plot of star trek beyond

Star Trek Beyond

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After stopping off at Starbase Yorktown, a remote outpost on the fringes of Federation space, the USS Enterprise , halfway into its five-year mission, is destroyed by a powerful, unstoppable wave of unknown aliens. With the crew stranded on an unknown planet and 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.

• 1.1 Prologue
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.3.1 Under Roberto Orci
• 4.3.2 Under Justin Lin
• 4.4 Filming
• 4.5 Continuity
• 5.1 Marketing
• 5.2 Posters
• 5.3 Box office
• 5.4 Reception
• 5.5 Merchandise gallery
• 6 Awards and honors
• 7.1 Credits
• 7.4 Second Unit
• 7.5 Dubai Unit
• 7.6.1 Uncredited
• 7.7.1 Unconfirmed
• 7.8 Stand-ins
• 7.9.1 Unconfirmed
• 7.9.2 Companies
• 7.11.1 Graphic references
• 7.11.2 Balthazar M. Edison's personnel file
• 7.11.3 Diagnostic wrap display
• 7.11.4 Public transporter menu
• 7.11.5 Starbase Yorktown memorial wall (unseen material)
• 7.11.6 Spock Prime's holophoto – Senior staff of the USS Enterprise -A
• 7.11.7 Spock Prime's obituary
• 7.11.8 Unreferenced material
• 7.11.9 Deleted graphics references
• 7.12 External links

Summary [ ]

Prologue [ ].

Kirk offering a piece of the Abronath as a gesture of peace

In early 2263 , on the planet of Teenax , Captain James T. Kirk is negotiating a treaty between the Teenaxi Delegation and the Fibonan Republic who are long-term enemies. He presents a piece of an ancient weapon as a gesture of goodwill, but the Teenaxian leader asks where it comes from. When Kirk says the Fibonans acquired it a long time ago, the Teenaxians accuse the Fibonans of stealing the artifact . The Teenaxians (who turn out to be quite small creatures compared to Humans), attack Kirk. As a result, he flips open his communicator and urgently asks Montgomery Scott that he be beamed up. He is eventually evacuated to the USS Enterprise , accidentally taking two Teenaxians with him. Walking down a corridor in his torn uniform, Kirk is followed by Spock and Leonard McCoy . Kirk asks his first officer to log the artifact in the ship's archive vault . " Jim, you look like crap, " McCoy says. Kirk sarcastically thanks the doctor. When McCoy asks the captain if he is all right, Kirk replies, " Never better. Just another day in the fleet. "

Act One [ ]

The crew of the Enterprise anticipate shore leave

The Enterprise arrives at Yorktown

The stardate is 2263.2. It has been nine hundred and sixty-five days since the USS Enterprise began its five-year mission . The Enterprise docks at Starbase Yorktown , an extensive deep space colony containing a large city, to replenish dwindling supplies while the crew takes shore leave . Struggling to find continued meaning in his duties as captain, and becoming increasingly affected by thoughts of the death of his father, George Kirk , Kirk applies for a promotion to vice admiral .

Spock learns that Spock Prime has died

Meanwhile, Spock and Nyota Uhura deal with a time-out in their relationship; Hikaru Sulu reunites with his husband Ben and their young daughter; and Montgomery Scott struggles to keep the ship operational. Spock is also distraught to find that his alternate reality counterpart has recently passed away.

Kalara rescued and brought to Yorktown

An escape pod is found drifting out of a nearby nebula and its occupant, Kalara , claims her ship is stranded on the planet Altamid , which is located past the dangerous, unexplored nebula that will block communications with Starfleet . In a meeting with Yorktown's commanding officer Commodore Paris , Kirk volunteers the Enterprise for the rescue mission, and they get through the nebula with some difficulty, and eventually arrive at Altamid, which Spock finds to be a sparsely-populated class M world. Not long after arrival, the Enterprise comes under attack from a swarm of thousands of small, heavily-armed alien ships. Kirk orders a counterattack, but the Enterprise is overwhelmed by the enemy's sheer volume and strength; the ship's phasers , navigational deflector , and warp nacelles are destroyed within minutes.

The swarm cripples the Enterprise

With the Enterprise crippled and helpless, several of the attacking ships breach the hull, and a boarding party commanded by the swarm's leader, Krall , boards the ship. They make their way to the ship's vault, and on the way there Krall captures and drains the life force from several Enterprise crewmen, leaving them as withered husks. Scott attempts to restore power to the ship's impulse drive by feeding it from the warp core , but Krall orders the swarm to resume its attack. They destroy the neck section of the Enterprise , separating the saucer and engineering hulls, and leaving the saucer powerless due to Scott's modifications, leaving no way of switching over to the saucer's reserve power without a separation . Spock and Dr. McCoy are in a turbolift car that is ejected into space and subsequently captured by a swarm craft, but they managed to get into the craft and overpower its occupants.

Krall boards the Enterprise

Krall arrives at the ship and attempts to get to the vault to take the artifact from the Enterprise 's mission from Teenax. However, Kirk gets to the artifact first and gives it to Ensign Syl before ordering the crew to abandon ship. As the separated engineering hull begins to disintegrate, most of the crew escape in escape pods , only for the swarm ships to capture them and drag them back to the planet. Seeing this, Scott fires himself out of the ship in a advanced long-range torpedo casing.

Kirk on the bridge in the last moments of the Enterprise

Kirk goes to separate the saucer from the neck but Krall attacks him before Kirk can initiate the separation. Uhura goes on to separate the saucer and gets left behind with Krall in the neck section while Kirk is on the saucer side.

The Enterprise 's saucer burning up

Kirk reaches the bridge, which by now is occupied only by Sulu, Chekov , Kalara, and a few other crewmen. However, Chekov reports that the saucer is too badly damaged to keep in orbit, and will crash within minutes. Kirk orders the remaining crew to abandon the ship by Kelvin pods once it enters the atmosphere (though everyone except for himself, Chekov, and Kalara are also captured), and is the last person to leave the Enterprise . Moments later, the saucer crashes into a mountain range, and what remains of it crash-lands in a field, embedding itself into the earth.

Act Two [ ]

Scott, who has landed elsewhere, is saved from some of the planet's unruly inhabitants by an alien scavenger named Jaylah and taken to her makeshift home, which he discovers to be the wreckage of the USS Franklin , which went missing almost one hundred years prior . Meanwhile, the swarm craft hijacked by Spock and McCoy crash-lands on the planet, badly injuring Spock and forcing McCoy to perform some very hasty surgery in order to save his life.

" God, you're getting delirious. "

After discovering that the alien artifact originated from the planet on which they had crash-landed, Spock reveals to McCoy that he is reconsidering his place in Starfleet after Spock Prime's death. The two are then attacked by the swarm only to be saved by Scott, who has repaired the Franklin 's transporter system.

Meanwhile, Kirk and Chekov force Kalara to admit she lured the Enterprise into a trap, claiming that Krall promised to return her crew to her in exchange for the Enterprise and her own crew. With their tricorders having insufficient range to locate the rest of the crew, the trio board the crashed saucer in order to use its sensors. Kirk pretends to go to retrieve the artifact in a corridor and Kalara turns on him and reveals that her "crew" never existed; she's been in league with Krall from the very start. Fortunately, Kirk had seen through her, and Chekov rescues him as more of Krall's troopers arrive. Outnumbered and trapped, Kirk ignites the fuel tank for the saucer's maneuvering thrusters , which allows them to escape, but also causes the saucer to flip over, killing Kalara and the troopers, and causing the fuel tanks to explode, leaving the mostly-destroyed saucer as all that remains of the USS Enterprise .

" You gave your girlfriend a tracking device? " " ...That was not my intention. "

Meanwhile, Krall demands the artifact, threatening to kill Sulu if he does not get it. Syl relents and gives Krall the artifact, which he reveals to be the final component of a weapon called the Abronath that attacks organic tissue and which he intends to unleash on Starbase Yorktown. Krall then tests the weapon on Syl, dissolving her completely in the process.

When the group consisting of McCoy, Spock, Scott, Kirk, Chekov, and Jaylah has ascertained the location of the captured crew through Uhura's vokaya amulet, the group formulates a plan to infiltrate Krall's base. Jaylah is initially fearful of this, remembering the death of her family at the hands of Krall and his people, but Scott and Kirk are able to persuade her to help out.

