TrekMovie.com

The fan production Star Trek Continues, a new TOS era fan film led by anime voice actor Vic Mignogna as Kirk and features Chris Doohan as Mr. Scott (his Dad’s old job), Trek author Larry Nemecek, and Mythbuster Grant Imahara as Mr. Sulu, has now completed their first episode “Pilgrim Of Eternity”. As previously reported, it features the return of original actor Michael Forest as Apollo. Keep a look out for a cameo by BSG’s Jamie Bamber, Trek art department alum Doug Drexler as the holographic cowboy, and the voice of the ship’s computer sounds pretty familiar too. Click on to see the episode.

Pilgrim of Eternity

Apollo returns to wreak havoc on Kirk and the Enterprise in the first episode of the new series.

The new Star Trek Continues web series carries on the original 5-year mission. Star Trek Continues begins right where the original left off. For more about the production and to view the previously released teaser vignettes, if you’ve missed them, check out the official website: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/

Vote and chat about Star Trek Into Darkness during the second week of US/Canadian release in this sticky open thread.

 

Sticky 5: Into Darkness Second USA/Canada Week

Opening week is behind us, and Star Trek Into Darkness is now entering its second week (domestically). Fans continue to buzz about the movie so once again we have a special sticky open thread for opening week.

TrekMovie.com has already posted a review and now it is your chance. TrekMovie has created a new fan reviews page for Into Darkness.

 

Previous Into Darkness Spoiler Discussion Threads

May 20 – US Opening week

May 17 – Open Weekend

May 15 – Domestic Fan Sneak Open Day

May 8 – Early Countries Open Day

 

POLLS

Here are our current polls for those who have seen Into Darkness, including a new one on what the movie needed more of (if anything).

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

DISCUSS STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (WITH ANY SPOILERS)

Feel free to chat about the movie in the comments section below, including discussing any spoilers.

 

 

WARNING: This open thread is for people who have seen the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie you really shouldn’t be reading this as you are sure to get spoiled.

 

NOTE: The usual rules of Internet forum decorum apply (keep it family friendly, no flaming, trolling, being annoying, etc).

Star Trek Into Darkness is headed into its second weekend and our own polling shows that many fans plan to see the movie a second (third, fourth, etc.) time. And with repeat viewings there are opportunities for you to spot some little fun ‘easter egg’ tidbits put into the movie. See below for our selection of Into Darkness easter eggs, but beware of spoilers.

 

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS EASTER EGGS

Of course Star Trek Into Darkness includes some big homages and reverences to Star Trek history including Khan, Section 31 and beyond which are key parts of the film. But there are also some more subtle ‘easter egg’ references to Star Trek history and beyond included in the film. Some of which you may have already spoted and maybe some you didn’t.

McCoy’s Tribble

Doctor McCoy has a Tribble in sickbay, used for testing in the movie. McCoy already has this Tribble when the movie opens thanks to the adventures of the ongoing comic book series where they faced the Tribbles in “The Truth About Tribbles”.

McCoy saved Kirk’s life after resurrecting tribble he got in the comic books

Praxis

As the team approaches Qo’noS, there is a hulk of a dead moon, implying that the Klingon moon of Praxis was already over-mined in this timeline (Star Trek VI). As usual the writers are being coy and won’t say for sure that it’s Praxis.

The Klingon moon Praxis in Star Trek VI gets blown up earlier in new timeline

This seeming early destruction of Praxis may be related to a Section 31 operation that John Harrison carried out before the events of the movie. There is a reference to a “Praxxis Project” barely visible in the redacted text of the “leaked” Starfleet Memorandum document about Harrison found on AreYouThe1701.com [they appear to have misspelled the name, if it is indeed supposed to be in reference to the Klingon moon]. To see the memo for yourself read our article.

Bay Stadium

We can see the floating/hovering Bay Stadium that was seen in the Star Trek Enterprise episode “Home” is still there. It is located off of (roughly) where the ferry buildings are in present day San Francisco. The version in the film is a circular stadium/coliseum instead of the rectangular in shape seen in ENT.

The Bay Stadium from Enterprise’s 22nd Century still there in the 23rd

Spacefight future history

In Admiral Markus’ office among other historical space flight vehicles, such as a Saturn V rocket and a Space Shuttle, there are also models from Star Trek’s future history, including the U.S.S Kelvin (from Star Trek 2009)  NX-01 (Star Trek: Enterprise), the NX-Alpha (warp 2 test ship from the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “First Flight”), Cochrane’s Warp ship (Star Trek: First Contact), and the Enterprise XCV 330 “ring ship” (as seen on the wall of the rec deck in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , in a painting on the wall of the 602 Club in Star Trek: Enterprise, and rendered in the 2011 “Ships of the Line” calendar). The models were made by Quantum Mechanix for the movie, see our article for more.

The “Ring Ship” seen as one of Adm. Marcus’ history of spaceflight collection of models

Dr. Boyce

The attending physician’s name on the biobed monitor by Kirk when he wakes up in the hospital in San Francisco is Dr. Boyce, a reference to the ship’s doctor in the first Star Trek TV pilot ”The Cage”, which is also where we first met the Prime timeline version of Pike.

Dr. Boyce counsels Pike in “The Cage” – and attends Kirk in “Into Darkness”

The Gorn Babies

McCoy mentions that he had given a cesarean section to a pregnant Gorn and that the live-birth babies bite (Star Trek The Video Game).

Gorn from Star Trek video game get a shout out from McCoy

Daystrom

Pike is called to the meeting with admiralty in the Daystrom Conference Room at Starfleet HQ. A reference to Dr. Richard Daystrom the inventor of the duotronic computers used in TOS (TOS: “The Ultimate Computer”).

Richard Daystrom has building named for him

Mudd Incident

Sulu says over the comm system to ready the impounded trade ship from “the Mudd incident.” This is a reference to the prequel comic “Countdown into Darkness” and that story’s involvement with Harry Mudd’s half-Bajoran daughter.

Kirk uses Mudd’s ship in Into Darkness

Nurse Chapel

Carol Marcus mentions her friend Christine Chapel who had told her of Kirk’s “reputation.” Chapel is of course a recurring character from the original Star Trek (played by Majel Barrett Rodddenberry). The character was also mentioned in the 2009 Star Trek film and was part of the USS Enterprise medical staff at that time, before leaving for a deep space assignment. She may be the blond nurse seen in this picture.

Christine Chapel gets shoutout

Ketha Province

The region of Qo’noS the team go to is the Ketha Province, which is where General Martok (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) will come from in the Prime timeline’s future.

Harrison picks Martok’s future hometown as his beam in location

Kirk’s Menage a Caitian

Kirk is seen in bed with two Caitains – a feline species first introduced in Star Trek: The Animated Series with the character M’Ress.

M’Ress – Star Trek’s first Caitain

MUSICAL EGGS

Amok Time Sting

As mentioned in an interview last month with Michael Giacchino said he was compelled by a fan on Twitter to include something from the TOS score at the last minute. That homage is the classic “Amok Time” fight music, which is heard very briefly after Spock beams down in a foot chase after Harrison through San Francisco.

Iconic Amok Time music sneaks way into movie

Beastie Boys

Kirk is listening to an antique record of the Beastie Boys “Body Movin’ (Fat Boy Slim Remix)” while ‘entertaining’ twin cat-like ladies. This is a callback to young Kirk joyriding to “Sabotage” in Star Trek 2009, Kirk’s general interest in antiques in the Prime timeline, and thirdly, the Beastie Boys is a personal favorite of director of J.J. Abrams.

Beastie Boys are back

ABRAMSVERSE EGGS:

Kelvin

The archive blown up in London is the called “Kelvin Memorial Archive”, named for George Kirk’s ship destroyed by Nero in Star Trek 2009. The name of the U.S.S. Kelvin itself is from J.J. Abrams own family, it was his grandfather’s last name. This is of course in addition to the more apparent homage to Lord Kelvin of the eponymous temperature scale.

The Kelvin gets referenced in “Into Darkness”

Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay is taken out by the USS Vengeance, a possible nod by the producers to the quickly canceled Abrams show on FOX named Alcatraz.

Alcatraz gets cancelled by USS Vengeance

In the bar by the Port of San Francisco where Scotty and Keenser are blowing off steam about resigning from the Enterprise mission, the bar tables has a rotating light-up Slusho sign in the middle. Slusho is from Abrams’ Cloverfield.

POSSIBLE EASTER EGGS

Carol “Wallace”

Carol Marcus’ mother’s maiden name was Wallace, which is assumed to be an homage to Janet Wallace (TOS “The Deadly Years”).

Wallace – inspiration for Carol’s mom?

Another Deltan Navigator?

A bald navigator (“Darwin”) is seen taking the helm when Chekov is assigned to engineering.  She may be an homage to Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s Lt. Illia and her Deltan race.

 
Is Darwin a Deltan?

See anything else?

