MWIRE – EP 198 – Star Trek – The Kelvin Universe Films

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Hello, everyone. TF2 and Mike here. And no, you're

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in almost nine years of movie we can review.

And now, enjoy Steve Megatron and I talking about

the Star Trek Kelvin Universe films. Okay then.

Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Hello and welcome

to MYR Movie We Can Review. This is episode 139

.5. That's right. Easier to read than a stardate.

139 .5. Next time we've got 140. Yadda yadda

yadda. I am, of course, TF2 and Mike. Joining

me for the final time for a while, Steve Megatron.

Hello, sir. Hello. And yes, we are finishing

off the Star Trek film universe by talking about

the Kelvin universe films, which Steve's not

too thrilled with. Nope. Nope. So I have not

seen any of these in theaters. I did. Star Trek

2009, Into Con, and Beyond. or Wrath of Darkness,

whatever you want to call that second one. I

don't know. You said last time that, oh, any

Star Wars fan is going to like these, and it's

not, no. Like, for me, the original... Have you

watched the Honest Trailers for the first one

and the second one? It's been a while, but yeah,

I've seen them. They showed that specific scenes

and ways things were shot, there were direct

parallels of... Any of the Star Wars movies.

Okay. So basically used it as his demo reel to

get his foot in the door for Star Wars. Well,

yeah, but okay. Outside of that. It's more of

an action adventure film than a Star Trek film.

Yeah, you're right. But again, you know, we're

what? 50 plus years after the fact? No, this

is 30 plus years. No, no, no. Not in -universe,

but since Star Trek debuted way back when. We're

just past the 50th anniversary of the franchise,

and today's general audience, not the die -hard

Trek fans, are more action -adventure than exploratory

science fiction. And that's why they suck. Okay.

I still think... The 2009 film is a good story.

The 2009 film is the best one out of the three.

Okay. But it's also the one with the most...

Well, not really the most. The next one is the

one with the most recycled. Yeah. Well, yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty much going to agree with most

of your Into Darkness opinion, but the first

film, Star Trek 2009, it... It was fresh. It

was interesting. It was original, sort of -ish.

I mean, they do give each of the characters their

own kind of origin, even though they're using

the classic TOS names and things like that. And

I think they keep in spirit to the original characters,

not necessarily the original actors, because

you have to find new people to play these roles.

I just absolutely love the... Out of the three

of them, 2009, the first film here is the one

I like to watch the most because it has so many

cool quotes in it, but we'll get into that in

a bit. For now, we're going to go to your Elkar

segment on the Kelvin Universe, and we'll be

back after this. This computer terminal provides

full access to the Elkar's computer net. It can

be operated both by voice and keypad commands.

Initiating update. You're listening to Elkar's

on the Kelvin Universe. It's been seven years

since we had a Star Trek film in theater, and

we get a rebooted film in that of Star Trek.

The 11th film in the Star Trek franchise released

on May 8th. 2009, with an overall gross of $385

million, which is staggeringly more than any

of the previous films made on their own. The

budget was $150 million estimated. And then you

get into Into Darkness, which was released in

May 16, 2013, nearly four years later. And it

grossed $467 million. even though it was total

garbage, and the budget was $190 million. And

then Star Trek Beyond was released three years

later in July 22, 2016, with $343 million worldwide

gross and a budget of $185 million. These films,

which were shot in an alternate reality, sparkling

from something in the TNG universe of... Spock

kind of going into the past and having everything

get altered because of him and Nero and trying

to save Romulus' star. It features a different

version of the TOS characters portrayed by a

new cast and sent in an alternate reality from

earlier films and series, so essentially a retcon

reboot. Star Trek was written by Roberto Orsi

and Alex Kurtzman, directed by J .J. Abrams.

And unfortunately, they also were the reason

for Into Darkness. And then they had Damon Lindelof

as well as a writer on there. And then moving

into Star Trek Beyond, we had Simon Pegg and

Doug Junn, and directed by Justin Lin, which

was quite possibly the best of the rebooted universe

thus far. We also have for the cast Chris Pine

as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock,

Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Carl Urban as Dr. Leonard

McCoy, Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu,

Anton Yelchin as Chekhov, Eric Bana as Nero,

Leonard Nimoy obviously as Spock Prime, Bruce

Greenwood as Captain Christopher Pike, and Chris

Hemsworth playing Kirk's dad, George Kirk. So,

yeah, a lot of these carried over between the

Kelvin Timeline films. A little bit of interesting

tidbit we have is these are the first films without

Jerry Goldsmith as the soundtrack composer. Also,

it was stated that the writers and J .J. Abrams,

having never been a fan of Star Trek, wanted

to... mimic Star Wars in their rendition and

make it more of an action -y film in that endeavor

and obviously that's what they accomplished here.

And so the two worlds have been melded forever.

To hell with you people. Anyways, back to the

show. Please confirm deactivation request. Deactivation

complete. Now disconnected from this terminal.