Act Three [ ]

Spock, Jaylah, and McCoy beam into Krall's base

As Krall departs for Starbase Yorktown, Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Jaylah rescue the crew before repairing the Franklin and also setting a course for the starbase. Spock and McCoy beam aboard an attacking drone ship and discover a way to disrupt the drones' cohesion, allowing the Franklin and the starbase to destroy much of the drone fleet using discordant noise on a very high frequency (VHF), provided courtesy of Jaylah's collection of "classical" late 20th century music.

After a brief battle between the swarm and Yorktown's defenses, Krall still manages to board the starbase despite the Battle of Yorktown , which eventually culminates in the Franklin intercepting his ships in a maneuver near the starbase's central control complex.

Krall's original identity: Captain Balthazar Edison

As they look for him, Uhura learns from the Franklin 's video logs that Krall's original name was Balthazar Edison and that he was born Human . Before his sudden disappearance, Edison had been the captain of the Franklin . He had been declared missing in action by Starfleet, and had ended up crashing onto Altamid, which was a former mining colony of an alien species known as the Ancient Ones, who had left drone equipment and other technology behind. Edison, and at least two of his crewmates, had used the remains of this technology to prolong their lives, and to build new military vessels. However, the use of the life-extension technology had also rendered the former members of the Franklin unrecognizable as Humans because they acquired some of the biological attributes of the other species they lured for their consumption.

Once Krall/Edison is on board the Franklin , he steals a command division Starfleet uniform and reverts to a mostly Human appearance after draining the life force from several more Enterprise crewmembers, healing the injuries he suffered when his ship was crushed.

Kirk fights Krall to save Yorktown

Krall/Edison prepares to deploy the bioweapon, leading to a chase through the base. Kirk confronts Krall/Edison in the life support hub, and they fight in anti-gravity and weightless conditions in the life support section of Yorktown. Krall/Edison expounds his theory that Humanity needs to be in a state of conflict in order to progress, and that the Federation has stifled this process by bringing about peace in large areas of the galaxy. The fight ends with both Krall/Edison and the Abronath bioweapon being ejected into space, where the Abronath devours him.

Kirk is rescued from suffering the same fate by Spock and McCoy in their hijacked drone. Kirk tells Spock he doesn't know what he would do without him, causing him to contemplate his decision to leave Starfleet.

Spock finds Spock Prime's photo of himself along with his crewmates from his reality

Commodore Paris closes the unsolved cases of the fate of Captain Edison and the crew of the USS Franklin . She commends Kirk for his actions and informs him that his promotion to the admiralty is assured. However, Kirk respectfully declines the offer, his experience having rejuvenated his spirit to be a Starfleet officer, stating that "admirals don't fly". Remaining a starship captain, Kirk allows McCoy to lead him to a gathering where McCoy has planned a surprise birthday party for his friend. At a loss for words, Kirk instead raises a toast to the late starship Enterprise and to their fallen comrades. Spock allows himself a look at some of Ambassador Spock's personal effects and finds a photograph of him and his prime reality comrades on the bridge of their Enterprise .

Kirk's surprise birthday party

Reminding himself of his earlier discussion with Dr. McCoy, Spock elects to live as his alternate self did and remains serving in Starfleet. Kirk offers his condolences on Ambassador Spock's passing to his friend, which Spock accepts and begins to renew his relationship with Uhura. A despondent Jaylah, also present at the gathering, has consumed a large number of alcoholic beverages, which she had been told would "take her edge off", but is clearly not having much of an effect. Hoping to boost her spirits, Scott presents Jaylah with an acceptance letter into Starfleet Academy , courtesy of a few strings pulled by Kirk, who also warns her that Starfleet has many rules but not to follow all of them.

The crew looks at the construction of their new starship

As Kirk and Spock look out of a massive window, they view the construction of a new starship. Considering the perils that had befallen the Enterprise and her crew since they were first assembled five years earlier, McCoy questions whether or not they really should go back out into space. As the starship finishes construction, its primary hull proudly displays her name and registry : USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) . Kirk, Spock, Scott, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura can be heard taking turns paraphrasing Zefram Cochrane :

Log entries [ ]

• Kirk: " Captain's Log , Stardate 2263.2. Today is our 966th day in deep space , a little under three years into our five-year mission . The more time we spend out here, the harder it is to tell where one day ends and the next one begins. It can be a challenge to feel grounded when even gravity is artificial . But, well, we do what we can to make it feel like home. The crew , as always, continues to act admirably despite the rigors of our extended stay here in outer space. And the personal sacrifices they have made. We continue to search for new life forms in order to establish firm diplomatic ties. Our extended time in uncharted territory has stretched the ship's mechanical capacities. But fortunately our engineering department, led by Mr. Scott, is more than up to the job. The ship aside, prolonged cohabitation has definitely had effects on the interpersonal dynamics. Some experiences for the better, and some for the worse. As for me, things have started to feel a little episodic. The farther out we go, the more I find myself wondering what it is we're trying to accomplish. If the universe is truly endless, then are we not striving for something forever out of reach? The Enterprise is scheduled for a reprovisioning stop at Yorktown , the Federation 's newest and most advanced starbase . Perhaps a break from routine will offer up some respite from the mysteries of the unknown. "
• Edison: " Captain's log... I don't remember the stardate. All distress calls unanswered. Of the crew , only three remain . I WON'T ALLOW IT! The indigenous race abandoned this planet long ago. They left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce . They have some sort of technology that prolongs life . I will do whatever it takes for me and my crew. The Fed-Federation do not care about us. You'll probably never see me again. But if you do... be ready. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" To perfect eyesight and a full head of hair. "

" You guys break up? What'd you do? " " A typically reductive inquiry, doctor. " " You know Spock, if an Earth girl says, uh, 'it's me, not you', it's definitely you."

" I am Lieutenant Nyota Uhura of the USS Enterprise . And you have committed an act of war against the Federation. " " Federation?! Federation is an act of war. "

" Your captain... why did you sacrifice yourself for him? " " He would have done the same. And if he made it off that ship, he will come for us. " " I am counting on it, Lieutenant Uhura. "

" Yeah, I say it hurts less when it's a surprise. " " If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be "horseshit". "

" Come now, Montgomery Scotty. "

" Leaving me behind will significantly increase your chances of survival, Doctor. " " Well that's damn chivalrous of you, but completely out of the question. " " It is imperative that you locate any surviving crew. " " Here I was thinking you cared. " " Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear. The dialogue we have had across the years has always... " " It's okay, Spock. You don't have to say it. " [McCoy and Spock are surrounded by three of Krall's drone ships] " Well, at least I won't die alone! " [Spock is beamed out from behind McCoy] " Well that's just typical."

" This is where the frontier pushes back. "

" You're part of something bigger now, lassie. Right? Dinnae give up on that. 'Cause we'll sure as hell never give up on you. That is what being part of a crew is all about. "

" What happened to you out there, Edison? " " Ed-i-son? I have to say, Kirk, I missed being me. We lost ourselves, but gained a purpose! A means to bring the galaxy back to the struggle that made Humanity strong. " " I think you're underestimating Humanity. " " I fought for Humanity! Lost millions to the Xindi and Romulan wars. And for what? For the Federation?! To sit me in a captain's chair and break bread with the enemy! " " We change. We have to. Or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles. "

" You lost. There's no way for you to make it back there! Give up! " " What, like you did?! I read your ship's logs, Captain James T. Kirk. At least I know what I am! I'm a soldier! " " You won the war, Edison. You gave us peace! " " Peace... is not what I was born into. "

" You... can't stop it. You will die. " " Better to die saving lives, than to live with taking them. That's what I was born into. "

" To the Enterprise ... and to absent friends. "

" 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. "

Background information [ ]

The film takes place two-and-a-half years into the characters' five-year mission , [1] when the USS Enterprise is attacked by the Swarm and the crew is marooned on an unknown world as a consequence. They gain an ally in Sofia Boutella 's alien warrior, Jaylah. [2]

Idris Elba plays the Swarm's leader, Krall, who detests the Federation's philosophy and opposes its introduction to the wider galaxy. [3] Elba said, " There's definitely an opposing argument to the good that the Federation think they do. There are purists that believe in independence, and believe that we're all made differently for a reason, and will fight tooth and nail to defend that. There's massive relatability to modern world politics in that sense. " [4]

J.J. Abrams had stated he would like more female characters in the sequel. [5] He also mentioned the sequel could fall back on abandoned story ideas for the characters. " There was [an idea] implying the sexuality of one of the characters, a back story for another character that was pretty intense, a really funny story we wanted to do with yet another. Hopefully, if there are future films, those other stories will get their moment, " he said. [6] Roberto Orci has voiced support for having a gay character. [7]

William Shatner was contacted about a possible role in the film. Along with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy had been rumored to appear, in a scene with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto , as the future alternate reality versions of the characters. [8] In the wake of Nimoy's death on 27 February 2015 , Simon Pegg mentioned there would be some tribute to the late actor in the final film. [9] On 27 May 2015 , Pegg mentioned that it was possible Shatner could portray Kirk again at some point, [10] but Shatner confirmed he would not appear and he never discussed it. [11] Shatner's Kirk and Nimoy's Spock appear in the film in a still handled by the actor Zachary Quinto.