There are bound to be more than the easter eggs listed above and when the Blu-rays arrive they will be much easier to spot with the benefit of freeze frame.

So did you spot any other little easter eggs in Into Darkness? If so post about them below.

Replica maker Quantum Mechanix has announced that they had a role to play in Star Trek Into Darkness, actually making some of the props used in the film. And they are making some of these available to purchase including Starfleet rings, vehicle model replicas, phasers and more. Get all the details below.

 

QMx Creates “Screen-Authentic” Props for  Star Trek Into Darkness

Quantum Mechanix, the creative studio and developer of screen-accurate replicas and collectibles revealed this week that they were responsible with making many of the actual props used in Star Trek Into Darkness. QMx began making Star Trek replicas after the release of the 2009 Star Trek film and Bad Robot was so impressed with their work, that they brought them in to do the real thing for the sequel. Probably the most prominent set of props they made was  the “history of starflight” series of models seen on Admiral Marcus’ desk. QMx made all fourteen of the filming miniatures at their FX Cinema Arts premier model-making center (where all of their Artisan ship models are constructed). The line-up included both models of historical craft as well as some pieces from Trek’s future history including the NX-01, the U.S.S. Kelvin and the Ring Ship.

History of Spaceflight models shown on QMx site

“It was an honor in every possible measure,” said QMx CEO Andy Gore speaking to TrekMovie about working on Into Darkness. “We had a small contribution to the film but we were happy to help. Everyone here takes the responsibility of Star Trek very seriously. We are fans too and just humbled by the experience.” According to gore it took a team of six model makers about two months to create the history of spaceflight miniatures. Each one required a different approach. Some (such as the ring ship or the Kelvin) which were modified and could have the basis made in a 3D printers, others (such as the Vostok) required more time an research as there was little source material available and were built from scratch.

And being that QMx are in the business of selling replicas, they are already putting plans in motion to make some of the history of spaceflight miniatures available for purchase. The first one to be made available will be a limited run of 25 ring ship miniatures made to the same size as the one used in the movie and by the same Artisan shop. Those will be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive (no pricing yet).

Collector’s Scale USS Vengeance

Following the ring ship, QMx will make a ‘prop scale’ version of the USS Vengeance (again made by the same QMx Artisan shop the produced the props for the movie) along with a smaller (and more affordable) ‘collector scale’ version of the model. They are also planning on selling a collector scale version of the USS Kelvin. These should all be available later in 2013, with pricing and more details decided by Comic Con. The company also plans to release a prop-scale version of the NX-01 but that might not be until 2014.

Collector’s Scale USS Kelvin

The history of Spaceflight wasn’t the only QMx contribution to Into Darkness. The company also forged Starfleet Academy rings for the cast, in both sterling silver (for the main cast) and aluminum for background actors. Of course one of these rings featured prominently in a scene in the film with Thomas Harewood (Noel Clarke) but you can see other members of the cast wearing them as well.

Starfleet Academy Rings from “Into Darkness” made by QMx

And again they are also making a version of this ring available for purchase, in this case a value-priced version made out of zinc-alloy produced from the same molds used for the sterling silver ‘hero’ props. The rings come in a nice leatherette  collectible box that actually lights up and retails for on $29.99. They will be available this summer at retailers that carry QMx items, including Entertainment Earth (click here to pre-order). QMx is also planning on a limited edition sterling silver version of the ring, but they have not announced pricing or a date for that yet.

Academy Ring and Box from QMx

In addition to the miniatures and the rings, QMx also partnered with Hollywood propmaker Kenney’s Custom Props to produce the phasers for Into Darkness – which were slightly redesigned from the versions in the 2009 movie. The stunt version of this pistol – which features a manual spinner that uses magnets to lock the barrels into position – will be available as part of an Amazon.com Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D bundle this Fall. The animatronic phaser will be available in 2014.

Starfleet Stunt Phaser Replica from QMx

Also being released this summer is a screen-accurate replica of the United Federation of Planets Flag as seen in Star Trek Into Darkness. The flag is made of lightweight polyester and printed using the original digital files of the UFP logo from the film. It will be available for a limited time through www.ThinkGeek.com and https://store.qmxonline.com/United-Federation-of-Planets-Flag–Formal_p_226.html for $29.95.

Starfleet flag replica from QMx

In addition to the replicas, QMx is also selling posters for Into Darkness (Official Teaser, Official USA Poster and official IMAX Poster). Each retains for $19.95 and will be available in mid June. Go to QMX to pre-order.

Into Darkness Posters at QMx

For more on QMx visit their site at http://quantummechanix.com.
Hot Wheels Into Darkness

Speaking of ship miniatures, Mattel’s Hot Wheels is planning a 1:50 scale die-cast series of four Star Trek ships including the USS Excelsior the USS Kelvin and two ships from Into Darkness: The Vengeance and the new Klingon Bird of Prey. This first wave is due in June. You can pre-order all four for $54.99 at Entertainment Earth (note EE has the wrong pictures. The correct images were released on HotWheelsCollectors.com.

Wave 1 of Star Trek die-cast from Hot Wheels

This week has seen the final stop of the Star Trek Into Darkness celebrity talk show tour with Alice Eve and JJ Abrams appearing on Conan on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. And last night’s Abrams appearance including his revealing of a bit of a deleted scene of Benedict Cumberbatch’s "shower of evil." Watch it below

 

JJ Reveals bit of deleted ‘Shower of Evil’

Benedict Cumberbatch has talked about how there was a scene that both he and his personal trainer were sorry to see cut from the film. On Conan last night Into Darkness director JJ Abrams revealed a bit of the scene while talking about the controversy over Alice Eve’s undies scene.

JJ talked about how he likes to put easter eggs into his movies.

And here is a bit more on the TBS site from JJ’s time with Conan where he talks about visiting the set of Downton Abbey.

 

Alice Eve talks about being an ‘exobitionist ‘ + does JJ Abrams impression on Conan

And for her Tuesday appearance, actress Alice Eve talks about being an exobitionist when she was a little girl.

And here is an extra bit only available on the TBS site wher Alice shows off her JJ Abrams impersonation.

 

As per usual Star Trek Into Darkness has sparked much fan discussion and even disagreement, but but if there’s one thing we can all agree on: we love seeing Alice Eve in her undies! True, of course, until anyone bothered to ask a woman. There has always been scantily clad females throughout Trek history – it’s a part of what makes Kirk so Kirk – so, why should this one scene be causing such a stir? Why have female fans responded so strongly in this case? Read my analysis below, but beware of SPOILERS.

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Gratuitous Underwear: How did we get here?

As if you need me to, I’ll set the scene. Kirk accompanies Carol Marcus to a shuttlecraft to discuss sending her to a nearby planetoid to try and diffuse some of these mysterious photon torpedoes aboard the Enterprise. She’s the logical choice since, as we learned in her introductory scene, she holds an advanced degree with a specialty in weaponry. Great, nothing out of the ordinary here, I’ll just go ahead and OH! You’re in your underwear! That’s just great.

But, let’s back up a second. Why exactly is she in her underwear? She tells Kirk to turn around, doesn’t mention why (were we expecting here to require a change of wardrobe?) and then acts coy when Kirk sneaks a peak at her half-dressed body. The scene was flat out gratuitous. It had no point. There was no reason for her to change clothes. There was no reason for her to change in front of Kirk. There was no reason for her to change in a shuttlecraft with the back door hanging wide open. The writers threw the scene in for pure, testosterone-driven shock value. (Side note: lucky she was wearing her brand new Victoria Secret push-up bra. I’m sure that’s real comfortable under her uniform, especially in a combat situation)

Think I’m being harsh? Even Damon Lindelof himself, co-writer of Into Darkness, publicly apologized for the scene saying over a few tweets:

“I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress. We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies. Do not want to make light of something that some construe has mysogenistic [sic]. What I’m saying is I hear you, I take full responsibility, and will be more mindful in the future.”

Damsels in Distress: Where are all the women?

But, we’ve seen our fair share of half-naked women (and men!) throughout Star Trek. Even in Star Trek (2009) we had one hot Orion woman in her undies as well as Uhura changing for us all to see. Why was it okay then but not now? Two reasons: 1. Those scenes were built into the story well (i.e. it was not gratuitous), and 2. Those scenes did not detract from their characters.

She undressed with purpose!

The Orion girl was undressed because, well, she was getting naughty with Kirk! As for Uhura, she was changing because she was in her personal quarters and unaware that some “mouth breather” was looking on from underneath her roommate’s bed. Those moments had purpose; they made sense. Randomly disrobing in the back of a shuttle craft? Gratuitous.