First up is Star Trek 2009. So the future begins

with a cataclysm in the 24th century. Yes, in

the prime timeline, a star across from Romulus

is about to explode and go nova, and so Spock,

with the help of the Starfleet engineers and

this specific ship designed by Geordi LaForge,

and with the help of... Captain Picard and Data,

if you read the comics that go in the universe

with this, attempt to have Nero help destroy

this moon, or not this moon, this star, and prevent

it from going nova and decimating Romulus and

Remus. And it fails. And so it throws Spock and

Nero back in time. Thus... To the 23rd century,

altering the course of history with a different

timeline in life where James T. Kirk never knew

his father. It becomes a brilliant yet cynical

misfit who is finally convinced to join Starfleet

by Captain Christopher Pike, who he apparently

never knew in the original TOS series in 2255.

And so three years later, Kirk. falcon first

officer spock and the young crew of the new uss

enterprise with the guidance from spock's future

self must figure out a way to work together to

prevent one responsible for the death of kirk's

father the future future romulan known as nero

from destroying the federation in a man quest

for vengeance yes i absolutely love the plot

of this movie. It's the only one that makes coherent

sense and gives it a right of rewriting history

with the prime directive obviously totally ignored

just by happy accident. Yeah, but... But it splinters

and creates a separate timeline. And again, I

don't mind that because it is taking... Okay.

The way I look at this is they're saying that,

and as you said in your Elkhars, this is written

by, you know, Orsi and Kurtzman, but, you know,

and it's directed by Abrams. What I like about

this film is that they're not trying to rehash

the original timeline. They are and they aren't

because they're putting it on its own path and

giving these characters with the same name as

the other ones. Well, time is resetting itself.

Right, exactly. On its own. Yeah. Within reason.

It's just how their coincidences in their meetings

took place. And because of Nero showing up when

he did, it threw off the technology of that era.

So everything that was designed after Nero, including

the Enterprise, were about triple the size of

what they would have been. And with that much

more state -of -the -art technology as opposed

to the original series because they were attempting

to be prepared for war with this ship should

it ever resurface because it disappears shortly

after. The USS Kelvin crashes into Nero's ship

and Kirk's father piloted the ship directly down

the throat of that thing. And then Spock shows

up pretty much while the Enterprise is actually

floating around space. So Spock is kind of lucky

in that regard that he didn't have to wait 20

years. 25 years. Yeah, the... Well, you know,

when we get to the scene of the mind... When

they do their planet Hoth moment, because I swear

to... You can tell me. I don't... It's not that

I don't care, but you can tell me what the name

of the planet is here in a minute. When Spock...

It doesn't matter. It's a throwaway. Okay, well,

whatever. When Spock kicks Kirk off the ship

and he goes... He gets beamed towards this...

io9 or iso9 or whatever the hell it is planet

i'm like oh so where you know empire strikes

back because this is a planet filled with snow

and there's a monster all he didn't do was cut

the thing open and step inside to get warm uh

which is fine i don't mind that i'm just saying

it's again it's one of those correlations to

star wars um you know and so that scene where

Old Spock and young Kirk and the mind meld and,

you know, what was years for Nero was seconds

for me and all that and everything else. Yeah,

Kirk was marooned on Delta Vega. Yeah, that's

what it was, Delta Vega. With Spock, which happens

to be a planetoid in Vulcan's system. Yeah. And,

yeah, it's kind of funny that Spock has to save

Kirk. And, uh, the, the whole, um, aspect of

you get to see the last bit of the 24th century

before they rewrite history. And then the only

way to continue that timeline is to play Star

Trek online. Um, so, uh, yeah, created an alternate

reality where Spock, um, essentially sets things

right, because even Scotty's not on the Enterprise

at this point. Not yet. And again, that's what

I like, that this film universe takes the original

character types and, as I said before, creates

their own stories, but also creates an own team

-up story for all of them. Because while, yes,

Kirk and McCoy are there, because McCoy is the

one that got them on the ship, My favorite line

from Kirk is, It's like, I love that. But yeah,

I love how Spock informs Kirk how to emotionally

compromise himself. And essentially, Kirk calls

Spock out for cheating, helping Scotty with the

transwarp technology that he'd been trying to

perfect. And Spock replies he learned it from

an old friend who taught him how to cheat and

then sends Kirk and Scotty back to the Enterprise.

And it's kind of funny that the Transwarp technology

is only ever seen once more in the next film.

And then it's just, you know, it's no longer

in that timeline. Um, cause it was just a, a

mode of convenience in the next film. But, uh,

no, I mean, I, I love the film. I liked the new

design of the ship, um, for what it is. And,

uh, it's actually bigger than any of the actual

other enterprises in the prime universe. So,

uh, I actually have the ship now in Star Trek

online. Cool. Uh, but yeah, uh, I, I really liked

how, a lot of it played out. I loved the visuals,

the, uh, uh, everyone kind of slowly being pushed

into their, their various roles. Uh, and then

the eventual, uh, kind of destruction to Nero

and his ship with the black hole stuff. Um, and

then of course, Spock meeting Spock, you know,

since my, You know, would somehow self -serving.

He says, I will simply say good luck. Good luck,

yeah. So, yeah. And then Spock watches Kirk's

promotion to captain and Pike sitting in a chair

kind of reminiscent of the Menagerie where he's

sitting in that in the original series. And then

you get the space, the final frontier with Spock

saying it. But I did like how they did the Kobayashi

Maru with Uhura and McCoy with Kirk. And then

Pike's like, how the heck did he beat your test?

And he's like, I do not know. And it's Spock.

