This frees him up to
advance the plot later on after being absent for at least an...
hour? In his place, Eastern European stereotype Chekov stands in. Alongside the torpedoes arrives Carol Wallace, who occupies the 'fit bird eyecandy' character archetype, that all Sci-Fi must have. When they reach Qo'noS, holding position miles out with
the magic missiles pointing at 'Harrison' Ford,
while Kirk, Spock and Uhura (with two redshirts) dress up as
smugglers and fly the Kessel Run in a prototype for the Millennium
Falcon. Spock and Uhura have a full on domestic in the flying
Hamburger. While all this is happening, Sulu is sat in the captain's chair
(Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, anybody? Sure,
it's no Excelsior...)
Another high-speed fight scene gets cut, with the mirror universe
Klingons... who look just like their Prime Universe (thankfully.
Right?) counterparts, which starts to get pretty hairy...until
Sherlock appears and literally just kills the shit out of
everybody who isn't in the principal cast. He surrenders
instantly after a grueling battle once he learns the exact number of
torpedoes pointed at him. Why? Why would such a furious
badass simply yield in a heartbeat like that? What importance
does the number 72 have? And then Kirk punches him
alllllllllllllllllllll day without Holmes even flinching. They drag him back to the Enterprise where it is finally revealed that yes, Sherlock Holmes IS Peter Guillam! Ho ho! Of course, he is Khan Noonien Singh, the most dangerous of all the despotic genetically modified human beings from the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s in the Star Trek Universe (multiverse?). Remember, the timeline only split when the Kelvin was destroyed at the start of the first film of this franchise. Literally everything else up until that point was exactly the same - First Contact and even Enterprise is still canon at this point. I hope you remember the models on the desk? Not just another nod, for once. After the underplayed reveal, he soothingly rumbles about the torpedoes, what's inside them? What's inside is a game changer, and explains why the SS Botany Bay isn't in the film, because we discover that as well as a highly explosive payload, they each contain a cryo-stasis pod with Khan's crew safely tucked away! Before this we see Carol Marcus Wallace in her underwear. Phwoar. It serves no narrative purpose. Around this time, Khan gives Kirk a space postcode, which moves James Tiberius to call his friend and now free agent... Montgomery Scott! Who is drinking whisky in a club. He drives a shuttle craft over and discover a huge shipyard and manages to infiltrate... Dr. McCoy also takes a sample of Khan's blood. Keep hold of that.
But it seems that this Khan is not a bad Khan? It transpires that the Botany Bay was found in space, just like it was in the 'real' universe, but this time by Admiral "Robocop" Marcus. Khan was awoken and used, used I say, to create weapons of mass destruction for space war (this is most unlike Khan Prime) with the Klingons. Khan's crew are used as leverage by Marcus, and are included in the payload of each and every torpedo that was supplied to the Enterprise. All of a sudden, loyalties are compromised. A new ship appears, the USS Vengeance. The captain is none other than Admiral Marcus, who is hunting down Khan as well. Marcus orders that Khan be transferred aboard the Vengeance, as he is a war criminal and must be executed. I've missed out part of the debate here (most of which happened before the torpedoes' cargo was discovered) but basically Kirk, rather than follow the orders of his Admiral, follows Spock's suggestion of bringing Khan to trial on Earth, a deeply legalistically ethical suggestion. It's what Kant would have done. Marcus, of course, doesn't like this one bit. The Enterprise escapes at warp speed... But is chased down and fired upon! This is a real surprise to see one ship not only caught up on but attacked while in hyperspace at warp. It's really amazing on screen, make no mistake. The Vengeance makes a fearsome noise. Still, it adds up to make this Khan almost a sympathetic enemy at the least - yes, he may be the Khan of the Eugenics Wars, but so far he hasn't seemed to be trying to take control of the Enterprise and his crew are in danger and he has been kept prisoner and taken advantage of. All things that can be sympathised with.