Secondly, and most importantly, the Marcus underwear scene detracted from the only truly strong female role in the entire film. Let’s start from the beginning. A terrorist attack has occurred (after a MAN bribed the FATHER of a dying child), and all of Starfleet’s finest are gathered together at a round table to talk options. Who do we see? A bunch of old white human males (with maybe a token woman thrown in). Cut to our introduction to Carol Wallace (aka Carol Marcus). She’s cute, she’s sexy, she’s got great hair! But, she’s also brilliant and trained in advanced weaponry — a force even Mr. Spock is threatened by. Meanwhile, Uhura does little more than follow Spock around moaning about him having a death wish. For the girls, it’s Carol who is going to represent us as a strong, smart, beautiful, independent woman! Aaaaand, then she threw her cloths at Kirk the first chance she got. Role model no more. (It’s worth noting that Felicia Day, famed nerd girl/actress, has posted similar thoughts about this on her blog.)

Uhura, who many would point to as a shining symbol of strong African-American women, isn’t without her girl power moments in the film. On Kronos, Uhura really gets to strut her stuff as the only person able to speak Klingon and decides to go up against a whole swarm of them (according to Mr. Barris, 12 Klingons constitutes a swarm). This for her is a moment of true courage. Much of that courageous character is lost, however, throughout the rest of the film as Uhura is given the primary role of humanizing Spock.

Uhura has a moment of courage and strength

I am by no means a feminist. As a woman, I’m all for the equal treatment of women. But, I take a pragmatic approach. I’ll let you guys in on a little secret: women sometimes like looking at other women naked. Women, particularly those starring in blockbuster Hollywood films, are beautiful things, and us girls like looking at beautiful things (I’m convinced it’s the same for men looking at men, but I can’t get my boyfriend to admit it). But, even more than that, we like looking at a beautiful, strong, independent women. We like watching someone who we want to be like, and we like being told that you can be smart and beautiful. You can also be strong and beautiful, evil and beautiful, gay and beautiful. After the underwear scene, Carol was just dumb and beautiful.

Don’t look or my cloths might fall off

What about the men in STID? Should we be outraged?
“What about the men!” you say? I’ve heard the argument that we saw men in tight diving suits and a shirtless Kirk, so the Marcus underwear scene should be no different. I couldn’t disagree more. First of all, those diving suits? Hardly flattering for many of the men in question (I was seriously surprised that the costume department didn’t fix that one — wetsuits tend to make one look pudgy). And besides, we saw both genders in those dive suits. Secondly, and I’ll say this again, those scenes had purpose and didn’t detract from the character like the Marcus scene did.

So, tell me: where are all the women in Star Trek Into Darkness? Are they strong, independent role models for our daughters, or are they just dumb blondes?

POLL: What say you?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

 

 

Follow me on Twitter: @kaylai.

In honor of the recent release of Star Trek Into Darkness, The History Channel has aired a special documentary titled "Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe." Originally broadcast last Wednesday, May 15th, the special is now available on History Channel’s website via streaming for free. See below for mini-review and screenshots plus a link to more BTS with ILM.

 

Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe on History

The History channel has a new documentary titled "Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe" which ties together Trek and real life science. Of particular interest is a significant amount of behind the scenes footage of the making of Into Darkness, as well as clips from the movie not seen in TV spots or trailers. The most notable bit of new footage is a very beautiful extended shot of the Enterprise silhouetted against a distant nebula, which was featured in the film itself, but substantially cut down in the final edit.

Get an extended look at the USS Enterprise in new History channel special

There is more eye candy in the form of detailed looks at the Enterprise interior sets and other locations. We are also treated to interviews of the cast, crew, including a lot with director JJ Abrams. But instead of hyping the film, Abrams and his cast discuss how real science inspires their stories of Star Trek, and how in turn Star Trek itself inspires future scientific research.

History’s "Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe" takes you behind the scenes on the USS Enterprise

Also covered is an extensive look at the filming of the Enterprise warp core scenes at the National Ignition Facility. Many of the facility’s staff talk about how Star Trek inspired them to take up their careers in science, and influenced the type of research they do. Other scientists weigh in on the plausibility of faster than light travel using warp drive, the possibility of first contact with alien life, and humanity’s need and desire to venture into the stars.

And woven throughout the special are discussions with a dozen real life scientists from SETI, Berkeley, Columbia, MIT and other prestigious institutions talking about real-life science and how it releates to the fiction of Star Trek. They cover topics such as warp drive, alien life, time travel, planet hunting and more – all the while showing how Trek has had an impact on many people who work in these fields.

Behind the scenes at the NIF

Bottom line is that this special is highly recommended. Come for the great behind the scenes look at Star Trek Into Darkness and stay for the insight into real-life science.

Head over to History Channel to check it out:
http://www.history.com/shows/star-trek-secrets-of-the-universe

Note in order to watch the show online you must be US resident and you have to log in with details of your cable service provider. The show is also repeating on the H2 channel and available On Demand with some cable systems including Comcast.
 

fx Guide Behind The Scenes Looks At Into Darkness and ILM

If you are interested in some more behind the scenes details, fxGuide has 3 articles looking at how the film’s visual effects were created. Covered are how the film’s environments, vehicles, starships, and worlds were masterfully fashioned by visual effects vendors Industrial Light and Magic, Atomic fiction, and Pixomondo.

• Part 1: Article with videos and stills from the film.
• Part 2: video interview shot at Industrial Light and Magic with Into Darkness vfx supervisor Roger Guyett as well as other ILM staff
• Part 3: podcast interview with ILM’s Jay Cooper, compositing supervisor on Into Darkness

fxGuide go behind the scenes with ILM to find out how shots like this were done

With the release of Star Trek Into Darkness in North America, a few people have wanted to get the perspective of TrekMovie.com. This afternoon and evening TrekMovie’s Anthony Pascale will be participating in a Hollywood.com Google Hangout and the MovieByte Podcast. TrekMovie contributors have also discussed or quoted by Yahoo, Buzzfeed, Moviefone and Wired. Get the details below.

 

UPDATED TREKMOVIE ON WED. HOLLYWOOD.COM HANGOUNT + MOVIEBYTE PODCAST

UPDATED: On Wednesday I was a guest on a Hollywood.com "Get Thee to the Geek" Google Hangout talking about Star Trek Into Darkness and the future of Star Wars- joined by Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt with TheForce.Net’s Eric Geller and author of the "Star Wars Craft Book" Bonnie Burton. You can watch the hangout via embed below.

Immediately following the Hollywood.com Hangout I was a guest on the MovieByte Podcast. You can listen to that below.

LISTEN: Anthony on MovieByte cast at 4:30 PT

MORE TREKMOVIE CONTRIBUTORS IN THE NEWS…

Kurtzman reveals my Into Darkness contribution…

BuzzFeed has a spoilery article on their favorite classic Trek moments in Star Trek Into Darkness which includes some comments from the writers Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman, including Alex revealing how a suggestion I made worked its way into the movie…

9. Scotty, the "miracle worker"

There’s a quick moment after Scotty (Simon Pegg) saves the day in Into Darkness when Kirk calls him a “miracle worker” — an honor bestowed upon Scotty many times in the original series and films.
Turns out, the moment was due to a superfan request.
“To be honest, one of our friends who runs trekmovie.com, Anthony Pascale, said, ‘You gotta have that line in there somewhere,’” says Kurtzman. “He reminded us that that was a classic thing, and we found the perfect place for it right there.”

Tenuto on San Francisco and Star Trek

Wired takes a look at the connection between Star Trek and San Francisoc which once again plays out in Into Darkness. TrekMovie helped Wired with some background on the article and our own contributor (and Star Trek historian) Professor John Tenuto  is also quoted in the piece.

Perhaps the most attractive thing about San Francisco from Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s point of view was its significance to the U.S. Navy. Roddenberry himself was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and was ferried from California to the Pacific theater by Navy vessels, so he was well aware of San Francisco’s shipyards.

“The reason the Enterprise looks so realistic, even though it’s futuristic, is that there’s certainly these trappings of the Navy,” said John Tenuto, a sociology professor at Illinois’ College of Lake County who studies the production of Star Trek. “Although Roddenberry has a sort of progressive view of the future, those military experiences certainly appeared in Star Trek and shaped it.”

Pascale on the politics of Into Darkness

Yahoo Movies takes a look at the real world’s 9/11 connection to Star Trek Into Darkness. The piece opens with a quote from  myself about how the post-destruction of Vulcan Federation is an allegory for our real-world post-9/11 society:

""I think it’s fairly obvious it’s a commentary," says TrekMovie editor-in-chief Anthony Pascale.

The piece goes on to explore those themes and possible controversies, but the article ends with this context for Trek history:

Taking on the now, if not the news, is "something that ‘Star Trek’ has done before," Pascale says, "…and it’s welcome that it sparks a debate. It makes you think."

TrekMovie looks to future with Moviefone

Moviefone is also working on an article (not yet live) about what is next for the Star Trek film franchise. They asked for a quote from myself on what I think will happen in the next film, here is what I said:

Firstly I hope they continue what they did with Into Darkness and tell an allegorical story that makes people think about our current society, although that doesn’t have to be done on Earth. Into Darkness did set the stage, which is the Star Trek crew are finally off on their five-year mission. I expect that to mean that defending San Francisco from giant black ships is left behind for an adventure in the final frontier.