And it was just great. He's just sitting there

with his apple. He's like, fire photon torpedoes.

And then he goes, pew, pew, pew. And then he's

like, and we successfully saved the Cobra Groucho

Maru. And then he's like, and then he just stares

at them. It's just great. I mean, they pretty

much encapsulated everyone's personas in this

film. They did. And it didn't feel forced. And

it had a lot of the... uh, throwbacks to the

original series, but also, uh, some other layers

that weren't necessarily there when the original

series started. So, yeah. Um, I mean, I, I absolutely

like, I just, I really dig this film. It's, I

saw an IMAX. Did you really? That's awesome.

That was my, uh, Funny enough, the year I was

getting married, that it came out. And it was

the first time a Star Trek movie came out in

the summer, for one. It came out, and I said

it in the L cards, but it came out in May 8th

of 2009. I saw it on May 9th, 2009. And that

was my, you could say, bachelor. party ish thing

cool i didn't really do much for that we we kind

of went out to eat with friends and then uh the

the big event was going to see star trek and

imax so a bunch of geeks sitting in a row watching

star trek that was the icing on the cake so awesome

um Yeah, I know you mentioned all the cast and

everything else in the L cars, but I want to

get our opinions on how we feel each of the cast

members took on each of the iconic roles. Chris

Pine is Kirk. He's very fitting, and they made

him kind of create his own thing. I've seen him

play a Shatner version of it on Saturday Night

Live. And he can do both. And he did use a lot

of Shatnerisms in it, except for the voice pattern.

And he kind of put his own young... The only

thing that's really awkward about him is when

he gets punched, he has the same face every time

he gets hit. And they showed it in all his trailers.

And honestly, I wouldn't have picked it up so

much if it weren't for the fact that he gets

punched a lot in the film. But no, I mean, he

fit the persona very well. Spock fit pretty well.

Bones was pretty much spot on. Yeah. Scott had

a different voice tone, but was still very similar.

Yeah, it was very similar, and he did get help.

He was aided by James Doohan's son, Chris. Well,

and Chris actually does Scotty's voice in Star

Trek Online, and he's in Star Trek Continues

playing the same character his father played.

So it's kind of convenient that... Sweet. With

Zoe Saldana as Uhura, she actually met with Nichelle

Nichols, who explained to her how Nichelle had

created the character of Uhura. So again, this

film, they're not just... throwing actors scripts

saying read this read this do this act this way

be they're actually going back to like shatner

still alive obviously nimoy at the time was still

alive um i think my favorite one though is is

urban because you know what he said about it

was Urban said of taking on the role that it

is a case of not doing some sort of facsimile

or carbon copy, but really taking the very essence

of what DeForest Kelly has done and honoring

that and bringing something new to the table.

Which I think is really, really cool. I feel

like he fired on all cylinders in the film. And

I think that despite... what the others did,

I feel like he looked and fit and sounded like

the persona more than any of the others. Yeah.

I think he was like the absolute best fit. Now,

Spock, I felt was going to do very well anyway

because he has that similar look that Nimoy had,

although it's more boyish than Nimoy ever had.

But he was used to playing the character that's

not very emotional because he played a character

like that on Heroes. In Siler. So he fit that

really well. And then Sulu. He fit the role really

well. Which was kind of nice. Harold and Kumar

type of... actor playing that. Yeah, but you

know what? It works. I mean, I really thought

it worked. Chekhov was the only one that looked

a little off to me. You mean Anton's look? Well,

his vocals were fine. And I guess it took him

a while to kind of do it right. Because that

would be very difficult to say all your words

with the W's and the V's kind of swapped. Nuclear

Wessels, yeah. But, yeah, I was going to say

that, yeah, he, his appearance as the character

was a little different than what I was used to,

but that's because the rest of them pretty much

looked like their part. But he didn't. I guess

from what I'm reading on some of the rumor mill,

I guess some people were saying that we're trying

to float around that Matt Damon was rumored as

Kirk, even though it was never. Never. And there

were people that. And there were all kinds of

actors that were trying to push for those and

for Scotty, like bigger named actors than the

ones that they got in here. And I'm kind of glad

that they skipped over all these old -timer actors

that were being pressed. And they went with the

ones they went with because they not only looked

the parts, but they performed it well. Absolutely.

I was really surprised to learn because I didn't

really notice it in the film. Winona Ryder plays

Spock's mother? I did not know that part, and

I've seen this movie plenty of times. Obviously,

Chris Hemsworth plays Kirk's dad. And I have

a theory of this, and I'm just going to leave

it here. And this will go along with my random,

out -of -the -blue predictions. Don't be surprised

if this is what happens. They've already used

time travel. Once. in this universe. They've

already done a little bit of back -in -time information

with the third film in the series. I have the

theory that when Kirk's dad crashed the ship,

the Kelvin, into the Narada, that he put himself

in a pod or he beamed over briefly to the Narada.

And the ship gets destroyed and he's held captive.

Because in the interim before the Enterprise

is fully built and before Spock appears and the

Narada kind of disappears after this event because

it's laying derelict in space while they do repairs.

