[movie] Star Trek 2, AKA Star Trek Into Darkness

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Although it wouldn't surprise me if it was Gary Mitchell, I doubt that anybody outside the Trekker universe will remember the character.

ETA: It would surprise me less than it would surprise me if he were playing Khan. I just don't think they would play that card so soon.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, I don't know. I think going with a returning villain,  that they're boxing themselves in a corner. It would have to be someone who's had enough of an impact on the franchise that everyone, not just fans, would know, and there aren't very many of those, so it narrows it down a lot as to who it could be. If they get too obscure, then it goes against the reason why they wanted to do a reboot in the first place, to get away from being tied up in canon details and it being accessible for new fans to the franchise. On the upside, at least with going with someone minor, they have someone to develop beyond their episode like WoK did for Khan.  If they'd have gone with something completely original, they wouldn't have this problem.  

[Bullwinkle]

Okay, I've figured it out.  Clearly, the villain is Harry Mudd.

As to Mitchell,  I don't see it in the trailer at all, but there's no evidence that it's not him, either.  And even though he's only someone fans would know, his story would still resonate with non-fans.  

The only people who really give a crap about who the villain is are the people who know the history.  The rest of the audience won't care as long as it's a good villain.  Although, if it's Kahn, they will care and comparisons will be made.

I really don't think it's Kahn, by the way, but I do think they want us to think it might be.

[metallicorphan]

Yeah, I don't know. I think going with a returning villain,  that they're boxing themselves in a corner. It would have to be someone who's had enough of an impact on the franchise that everyone, not just fans, would know, and there aren't very many of those, so it narrows it down a lot as to who it could be.

yeah but when The Wrath of Kahn was released,people who had not seen the original series like me,had no idea who khan was,in fact it was much later i found out there was an actual episode that was the backstory....but the film still worked and its still my favourite Trek film


so i reckon they are doing the same thing here,only not going with Kahn,but yeah Mitchell...he has the Enterprise uniform on in one scene in the trailer,so unless they are going to introduce another person who feels he has been crossed by Starfleet..its got to be one of them and i am going Mitchell

as long as the audience get the gist in the film,like in WoK then it will work...hell,we get the gist just from the trailer

If they get too obscure, then it goes against the reason why they wanted to do a reboot in the first place, to get away from being tied up in canon details and it being accessible for new fans to the franchise.

They did have that Kobayashi Maru situation in the last film that is part of Trekkie lore

[Rumpy]

True enough, and like I said, obscure or not, it's one way to develop a character more and have everyone be more familiar with it.

[CeeKay]

yeah but when The Wrath of Kahn was released,

KHAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!!

the last film changed stuff, so I wouldn't assume anything about following proper Star Trek lore at this point.

[leo8877]

Visual clue?

Spoiler for Hiden:

[Bullwinkle]

Well, now they're getting really cagey.

Apparently, Paramount released a photo with Cumberbatch's character name: John Harrison.  BUT it turns out John Harrison was a character who was nearly suffocated in "Space Seed" by Kahn Noonian Singh.



(Left to right) Zachary Quinto is Spock, Benedict Cumberbatch is John Harrison and Chris Pine is Kirk in STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.

His not being Kahn better not turn out to be like the aliens not being Aliens in Prometheus.

[Isgrimnur]

Harrison (no first name) was in multiple episodes.

[Bullwinkle]

Harrison (no first name) was in multiple episodes.

Could this actually be the Revenge of the Redshirts?

[EddieA]

They also revealed that the blonde woman in the trailer is

Spoiler for Hiden:

indeed Carol Marcus.

[metallicorphan]

I have the first series of Star Trek on my TiVo(and never seen the original series),looks like all my Internet looking up over Mitchell went to waste,time to watch that series

[Blackjack]

Double Check the Full List of 288 IMAX Theaters Showing 9 Minutes of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Starting December 14
http://collider.com/star-trek-2-sequel-imax-theaters/217850/#more-217850
*Global list, not just North America.

[hepcat]

I have the first series of Star Trek on my TiVo(and never seen the original series),looks like all my Internet looking up over Mitchell went to waste,time to watch that series

 

WHAT!?!

[metallicorphan]

 


I only grew up with the Star Trek movies,never saw the series on TV(I still remember they were on BBC2 at 6pm every night-repeats obviously),not sure why,they just never appealed to me before


FWIW- I used to watch Dr Who as a kid,but wasn't that big on him(and the little i watched turned to nothing when Sylvester McCoy took over)...and I don't like Dr Who now(although i will admit i liked that Stone Angels episode)

I think it was just Star Wars i was into for my Sci-Fi kicks

[CeeKay]

want to better understand the villain?  well...