Okay, let's relax on the whole plot synopsis here. There's one point I haven't yet addressed which I'll get to, but I'm sure if you've seen it already you know what's happening, if you haven't seen it but don't mind finding out there are several, less cynical and more detailed synopses, and if you want to see it but haven't WHY THE HELL HAVE YOU GOT THIS FAR. Let's get to the cut and thrust of this...review? I dunno, but the climactic death scene. As I said earlier, this film oscillates between Space Seed and Wrath of Khan, and by now it's definitely swung into the latter. However, this is the mirror universe so it's not going to play out quite as you expect. Or quite as you remember. The Enterprise is wrecked, barely holding together in Earth's upper atmosphere. The power's out, because the warp core is misaligned due to the preceding battle, and time is running out before the ship crashes and the crew liquidised by the force. Thing is, Bones is in the Medical Bay, and Spock is strapped into the Captain's chair as per the space jump that Khan and Kirk did in order to infiltrate the USS Vengeance. Scotty and Kirk are in Engineering. So the usual "you can't go in it'll kill you!" happens, and Kirk... Punches Scotty out. That's it. Sits him in a chair, and puts his seatbelt on... and goes in the reactor chamber. What. Seriously. Kirk goes off to his death. Let's cut here.
Now, there are three critical things that raise Wrath of Khan
above other Star Trek films primarily, and these are as follows:
- Ricardo Montalban straight up OWNING every line (the performance
of a God)
- The Enterprise and the Reliant playing Battleships in 3 dimensions
- The death of Spock
Aside from this, the scenario where the crew are beginning to age
(Kirk gets reading glasses for his birthday!) and the stirring
faux-naval score really help the sort of campy atmosphere. You
will notice that Into Darkness has none of these things. The 18 year gap between Space Seed and Wrath of Khan is almost exactly mirrored in real time, the episode coming from 1967 and the film from 1982.
As noted earlier, this Khan does not think in three dimensions. The superbly played and brilliantly tense final shootout between the Reliant and the Enterprise is at a stalemate...until Kirk remembers that unlike the sea, space operates in three dimensions (with which Khan is not experienced), and uses this to his advantage. As a final act of bitterness, Khan, shattered and dying, makes one last-ditch attempt to vanquish his enemy by setting off the Genesis device before expiring. The Enterprise limps away, but can't break into the run that Warp speed is because the warp core is misaligned. Engineering is cut off due to the inhuman amounts of radiation pouring out of the warp core, and there's no way to get in... Or is there? Not all of the crew are human, remember. It is at this point that I start weeping with no sense of regret. The only crew member who could biologically withstand the radiation is... Mr. Spock.
Spock's self-sacrifice is the emotional climax of the movie. It is Spock's Kobayashi Maru test - by his own admission. He slips off quietly while everyone else is panicking, and gets it done. Bones tries to stop him, but Spock nerve pinches him and then mind melds. "Remember". Of course, he manages to fix the vital component of the reactor in time for the Enterprise to escape, but fatally irradiates himself in the process. His final breath is so touching not because it's Spock and Kirk, or the fact that they're in space or anything... It's seeing a man watch his best friend of almost twenty years die in front of him, totally unreachable. The one person he needs, he can rely on is... just slipping away behind the glass. Just give me a minute you guys. I'll be okay.