I'm wondering if they used him as like a slave

labor thing until they got captured by the Klingons

in this universe. And he's maybe stuck in like

Rura Pente. Now, and in the fourth film, because

they're talking about that Hemsworth will be

back as Kirk's dad, I'm wondering if they're

going to skip and forego the entire time travel

thing and that Kirk will discover that his dad's

been alive this entire time and locked away on

a Klingon prison world. Yeah, could be. I'm going

to leave that there because I seem to be pretty

decent at predicting stuff once in a while. So

I won't be surprised if this comes up. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to see what people

have to say about that commentary and that thought,

but in the comments section of this post. Yeah,

overall, Star Trek 2009, I'm going to give it

a 4 out of 5. I really dug it. I'll give it a

5 out of 5 just because of the technological

advances and the fact that everyone is pretty

spot on. Despite my disdain and dislike of Kurtzman

and Ortsman. Yeah. Or Kurtzman and Ortsman. I

mixed their names. Same thing. They did pretty

well with the film. And they generally do alright

with the first film of whatever franchise they're

touching. It's when they get beyond the first

one that they're terrible. Yeah, pretty much.

Usually the second film in the series is the

one all the way Transformers 2. Yep, absolutely.

We're going to take a quick audio break. Come

back and talk about Wrath of Darkness or Intercon

or whatever you want to call it. These are the

voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Their ongoing

mission? To explore strange new worlds. To seek

out new lifeforms and new civilizations. To boldly

go where no one has gone before. Alrighty then.

Star Trek Into Darkness. Let the rage begin.

Okay. The catchphrase, beyond the darkness lies

greatness. A series of terrorist attacks on Earth

places James T. Kirk on a mission to deal with

the culprit. Nothing is as it seems as the Starship

Enterprise is entangled in covert machinations

to ignite war between the Federation and the

Klingon Empire, with an ancient enemy in the

mix. With alliances tested, relationships strained,

and differing motives clashing, how costly will

the thirst for vengeance prove? Yeah. Starts

out with Kirk on an M -class planet called Nibiru,

and he's being chased away by locals at the base

of an active volcano. And McCoy is with him,

and yeah, the beast that, because Kirk gets scared

and stuns their ride, so they have to run. From

these Nibirians who Kirk has stolen a scroll

sacred to them, which doesn't actually belong

to them. So Sulu is piloting a shuttlecraft into

the volcano with Spock and Ohura on board. And

Spock, protected by environmental suit, is preparing

to detonate a cold fusion device inside the volcano

that would stop a cataclysmic eruption from extinguishing

life on the planet. So Kirk informs them through

the communicator. Brings the prime directive

as usual. And so, yeah, they managed to save

Spock, among other things. And the Enterprise

is underwater, which I had a huge problem with

because I understand that it's vacuum sealed

for space. But nowhere in any Star Trek history

has a ship gone under the water and come back

out. for one that was that was one issue with

it like it was bad enough the ship can enter

the atmosphere which i i originally thought voyager

was the only one that could do that um and get

back out of the atmosphere but it turns out that

the original 1701 constitution class enterprise

in the original series after having gone back

and watched the entire series of almost all the

shows uh it was capable of going into the atmosphere

as well so i i deep I debunk my own irritation

with the fact it was built on earth, but, uh,

the enterprise, I mean, and, uh, but I still

have a problem with the going under the water

thing. Um, but yeah, then, then you meet, you

know, go back to San Francisco and Kirk's meeting

with Admiral Pike and, uh, they're getting the

five year mission of deep space exploration.

And, uh, Starfleet Command is there having a

meeting with Admiral Marcus, who's the head of

the Federation. You get to see somebody with

super blood that heals all diseases. Everyone

in the Starfleet headquarters is murdered, pretty

much, except for Kirk. Yeah, and... I'm going

to miss Pike. I liked him. I really liked Chris...

Not Chris Pine. Pike. Well, I know Pike, but

I was trying to remember the actor. Oh, Bruce

Greenwood. Yeah, Bruce Greenwood playing Pike

was perfect. The other thing is the Starfleet

uniforms in this for the Admirals is eerily similar

to Star Trek The Motion Pictures. Sweet. Albeit

a little bit different. And then, of course,

there's a portable transwarp beaming device that

Harrison has, which, a .k .a. Khan. Which, if

they've got portable transwarp beaming devices,

why didn't they need starships? Yeah, true. I

mean, I get the exploration, but if you have

this intercontinental... planetary universal

transwarp beaming device kind of makes other

modes of travel useless yeah and uh then of course

section 31 starfleet's black ops division which

this is the only time in star trek history it

shows up aside from star trek deep space nine

so it's kind of cool to see it back in this timeline

And they've developed advanced long -range torpedoes

that he was sent on a suicide mission, Kirk was,

and he's very brooding and cranky in this one.

Yeah, he is. You can see the Klingons, which

look like blingons. I really hated them, but

that's also managed to melt its way into the

Star Trek Discovery. this newly renovated Klingon

because, what is it, Orsi or Kurtzman? Kurtzman.

Kurtzman's at Discovery. So Kurt gets in a cranky

fit with Scotty and tells Scotty he can take

a hike. Yeah, because Scotty doesn't want, you

know, unexpected weaponry on the ship, which...

you know scotty's right yeah scotty's right i

don't blame the guy i mean come on you gotta

inspect your weapons yeah and uh so he promotes

checkoff to chief engineer and he gets to put

on a red shirt and then he's like oh no um so

uh yeah uh uh spock you know is telling kirk

that admiral marcus's orders are Basically, BS.