[Isgrimnur]

So they've learned nothing from last time?  Great.

[Blackjack]

So they've learned nothing from last time?  Great.

From what I've read, JJ learned to tone down his lens flare fixation, and the engine room maybe looks less like a brewery or a septic plant. What more do you need, man??? 

[Isgrimnur]

Them not expecting us to all be comic book geeks and have read the comic version of the Big Bad's I'm Mad At The Universe psychiatric evaluation.

[Blackjack]

If anybody saw the 9 minutes last night, give up the details already 

[Asharak]

If anybody saw the 9 minutes last night, give up the details already  

Underwhelming. Spoiler-ridden synopsis:

Spoiler for Hiden:

The footage opens with a seemingly-random little girl in a hospital in London, dying of a seemingly-random illness (I'm not sure either the girl or the disease are named). Her doctors tell her father that there is nothing they can do. Her grief-stricken father is standing around when Benedict Cumberbatch comes up behind him and says, "I can save her". The father asks, "Who are you?" and the scene ends.

Cut to Kirk and McCoy, covered head to toe in very grey robes, running through a field of very red plants from some very yellow aliens. It's all very colourful. Apparently, this has something to do with a volcano on the aliens' planet about to explode and kill them all. Kirk and McCoy are in costume because the Prime Directive forbids them from letting the aliens know they're about save them from the volcano by using a shuttlecraft to lower Spock (in some spiffy thermal armour) into its core with a doodad to inertify the magmic reactions (not what they said, but it's Star Trek, so you get the idea). Based on the look of the place, it's also possible they were trying to destroy the One Ring.

Unfortunately, after lowering Spock into the volcano, the shuttlecraft can't handle the heat, so it gets out of the kitchen and leaves Spock stranded down there. The Enterprise can't use the transporters to beam him out because it's hiding in the ocean (best line of the footage is Scotty, as soon as you learn where the Enterprise is, speaking for the entire audience when he tells Kirk "do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a starship underwater?") and all the interference from the volcano means they'd need a direct line of sight to beam him up, anyway...which they aren't supposed to do because the aliens who failed to notice the shuttlecraft would definitely notice the Enterprise floating over a giant volcano. Spock says that Kirk should leave him to die because the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few. Kirk asks McCoy what Spock would do if their positions were reversed, and McCoy tells him Spock would let Kirk die.

Oh no, it looks like Spock is going to die! End of preview.

My opinion of the preview, then: the second scene is mostly irrelevant. It had the feel of a throwaway scene just intended to give them some pretty visuals and Kirk-being-chased-by-aliens action at the beginning of the movie (and maybe parallel Spock's Kobiyashi Maru non-death from the beginning of Wrath of Khan). If Spock is going to die, I highly doubt it's going to happen in so meaningless a fashion as to save a nameless bunch of non-spacefaring aliens in the first nine minutes of the movie. The earlier, shorter scene with Cumberbatch is slightly more revelatory, since we now know he's playing a doctor (or at least a pseudo-medical professional who can get into hospitals). His identity remains unknown but the introduction argues strongly for a Eugenics Wars / augment type storyline in general, since he's presumably about to engage in some illicit medical practicing. Bottom line, the preview neither informed me significantly nor excited me about the movie. I remain excited in general, based on the quality of the last one, but I wouldn't rush out to an IMAX theatre just to see that preview.

- Ash

[hepcat]

So Cumberbatch IS playing Harry Mudd after all.  Interesting...

[leo8877]

New trailer out today.  Last line has to be a hint, yes?

[CeeKay]

New trailer out today.  Last line has to be a hint, yes?

link to said trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ilfvdChMkw

[CeeKay]

couple of observations about the newest teaser (note I haven't read Ash's spoilers or seen the 9 minute preview):

Spoiler for Hiden:

at 1:25, it sounds like Carol Marcus is yelling 'KKHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAN!'

Cumberbatch's voiceover really reminds me of Picard, especially for the last line.

[farley2k]

New trailer out today.  Last line has to be a hint, yes?

If it is it is about the most obscure hint ever.

[Blackjack]

New trailer out today.  Last line has to be a hint, yes?

link to said trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ilfvdChMkw

Link was pulled due to copyright claim by Paramount. Any signs of an official link yet?

I refuse to read anything into the Fortune Cookie/Magic 8-Ball hint stylings of Lindelof and Abrams. It could be like "Super 8" or M. Night Shammy's "Signs," where you get all hot and bothered about a mystery and "what does it all mean!" when in the end it's "Aliens are bad guys!" Woop-de-doo! It just wouldn't surprise me if these various bread crumb hints are simply red herrings.

