STAR TREK (2009) AND STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013)

— RANKING: 46 (TIE) —

STAR TREK (2009)

THE PERFECT REBOOT: Though long-time Trek fans feared the worst, J. J. Abrams proved them wrong with an origination story that remained true to the essence of Gene Roddenberry’s original while adding new textures and dimensions. Here, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine, and Zachary Quinto prepare for action. Courtesy: Paramount/Spyglass/Bad Robot.

CREDITS

Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment/Bad Robot; J. J. Abrams, dir.; Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, scr.; Abrams, Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, pro.; Michael Giacchino, mus.; Daniel Mindel, cin.; Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey, ed.; Scott Chambliss, prod. design; Keith P. Cunningham, art dir.; Michael Kaplan, costumes; Crist Ballas, special makeup effects; William Aldridge, Danny Cangemi, Terry Chapman, F/X; Dan Bornstein/ILM, visual effects; 127 min.; Color; 2.35:1.

CAST

Chris Pine (James Kirk); Zachary Quinto (Spock); Leonard Nimoy (Spock “Prime”); Eric Bana (Nero); Bruce Greenwood (Capt. Pike); Karl Urban (Bones); Zoe Saldana (Uhura); Simon Pegg (Scotty); John Cho (Sulu); Anton Yelchin (Chekov); Ben Cross (Sarek); Winona Ryder (Amanda); Chris Hemsworth (George Kirk); Jennifer Morrison (Winona Kirk).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

You are fully capable of deciding your own destiny. The question you face is: which path will you choose?

SAREK TO SPOCK

BACKGROUND

After NBC cancelled Star Trek in 1969, Gene Roddenberry announced to family and friends that he had no intention of giving up on a series that expressed his own unique sense and sensibility. In particular, Roddenberry thought it might be intriguing to return to his original idea for the Enterprise’s captain, Christopher Robin Pike, who was central to the first pilot episode, “The Cage.” In 1963, NBC, which had recently cancelled the top-rated Western Wagon Train, warmed to the notion that, in the 1960s, the future might provide a canvas similar to that offered by the old frontier in the 1950s. But executives concluded that the intellectual approach of the Star Trek pilot had more in common with CBS’s The Twilight Zone (never high in the ratings) than with the human drama of the number one Nielsen-rated Wagon Train. The men in suits asked Roddenberry to return to the drawing board and re-imagine a show rich in romance.

When star Jeffrey Hunter dropped out, Roddenberry decided not to recast the earnest Pike but to create the brash Kirk, a more likely figure to incite action-filled tales. Once the series sold, the chief writer-producer expanded “The Cage” into a first season two-parter, “The Menagerie.” In it, the current captain, James T. Kirk encounters the former captain (and more recently fleet captain) Pike as a wheelchair-bound recluse. A three-year series, animated TV episodes, theatrical films, and, finally, a live-action reboot involving Kirk’s own successor kept Roddenberry busy. Yet, his dream did belatedly come true when J. J. Abrams (1966–) chose an origination saga in which Kirk at first supports, then supplants Pike.

THE PLOT

The Romulan spacecraft Narada attacks a Federation starship. Youthful George Kirk, the acting captain, launches his pregnant wife Winona to safety in an escape vehicle, then courageously makes a frantic last stand against Captain Nero and his Romulan crew. In time, Kirk’s son, James Tiberius, grows into a cocky, vain, arrogant youth. He’s persuaded to join the Starfleet by his foster father, Captain Pike, who commands the Enterprise. First, though, Kirk must attend the academy. There he meets future colleagues, including half-human, half-Vulcan Spock, as committed to logic as Kirk is prone to emotions, and Nyota Uhura, a bright, beautiful linguistics expert. Even as a romantic triangle develops, they are called into action: a distress signal must be answered, and these young people are the only potential crew available to Pike. Kirk alone senses something isn’t right, for the supposed lightning storm in space recalls the trap used by Nero on that long-ago day when Jim was born.

THE FILM

One key to the film’s spectacular success was Abrams’s careful casting and subtle direction of the actors playing Kirk and Spock. To have presented imitations of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would have proven disastrous, reducing the reboot to a Spaceballs-type parody. Yet, to ignore those iconic portrayals would have also been wrong. Such ingrained portraitures simply had to be acknowledged. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto’s work is informed by physical gestures and vocal intonations that recall the earlier Kirk and Spock, but the younger actors recreated the roles with fresh, original “readings” of the characters.

THEME

Abrams and his writers found themselves in a unique position to add a now-popular sci-fi theme earlier implied by Star Trek, beginning with “The Menagerie”: alternative reality. This involves human movement beyond the space-time continuum, incorporating wormhole theory. Other versions of actuality other than that presently agreed on are not faux but equally real because all reality is ultimately a mental construction.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013)

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

Damon Lindelof, scr.; Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci, pro.; Daniel Mindel, cin.; Ramsey Avery, art dir.; Anne Porter, set design; Burt Dalton, F/X; Ron Ames, Jill Brooks/ILM, Amit Dhawal, Xuzhen An, visual effects; 132 min.; Color; 1.44:1 (IMAX).

ADDITIONAL CAST

Benedict Cumberbatch (Khan); Peter Weller (Marcus); Alice Eve (Carol); Noel Clarke (Thomas Harewood).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

JAMES T. KIRK

THE PLOT

Kirk sets off to capture John Harrison, a fugitive from Starfleet command who committed acts of terrorism, then retreated to Kronos, a planet inhabited by Klingons. The Enterprise crew find themselves in a tricky situation, committed to returning Harrison for the legal process while not wanting to inadvertently insult a highly territorial race. A new team member, Carol, wants to help, though things become more complicated when all aboard learn that Marcus, her father and their superior, harbors a hidden agenda.

THEME

Here we encounter science fiction that, far from allowing its audience an easy escape into an enjoyable, fantastical alternative universe, comments on the world that viewers have temporarily left and will shortly re-enter. Abrams revealed himself to be prescient at presenting a situation that would, at the time of his film’s release, divide the West into factions as to how escalating violence in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and Syria, should be addressed. Simplistic reaction—to attack or not to attack as extremes—can only make matters worse. To avoid this, leaders must, as Kirk’s above quote duly notes, negotiate with enemies. To do so is to prove Einstein correct: everything is ultimately relative.

TRIVIA

The depth with which Abrams developed Khan’s dark motivations adds so many dimensions to the character that, by film’s end, it seems less appropriate to think of him as a villain than as a tragic character on the order of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

One of the keys to the reboot’s success was a decision on the part of Abrams to treat the originals with due respect but not to feel slavishly bound to adhere to every detail for fear of upsetting Trek purists. One early example of the effectiveness of this approach is the manner in which Pike becomes wheelchair bound. In the film, it is not identical to the accident that caused his physical problems in “The Menagerie.” Yet, the image at the closing of Abrams’s Star Trek references fans’ memories of Pike in such a situation in 1965–1966. In Abrams’s version, it becomes clear that Pike was the first person to helm the ship Enterprise, whereas in earlier incarnations, Robert April had served as captain for nine years. Torn between loyalty to the source and the need to create a Star Trek that would emerge as his own, Abrams opted for the latter.

Roddenberry had always confided to close associates that, as a civil rights activist, he would have loved to create a romantic triangle, with Kirk and Spock vying for the lovely Uhura. However, restrictions on network TV during the mid-sixties were so extreme that he had to fight a major battle simply to win the right to cast African-American actress Nichelle Nichols in the part, much less portray her character involved in an interracial romance.

By making such a relationship the centerpiece of a rebooted Star Trek, Abrams finally brought the late Gene Roddenberry’s dream to full fruition.