And Carol Wallace is thought to be Carol Marcus,

who is in The Wrath of Khan as well. Say what

you will about the plot of the film, and we'll

get to this further with why we think it sucks.

I like all the references to all the Star Trek

stuff that they use. Carol Marcus. I thought

that was really cool that they used that. Yeah.

Well, I mean, I like it. This was the time when

Benedict Cumberbatch was the big go -to actor

for everything. He doesn't play a con very well.

If they would have done something different,

I could have seen it, but yeah, he didn't. fit

that very well. And then you get Kirk and Khan

fighting and arguing on either side of the stuff

and Khan tells Kirk that Marcus is the true evil,

even though he's evil too. And then they find

people inside the torpedoes. And discover that

Khan's genetically altered from the 20th century

and blah blah blah blah. And then you see the

USS Vengeance. Vengeance! Which can cloak. and

has super torpedoes, and Scotty and Kirk basically

manage to take on that giant ship on their own.

And that thing is huge. It is freaking huge.

I've seen a couple of them up close in the game,

and that thing is like, I guess they use the

USS Excelsior. Okay. for kind of a base on this

cool um and had they made the excelsior in the

series it would have been very similar in design

um but yeah that thing's like just blasting through

the enterprise just tearing holes in it um so

then you get spock prime warming warning his

younger self um spock's like uh asking Ambassador

Spock, what do you know about, and he says, as

much as I don't want to reveal the prime directive

in future, he says Khan Noonien Singh is the

most dangerous adversary ever faced by the crew

of the USS Enterprise. And he says he's brilliant,

ruthless, and will not hesitate to kill everyone,

every single crew member. And he says that they

defeated him at a terrible cost, which was his

death. Spock has to take on the take on Khan.

And then he does the Khan line screaming when

Kirk dies on the other side of the glass and

says Spock. And all that lines right there were

completely copied verbatim. It was such a lazy

thing. Well, you know, when that happened and

the whole thing before, like, see. When I first

saw this movie, like, I thought it ended with

Kirk's death. Obviously, it didn't because Khan

and the super blood and all of that and everything

else, but when I first saw it, when it first

came out, or when it first hit media years ago

at this point, I thought it ended with Kirk's

death. Because I thought the next one, the third

one, was instead of The Search for Spock, it

would be The Search for Kirk. That's what I thought

it was going to be. I was kind of glad they didn't

go that route. I was too. I am. I'm very happy

with, even though this movie specifically is

not that great of a plot with, like we've already

said, rehashing Khan, at least it put them into

a direction on a path of where to go with Beyond.

Yeah, but... Yeah, it's just crazy how they ended

it. And then they brought Kirk back with super

blood after he'd been dead. So, yeah. I just...

It was funny, though, because Khan basically

broke Marcus. Yeah. Who was RoboCop. Yeah, there

were a lot of things yanked from other Star Trek

pieces. Either with ships or with technology

or with lines or with uniforms or with a lot

of stuff that came from the other films. I had

a whole like... I was going to write about it.

And then I was just like, there's just too much

hate here for me to post this. So I just, I canned

it. So thankfully I've forgotten a lot of it.

Um, some of it still sticks pretty clearly in

my mind, but, um, yeah, I, I was kind of, uh,

uh, I was about ready to write off this series

had they, um, kept going in this direction. Yep.

And then, you know, I mean, overall, Into Darkness

is not... Even though it is rehashed stuff, it's

not as bad as Final Frontier. I beg to differ.

At least I have the original cast to sit there

and annoy me. It was bad enough that... Carl

Urban didn't want to come back. Yeah. He was

almost done with the rebooted franchise just

based on this film alone. Yeah. Well, thankfully

he did come back. Well, thankfully in the third

film, Simon Pegg co -wrote it. Yeah. And gave

everyone better parts than they had in the previous

film. Absolutely. Alrighty then. So for a rating

on this one I give it a 3. I'm giving it a 2.

In spite. In spite. Lazy writing. We are going

to take another quick audio break. Come back

and take Star Trek Beyond. after this because

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The storm ships are doubling back. They're forming

in the tech wave, sir. I think we got their attention.

Hold steady, Mr. Sula. Brace yourselves, everybody.

Spock, stand by to drop out of formation. Scotty,

you all queued up back there? Aye, sir. Ready

to broadcast at 57 .7 megahertz. Made your choice,

Leslie? I have the beat and shouting. Let's make

some noise. That's a good choice. Alright, Star

Trek Beyond. No ship, no crew. The frontier pushes

back after stopping off at Starbase Yorktown,

which looks like a giant snow globe. A remote

outpost on the fringes of Federation space, the

Enterprise halfway into its five -year mission

is destroyed by a powerful, unstoppable wave

of unknown aliens. Now, before I go any further

with the description. When they started this

one out, it showed Kirk going back and forth,

getting a rip uniform, getting blah, blah, blah.