I think there will be a debate on if they should do something entirely new, such as a new adversary race, or develop their own spin on something already established from the canon (like The Borg, The Dominion, The Gorn, etc). My view is that Star Trek is different than super-hero movies where they expect you to use the characters from the comic book canon. Star Trek is about exploring today’s human condition through the lens of exploring strange new worlds, emphasis on ‘new.’ So I think the fans would welcome the Abrams team fully embracing their new universe and telling us a story entirely of their making. Just make sure to drop enough fun Trek tidbits along the way.

And more importantly I think we should see these characters continue their arcs towards becoming the heroes that we knew from the original show, but not limited to that because they are different and so they allowed to stretch them in new and interesting ways.

All that and a really cool space battle. You need one of those!

Tenuto uses Star Trek passion for lesson to grads

Speaking of John, he introduced some Star Trek into a commencement speech he was giving to the College of Lake County graduates last weekend. Watch the fun below.

 

Vote and chat about Star Trek Into Darkness all week in sticky open thread.

 

Sticky 4: Into Darkness Opening USA/Canada Week

Opening weekend is behind us and Star Trek Into Darkness is now entering its first week (domestically). Fans continue to buzz about the movie so once again we have a special sticky open thread for opening week.

TrekMovie.com has already posted a review and now it is your chance. TrekMovie has created a new fan reviews page for Into Darkness.

 

Previous Into Darkness Spoiler Discussion Threads

May 17 – Open Weekend

May 15 – Domestic Fan Sneak Open Day

May 8 – Early Countries Open Day

 

POLLS

Here are our current polls for those who have seen Into Darkness, including a new one on what the movie needed more of (if anything).

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DISCUSS STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (WITH ANY SPOILERS)

Below chat about the movie, including discussing any spoilers.

 

 

WARNING: This open thread is for people who have seen the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie you really shouldn’t be reading this as you are sure to get spoiled.

The final weekend results are in and Star Trek Into Darkness is the #1 movie in the world, bringing in over $110M over the weekend giving it a global gross of over $164M. Analysts mostly agree the film had a solid domestic performance (but behind expectations) and impressive overseas sales. More details and analysis of the analysis below.   

 

Star Trek off to a ‘solid’ performance domestically + ‘strong’ internationally

After the softer sales on Friday, Star Trek Into Darkness rallied with stronger domestic sales on Saturday and Sunday to end the 3-day weekend with $70.2M and a cumulative total of around $84M. Paramount’s view is that the film is outperforming the sequel by 6% domestically, but they are comparing the 2009′s 3-1/4 day returns with Into Darkness’ 4-day returns (+ IMAX previews), so there is a bit of apples to oranges.

STAR TREK VS. INTO DARKNESS Domestic $M Star Trek
2009 Into Darkness
(actual) Wednesday - $2.0* Thursday $4.0* $11.5 Friday $26.9 $21.6 Saturday $27.2 $26.9 Sunday $21.0 $21.6 Open Wkd Total. $75.2 $70.2 Cumulative $79.2 $83.7 *limited release  Source: BoxOffice.com

While it ended the weekend a bit ahead of where the 2009 Star Trek movie, it didn’t meet the $100M projections from Paramount. However the film did meet the $85M projection that Paramount was talking about three weeks ago (before they moved the release date). There is a consensus that the last-minute move of the release date did not achieve Paramount’s goals of boosting sales and may have just moved hardcore fans from Friday to Thursday without bringing in more regular filmgoers.

It is hard to predict where the film will go from here but domestically it looks like  Into Darkness may not outperform the 2009 Star Trek film (which brought in a domestic total of $258M making it the 7th highest grossing film of 2009). So this time around Into Darkness probably won’t break into the top 5 but it still has a shot at the top 10. Even using the lower $70.2M figure, the Into Darkness opening weekend would be ranked 7th best for either 2011 or 2012 and 6th in 2010. And 7th ranked films have brought in $210-$260M (domestic) in the last 3 years.

On the international front, Into Darkness brought in an estimated $40M over the weekend, opening in over two dozen new territories. This brings the overseas total to 80.5M. The film continues to significantly outperform the 2009 Star Trek film in each market, in come cases very significantly. For example in Russia it opened with an $8M weekend, compared to just $1.9M for Star Trek in 2009. We don’t have the final country-by-country data yet so we can’t do a full Into Darkness vs. Star Trek breakdown, but Paramount is projecting that in the end Into Darkness could as much double Star Trek’s $128M total international take.

So it looks like any potential shortfall (vs. Star Trek) domestically could be more than made up for internationally so that in the end Into Darkness will likely outpace the $386M global gross of the 2009 film. Of course with a bigger budget, 3D tickets and inflation it was expected to perform better, so the big question now is how much better will it do?

As of May 19th, Star Trek Into Darkness global cumulative gross was $164.2M.

Analysts: Sales "Solid" but Paramount over-predicted domestic

Analysts seem to agree that Into Darkness was a solid performer domestically but that Paramount was over-zealous in their predictions. There is also agreement that the studio is hitting their target internationally. Here is some of the commentary…

…a truly solid number for [Into Darkness]. It’s only perhaps Paramount was a little too eager for a hit, setting its Stateside expectations too high at $100 million-plus.
- Variety

The iconic space tentpole grossed a lot of money worldwide…But came nowhere near the $80M weekend and $100M total predicted.
- Deadline

Star Trek Into Darkness topped the box office chart — even if it didn’t engage warp speed and hit $100 million.
- Hollywood Reporter

"Star Trek Into Darkness" opened atop the U.S. box office, though its debut didn’t quite make the jump to warp speed that Paramount Pictures executives expected.
- LA Times

The Enterprise encountered some choppy air in North America over the weekend — namely strong holdover ticket sales for “Iron Man 3” and “The Great Gatsby” — but hit warp speed in foreign markets…
- NY Times

Fans leading the way

Analysis also shows that fans – such as readers of TrekMovie.com – are leading the way and a key part of the Paramount’s hopes for the continued strong returns. Here is what Variety says of Trek fan contribution to Into Darkness:

[Domestically] the film played above average with Trekkies, who contributed a higher-than-usual percentage of the pic’s total gross.
…
With franchise fans driving online chatter for “Into Darkness,” word-of-mouth should be especially strong for the sequel.

Reuters also picks up on this, noting:

Paramount said the film’s audience was comprised largely of longtime "Star Trek" fans, but was optimistic that good reviews and word of mouth would bring in a broader audience in coming weeks.

More interesting IMAX sales data:

• Imax contributed 16% of the film’s bow (with $13.5 million), compared to “Iron Man 3,” which had less than 10% opening weekend come from Imax. (Variety)
• There were many IMAX sell outs, a strong Friday to Saturday uptick and 17 of Trek’s top 20 domestic locations have IMAX runs (BoxOffice.com)

Should it have done better? And why didn’t it?

So even if it is "solid" domestically and "strong" internationally, clearly Paramount was hoping for more on the domestic side. And the analysis from Forbes takes this on saying that not meeting these higher expectations is a disappointment:

There is no way around it, Star Trek Into Darkness pulled in fewer ticket buyers than the 2009 Star Trek. For the record, I do not want to scream “FLOP” over a $82 million four-day gross and potentially lucrative overseas final results, but this is indeed a case where a rather large opening can be considered a ‘disappointment’ in relation to realistic expectations and/or budgetary demands.

The reasoning for Into Darkness not making big (domestic) gains over the 2009 movie had analysts scratching their heads, as noted by BoxOfficeGuru:

The underperforming numbers of Into Darkness were downright baffling. Paramount made a good product and picked a fine time to release it giving it two weeks distance from the summer’s other action tentpole Iron Man 3. Reviews were mostly positive (more than good enough for a sci-fi sequel) and audiences also liked the film with opening day ticket buyers giving an A grade from CinemaScore. The marketing push was strong and normal for May action tentpoles.

Guru offers a suggestion, pointing to the four year gap between films, but also noting that maybe it is competition more so:

Most franchises in recent years have not taken [4 years] off in between installments including Twilight, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Transformers, and the Star Wars prequels. Even newer ones like Hobbit and Hunger Games have told fans that they will get a new chapter every year. Last year, however, there were a pair of films that came out exactly four years after their last installments and opened bigger without even needing 3D – The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall. Both were threequels to a reboot and followed sequels that were also very successful so audiences were more hooked to the brands. The love shown for 2009′s Star Trek could have been somewhat of an anomaly. It certainly brought in a broader more mainstream crowd, but many may have lost the excitement this time around especially with popular alternative options from Mr. Stark and Mr. Gatsby out there right now.