This is where Wrath of Khan pulls ahead, because it's also about the way that their lives have changed through time. This theme continues through all the original cast films, as the surviving cast of Star Trek TOS have a combined age that is greater than the Rolling Stones. These guys in the mirror universe haven't even gone on their 5 year mission, they've known each other for all of 5 minutes, so the death of Kirk is deeply unfortunate and still pretty sad - rather than deliberately choose himself, he is the one man who makes the choice. The emotional hook in this is remembering Spock's death, and, rather than the Captain being trapped inside the planet, it is in fact the mirror Spock who utters the famous scream before chasing Khan down on foot, so that famous Vulcan physiology gets referenced after all... After a fraught punch-up on aerial platform vehicles, Uhura gets beamed down and stuns the living shit out of Khan with a phaser. They need him alive for (drum roll yes that's right it's McGuffin time) his magic blood! If it can resurrect a tribble, it can resurrect a Kirk! I have another problem with this, that I realised even in the cinema was there are 72 frozen supermen on board in Medical who have the same genetically superior blood. They even turf one of the Botany Bay crew out of their cryo-pod in order to preserve the gradually decaying body of Kirk, so they can pump him full of Khan's blood... Whaaaaaat? Why can't they use that one? IT ALWAYS HAS TO BE KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.
And look at that. Ten minutes later, (two weeks in the movie time) and we cut to Kirk in bed. Laid up with a case of the Khans, he has miraculously recovered from being dead (just like that tribble earlier), and Khan himself is safely locked in his chiller cabinet with the rest of the surviving Botany Bay, who knows how long for this time. The one thing I said I was going to come back to was when Kirk and Khan do their space jump (in which Khan saves Kirk's life no less!), he rings calls Spock Prime on Space Skype in order to ask him about Khan. Khan is a bad man, and was only defeated "at great cost" (although this cost is not elaborated on). Spock to Spock, we finally hear what we knew about Mr. Noonien Singh all along, "He is brilliant, ruthless, and he will not hesitate to kill every single one of you". This brutality was seen on Qo'noS, and also in the corridors of the Vengeance, where Khan, Kirk and Scotty work their way up to the bridge where Khan has his showdown with Admiral Marcus. During the course of this Mexican stand-off, it is finally revealed that Carol Wallace is in fact Carol Marcus, the Admiral's daughter and another classic Trek reference. That's not terribly exciting, sorry.
Even though I found the experience of watching Into Darkness deeply enjoyable and very exciting, I ultimately feel a little disappointed. A plot jammed with elements from two old stories (one of which is a feature length resolution of the first), laced with top of the line special effects and visual set pieces, then mixed in with more references to classic Star Trek than you can shake a stick at to keep it all together. Lens flare does not replace character development. Disappointed is the wrong term, too strong perhaps. Underwhelmed? Now I've had the time to think about it (and write it all out) especially. I'll definitely watch it again, buy the DVD you know it, but still. Having split the timeline in 2233, and planet Vulcan being destroyed in 2258, the alternate universe is different enough already, without comparing how much more emotional this particular Spock is: we see him and Uhura conduct a relationship in public, something that Nimoy's Spock would never do. Chronologically speaking, there was no need to make Khan the villain of the piece, seeing as the film is set 8 years before the Prime crew discover The Botany Bay (or perhaps this is another repercussion of being on an altered timeline?) anyway. I feel that it was a bit of a cheap shot using the exact same plot device in the shape of the damaged warp core. Even down to the critical use of the word "friend". By making Khan's blood the only thing that can save Kirk, they make the baddy into the source of their deus ex machina, and also make sure the other augmented humans are left inhuman by leaving them as the cryo-pods, basically. However, the memorial presided over by Captain Kirk at the end of the film rededicates Starfleet's purpose: rather than prepare for war either in secret or openly, and the famous five year mission is finally launched.
A reboot like this would always be tough. Imagine if they rebooted Star Wars like this, where perhaps... I dunno, Qui-Gon Jinn survives the lightsaber duel but Anakin Skywalker still becomes Darth Vader in a series of very strange but similar events? Maybe it was some sort of attempt on the writers' and director's parts to make a statement that these characters are 'destined' to interact in this sort of way, regardless of where we find them. Or maybe they wanted to put their spin on an established part of Trek history. Or... I don't know. Even though Wrath of Khan's no world beater itself, I think Into Darkness can't even dream of touching it. Sorry, but Montalban beats Cumberbatch any day.
Oh, Khan. For Hate's sake, I type my last words at thee.