And then he said it's starting to feel episodic,

which was kind of a throw to the original series

where things were just kind of, okay, another

mission, okay, another mission, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. And he's kind of like, you know,

enough with this already. And he was kind of

wanting out of the mission, like wanting to be

promoted and out of the ship. And the aliens,

I thought for sure they were bringing in the

Borg. And I was like, because Captain Archer

still encountered the Borg. Because Enterprise

still counts in this universe. Although I don't

know how it fits when the next generation technically

wouldn't exist the same way. So I don't know

if they would have actually encountered the Borg

at all. But anyways, the... The crew is stranded

on an unknown planet with no apparent means of

rescue. They find themselves in conflict with

a new ruthless enemy who has a well -earned hatred

of the Federation and what it stands for. So,

yeah, it starts with Kirk trying to get a treaty

between the T -Naxi delegation and the Thibonian

Republic. And, yeah, it doesn't work out very

well. McCoy says to Kirk when he gets beamed

up, he says, Jim, you look like crap. Yeah. Which

was hilarious. And Kirk thanks the doctor. Then

McCoy asks him how he feels. Oh, never better.

Just another day in the fleet, which is kind

of funny. The captain's log is interesting because

he says the more time we spend out here, the

harder it is to tell where one day ends and the

next one begins. Give me a challenge to feel

grounded even when. with uh artificial gravity

um uh what was the other thing he says uh and

then he says the you know basically seeking out

and then uh they go to yorktown to have a meeting

with the admiral and uh kirk applies for promotion

of vice admiral which is what he is when the

motion picture takes place right um and spock's

And Uhura no longer are dating. And Spock learns

that Nimoy, Spock, Spock Prime has died. And

almost decides to go back to Vulcan to tend to

the people. Then, of course, they get this escape

pod scenario. I do find that it's funny that

Commodore Paris... They're using Commodores in

this, which is kind of funny because the original

series used that more than they used the Admiral

phrases until it hit. Because Admirals didn't

really exist until the motion picture. But Paris

is also kind of the name of an Admiral Paris

in Voyager and Tom Paris in Voyager. So it's

kind of funny that they... I don't know if it's

any kind of relation, but it's funny. So the

swarm cripples the Enterprise, destroys it. Krall

is the leader of this race of aliens. And, yeah,

the crew is pretty much all captured. Pretty

much, yep. And they all take escape pods. And

McCoy and Spock have a lot of buddy -buddy moments.

Chukov's with Kirk and Scotty's with Jayla. Yeah,

Jayla. She was really fun. I like that. I like

the Scotty -Jayla thing. It was really fun. And

then O 'Hara and Sulu were together. The Enterprise

being destroyed and crashing into the atmosphere

was very Generations and Star Trek 3 -esque.

More so Star Trek 3 than Generations. But yeah,

the saucer is too badly damaged to keep in orbit

and will crash within minutes. So yeah, they

ended up going back into the saucer later. But

it's funny to see the wreckage of the USS Franklin,

which went missing. years and years and years

ago which is actually prior to the time of Captain

Archer from the Enterprise show because it's

a warp 4 ship which the Enterprise crew which

Jayla and Scotty get working again and the Enterprise

crew obviously use it to go back to the Starbase

but what's really funny is Spock They're like,

how are we going to find Uhura and Sulu and Spock?

Well, the necklace that I gave Uhura has trace

elements of radiation that's native to Vulcan.

And McCoy says to him, you gave your girlfriend

a tracking device? That was not my intention.

Yeah, that was funny. And so they're all judging

him. And then you get to find out who Krall actually

is. Yep. Captain Balthazar Edison, when he was

human, before he... That was even before Starfleet.

Yep, that was just with... Well, it was kind

of Starfleet, but before the Federation. Yeah,

okay. Starfleet was around before the Federation.

Federation was formed by Captain Archer. Right,

right. After he finished his mission. So yeah,

they... acquired biological attributes of the

other species they lured for consumption so that's

why the human's no longer human although he has

a command division Starfleet uniform and starts

to revert mostly human after draining the life

force from several more Enterprise crew members

and Kirk has to fight him on the Yorktown which

is interesting the one funny thing I will say

about how they get the ship to not get attacked

is they play Beastie Boys. Oh, yeah. They're

like, oh, it repels them. It messes with their

signals. And I'm like, yeah, that was just a

way of getting to play the music in the actual

movie. I don't even care because it works. I

really don't care. I gave it a pass because it

worked. Just like in the first film when Kirk

is a kid and he's launching his stepdad's car

off the cliff. It works. Yeah. And the thing

about the music scene was, again, Jayla is, she's

been stranded for X number of however many years,

whatever it is. And she gets to go with them.

Yeah. Well, she only has like certain technologies

and whatever else and seeing. I mean, if Guardians

of the Galaxy 1 and 2 have taught us anything.

Old technology still kind of rules when it's

in films and it's used properly and correctly.

And I think this was used correctly. I really

like how they retrofitted the motorcycle. Oh,

the motorcycle scene. Kirk was like, now this

is what I'm talking about. Yeah, exactly. And

then they had the Halloween meters all over the

place. Yes. So good. Love that. I love 2009 out

of all three of these the most, but this film

gave the crew. It was fun. It gave the crew all

something new and interesting to do. It gave

us a villain that we had not seen before. At

least I don't think Kroll is in anything else.

Nope, this is all new. Yeah, so again, you know.