Box Office Mojo also focuses on competition was more of a factor, noting:

It seems more likely [Into Darkness] fell victim to the incredibly competitive May schedule. There’s only so much money to go around, and following the strong performances of Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby—and a week ahead of a jam-packed Memorial Day—Star Trek Into Darkness just wasn’t a compelling enough proposition for casual moviegoers.

Trek’s demographics tell an interesting story that contributes to that theory: the audience skewed heavily male (64 percent) and older (73 percent over the age of 25). In comparison, the first movie did a better job reaching women (only 60 percent male) and younger audiences (only 65 percent over 25).

Another issue may be demographics. Deadline reports exit polling shows that 64% of the audience was male and only 27% was under the age 25. For the 2009 Star Trek movie, 35% were under 25. And in comparison Iron Man 3 had 45% under 25. So with all the talk of this not being your father’s Star Trek, there may be too many fathers in the audience. Speaking to The Wrap, Exhibitor Relations vice-president and senior analyst Jeff Bock said:

It didn’t grab the attention of young moviegoers, and you’re not going to get your movie over $100 million with just older folks. It’s tough to figure, because with Abrams doing it, it’s really not your father’s ‘Star Trek.’ But it needs to find that young audience in a hurry.

More to come

TrekMovie will continue to monitor box office results globally for Into Darkness along with the industry analyses as the film moves into its second weekend and beyond.

TrekMovie continues our deep dive of analysis into Star Trek Into Darkness. Today we bring you a closer look at the USS Enterprise from the movie, including a surprising details you may have missed. We also have some exclusive insider details. Check it out below (beware of spoilers).

 

Enterprise gets refit in Star Trek Into Darkness

In Star Trek Into Darkness the USS takes some serious damage. They even played up this notion in the marketing often showing a ship crashing into the ocean and the Enterprise falling toward Earth was featured on the posters for the movie.

Domestic poster featuring falling Enterprise

But if you have seen the movie you know that in the end the ship makes it through (it was the USS Vengeance that takes a dive into San Francisco Bay). But the USS Enterprise is certainly not spaceworthy after the battle above Earth. The final scene of the movie jumps forward almost a year after that battle with a ceremony to ‘re-christen’ the USS Enterprise. We then see the crew on the bridge as they set off on their new five-year mission and then the ship warps away. While the bridge itself appeared to be exactly the same, if you looked closely the ship’s exterior you would spot differences. Just compare the images below (taken from one of the movie trailers and from a behind-the-scenes video about the music)

USS Enterprise in “Star Trek Into Darkness” (right before encountering USS Vengeance)

“refit” USS Enterprise from end of “Star Trek Into Darkness”

A source confirms with TrekMovie that ILM did make changes to the digital model of the Enterprise in order to show it has been ‘refit.’ According to the source there are “big and subtle changes” to the ship. The most obvious difference is the now much wider impulse engines. While the nacelles do appear different in the above image that is mostly due to distorted angle of the pre-warp-effect. However, the source did say there are some small changes to the nacelles as well. The following video gives you a better look at the refit.

The original ‘refit’

While there are differences for the new universe Enterprise ‘refit,’ they are not nearly as pronounced as the original ‘refit’ Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In that case the ship had gone through a complete redesign to transition from the 60s TV series to the big-budget 1979 film.

Original TV series USS Enterprise and ‘refit’ from movie era

Obviously we will see more of the new refit when the Blu-ray comes out and of course we will have to wait for the next movie to see the refit completely, and find out if the ship has any new technologies or features.

UPDATED: Is it too early to start talking about the Blu-ray for Star Trek Into Darkness? Well Amazon and Best Buy don’t think so and both are offering special promotions for pre-ordering the Into Darkness Blu-ray/DVD combo pack bundle. More details below.

 

BestBuy offers $8 Off movie tickets plus more bonus content

Starting today (May 19) through to June 1, you can pre-order Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray/DVD combo pack (2D or 3D) and receive a $8 coupon towards an adult admission at participating theaters nationwide. You can also get access to exclusive content from Star Trek: Into Darkness on CinemaNow and the ability to watch Star Trek: Into Darkness via CinemaNow approximately 2-3 weeks before the movie is available in-stores. he 2D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack is selling for $22.99 and the 3D version is selling for $29.99. Go to BestBuy.com to pre-order yours.

Amazon offers Free Comic Book + Phaser Gift Set

Amazon also has Into Darkness available for pre-order as of today. If you order the DVD (for $16.99) , or the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy (for $19.99) or 3D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack (for $24.99) you get a free digital copy of Star Trek: Countdown To Darkness #1.
Go to Amazon.com to pick your Into Darkness pre-order pack.

Amazon is also offering an Into Darkness Limited Edition Phaser Gift Set with 3D Blu-ray Combo Gift sets. The retail price of the set is $99.99 but it is selling for $79.00. Amazon is also not listing a release date. Pre-order yours at Amazon.com.

 

 

TrekMovie has got ahold of the official movie credits for Star Trek Into Darkness and there are some interesting tidbits in the cast listings including a voice cameo for SNL’s Bill Hader and another cameo for JJ Abrams’ dad. Plus find out the names (or lack of names) for some of the new characters. See below (but beware of minor spoilers).

 

Star Trek Into Darkness Cameos

• Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader is listed under “Additional Voices” (he was the computer voice for the USS Vengeance)
• Nolan North (Nathan Drake from Uncharted video game series) is credited as one of the “U.S.S. Vengeance Bridge Officers” [see previous story]
• Christopher Doohan (son of James Doohan) is listed as “Transport Officer” (he had uncredited role in transporter room in 2009′s Star Trek [see previous story]
• Mission Continues real-life veterans Eric Greitens, Melissa Steinman, Adam McCann, and Jon Orvasky are listed as “Starfleet Ceremonial Guard”  [see previous story]

Noldan North on the bridge of the Vengeance

Now we know what they are called…

• Noel Clarke (aka “father” from beginning of the film) is “Thomas Harewood,” Nanzeen Contractor is “Rima Harewood” and Anjini Taneja Azhar (who plays their daughter) is “Lucille Harewood”
• Amanda Foreman who played “Hannity” in 2009′s Star Trek (and appeared in many other Abrams productions) is listed as “Ensign Brackett”
• Joseph Gatt (the bald tech augmented officer) is listed as “Science Officer 0718″ [see previous story]
• Chekov’s replacement on the bridge is listed as “Navigation Officer Darwin,” played by is Aisha Hinds
• The other (unnamed) members of the Enterprise bridge crew are Andy Demetrio, Gianna Simone, Rene Rosado, Jacqelynn King, Long Tran, Ningning Deng, and Jodi Johnson

Enterprise’s new navigation officer “Darwin” played by Aisha Hinds

Family and Friends

• Film/TV producer Akiva Goldsman (I am Legend, Fringe) is listed as one of  the “Starfleet Admirals” (Goldsman appeared in the 2009 movie as a Vulcan science counsel member)
• JJ Abrams father (Gerald W. Abrams) and father-in-law (James H. McGrath, Jr.) also returned, this time  playing “Starfleet Memorial Admirals” (both played bar patrons in the 2009 Star Trek)
• Producer Jeffrey Chernov’s son Max Chernov is listed as one of the “San Francisco Residents” (Max also had a background role in the 2009 Star Trek movie)

JJ Abrams father and father-in-law (seated Admirals) return for Star Trek Into Darkness

Other notable cast listings (or omissions)

• Star Trek 2009 cast members Chris Hemsworth and Jennifer Morrison are listed as George and Winona Kirk – although they don’t appear in the film, some of their dialog from the 2009 movie can be briefly heard during a dream sequence/flashback
• Jason Matthew Smith is again listed as “Cupcake” (as he was in the 2009 movie) even though he was referred to as “Mr. Hendorff” in Into Darkness (and also in the comics) [Hendorff was a redshirt in the prime universe seen in TOS episode "The Apple"]
• The two “Girls” (aka Cat women) seen with Kirk are twin sisters: Katie Cockrell and Kellie Cockrell
• The two main Klingons (credited as just “Klingons”)  were played by Nick E. Tarabay (Ashur from Spartacus) and Sean Blackemore (Shawn Butler on General Hospital)
• J.J. Abrams’ close friend Greg Grunberg has no role in Into Darkness (he voiced the stepfather in the 2009 Star Trek and has had roles in most Abrams productions)
• There is no computer voice for the USS Enterprise in Into Darkness (the late Majel Barrett voiced the computer for the 2009 Star Trek film)

Jason Matthew Smith (seen in 2009 Star Trek) returns for “Into Darkness” credited as “Cupcake” even though he was called “Hendorff”

More Into Darkness Easter Eggs and Analysis

TrekMovie has more articles taking a closer look at Star Trek Into Darkness. Keep an eye out for those coming soon.

So, by now, we’ve all seen Star Trek Into Darkness. Some of us loved it, some of us hated it, some of us said, “meh.” But, forget about what you thought of the movie for a second. What did you think of the science? Let’s take a more in depth look at some of the most sciencey moments from STID. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyways, that this review contains SPOILERS!!!