Zoë Saldana stated she would dislike it if Spock and Uhura broke up, describing that possibility as potentially "heartbreaking" for her. Concerning the film's action quotient, she speculated, " I'm pretty sure that for this third installment, we'll be able to sort of [...] be more hands-on. " [12] Lin said their relationship will be consistent and acknowledge what came before. [13]

Bruce Greenwood expressed hope that Christopher Pike could return, which he referred to as a "deep, deep wish to come back." Although Pike dies in Star Trek Into Darkness , Greenwood suspected Khan Noonien Singh 's revitalizing blood could be used to bring Pike back to life. As a result, he confirmed, laughing, that he would be interested in reprising the role in " Star Trek III: The Search for Pike ", an in-joke reference to the title of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . In a serious manner, Greenwood related he would be interested in further resolution to the relationship between Pike and Kirk. ( Star Trek Magazine Special 2015 , p. 21) In reference to Kirk, he concluded, " Whatever happens in the third film, it will give the audience a sense of progression and change; an arc and a character that's really growing with them. " ( SciFiNow , issue 80, p. 26)

On 2 February 2015 , the on-line movie and television news site FilmDivider.com reported that, for the new Star Trek film, three new major female roles would be cast. One of them would be the President of the United Federation of Planets , one would be a starship captain , and the third would be an ex-wife of Doctor McCoy , who was to be depicted as having several former wives. The male villain would be a Bryan Cranston -like type and the website also stated that Cranston was in talks with the studio. All this proved to be false. [14]

The working title for this sequel was "Washington" and "Washington Project". [15] [16] [17] On 21 April 2015 , TrekMovie.com announced that Star Trek Beyond "may be the title" of the film. [18] The title was later confirmed by Director Justin Lin . [19]

Development [ ]

Under roberto orci [ ].

Producer Bryan Burk commented that Paramount wanted the third film to take less time to produce than Star Trek Into Darkness took, and that 2016 – the 50th anniversary of Star Trek – would be a logical year to release it. [20] Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman added that Paramount insisted on a 2016 release date. [21]

J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , chose to direct Star Wars Episode VII , and accordingly only produce this film. [22] Abrams noted, " 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. " [23] Patrick McKay stated, " Bad Robot , J.J., and his team are really at the heart of this movie's development. They are the guiding light by which we all do our work. J.J.'s been a key part of helping us spin this tale from the beginning, and if there are people who think that we've lost him to Star Wars this time around, that’s not the truth as far as we see it. " [24]

In an interview published on 6 May 2013 , Michael Giacchino expressed he was open to return to score the film, saying, " I’d be happy and honored to do another if that was in the future. " [25]

In August 2013 , then-writing partners Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller pitches to J.J. Abrams a story with an antagonist who "...was more a 'noble adversary' a la Balance of Terror than another Khan . There was also Dyson Sphere [sic] and an ancient, Lovecraftian menace to the galaxy." [26] [27]

In September 2013 , J.J. Abrams acknowledged rumors that Rupert Wyatt could helm the sequel, stating, " He's incredibly talented, and we'd be lucky to have someone as talented as Rupert. But there are things we're focusing on right now before the director, which is just sort of the fundamentals of where the story is gonna go. " [28]

On 2 November 2013 , it was reported that Attack the Block director Joe Cornish was Paramount's choice to direct the film, though reports differed as to whether or not he had already begun negotiations to join the project. According to Variety , Cornish was offered the film once before, in May 2013 , but had turned it down. [29] [30] [31] Abrams voiced his support for Cornish, stating, " I don't know if [he] is the guy. My guess is that's up in the air. I adore him and love him and can't wait to see what he does next. Hopefully, it will be Star Trek." [32]

On 6 December 2013 , it was announced that up-and-coming screenwriters J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay would be writing the script alongside Roberto Orci. It was also announced that Alex Kurtzman would not be involved with the project, due to work on The Amazing Spider-Man movies and other projects. [33]

In February 2014 , J.D. Payne explained they were trying to come up with a classic Star Trek storyline, where " You should respond to this opportunity that the crew has that also has some pitfalls to it [....] It's sort of the Adam and Eve thing, where should we eat the fruit or not eat the fruit? Well, there are some very compelling reasons why they should and why they shouldn't. So, [there are] similar kinds of things here that really give the whole movie an opportunity to sort of play with that, and have people come down on different sides and wrestle with it. " [34]

In April 2014 , it was revealed Roberto Orci had been lobbying to direct the film, but Paramount was reluctant to allow him, as he had never directed before. However, Bad Robot and Skydance Productions were supportive. [35]

At the US premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness on 2 May 2013 , Damon Lindelof hinted that the prospect the Klingons would declare war on the Federation would come to fruition, and that Benedict Cumberbatch would return as Khan Noonien Singh . [36] However, Lindelof was not involved with the sequel.

Later in May 2013, Paramount relented to Roberto Orci's appeals, offering him the director's chair. [37]

In an interview published on 29 June 2014 , Patrick McKay implied the film may not have a villain, explaining that, while he loved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , he also loved the other films " that have a little bit more of the character relationships and the humor and some more of the speculative sci-fi elements. " [38]

In July 2014 , Roberto Orci clarified that he was not technically directing the film until Paramount approved the script. [39] On 9 August 2014 , Orci proclaimed he had finished a first draft of the script. [40] On 27 August 2014 , he revealed that the casting process for other characters had begun. [41]

On 18 September 2014 , Zachary Quinto stated he expected the film to start shooting within the next six months. [42] The next day, it was confirmed that shooting would begin in February 2015 , with a summer 2016 release date. An official announcement was to be made soon thereafter with a specific release date. [43]

As the domestic gross of Star Trek Into Darkness (which stood at US$228.5 million) was less than the first film, Paramount made the decision to film the sequel outside Los Angeles to save money. " We're making it for what it should have been shot for last time if we had made it outside of L.A., which we would have done except that [J.J. Abrams] didn't want to, " a studio source told The Hollywood Reporter . " That was a $20 million issue. " [44]

On 29 September 2014 , Mayor Park Wonsoon confirmed he had met with the producers, including Jeffrey Chernov , and confirmed Seoul in South Korea as one of the filming locations for Star Trek Beyond . [45] According to TrekMovie.com, the film would be shot primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which would also be used for outside filming locations. [46]

Roberto Orci officially stepped down from directing the film on 5 December 2014 . Orci remained attached the project as an in-name producer, but ceased to by involved in production. [47] While the film was without a director, Jonathan Frakes lobbied to be given the opportunity to direct the movie. ( SFX , issue 270, p. 63)

Under Justin Lin [ ]

On 22 December 2014 , it was announced that Justin Lin had been hired to direct the film. [48] Two days later, it was announced that Roberto Orci would only produce the film and will no longer be involved in the writing process. [49]

A childhood fan of Star Trek: The Original Series , Lin was called by J.J. Abrams while filming the second season of True Detective . [50] After learning he was not beholden to any previous script, Lin decided to go " new and fresh. The Klingons , Romulans and other species are great, but it's time to go further. It has been fun to focus on creating whole new worlds and species. " [51] Simon Pegg coined the title when he recognized Lin was trying to take Star Trek "beyond". [52]