Well, and the funny thing is that Simon Pegg

actually worked with Memory Alpha. which is a

fan -run wiki for Star Trek, him and the writers,

and to come up with names for some of the stuff

for the film and to ensure that the film would

be taken over basically well. And then you had

Justin Lin, who's done Fast and the Furious,

who worked really well with this kind of a speed

chase. And so I... I implore it for doing its

own thing and for trying something new and for

successfully writing off the original series

of the Prime Universe with the death of Spock

in this and kind of breaking the mold of, you

know, Kirk turning down the Admiralty even though

he asked for it and Spock staying on the Enterprise

and Kirk deciding that. He's not going to take

the Admiralty because admirals don't fly. And

he wants to stay captain. And just like in the

original series, there's Kirk's surprise birthday

party, whereas in Star Trek 2, it was just Spock.

No, it was Kirk and McCoy. Yeah, Kirk and McCoy.

And, of course, this is a scenario where they're

all there. And Spock gets to see Ambassador Spock's

personal effects and finds a photograph of him

and his prime reality comrades in the bridge

of their enterprise. When I saw this photo, and

ever since we've been doing these records, these

last three episodes of the podcast, and I've

been going back, and I'll say this at the end,

I'll give an update on how I'm doing on my TNG

rewatch. I'm not very far into season one, and

we'll talk about that at the end of the show.

I forgot everybody was originally red shirts,

so technically the entire crew ought to be dead

by now. Well, the red shirt thing only applied

in the original series costumes. When they went

to the Wrath of Khan, the way that they divvied

them up was they each had their own different

turtleneck, and the slab on the shoulder was

a different color. to differentiate white was

for command division green was for medical uh

yellow was for uh operations and uh uh the the

grayish was for like security and communications

and then it changed again in tng whereas red

was captains like again tactical and then yellow

was operations and red or and um blue was was

like medical type of people so it's it kind of

stuck from this series and kind of evolved uniform

wise but they've kind of kept it consistent since

the wrath of khan this picture was taken from

star trek 5 okay because the look of the enterprise

a back there was brighter uh and in star trek

6 was probably the best enterprise a we got uh

bridgewise it was darker and kind of It was better

aesthetically. And Ohura's hair and Kirk's hair

in this. Ohura doesn't have any of that weird

gray in the front, and Kirk's wig is different

in 6. I'm very original series oriented with

my knowledge. I'm just saying, in that picture,

they're all wearing red shirts. Yeah, well, that

rule doesn't apply. those films the red shirt

thing so um but anyways kirk's surprise party

and then jayla's been drinking and scotty got

her into starfleet and then of course uh we see

the uh um the new uss enterprise a in the kelvin

universe uh and They show it rapidly being put

together, and it says that it was completed following

the destruction of the USS Enterprise during

the battle, and it was named in honor of its

predecessor. It was already being built when

the other one was destroyed, just like the other

Enterprise A. And then you get the graphic, and

they changed a little bit of how the nacelles

look. And they've got the Enterprise A on it,

which looks really awkward because the lettering

is very thinned out. But they gave it more of

the blue hues for stuff, and it's slightly different.

But I can't turn down an Enterprise A when I

see one. I love that ship. That's an awesome

ship. I can't wait for that when a fourth film

does happen. I wonder if they'll give Kirk the

Enterprise B, which would be hilarious. The first

time Kirk's gotten a B. He's always got the A.

He's got the awesome. But this is supposed to

be how the prime reality had refitted the Constitution

class. This is supposed to be the same type of

scenario. But, yeah, it's... it's it's a lot

more closer to the prime reality version other

than the nacelles which i'm all in favor for

them going that route uh but yeah i i think that

the film overall was pretty solid um and then

they end it with all of the the main cast doing

uh zephyrm cochran's uh space the final frontier

phrase so i love that that was so cool And especially

with this being the last time we're ever going

to see Chekov because of Anton's passing. And

they are not going to recast that role. I'm glad

that they're not going to recast him, and I'm

glad that they're not going to just kind of write

him off. I mean, they're just going to come up

with a tasteful wave. Yeah. Passing him on. I'm

sure there's several reshoots or several other

pieces of film from this movie or from any of

these three films with Anton that they can cut

together to make it... Think of Furious 7 with

Paul Walker because of his death and how... They

used his two other brothers to finish that movie

and things like that. Obviously, they're not

going to be able to do that with whatever Star

Trek IV for Kelvin is going to be, but like I'm

saying, I'm sure there's plenty of B -roll footage

of Anton as Chekov that they could cobble something

together to give the character a decent send

-off. What other... What other... Navigators

or whatever could even... Because Chekhov is

the only one I really know from the TOS line.

I mean, we had various ones in TNG, but not too

TNG yet. So the original series, they honestly

don't have all that many options. Because they

had two additional characters that weren't really...

main cast members but they showed up you had

nurse chapel and you had yeoman janice rand which

neither one of those have shown up yet in this

universe um at least not to my knowledge uh i

think they may have i don't know if yeah they

didn't have uh nurse chapel show up in the kelvin

universe um so they could technically they could

technically have yeoman rand come in Uh, there,

there really wasn't all that many, honestly.