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Into the Volcano
The Nibiru volcano scene was revealed in the IMAX preview of STID last December. We basically saw the entire scene back then, but there are a few points that I didn’t catch the first time around that I’ll touch on here.

Spock takes a stroll in the Nibiru volcano

The look and feel of the volcano is pretty spot on

For the most part, they get this part right. Speaking as a volcanologist who loves to nitpick geology scenes in movies, there is not much for me to gripe about in Into Darkness. Of course, the visual artists did dramatize the scene a bit, but for everything they got wrong there’s another detail they got right.

What was wrong visually? I can tell you from experience that the inside of an active volcano doesn’t look quite like what we saw in STID. The biggest flaw? Flames. Too much fire and brimstone. Yes, volcanoes produce hot steam, ash, and magma, but what’s depicted in STID looks more like a forest fire — embers and flames swirling around Spock. Again, this is a somewhat minor point, so it’s forgivable.

The visual details that are spot on. The geologist in me was giggling with joy when she saw Spock standing atop real lava! The ropey, black rock beneath Spock’s feet is really something that came out of a volcano: a type of lava rock called Pahoehoe. And, if one was to flash freeze molten volcanic rock as Spock’s “cold fusion device” did, it’d look a lot like what we saw on screen: jet black volcanic glass. The best part of the volcano, though, was the bubble burst. A gigantic bubble of gas rose through the lava lake and formed a huge dome of lava that loomed far above Spock’s head. The pressure built up inside the bubble until it burst open, sending bits of molten rock flying in one large catastrophic explosion. That is EXACTLY what happens in real lava lakes.

Spock in a seriously cool looking volcano

BONUS: Fumaroles on a nearby planetoid! Recall the scene where Carol Marcus and Bones shuttle down to a nearby planetoid to have a go at diffusing of the mysterious photon torpedoes. What you probably didn’t realize was that this was a “volcanic” scene, too! My eyes immediately jumped to the flat plain of lava rock (scoria, a type of basaltic volcanic rock) where Carol and Bones were fiddling with the torpedo. In the background was a beautifully rendered fumarole – a crack in the ground where volcanic gasses escape into the atmosphere. The look and feel of the scene was completely scientifically realistic. What’s even better is that it felt like a barren, vast, wasteland. No vegetation, no animal life. This made it really feel like some small volcanic moon or “planetoid”. I’ll go out on a limb here and say this is in my opinion the most realistic looking planetary body I’ve ever seen in a movie. Props to the visual artists! Below is a couple of examples of real world locations reminiscent of the torpedo disarming scene in Into Darkness.

Volcanic plains resembling the torpedo disarming scene in Into Darkness

Verdict: The visuals were great. The volcano looked more realistic than any film I’ve seen, minus the swirling embers.

What a real volcano looks like

The science behind the volcano: Oh so close, but not quite right

We cannot take the heat, cap’n! Here’s where the volcano scene took a turn for the less believable. Both Sulu and Scotty suggest that the heat from the volcano is too much for the shuttle or the Enterprise to withstand. Huh? Let’s count the logical fallacies, shall we?

1. Spock’s volcano suit. How is it that a human(oid) in a special suit can stand INSIDE OF THE VOLCANO literally feet from the lava, but a shuttlecraft (or, heck, the Enterprise herself!) cannot withstand the heat? Are we really supposed to believe that Spock’s magical volcano suit is made out of stronger stuff than starships? Why not make the whole ship out of that suit, then??
2. We’ve seen starships like the Enterprise or even shuttlecraft fly through much hotter places than a volcano. Just entering the planet’s atmosphere would subject the Enterprise to temperature of around 3000 °F (1650 °C), which is hotter than the hottest lava on Earth’s surface, typically around 2200 °F (1200 °C). But, even crazier, we’ve seen shuttles and starships fly very close to suns, which are more like 8000 °F (4500 °C). I think big E would be able to handle a little old volcano, don’t you?

Let’s get even more sciencey. The graph below shows the temperature experienced by a Space Shuttle orbiter on reentry to Earth’s atmosphere. The hottest lava on Earth is around 2200 °F. The Space Shuttle, the first flight of which was in 1981 can withstand temperature of up to 2500 °F. Nineteen Eighty One. In 200 years, I hope we will have advanced far beyond even that!

How they could have made this right, while keeping the stakes high for Spock and the crew. Sulu has one line that I wish they’d have played up more in this scene. He mentions that the ash from the volcano is getting into the shuttle’s systems and causing all kinds of damage. THIS is extremely plausible! Volcanic ash is very corrosive, especially to electronics. And, it interferes with air intake systems in engines, which is why airplanes can’t fly through volcanic ash clouds here on Earth. This would have been the scientifically accurate reason that the shuttle was struggling, and why it’d be dangerous to take the Enterprise in. I’m not sure why anyone mentioned the heat being a problem at all.

Verdict: The heat would NOT cause any problems for a shuttle or a starship. They should have used volcanic ash as an excuse.

How ash can damage airplanes (and maybe shuttlecraft, too)

Spock’s Planet Saving, Volcano Stopping “Device”. Here’s where things get really hairy. Spock has some device capable of stopping a volcano. You know what? It’s the beginning of the movie, things are pretty crazy, so as a moviegoer I’m going to go ahead and accept that humans have developed the technology to somehow “render a volcano inert”. But, the geologist inside of me wouldn’t let it stand when we saw how the thing worked. As said above, the visual was very cool and quite realistic — if one were to “flash freeze” some lava, it woud turn into exactly what we saw. But, flash freezing lava in a volcanic crater would not, by any means, stop a volcano from erupting.

Volcanoes are essentially surface expressions of the deep, churning earth. It’s where our planet is turning itself inside out — the very hot, very pressurized molten rock living deep in the Earth’s crust (and sometimes even below the crust) finds its way to the surface in a grand explosion of fire and light. Freezing the top layer of lava at an erupting volcano is like putting the lid on a pressure cooker turned to 11. The pressure beneath that lid is just going to build up until that volcano erupts even more explosively than it otherwise would have. Of course, sci-fi caveat, one could assume that the device somehow managed to penetrate all the way down (we’re talking 10′s of kilometers deep) to the source of the volcano and freeze it from the inside out, but I just have a very hard time believing that.

Spock, get your volcano suit on. We need you to detonate a cold fusion device inside an active volcanic crater.

The NIF Warp Core
One of the aspects of the film that I really enjoyed, and not everyone will agree with me on this, was the warp core. Particularly, the shots of the outside of the warp core, which were all filmed at a real life science facility: The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California. When I imagine what a starship’s engine room should look like, I certainly don’t imagine this. I imagine a massive piece of equipment that looks like something that could accelerate particles fast enough to create anti-matter. Something thats so massive and complex, it is essentially built into the ship itself. In modern facilities, instruments like particle colliders are a part of the building in which they reside — it’s not like wheeling a computer into the middle of a room.

Some have argued that the NIF warp core feels too modern; that we would be miles beyond that kind of technology by the time Starfleet is around. But, I’m not so sure. Warp cores are essentially gigantic particle colliders that can store massive amounts of antimatter and use it to power the ship. Why wouldn’t a warp core of the future to some degree resemble their 21st century ancestors? Besides, maybe this scene will encourage a few kids to learn about particle physics, and that’s just fine by me.

Verdict: Up for debate

The NIF Target Chamber (click for super high res version)

Another of the many scenes filmed at the NIF

Transwarp Beaming: A forgivable plot device?
In Star Trek (2009), we are introduced to Scotty’s magical transwarp beaming technology. Yes, Scotty invents a way to beam from place to place across insane distances while at warp. This, if you remember, is how Kirk gets back onto the Enterprise. Okay, so it doesn’t work perfectly (Scotty ends up inside one of the water tubes in the engine room), but it works. Enter Into Darkness. Khan needs a way to get from Earth to Kronos, and he’s on the lam so he doesn’t have access to a starship. Khan is also involved in Section 31, the secret agency within Starfleet who, we’re told, confiscated Scotty’s transwarp equation. That’s how Khan was able to beam over to Kronos. Thanks, at least, for being internally consistent with the 2009 film, but I still have to point to this as a totally unrealistic plot device, which moreover makes it way too easy for our heroes to get around. What’s the point of a fleet of starships when we can simply beam across light years?

It’s hard to comment on the real life science of the transwarp long-distance beaming, since to beam a person even a short distance with today’s knowledge of physics would cost unimaginable computing power, and the reassembly of a human being would require the energy input equivalent to about 3,200 suns. So, yeah, transporter technology’s not in the near future. But, this transwarp thing isn’t even good Trek science. It’s not even good writing! It just makes it far too easy. It was a forgivable plot device in the first film, but let’s just forget it ever happened and move on. Otherwise, we might as well scrap the fleet and just beam everywhere.