On 21 January 2015 , it was announced that principal filming would start on 15 April 2015 at Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [53] It was also announced that Simon Pegg and Doug Jung would help write the film. [54] Jung came to stay at Pegg's house to co-write the script; whenever they felt they completed enough of the rewrite, they would pass time by watching episodes of the original show. [55] They also consulted Memory Alpha, with Pegg claiming " We actually wrote to the Memory Alpha guys and got them to name a certain device in the movie. I sent them a letter saying, 'Can you come up with this for me?' In two hours, they came back with an entire etymological history of what the thing was. It's beautiful. It’s fantastic to have that support network. " [56]

Simon Pegg commented Paramount felt Roberto Orci's script was " a little bit too Star Trek -y. Avengers Assemble [the release title of The Avengers in the United Kingdom], which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5 billion. Star Trek Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant. But it means that, according to the studio, there's still $1bn worth of box office that don't go and see Star Trek . And they want to know why. " Pegg described the rewrite as being akin to "mak[ing] a Western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it's more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent". [57]

Pegg also explained they wanted to mark the 50th anniversary by deconstructing the franchise. " I felt like it was important to really deconstruct the idea of Star Trek , the idea of the Federation and why it's special. We'll really be poking at a lot of different things. " He also said, " We're gathering a great community within the galaxy, but to what end? What does it all mean? " [58]

The character of Jaylah was inspired by Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Ree in the 2010 film Winter's Bone . Pegg and Jung referred to her by Lawrence's nickname "J. Law", eventually inspiring the name "Jaylah". [59]

On 24 February 2015 , it was reported that filming was pushed back to begin on 1 June 2015 and continue on until September. [60]

In March 2015 , Stephen F. Windon was confirmed as the film's cinematographer, replacing Roberto Orci's choice of Claudio Miranda . [61] It was also confirmed that Nick Satriano had replaced the previously announced First Assistant Director Kim H. Winther . [62]

With the release of the official casting call, it was confirmed that shooting in Vancouver, B.C. would be starting on 15 June 2015 and continuing through 15 October 2015 . To be considered being an actor, extra, or crew member on the new film, a legal eligibility for working in Vancouver was a requirement. Extras casting would get underway in May 2015 . [63]

On 2 June 2015 , it was reported that the first draft of the script had been finished. [64]

On 13 June 2015 , Michael Giacchino said he had not yet talked to the makers of Star Trek Beyond about the prospect of him returning to Star Trek in order to compose this film. The reason no contact had been made was partly because Giacchino himself had been extremely busy but also " because they're in such a crazy schedule crunch [....] But I imagine that I will be talking to them soon about all of this, and we'll figure out what’s going to happen next, " he said. [65]

Deep Roy was confirmed to be returning as Keenser on 8 July 2015 , having canceled a convention appearance for filming on Star Trek Beyond . [66]

On 11 July 2015 , Michael Giacchino announced his participation in the movie by tweeting, " So thrilled to be working with Justin Lin and the rest of the Enterprise crew on Star Trek Beyond ! Let's boldly go! " [67] [68] He commented that Beyond is not as gritty and earthbound as the previous two films, so the score would feel different. [69]

It was announced on 24 July 2015 that Joe Taslim had been cast in a key role opposite Idris Elba. [70]

On 7 August 2015 , Joseph Gatt confirmed that the character he played in Star Trek Into Darkness , Science Officer 0718 , would not be returning for Star Trek Beyond , due to script rewrites eliminating his role from the story. [71]

The Italian press reported on 24 October 2015 that former Chelsea, Juventus, Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti had been cast to play a doctor. [72]

Bryan Burk observed, " In the beginning, you could see a palpable sense of excitement as the cast started to work with [Justin Lin]. " ( SFX , issue 270, p. 71)

Addressing the involvement of Roberto Orci and his co-writers John D. Payne and Patrick McKay, Justin Lin said on 14 December 2015 " The WGA has to figure it out, because I don’t know who those writers are, I never met them. I came on, I had an idea and then Simon and Doug came on. I had one conversation with Orci after I came on, and that was it. " [73]

While the first trailer credited Simon Pegg and Doug Jung , it also credited Roberto Orci , John D. Payne , and Patrick McKay . The second trailer only credited Pegg and Jung.

Due to Warner Bros. Pictures becoming Paramount Pictures, the copy of the Paramount logo that came from the film was replaced with a new copy of the logo on the DVD.

Filming [ ]

Boutella and Lin on set

Lin and Pine on the set of the Franklin 's transporter

It was reported that filming was pushed back again and was to begin on 25 June 2015 . [74]

On 25, 26, 29 and 30 June 2015 , the production filmed scenes in Squamish Boulders , Squamish, British Columbia. Filming took place around the Kacodemon Boulder and Cave Boulder for the first three shooting days. On the fourth day, filming took place south of the Black Dyke Boulder. [75] The filming schedule was updated on 26 June 2015 and the first set photos as well as a sixteen-page filming permit contract went online. [76] [77]

On 26 June 2015 , Executive Producer David Ellison revealed Dubai as a filming location. [78] [79] Three days later, Director Justin Lin revealed that the title was officially Star Trek Beyond , as well as releasing the first officially released set photo. [80]

On 19 July 2015 , TrekCore reported some set photos from a large green screen build-up located at Kent Hangar Field, west of Vancouver International Airport. In addition, an enormous wooden construction was also spotted. [81] This location was later revealed as a filming location for War for the Planet of the Apes . [82]

Between 11 August 2015 and 13 August 2015 , an open casting call for background roles was held by Miranda Davidson Studios at Dubai City Studio Soundstage, Building B, Ground Floor. [83] [84]

On 14 August 2015 , several more set photos were published on the internet, backing the claim that a Federation starship crash landed on a planet. [85]

On 20 August 2015 , the first set photos from the filming were published by ScreenRush.com . Several shots gave a detailed view of Sanja Milkovic Hays ' newly designed Starfleet uniforms and also several shots of an alien character played by Sofia Boutella . [86]

On 22 August 2015 , the Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) announced an internship program which would run from 13 September until 15 October 2015. The organization meanwhile also confirmed Dubai was to be used as a filming location for Star Trek Beyond , in October 2015. [87]

On 27 August 2015 and 29 August 2015 , Twitter users reported that Star Trek Beyond was filming at Triangle Road in Richmond, B.C. and at the Pitt River Quarries in Red Deer, B.C. [88] [89]

In October 2015, filming started in Dubai. Filming locations included the desert reserve Platinum Heritage and the Dubai Central Park Towers ground in front of the Central Park Tower and the Platinum Tower. [90] [91] [92] [93]

During their filming in Dubai, several set photos were posted on Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites, including several images and videos of new alien species. [94] [95] [96] [97] [98] [99]

Principal filming wrapped in Dubai on Thursday 15 October 2015 . [100]

On 11 March 2016 , it was announced that reshoots would occur the following week. It was also announced that Shohreh Aghdashloo would be playing the " High Command of the Federation ". [101] Reshoots wrapped up on 17 March 2016 . [102]

Continuity [ ]

• In this installment, James T. Kirk begins sporting the hairstyle of his prime universe counterpart on Star Trek: The Original Series .
• At Starbase Yorktown , Hikaru Sulu meets up with his husband and daughter . It pays homage to former Hikaru Sulu actor George Takei , who is gay. His daughter is possibly Demora Sulu 's alternate counterpart first seen in Star Trek Generations . (This would make her much older than the Demora of the primary timeline, who was born in 2271 .)
• According to logs of the USS Franklin , Balthazar Edison was a MACO major before he was captain of the Franklin . The logs also said that he participated in the Xindi wars , possibly as one of the MACOs assigned to Enterprise NX-01 under Captain Jonathan Archer in ENT : " The Expanse ". It also mentioned that he fought in the Earth-Romulan War .
• The Franklin 's registry number (NX-326) is a reference to Leonard Nimoy’s birthday (March 26). The ship is named after director Justin Lin's father.
• The saucer section crash landing on Altamid is an homage to when the USS Enterprise -D crash-landed on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations .

The " giant green hand " seen in the credits

• One of the many stories of the Franklin 's fate involved a " giant green hand ". This could be an homage to TOS : " Who Mourns for Adonais? ". A giant green hand also appears in the end credits of the film.
• The ripping of James T. Kirk 's shirt at the beginning of the film is an homage to various Original Series episodes such as " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", " Shore Leave ", " Court Martial ", and " Amok Time " in which Kirk gets into fights and his shirt is ripped.
• This movie marks the third time an Enterprise is destroyed in a Star Trek film . The original USS Enterprise was destroyed in 2285 in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and the Enterprise -D was destroyed in 2371 in Star Trek Generations .
• This film marks the second time a ship captained by Kirk has crashed into an ocean, the first time being in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and the third time it made contact with the water, the second time being in Into Darkness , when it was hiding on Nibiru .
• Kirk mentioning the Enterprise being on its 966th day in deep space is a reference to the month that Star Trek: The Original Series first aired: September 1966 .
• This is the second Star Trek film not to feature any scenes taking place on or near Earth . ( Star Trek: Insurrection was the first.)
• The photograph of the prime USS Enterprise -A crew Spock views while looking through Ambassador Spock 's belongings near the end of the film is a publicity photo for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . Terry J. Erdmann commented: " When Spock opened the kit at the end and sees that picture of the original crew, Paula [M. Block] and I just looked at one another. I arranged that photo shoot, getting all the actors together after the fact. They had only shot together as a full cast for a few days, so I had to get the wardrobe, set, lighting, etc. to make that moment happen. I was so pleased to see it on screen when the picture flashed in front of me in the theater. I thought, that photo shoot still has legs ". [103]
• This marks the third movie to feature Kirk's birthday. The first was shown at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the second was the opening scene of Star Trek .
• Kirk having a drink with McCoy as he discusses his life is reminiscent of many such scenes in The Original Series where Kirk sought Bones' counsel, often over a drink, as seen in episodes such as " The Corbomite Maneuver " and " The Ultimate Computer ".
• The drink that McCoy dismisses when he finds Kirk drinking is Saurian brandy , the preferred drink of Kirk and McCoy in The Original Series .
• This is the second film – the first being The Wrath of Khan – where Kirk ponders his future on his birthday.
• The toast McCoy offers to Kirk while sharing Saurian brandy , " To perfect eyesight and a full head of hair ", is interesting considering that in the prime universe, Kirk requires corrective lenses, being allergic to Retinax V .
• The toast Kirk gives at his birthday party in honor of the fallen crewmembers was also spoken by his counterpart in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek Nemesis , and Kor in DS9 : " Once More Unto the Breach ". His toast to the Enterprise also echoes the toast Montgomery Scott raises to the original Enterprise in TNG : " Relics ".
• Commodore Paris could possibly be a distant relative to Admiral Owen Paris and his son, Lieutenant Tom Paris , from Star Trek: Voyager . Simon Pegg later confirmed that Commodore Paris was a nod to Tom Paris from Voyager and stated that the commodore " probably " could have been his grandmother. [104]
• Simon Pegg stated that the names of the two crew members killed by Krall were taken from " Balance of Terror ", Martine and Tomlinson . [105]
• Chekov states that Scotch whisky was invented by an old woman in Moscow . It is reminiscent of Chekov 's dialogue about Scotch from TOS : " The Trouble with Tribbles ".
• Shortly before the Franklin lifts off from Altamid, Kirk asks Sulu if he can fly it. Sulu turns and says, " You kidding me, sir? ". In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior similarly turned toward Janice Rand and said " Are you kidding? ", when she asked if they should report to Starfleet that Praxis had exploded.
• Given that the film opens on the 966th day of the five-year mission (2 January 2263), it can be extrapolated that the five-year mission began on 12 May 2260 .
• Spock Prime's date of death is listed on screen as stardate 2263.02, ostensibly the same day as 2263.2, when Kirk records his Captain's log early in the film.
• This is the third Star Trek film after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek in which no Klingons appear on screen. While Klingon ships appeared in both other films, this is the first where there is no reference to them at all.
• Karl Urban has said that the medallion he wears at the end of the film, as well as his shirt being open, is an homage to DeForest Kelley 's similar first appearance as McCoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . [106]
• Spock's pondering leaving Starfleet to return to New Vulcan (to dedicate his life to completing the late Ambassador Spock's work) is possibly a reference to the fact that in the prime universe, he left the service soon after the end of the five-year mission (as seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture ) to dedicate himself to the kolinahr discipline. By the end of the events of that film, he had resolved his internal conflicts and had decided that his initially reluctant return to Starfleet was now a permanent one. In this film, Spock ultimately decides, after looking at a photo of Ambassador Spock with his fellow aged Enterprise comrades, that he also belongs with his own Enterprise family.
• This is the first on-screen use of saucer separation since Star Trek Generations , and the first on-screen use by a ship other than the Enterprise -D.
• This film establishes that Kirk's mother, Winona, is still living, as McCoy asks the captain if he will be calling his mother on his birthday.
• With a release at Star Trek 's 50th anniversary, this film includes fifty new alien species. [107]
• In one line, Krall refers to the Federation 's "centuries of expansion"; according to ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ", by the events of the film, the Federation was just over a century old (Although, considering the unknown circumstances of the Franklin 's arrival on this planet, it may be that Krall was the victim of a time dilation effect or Krall has simply lost track of time after so long trapped on Altamid with no awareness of the date on Earth).
• When Scotty beams Spock and McCoy onto the Franklin separately, he explains that it's so they wouldn't become spliced by the cargo transporter, a prospect that McCoy finds horrifying. This references the Voyager episode " Tuvix " – one of the two people put together by the transporter is a Vulcan, Tuvok .
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " The Ascent " also features two characters who are often at odds being stuck with each other ( Odo and Quark ) being separated by a one-at-a-time beam-out, with the one initially left behind, Odo, believing Quark has abandoned him (due to death).
• This is the second time in the alternate reality that equipment originally created for mining was used as a weapon (against the Enterprise ); the first was Nero's ship, the Narada .
• In his intercom address during the Enterprise 's mission to Altamid, Kirk states to his crew that " There is no such thing as the unknown, only the temporarily hidden. " His prime timeline counterpart similarly stated to his crew, " there's no such thing as the unknown. Only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood, " in the episode " The Corbomite Maneuver ".
• In Star Trek: The Original Series , the opening tagline ended with " where no man has gone before ", a wording that could be seen as sexist, so in Star Trek: The Next Generation it was changed to " where no one has gone before ". In Star Trek Beyond , the line is spoken (using "no one") by a woman, Uhura .
• Thasus is mentioned in the film. Thasus was the homeworld of the non-corporael Thasian species. It was home to Charles Evans after a transport ship crash-landed on the ship.
• Spock quotes Shakespeare's Measure for Measure , Act 3, Scene 1 - "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope."

Release [ ]

International title cards: English, Castilian Spanish, Chinese (traditional), French, Spanish, Portuguese

In October 2015, Allociné , a French site for the dates of movie releases, reported that, in France, Star Trek Beyond will be released on 24 August 2016 and will be titled Star Trek sans limites . [108] In January 2016, Paramount Pictures France advanced the release date to 17 August 2016 . [109] The release date in Belgium, Switzerland, and French-speaking communities in Europe was also 17 August 2016. The release date in Quebec and New Brunswick provinces and French-speaking communities in North America was 22 July 2016, the same date as the United States. [110]

Despite not being permitted the chance to direct this film, Jonathan Frakes has nonetheless made supportive comments about it. For example, in the lead-up to the movie's release, he has remarked, " I think Justin Lin is going to do a great job. I'm looking forward to that. " ( SFX , issue 270, p. 63)

Marketing [ ]

The Star Trek Beyond cast in the July 2015 Omaze campaign announcement video

Filming of an Omaze video using the codename "Washington"

On 14 July 2015 , the cast of Star Trek Beyond announced "To Boldly Go", a charity campaign in partnership with Omaze to benefit nine different children's charities:

• Brave Beginnings (Zoe Saldana)
• Camp Sunshine (Anton Yelchin)
• Direct Relief (Zachary Quinto)
• Heaven Homes (Idris Elba)
• KidsCan (Karl Urban)
• Koreatown Youth & Community Center (John Cho)
• Make-A-Wish (Chris Pine)
• Time is Precious (Simon Pegg)
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ( Susan Nimoy in honor of Leonard Nimoy)

Those who donated would receive prizes, as well as a greater chance of winning a walk-on part in the film for them and a friend, depending on the amount they give. J.J. Abrams previously announced a similar campaign, " Force for Change ", for Star Wars Episode VII. [111] Each week, two of the cast members announced a winner. [112] The winners included Audrianna Davis and friend Summer, [113] Amy and Karen Ackerman, [114] Steven and Nick, [115] Steve Lamb, Linda, and several others. [116]

Omaze reported on the set visit in late September 2015 [117] and announced Adam Horwitz as the winner of the walk-on role. [118]

A trailer for the film was released online on 14 December 2015 , and premiered in theaters before Star Wars: The Force Awakens . [119] The trailer, which was set to the Beastie Boys ' " Sabotage " as a callback to the 2009 film, drew a mixed response from fans as well as George Takei and Wil Wheaton . [120] Simon Pegg admitted to being surprised by the trailer, speculating " the marketing people [were] saying, 'Everyone come see this film, it's full of action and fun.' When there is a lot more to it than that. I didn't love it because I know there is a lot more to the film. " [121]

A full-length trailer was released on 20 May 2016 , to mixed reviews, but was better received than the teaser.