[Asharak]

Link was pulled due to copyright claim by Paramount. Any signs of an official link yet?

What am I today, your monkey?

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrekintodarkness/

- Ash

PS> Two thoughts on it: no, what "Carol Marcus" screams doesn't sound like "Khaaaan". It sounds like a scream. Which is usually the sound "aaaa". Which is contained in "Khaaaan". That is where the similarity ends. Second, the last line is not new. It was heard in the previous teaser. And while it may be a hint, it's no less obscure now than it was then. Personally, I think it's just meant to establish a humanizing motive for the movie's villainy (he's doing horrible things for his family, isn't he sweet?).

[Bullwinkle]

Link was pulled due to copyright claim by Paramount. Any signs of an official link yet?

What am I today, your monkey?

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrekintodarkness/

- Ash

PS> Two thoughts on it: no, what "Carol Marcus" screams doesn't sound like "Khaaaan". It sounds like a scream. Which is usually the sound "aaaa". Which is contained in "Khaaaan". That is where the similarity ends. Second, the last line is not new. It was heard in the previous teaser. And while it may be a hint, it's no less obscure now than it was then. Personally, I think it's just meant to establish a humanizing motive for the movie's villainy (he's doing horrible things for his family, isn't he sweet?).

There are two screams.  The second one has a little bit more to it, though it's a bit of a stretch to say it's Kahn.

The last line was not in the original trailer.  It was in the Japanese version of the original trailer, though, along with the hands at the end (which in my mind is a bigger hint tease than any dialogue).

[Asharak]

There are two screams.  The second one has a little bit more to it, though it's a bit of a stretch to say it's Kahn.

I had no idea what you were talking about, so I watched the trailer again. I had never even noticed the first scream. The second, longer, actually-seen scream is the one I still say sounds like nothing more than someone actually screaming.

The last line was not in the original trailer.  It was in the Japanese version of the original trailer, though, along with the hands at the end (which in my mind is a bigger hint tease than any dialogue).

Point. I had specifically watched the Japanese version of the first one and I had assumed everyone on a forum this geeky had too, since it was available so easily and the fact that it had extra footage was so quickly publicized. On the topic of the "hands":

Spoiler for Hiden:

I'm micro-analyzing here but, watching the hands scene again in this trailer, I think it's clear that Spock isn't the one who may be dying in that shot. He's standing on the far side on the far side of the glass, reaching down to touch the hand in the foreground -- and that's the person whose arm is horizontal, implying that they're on their knees. We don't actually know who that person is: it might be Kirk, who wore black a lot in the first movie, or even Cumberbatch's character, who wears black in the various trailer scenes (although why Spock would be consoling him is beyond me, as well). But I think Spock's posture by itself strongly implies that he isn't in ill health at that point.

- Ash

[Blackjack]

Link was pulled due to copyright claim by Paramount. Any signs of an official link yet?

What am I today, your monkey?

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrekintodarkness/

- Ash

Monkey see, monkey do! Thanks.  

Maybe Carol Marcus was Khan before a clever sex change operation performed by Gary with his special powers after he filed for his name change from Harrison.  See? I know how Damon Lindelof's mind works 

[Purge]

... how Damon Lindelof's mind works ...

I disagree with this.

[CeeKay]

There are two screams.  The second one has a little bit more to it, though it's a bit of a stretch to say it's Kahn.

Maybe she's screaming Caan.

[TK-421]

Slightly different trailer.

[farley2k]

I like that trailer a lot! 

[Blackjack]

There are two screams.  The second one has a little bit more to it, though it's a bit of a stretch to say it's Kahn.

Maybe she's screaming Caan.

Maybe it's "Han!" A Star Wars crossover? 

[metallicorphan]

only just got round to watching that new trailer

for the first minute or so i thought they had stolen the soundtrack for the Man of Steel Teaser trailer ..similar music and older voice talking(trying to give advice)


I just think they are trying to mind meld fuck us,with the Wrath of Khan stuff with what you guys are talking about and the hand thing that Bull mentioned

[Rumpy]

I think so too. I think it's more likely that they're paying homage to it at this point.

[Blackjack]

only just got round to watching that new trailer

for the first minute or so i thought they had stolen the soundtrack for the Man of Steel Teaser trailer ..similar music and older voice talking(trying to give advice)


I just think they are trying to mind meld fuck us,with the Wrath of Khan stuff with what you guys are talking about and the hand thing that Bull mentioned

How do we know Spock isn't wearing a two-toned shirt, and he's reaching around a glass shield to press against .... his OWN HAND???!!!! 

You won't fool me, JJ....

[CeeKay]

new TV spot.