Verdict: A poor plot device. Not internally consistent with other Trek technology

Transwarp beaming in Star Trek (2009)

Ludicrous Speed! Travel to Kronos in minutes!
This is one movie “mistake” that almost everyone I’ve talked to, scientist or not, has picked up on. Kronos (or Qo’noS), the Klingon home world, may be relatively close to Earth, but according to the pilot episode “Broken Bow” of Star Trek: Enterprise, Kronos is about 4 days away from Earth at warp 4.5. In a later Enterprise episode, “Two Days and Two Nights”, it was established that this was around 90 lightyears from Earth, as that is the farthest distance anyone had traveled up to that point. In Into Darkness, the Enterprise apparently travels at Ludicrous Speed and somehow manages to reach Kronos (and get back to Earth from Kronos) in what seems like only a few hours.

Verdict: Another poor plot device that defeats the idea of the Final Frontier.

They’ve gone to plaid…

Pointing out what’s wrong (or right!) with the science of Trek might seem like pointless nit picking. But, that’s what we Trekkies do best, and having a meticulous community with such attention to detail means that we demand a certain standard from the people who create new stories that fit within the Star Trek universe. There are volumes dedicated to establishing what is “canon” in Trek, something fairly unique to our franchise. But, the Transwarp long-distance beaming and the ability of a starship to travel at Ludicrous Speed are two things that transcend nit picking. There are multiple references in the movie about “deep space” and the upcoming five year mission of the USS Enterprise. But, if you have ships going from Earth to Kronos in a matter of minutes then there is no “Deep Space” within the galaxy. And, going back to Trek canon, it essentially wipes out the premise of Star Trek: Voyager and most of Deep Space Nine (who needs wormholes?). More to the point, these two seemingly harmless plot devices completely dismiss the idea of the Final Frontier. The Enterprise and her crew are taking a risk when they are out there exploring the unknown, days or even months from home or the closest reinforcements. It’s what makes Trek work as a “western in space”. Without that peril, that feeling of isolation, you loose one of the things so intrinsically interesting to the exploration of space: the vastness of space itself.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @kaylai.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Star Trek Into Darkness domestic ticket sales picked up over the weekend, plus strong international sales have boosted the total estimated box office to over $164M. More detailed look at the box office below.

 

SUNDAY UPDATE: Into Darkness Projected To End Wkd w/ $164.5M

Star Trek Into Darkness has been the number one movie domestically since Thursday and after a sluggish Friday, sales rallied on Saturday with an estimated $27.5M (a bit ahead of the 2009 Star Trek film). Sunday is also estimated to bring in another $21M with a three-day weekend total of $70.5M and a cumulative total of $84.1M, or about $4M ahead of where the 2009 Star Trek movie was on its first Sunday. 

While $84M is short of Paramount’s $100M predictions from last week, it is actually in line with predictions they were making three weeks ago before they moved the release date up one day to Thursday May 16th. In the end it looks like the last minute release date change didn’t really give them the box office boost they were hoping for. However, the numbers are still fairly solid with the third best domestic opening of 2013 and it beat all but six films from 2012.

The news for Paramount is even better when it comes to international sales. Into Darkness brought in another $40M around the world, opening in an additional 33 markets. The film continues to significantly outperform the 2009 Star Trek movie in international markets. For example in Russia the new movie made $8M this weekend, whereas the 2009 Star Trek only made $4M during its entire run. Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore tells Variety that Into Darkness could double the $129M international sales of 2009′s Star Trek. So even if Into Darkness doesn’t end up matching Star Trek domestically, it looks like the international sales will more than ensure Into Darkness has a higher total global gross.

Currently the estimated global gross of Into Darkness is $164.5M.

TrekMovie will have more detailed analysis once the final numbers come in for the weekend.

original article

Into Darkness underperforming Star Trek 2009 Domestically

Star Trek Into Darkness brought in $11.5 on its opening day on Thursday making it the #1 domestic movie, but below expectations. Box office watchers feel that many movie-goers weren’t aware Paramount moved the release date up one day, which was only done a week ahead. Yesterday analyst estimates for Into Darkness  had it headed for a $27M Friday and a $85M opening weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun), boosted by a "A" CinemaScore rating and strong reviews. These projections had the film hitting a $100M cumulative target by Sunday (meeting earlier predictions).

However, by Saturday morning Friday’s results were revised to an estimated $22M. Paramount is now projecting $70M for the weekend. Analysts and rival studios think the weekend number could be less, as low as $56M (according to Deadline). BoxOffice.com is estimating $68M. So it looks like Star Trek Into Darkness will underperform the opening domestic weekend of the 2009 Star Trek movie, despite getting a boost from higher-priced 3D ticket sales.

If Paramount’s projection holds, then Into Darkness will end the weekend with a cumulative total of around $83M. With the benefit of having opened a day earlier, Into Darkness would be slightly ahead of the cumulative total for the 2009 Star Trek movie (see table below).   

STAR TREK VS. INTO DARKNESS Domestic $M Star Trek
2009 Into Darkness
(estimates*) Wednesday - $2.0** Thursday $4** $11.5 Friday $26.9 $22.0 Saturday $27.2 $48.0
(Sat & Sun) Sunday $21.0 Open Wkd Total. $75.2 $70.0 Cumulative $79.2 $83.5 *Estimates based on Paramount projection **limited release

A $65-$70M opening weekend would make Into Darkness the third highest grossing opening weekend of 2013 so far (behind Iron Man 3 and Oz: The Great and Powerful) and would rank it in 7th or 8th place if it were a 2012 release. The 2009 Star Trek movie had the 6th best opening weekend of the year.

Into Darkness overperforming 2009 Star Trek Overseas

Paramount tells Variety, Into Darkness is "currently orbiting $75M for the weekend in 33 territories." We don’t have country by country details yet, but so far wherever there has been data, it has shown Into Darkness significantly overperforming the 2009 Star Trek film in each territory. Overall the film has been doing round 60-70% better than the previous film internationally, but it is still early to see if that trend continues.

Right now most of the above is based on estimates and projections. In the next couple of days we will have more concrete details on how Into Darkness is performing both domestically and internationally.

Thursday and Friday had more Into Darkness celebrity talk show appearances. Zachary Quinto talked about Pon Farr for the next Star Trek on Conan, Zoe Saldana talked kick-ass Uhura and played glowing "spaceballs" game on Fallon, and Alice Eve revealed her theory that birds and aliens are related on Jimmy Kimmel. Watch all the clips below.

 

INTO DARKNESS CELEBS TALK SHOW ROUNDUP #4

Here is the latest set of clips of Star Trek Into Darkness celebs doing the talk show circuit.

Quinto talks Pon Farr For Next Trek + Trek Cast Trip To Hooters
(Conan)

Eve reveals aliens are birds theory + her "Cumberbitches’ family
(Jimmy Kimmel)

Saldana Fallon Plays Glow in the dark "Spaceballs"
(Jimmy Fallon)

Speaking of Fallon, he also did a Star Trek-themed comedy bit on Thursday.

Eve and Abrams on Conan next week

The final appearances for the Into Darkness celebrity talk show tour come next week with two appearances on Conon (TBS) with Alice Eve on Tuesday May 21st and JJ Abrams on Wednesday May 22nd.

The Gorn are coming! IDW Publishing’s August 2013 solicits include the return of a familiar adversary to the ongoing Star Trek series, a trade paperback collection of classic Klingon tales, and more. Details after the break.

Coming August 2013 from IDW Publishing

Star Trek #24
Mike Johnson (w) • Claudia Balboni (a) • Tim Bradstreet (c)

The adventures of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise crew continue in an all-new adventure that follows the events of the hit film STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and the new STAR TREK video game! A classic enemy returns in this story overseen by STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci. Beware… THE GORN!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 8/14/13

Retailer incentives:
   • Order 10 copies, get one free variant Tim Bradstreet sketch cover!
   • Order 20 copies, get one free variant Photo Cover!

Cover art by Tim Bradstreet; Retailer Incentive photo cover

Star Trek: Best of Klingons
Scott Tipton, David Tipton, Mike W. Barr (w) • David Messina, Tom Sutton, Ricardo Villigran (a) • Sharp Bros. (c)
Sharpen your bat’leth and prepare for war in this collection of unforgettable Klingon tales from the Star Trek universe. Including the original 4-part DC start to The Original Series as well as the 6-issue Klingons: Blood Will Tell series by Scott and David Tipton, this volume is fierce and loyal to the Empire. Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam!

TPB • FC • $24.99 • 234 pages • ISBN 978-1-61377-725-1
Expected in-store date: 8/14/13

Cover art by the Sharp Brothers

Star Trek: 100-Penny Press
Mike Johnson (w) • Stephen Molnar (a) • Tim Bradstreet (c)
The Hundred Penny Press returns! One dollar versions of crucial IDW books! First up, STAR TREK #1! The ongoing series that picked up where the blockbuster 2009 film left off! Featuring the new cast of the film, these missions re-imagine the stories from the original series in the alternate timeline created by the film, along with new threats and characters never seen before! With creative collaboration from STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci!