There is a four-issue comic book series titled Star Trek: Manifest Destiny , though it is not branded as an official prequel to the film like previous IDW Publishing comics Countdown and Countdown to Darkness .

Star Trek Beyond is the first film in the franchise not to have a novelization.

Collectible miniatures of starships from the film have been produced by Snapco and more are slated for release by Hallmark and Quantum Mechanix . Ben Robinson , the project manager of the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection partwork magazine, has announced that Eaglemoss Collections will be producing a USS Enterprise and a USS Franklin from the film as special issues. Another Beyond starship design will also be produced. Additional starship miniature premiums will be included with Paramount Pictures ' Amazon.com and Walmart home video releases.

Concept art showing the Franklin has been posted at TrekCore . [122] [123]

On 13 March 2016 , it was reported that Paramount had announced the film's international release dates. Thailand would be the first country to show the film, on 19 July 2016 , and Argentina the last, on 1 September 2016 . [124] [125]

A still from the movie

On 27 March 2016 , the first official still photo from the movie was released as part of USA Today 's summer film preview. [126] [127] More photos were released later, including after the film's second trailer was released. [128]

A promotional single was released for the film in America, " Sledgehammer ", by Rihanna . In China, a different track, " Lost in the Stars " was released by Chinese pop star Zhang Jie (aka Jason Zhang). [129]

Posters [ ]

The first official teaser poster for the film was released alongside the second trailer. [130] Soon after, character posters started being released. [131] The posters featuring Sulu and Uhura had to be re-released following a gaffe that placed their insignia on the wrong side of the uniform. [132]

Box office [ ]

Despite receiving reviews as positive as its two predecessors, Beyond underperformed at the US box office. It opened with US$59.2 million, behind the last two films, and almost a month after its release it only grossed US$196.9 million worldwide, compared to its US$185 million budget. [133] Beyond ultimately grossed US$158.8 million in North America, the lowest total of the three current Star Trek film series, though overseas it made approximately US$183 million, ahead of the first film. At a total gross of US$341.9 million, it was the least successful of the trilogy financially speaking. [134] Not only that, the total gross pitted against its production budget, made Beyond the second all-time worst performing film of the entire Star Trek film franchise in terms of profitability, only surpassed by Star Trek Nemesis . Ironically though, and unlike the latter, Beyond was well received by critics and fans alike, making it as of 2020 the fourth best-received film of the franchise, even beating out, albeit by the slimmest of margins, fan favorite Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – that is, only in this regard as that film was a financial success for the studio.

• see Star Trek films – Performance summary for further particulars.

The substantial loss suffered by the studio on the account of Beyond , played a major part in the cancellation decision in January 2019 of the fourth alternate reality film . [135]

The dismal box-office performance reflected itself in its resultant domestic sales of DVD and Blu-ray Disc home video formats, equally disappointing. According to the professional industry site The Numbers, the Beyond domestic home video sales (excluding the three-film combo releases) had by June 2020 totaled up to US$42.5 million in contrast to Star Trek 's US$200 million and Into Darkness 's US$80.5 million with an additional US$3.8 million for combo releases of the latter two titles. [136]

Reception [ ]

Forbes magazine argued that Paramount should have given the film a lower budget: " The thing that made [ Beyond ] most appealing to the fans, that it played like a smaller-scale 50th anniversary homage to the spirit and tone of the original show, was the thing that arguably doomed it in terms of blockbuster success. Star Trek Beyond was what its fans wanted it to be. There is value in that over the long run. But Paramount and friends need to realize that Star Trek is never going to be a Guardians of the Galaxy -level success and plan accordingly. " [137] The Forbes commentary touched upon the circumstance that while "old guard" Star Trek fans did show up at the theaters, "new", and non-fans alike failed to do so, they at the time being offered a plethora of apparently more attractive (block buster) alternatives, those stemming from The Walt Disney Company by then owned properties in particular. These not only included the cited Guardians of the Galaxy and others from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise, but the productions from the in the meantime revived rival Star Wars franchise as well, as detailed in a later Forbes editorial. [138]

Additionally, the alternate reality film franchise had started to cause a rift between the "old guard" fanbase and newcomers to the franchise, with the former expressing their reservations about the alternate reality (re)incarnation, especially for its lack of "the Roddenberry factor", as Star Trek production staff veteran Doug Drexler had put it, [139] (X) but which was present in Beyond , courtesy Director Justin Lin and Writer Simon Pegg, making it the trio's best received one by the [old guard] fanbase. Whereas newcomers on the other hand had flocked to the first two action packed films, precisely because it was fast paced fun and in line with similar fare offered to them by other franchises which catered to the current tastes of contemporary cinema goers (being coined "fun, popcorn movies" by former Star Trek production staffer Roger Lay, Jr. [140] ), they apparently deemed Beyond as "too Trekkie " to their tastes. [141] [142]

Simon Pegg commented two years after the film's release that Paramount had poorly marketed the film, stating they had waited too long to release a full trailer and that they were afraid of mentioning the 50th anniversary. He also expressed anger at how the teaser ruined the use of "Sabotage" in the movie. [143] (X) Pegg did not deviate from his opinions as he reiterated them in March 2020 to IndieWire in an even more outspoken fashion. [144] Incidentally, the studio appeared to have deemed the film "too Trekkie" as well, explaining their marketing decisions regarding the heavy emphasis on action and fun, as related above . Furthermore, Pegg himself came by and large to agree with the Forbes assessment when he at a later point in time – in the process expressing his own personal doubt on the continued existence of the alternate reality and/or the film franchise as a whole for that matter – stated to Collider ,

"The fact is, the appeal of Star Trek is slightly more niche than the appeal of, say, the Marvel movies, which make huge amounts of money, and have this really, really broad appeal and they do very well. I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn’t gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series. Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I’m sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more. (...) Maybe TV is a better place for [Star Trek] now. Television has evolved so much. It's become something which is very much a contemporary, a peer of cinema. It's simply viewed in a different way. It isn't a reduced scope anymore. You can still do masses of interesting things, and it can still look modern and not inexpensive. Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That's where it started, you know." [145]

What Beyond , or rather its poor box office performance, had abundantly and conclusively demonstrated though, was that the reliance on the traditional Star Trek fanbase alone for a motion picture production to become financially viable, was not enough due its relatively small numerical size of potential cinema visitors, especially from the 1990s onward when production costs exploded from double to triple digit millions of dollars, and arguably never had been. Any new Star Trek motion picture production, be it a film or a television production, especially those conceived from the 1990s onward, needed to attract a viewership that extended well beyond "Trekdom" alone, and which was something Paramount was actually already acutely aware of since Berman -era Star Trek . ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 139-140) It is this circumstance in particular that explained the ponderous and sluggish development of a projected fifteenth film ; Paramount needs a film that is appealing to an audience as broad as possible, [146] the aforementioned Forbes admonishment notwithstanding – hence the resurfacing of the "too Trekkie" qualifier in regard to that projected film.

• See also in this regard: Star Trek films – Gross vs net profitability

Merchandise gallery [ ]

Awards and honors [ ]

Star Trek Beyond received the following awards and honors.