Uh, they, if they did the balance of terror,

they could have done, uh, trying to find the

name of the, uh, uh, they could have done, uh,

like Tom Lenson or Lieutenant Stiles. Uh, Lieutenant

Stiles, I believe was the, uh, the helmsman.

During Balance of Terror, Stiles was on the Enterprise

in Chekhov's spot. His first assignment was weapons

control prior to his assignment to navigate or

board the Enterprise. So he ended up taking over.

He was in that episode where Sulu would have

been, in a sense. But he still could have been

either or. So they could do Lieutenant Stiles.

They could do... There were a bunch of other

unnamed people for the most part that sat in

Chekhov's chair before he was cast. But that

would probably be the only one that actually

got a name. Yeah. Well, I don't know if this

will work. Again, this is just me spitballing.

I did read that Alice Eve's character of Carol

Marcus, she was kind of supposed to return for

this movie, but... It didn't fit. It didn't fit,

yada, yada, yada. And that's fine. What if she

could return? Not that she would necessarily

be the... She would be a blue shirt. Yeah. Just

like Chapel would be. So, I mean, really, Styles

is pretty much the only way to go if they were

going to replace... Or they could do Kirk's friend

from... This is another way that they could have

gone with it. Because they didn't do where No

Man Has Gone Before. They could have Kirk's,

which in this universe, he didn't meet him as

far as we know. But Lieutenant Commander Gary

Mitchell. Okay. This was the second pilot of

Star Trek. So it was the actual second version.

They had new uniforms for this one, and Spock's

was yellow, just like Kirk's in this one. There

was no red shirt. Yeah. Well, yeah, there was.

Sulu had one, funny enough, with Scotty. This

pilot was really weird. They changed everybody

after that to better uniforms after he got picked

up. But, yeah, they could do Gary Mitchell, who

was in that spot as well. So those are two options

that they could play out. Cool. Yep. Because

that second pilot didn't even have... I don't

think it had McCoy. Yeah, I don't know what they're

going to do next. I'm excited to find out what

they're going to do next. Because the end of

this one, they pretty much head out on the five

-year mission. Another one. The second five -year.

Yeah, the second five -year mission. Not that

I think there are any... Actors or actresses

right now that could fill young, different roles

for the TNG crew, but maybe we could get another.

I'm not saying that I want this. I'm just saying

maybe we could get another universe crossover

thing or something or whatever and create a whole

new TNG universe, which I think that's still

too soon. I think we still need to explore more

of these characters from TOS. Honestly, I would

love to see more of the TNG crew get zapped back

in time type of stuff. Like maybe Data or see

like Worf's grandfather so we can get a normal

looking Klingon. Yep. Like his great grandfather

or something. Yeah. Yep. Or Geordi. Geordi would

be kind of fun to see with this crew. He's actually

coming back to Star Trek Online in the Prime

Universe. Cool. He'll be in 2410. Cool. So, yeah.

Cool. All right. Well, Star Trek Beyond, what

are we going to rate it? What are you going to

give it? I'm going to give it a 4 .5 out of 5.

It was pretty fun, despite some minor plot issues.

I mean, it was overall really fun, really well

done. And then they tried to actually do a little

bit of science -y stuff with it without going

too over the head. But they just... It as a whole

did what Into Darkness should have done. I'm

right there with you. Four and a half out of

five. I absolutely loved it. I thought it was

so fun. I thought all the character moments for

Kirk, McCoy, all that stuff, Spock. I thought

that was all very well done. some great great

lines and i love how they ended it with all of

them speaking the you know the these are the

voyages yeah of the starship enterprise yeah

love that so coming up on uh on myr jt and i

are going to tackle uh tango and cash in episode

140 uh Optobotamus may be joining me or not.

I don't know. I haven't figured that out. We

were going to do the 20th anniversary of the

Mighty Ducks last year, but it's the 21st anniversary

now. So we've got to skip it for another four

years. Quiet, you. Episode 141. Gremlins. quiet

you. Episode 141, Optimus Solo will join me as

we talk about the 1994 classic Mel Gibson film

Maverick, so that'll be that. So that's what's

coming up over the next couple of weeks here

on MWire. We hope you enjoyed what you've heard

with our Star Trek films in the last few weeks.

Where can the people find you online, sir? At

the Twitters, at SCP -21, or on Altered Geek.

Absolutely. I am at TFT1Mike. You can follow

at GeekCastRadio, at GCR and MWire on Twitter

for all the other stuff for the network and for

MWire and whatever else. Keep those film reels

rolling and we will catch you next time. Stop

it. Asshat. That scotch was actually invented

by a little old lady in Russia? Not many people

know this. Did you drink all those yourself?

I'm impressed. Someone said it will take my edge

off. My edge is still not off. Aye, well, maybe

this will help. Captain pulled a few strings.

That is acceptance into Starfleet Academy, if

you want it. They have a lot of rules. Don't

listen no more. Will I have to wear that uniform?

Afraid so. Oh. Hey, Kinzer. Kevin, still not

wearing pants, is he? I heard about Ambassador

Spock. Is that what you want to mention that

time in the turbolift? More or less. I trust

your meeting with Commodore Paris went well.

More or less. You really want to head back out

there, huh? Space. The final frontier. These

are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its

continuing mission to explore strange new worlds.

To seek out new life. And new civilizations.

To boldly go where no one has gone before.