FC • 32 pages • $1.00
Expected in-store date: 8/7/13

Cover art by Tim Bradstreet

Roundup of Star Trek comics news

Wired has a preview and details about Star Trek After Darkness. The updated release date of Star Trek #21 is May 29.

Panel from Star Trek #21

All IDW digital Star Trek comics are half price thru May 19. IDW has also posted an interactive temporal chart showing the prime and alternate timelines from the latest films. Clicking on the image below will take you to IDW. Once you’re there, click on Sale.

Amazon UK has a listing for the trade paperback collection of Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness from Titan Books, with a photo cover featuring John Harrison.

Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, UK edition

And Bob Orci tweets more Harrison is coming!

Ask and ye shall receive.@idwpubishing IS going to do a 4-issue John Harrison miniseries this fall!

— roberto orci (@boborci) May 17, 2013

StarTrek.com has a first look at IDW Limited Star Trek editions.

Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before, IDW Limited

Amazon has three new listings for Star Trek comics in hardcover scheduled for release this winter. Cover art isn’t available yet.

• Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation2: The Complete Series

The two greatest science-fiction properties of all time crossover for the first time! Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise have joined forces with the Doctor and his companions to combat an unholy alliance between the Federation’s most terrifying enemy and one of the Doctor’s greatest antagonists. But once the Cybermen turn on their Borg allies, the Doctor and Picard find themselves at odds over how to proceed against the threat, with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance! ISBN 978-1613777824

• Star Trek: The Stardate Collection, Volume 1

The comic book tales of Star Trek have roamed the universe and spanned publishers, but now Star Trek: The Stardate Collection collects the many iterations of Trek in order… by stardate! Helmed by Trek experts Scott and David Tipton, and featuring special commentary and creator interviews, volume 1 starts at the beginning to reveal the motives, machinations and decisions that shaped the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. For new and old fans alike, there’s never been a Star Trek collection like this! ISBN 978-1613777114

• Star Trek: The Newspaper Strip, Volume 2

Edited by Dean Mullaney with an Introduction by Rich Handley. Collecting the second half of the rare daily and Sunday newspaper strip. Ten complete missions from October 26, 1981 through December 3, 1983. Stories by Sharman DiVono, Larry Niven, Martin Pasko, and Gerry Conway; art by Ron Harris, Padraic Shigetani, Bob Myers, Ernie Colon, Dick Kulpa, and Alfredo Alcala. ISBN 978-1613777763

Sequart Research & Literacy Organization celebrated Star Trek Week with a series of articles on Star Trek comics.

Sequart Research & Literacy Organization

That’s all for now.

Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.

Vote and chat about Star Trek Into Darkness all weekend in sticky open thread.

 

Sticky 3: Into Darkness Opening USA/Canada Weekend

No things are really cooking, the previews, the galas, the early country dubuts are all behind…today is the first day of the first domestic weekend for Star Trek Into Darkness.

TrekMovie.com has already posted a review and now it is your chance. TrekMovie has created a new fan reviews page for Into Darkness.

POLLS

Here are our current polls for those who have seen Into Darkness, including a new one about Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison (OK this is a spoiler page…on Cumberbatch’s KHAN!)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

DISCUSS STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (WITH ANY SPOILERS)

Below chat about the movie, including discussing any spoilers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WARNING: This open thread is for people who have seen the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie you really shouldn’t be reading this as you are sure to get spoiled.

 

 

 

 

Previous Into Darkness Spoiler Discussion Threads

May 15 – Domestic Fan Sneak Open Day

May 8 – Early Countries Open Day

Speaking exclusively with TrekMovie.com Star Trek Into Darkness director JJ Abrams talked about lessons he learned from Star Trek that he can apply to Star Wars, his hopes for a 2016 Star Trek movie, and how he thinks a new director could do it better, and more. Watch the interview and read full transcript below.

 

JJ Abrams

Saving the best of the junket videos for last, here is my exclusive interview with Star Trek Into Darkness producer/director JJ Abrams.

Transcript

TrekMovie: Would you say it is a fair comment to say you brought a little bit of Star Wars to Star Trek?

JJ Abrams: Yeah. I think you can look at it that way and say the action, some of the more dynamic visceral stuff, was influenced by movies that I have loved including Star Wars. But I wouldn’t say it was literally a conscious decision, with the exception of maybe having some white walls and black shiny floors in some scenes. But for me the Star Wars and Star Trek universes are still pretty disparate.

TrekMovie: Can you see yourself brining something from Star Trek into Star Wars? What is something you learned from Star Trek that you think Star Wars can benefit from?

JJ Abrams: The experience of doing Star Trek was such an education. I am still realizing what I have learned from it and will continue to. I certainly feel like the scope and scale of something like Star Trek which is so epic, so huge, that you realize in terms of scale that establishing shots can’t be a building or a town or a continent, it has to be a planet. It’s almost like being in Las Vegas and you say "I’m just going to walk over to that hotel" and half an hour later you are still walking towards it "I’m not getting any closer, it is still far away!" There is a weird thing that happens with the scale of a movie like this. But I will tell you working with the actors, the crew, the visual effects people–I learned countless lessons and hope to take all of those into the next project.  

TrekMovie: [fan submitted question from 14-year old Malle from France] Are you happy that young people like me have become Star Trek fans thanks to you and the actors?

JJ Abrams: I will fist say that is an incredibly sweet question. I am of course thrilled that because of what we have all done and it is certainly a testament to the actors who bring these characters to life yet again. The idea that there are people young or old who were never really Star Trek fans who checked this out and connect to it and feel its that thing you might have felt when you were a kid and you saw Star Trek and you were like "oh my god! That is cool. That inspires me." I always know there will always be those people who will be somehow offended by the fact that we started to work on something that they love so dearly and anything we do is somehow sacrilege. But I will say to people like [Malle], I am more grateful to them than I think they are to us.

TrekMovie: So it is confirmed that you are definitely producing [the next Star Trek movie]?

JJ Abrams: I would be producing it if one were to exist.

TrekMovie: Let’s assume it. [Paramount vice-chairman] Rob Moore said they definitely want to do another one. If that happens, do you feel that 2016 is the right time because of the 50th anniversary? Or does that conflict with a 2015 Star Wars movie? Are you that far into thinking about it?

JJ Abrams: Despite reports of what Rob Moore said, there have been no formal discussions about a third film. What I would say is that it feels like 2016 would be a great year given the celebration of the anniversary. But again I am open to whatever is the best possible version of the movie. Meaning if there is a great script and the story is there and it’s possible to release that movie in 2015, then great. If we don’t figure it out until a release for 2017–we don’t want a bad movie to come out just because there is a release date. That is true with everything. I would hope the right movie would come out in the right time.

TrekMovie: Well then with simple logistics, if you do a Star Wars movie in 2015 and they want 2016, is it logistically possible? You said to Playboy it is possible you might direct the next Star Trek?  Doing the math, how can you possibly do that?

JJ Abrams: If they want in that period of time and if Star Wars goes forward as planned, it would obviously be a conflict. It depends when this movie would happen. And again as no formal discussions have started it is impossible to know.  But in all likelihood if there is a movie sooner, there will be a different director on the film. It would be something we would all get together and agree on. We love this and care about it too much and want to make sure it is handled correctly. But I would say that having directed pilots and movies and then having seen subsequent directors work on those shows or do their own versions of those films – time and again I have seen it done better. And so I’m looking forward–if there is another director–it will be interesting to see. I am certain I will learn lessons watching their work.

More exclusive TrekMovie.com interviews

This is the final TrekMovie.com exclusive juket interview. Watch the others…

• Karl Urban and Simon Pegg

• Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine

• Alice Eve

• ">Zoe Saldana

Stay tuned for more exclusive Star Trek Into Darkness interviews from the Hollywood premiere Karl Urban, Bob Orci/Alex Kurtzman, Neville Page, Roger Guyett, Michael Giacchino, and even JJ Abrams again (briefly). Plus we have text interviews talking spoilers with Damon Lindelof and Orci again (but those have spoilers so have to wait to week after release). 

 

Star Trek Into Darkness production designer Scott Chambliss has updated his website portfolio with dozens of images from the movie showing both design sketches and some behind the scenes images from the movie. Check outi some highlights below (spoilers).

 

Chambliss shares behind the scenes look at Into Darkness

Scott Chambliss has updated his official website with a portfolio of 66 images from Star Trek Into Darkness. Some are previously released publicity images, but most are new images of either design sketches or behind the scenes shots of locations. Here are some of the highlights.

Sketches/models of the USS Vengeance (exterior and interior)

Exterior design render/sketches of San Francisco and Kronos

Mudd’s civilian ship and San Francisco Barge

Designs for Nibiru planet

Enterprise sets (including new Warp Core)

Much more at scottchambliss.com.