Links and references [ ]

Credits [ ].

John Cho Simon Pegg Chris Pine Zachary Quinto Zoë Saldana Karl Urban Anton Yelchin And Idris Elba

Sofia Boutella Lydia Wilson

Paramount Pictures And Skydance Present

In Association with Alibaba Pictures

In Association with Huahua Media

A Bad Robot Production

A Sneaky Shark Production

A Perfect Storm Entertainment Production

A Justin Lin Film

In Loving Memory of Leonard Nimoy

• Captain James T. Kirk – Chris Pine
• Commander Spock – Zachary Quinto
• Doctor "Bones" McCoy – Karl Urban
• Lieutenant Uhura – Zoë Saldana
• Montgomery "Scotty" Scott – Simon Pegg
• Sulu – John Cho
• Chekov – Anton Yelchin
• Krall – Idris Elba
• Jaylah – Sofia Boutella
• Manas – Joe Taslim
• Kalara – Lydia Wilson
• Keenser – Deep Roy
• Ensign Syl – Melissa Roxburgh
• Tyvanna – Anita Brown
• Ben – Doug Jung
• Fi'Ja – Danny Pudi
• Zavanko – Kim Kold
• Hider – Fraser Aitcheson
• Matthew MacCaull ( Blue Shirt 1 )
• Emy Aneke ( Blue Shirt 2 )
• Commodore Paris – Shohreh Aghdashloo
• Commander Finnegan – Greg Grunberg
• Jennifer Cheon ( Control Tower Technician 1 )
• Jarod Joseph ( Control Tower Technician 2 )
• Jeremy Raymond ( Control Tower Technician 3 )
• Kissing Guy – Harry Han
• Kissing Girl – Gina Brinkman
• Injured Red Shirt – Adam DiMarco
• Orion Girl – Fiona Vroom
• Chancellor Ambassador – Richard Laurence
• Sir Olden – Doug Chapman
• Wadjet – Dan Payne
• Jin – Anthony Shim
• Jeanine – Andrea Yu
• Teenaxi Leader – Shea Whigham
• Jae – Christian Sloan
• Krall's Henchman – Jake Huang
• Night Watch Captain – Priya Ragaratnam
• Yorktown Red Shirt – Luka Hays
• Thomas Cadrot ( USSE Bridge Crew 1 )
• Jennifer W. Evans ( USSE Bridge Crew 2 )
• Roxanne Fernandes ( USSE Bridge Crew 3 )
• Jake Foy ( USSE Bridge Crew 4 )
• Jodi Haynes ( USSE Bridge Crew 5 )
• Nathan Jean ( USSE Bridge Crew 6 )
• Tarun Keram ( USSE Bridge Crew 7 )
• J.P. Mulcaster ( USSE Bridge Crew 8 )
• Edwin Rodriguez ( USSE Bridge Crew 9 )
• Alex Rose ( USSE Bridge Crew 10 )
• Polina Soldatova ( USSE Bridge Crew 11 )
• Sarah Yu ( USSE Bridge Crew 12 )
• Ian Nsenga ( USSE Bridge Crew 13 )
• Natalia – Ashley Edner
• Kalara Alien VO – Sara Maria Forsberg
• Starfleet Official – Jeff Bezos

Second Unit [ ]

Dubai unit [ ], uncredited [ ].

• Fernanda Alcantara – Photo Still
• Halit Alptekin as USSE Crew
• Carlo Ancelotti as Yorktown doctor
• Justin Anthony as Swarm Soldier
• Nicole Anthony as USSE Bridge Crew
• Alika Autran as Franklin Crew
• Eric Banerd as Swarm Soldier
• Ness Bautista
• Jonathan Buckhouse as Swarm drone
• Ashley Edner as Pesca
• Chuka Ekweogwu as USSE Crew
• Lucius Fairburn as Blue Shirt / Red Shirt / Yellow Shirt
• Jabbz Farooqi as Lieutenant
• Rebecca Fielding – Extra: Dubai
• Justin Fortier as Swarm Soldier
• Calum Grant
• Ugnė Gražytė as FBI Agent
• Cindy Harlow as Vulcan ambassador
• Joel Harlow as Vulcan ambassador
• Rich Hill as USSE Bridge Crew
• Adam Horwitz
• Rebecca Husain as Enterprise crewmember
• Sorena Khanlou as Swarm Soldier
• Nick Langmead – Extra: Dubai
• James Lawson as Swarm Soldier
• Richard David Lecoin as Swarm Soldier
• Oqwe Lin as boy
• Simon MacIntyre as USSE Bridge Crew
• Trevor Mack as Enterprise crewmember
• Christian Mandel as Civilian / Starfleet Officer
• Natalie Moon as Control Tower Tech
• J.P. Mulcaster as Enterprise crewmember
• Kane Nelson as Swarm drone
• Gai-Lanne Pepper as Enterprise crewmember
• Werner Pretorius as Boltaan
• Marc Primiani as Enterprise crewmember
• Rihanne Quionn as Sulu's daughter
• Jeff Reyes as Swarm Soldier
• Harpreet Sandhu as USSE Bridge Crew
• Arlene Santana as USSE Bridge Crew
• Nick Satriano as Red Shirt Rescue Crew
• Jason Matthew Smith as Hendorff
• Bryce Soderberg as Satine
• Jamie Soricelli as Enterprise crewmember
• Adam Stone as Cabinet Member
• Justin Stone as Security
• Jaewon Suh as Swarm Soldier
• Nicole April Webster
• Natasha Young as USSE Bridge Crew
• Alan Yu as Swarm Soldier
• Sam Yunussov as Swarm Soldier
• Randall Cormier
• Angela Martine
• Meghan Noble
• Britni Peters
• Craig Smith
• Robert Tomlinson
• Laura Yanovich
• Purple-skinned alien girl
• Female Vulcan ambassador
• Male Vulcan ambassador

Stunt department [ ]

• Andrew Emilio DeCesare – Pre-Production stunt performer
• Alice Ford – Pre-Production stunt performer
• Jake Huang – Stunts

Unconfirmed [ ]

• Philip Chang – Stunt Performer
• Paul Lazenby – Stunt Performer/Stunt Rigger
• Don Lee – Stunts
• Brian Lydiatt – Stunt Rigger
• Dave Phillips – Utility Stunts
• Hugo Steele – Stunt Performer

Stand-ins [ ]

• Jade Pattenden – stand-in and photo double for Zoe Saldana
• Omar Adam – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Mike Aichholz – Assistant Accountant
• Faisal Al Kaabi
• Richie Alonzo – Creature Sculptor
• Francisco Alvarez – CG Artist: Double Negative
• Chyla Anderson – Film Score Vocalist
• George Antzoulides – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Brandon Aquino – Camera department
• Chris Arnold – Art Department Assistant
• Jyoti Arora – Roto Artist: Double Negative
• Anoushka Babur – Production Intern: Dubai
• Chris Baer – Mold Maker
• Rico Bailey – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Kurt Barretto – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Heather W. Barth
• Alvaro Bataller – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Todd Bates – Mold Maker
• Ashley Bell – Second Assistant Director
• Dave Benediktson
• Babak Bina – 3D Artist: Double Negative
• Bryan Blair – Mold Maker
• Gerald Blaise – Concept Artist: ILM
• Roland Blancaflor – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Jacob Bond – Best Boy Electric/Lighting Technician
• Phillip Joseph Boutté, Jr. – Costume Concept Artist
• Matt Bowler – Cyber Scanning 3D Artist: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Andrea Brown – Extras Casting Director
• Nancy Anna Brown – Set Designer
• Lee J. Buckley – Techno Dolly Crane Operator
• Steve Buscaino – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Norman Cabrera – Creature Sculptor
• Merve Cangokce – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Brad Carlson – VP Physical Production: Paramount Pictures
• Stephen Carr – Personnel Driver: Chris Pine
• Michael Cawood – Previs Supervisor: Proof Inc.
• Jordane Chedotal – Art Department Assistant: Dubai
• Jason Claridge – Head Scenic Paint Coordinator
• Leigh Clarke – Unit Production Manager: Dubai
• Philip Coleman – Technocrane Operator
• Siobhán Condon – VFX Production Coordinator: Double Negative
• Robert Consing – Storyboard Artist
• Hamza Darbar
• Greg D'Auria – Editor
• Miranda Davidson – Extras Casting Director: Dubai
• Andrew Del Rosario – Set Decorator/Swing Gang Boss
• Francesco Dell'Anna – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Natasha Denis
• Nuwan de Zoysa – Key Assistant Location Manager: Dubai
• Kay Di Rezze – Assistant Accountant: Dubai
• Pranali Diwadkar – Assistant Set Decorator: Dubai
• Neville Dsouza – Transportation Coordinator: Dubai
• Olivier Dubard – Gerealist TD: Double Negative
• Denny Dugally – Art Director
• Matthew Duvall – Compositing Lead: Atomic Fiction
• Katerina Dzolganovski – CG Artist: Double Negative
• John Eaves – Concept Designer: Props
• Scotty Eugene Fields – Mold Maker
• Mohammad Ahmed Fikree – Intern
• Warren Flanagan – Concept Illustrator
• Tim Flattery – Concept Designer: Ships
• Christopher Ford – Generalist Technical Director: Double Negative
• Jeremiah Forkkio – Previs Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• Dave Freeman ' – Concept Artist: Double Negative
• Dionys Frei – Aerial Drone Pilot: DediCam
• Christopher Friend – Photogrammetry Cyberscanning Service: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Natasha Gale – Costume Production Assistant
• Caroline Jimenez Garcia – Layout Technical Director: Double Negative
• Mayra Garcia
• Lyall Gardiner – Location Manager: Dubai
• Natasha Gerasimova – Art Director
• Paul Giordano – Assistant Location Manager
• Peter Gluck – Key Assistant Location Manager Overseas Pre-Production
• Ruslan Goj – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Liz Goldwyn – Set Designer
• Catarina Gonçalves – Rotoscopr Artist: Double Negative
• Ann Goobie – Location Manager
• Mike Gunther – Second Unit Director
• Kevin Haaland – Stand-in: John Cho
• John Halfman – Mold Maker
• Rupert Hancock – Set Dresser/DMX LED Lighting Technician
• Rod Haney – Rigging Grip
• Sean Hargreaves – Special Effects Aerial Unit Director/Senior Concept Designer
• Dan Hermansen – Art Director
• Earl Hibbert – Previsualization Supervisor: Proof Inc.
• David Holm – Transportation Coordinator
• Chen Kuang Hsu – Matchmove Artist: Atomic Fiction
• Dwight Huet – Construction Foreman: Dubai
• Daniel Ibeabuchi – Grip Assistant: Dubai
• Gregory Irwin – First Assistant "A" Camera Operator
• Mohammed Ismail – Electrician
• Faldela Issel
• James Jackson
• Jack Jenkins – Roto Artist: Double Negative
• Romain Joly – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative
• Lee Joyner – Sculptor
• Doug Jung – Original Screenplay Writer
• Rochard Kamel – Location Manager: Dubai
• Pradeep Kankara
• Jenna Kerr – VFX Associate Producer: Atomic Fiction
• Sara Khangaroot – Visual Effects Production Manager
• Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein – Roto/Prep Artist: Double Negative
• Vikram Kulkarni – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Josh Lange – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Don Lanning – Creature Sculptor
• Jenne Lee – Art Department Coordinator: Dubai
• Simon Lee – Concept Artist/Sculptor
• Eric Lemay – Special Effects Technician
• Andrew Li – Assistant Art Director
• Gil Liberto – Head Mold Maker
• Peter Lliev
• Kew Lin – Rotoscope Artist: Double Negative
• Irma Lotosova – Wardrobe Stylist
• Don Macaulay – Supervising Art Director
• Abdulrahman Al Madani – Intern
• Garry Maddison – Colorist: Double Negative
• África Aguirre Martin – Studio/Data Management: Double Negative
• Victor Martinez – Concept Illustrator
• Patrick Mashaba – Camera and Electrical Department
• Alecia Maslechko – Production Assistant
• Josh McCarron – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Robert Bruce McCleery – Second Unit Director of Photography
• Patrick McKay – Writer
• Michael McMullen – Set Security
• Uzair Merchant – Assistant Art Director: Dubai Unit
• Milos Milosevic – 2D Sequence Supervisor: Double Negative
• Regan Mitchell – Grip
• Andreas Maaninka – Lead Modeler: Double Negative
• Maxim Molchanov – Set Dresser
• Jeremy Mooney-Somers – Effects Technical Director: Double Negative
• David Moreau – Digital Set Designer
• Eva Morgan – Production Coordinator
• Tim Moshansky – Location Scout
• Andrew E.W. Murdock – Additional Photography Production Designer
• Ian Mussell – Grip
• Amit Narwani – Matchmove Artist: Double Negative
• Katrina Navassartian – Visual Effects Associate Producer: Double Negative
• Kane Nelson – SAE/Assistant to Movement Coach
• Michael Nickiforek – Special Effects Makeup Artist
• Alex Noble – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Aaron Noordally – Prep/Paint Artist: Double Negative
• Brian Oberquell – Special Effects Artist: Center Forward Productions, Inc.
• Marc Opdycke – Creature Sculptor
• Joey Orosco – Creature Sculptor
• Paul Ozzimo – Concept Illustrator
• Peter Pacula – Best Boy Rigging Grip
• J.D. Payne – Writer
• Philip Pendlebury – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative
• Manuel Perez – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Lauren E. Polizzi – Art Director
• Anne Porter – Digital Set Designer
• Xin Yi Puah – VXF Editor: Double Negative
• A. Martin Puentes – Character Animator
• Rushab Punmiya – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative Vancouver
• Mandy Raubenheimer – Assistant Accountant
• Dominic Ridley – Photogrammetry Cyberscanning Service: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Cassandra Rodriguez – Executive Assistant: Paramount Pictures
• Erick Rodriguez – Creature Sculptor
• Matt Rose – Creature Sculptor
• Mike Rotella – Creature Sculptor
• Raju Sadekar
• Johnnie Saiko – Mold Maker
• Rhys Salcombe – 3D Sequence Supervisor: Double Negative
• Rodolphe Saleh
• Janine Schiro – First Assistant Accountant
• Scott Schneider – Specialist Set Designer
• Benoit Terminet Schuppon – Layout Artist: Double Negative
• Melissa Shafiq – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Daniel Sheridan – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Oksana Shumylo
• Andrew M. Siegel – Property Master
• Romain Simonnet – Generalist TD/Environment TD/Digital Matte Painter: Double Negative
• Miro Skandera – Previsualization Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• Craig W. Smith – VFX Editor
• Sean Stranks – Visual Effects Supervisor: Double Negative
• Peter Stratford – Set Designer
• Christo Streak – Accounts Assistant
• Alan Stucchi – Roto and Prep Site Supervisor-Compositor: Double Negative
• Marius Swart – Best Boy Grip: Dubai
• Raghav Tandon – Production Assistant: Bad Robot Productions
• Andy Taylor – Visual Effects Producer: Double Negative
• Rhonda Taylor – Second Assistant Director
• A.J. Teshin – Off-Camera Singer
• Miles Teves – Creature Sculptor
• Gareth Thomas
• Sarah Jane Thompson – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Ty Thomson – Previz Artist
• Davide Tiraboschi – Aerial Drone Camera Operator: DediCam
• Roger Tortosa – Lighting and Senior Generalist TD: Double Negative
• George Max Trummler – Third Assistant Director: Dubai
• Pedro Valdez – Mold Maker
• Rebecca Valente – Editor: Bad Robot Productions
• Amy Vatanakul – Previsualization Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• A.J. Venuto – Mold Maker
• Karina Villagrana – Makeup department
• Cameron Ward – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Callum Webster – Set Designer
• Lindsay Welff – Assistant Property Master: Dubai
• Neil West – Lookdev and Lighting Technical Director: Double Negative
• John Wrightson – Creature Sculptor
• Plamen Yosifov – Art Department Staff
• Lawrence Zalasky – Layout Technical Director: Double Negative
• Milena Zdravkovic – Concept Designer
• Monislav Zhelyazkov – Set Dresser
• Mohamed AbouAhmed – Scenic Artist: Dubai/Set Plasterer: Vancouver
• Brandon Allen – Special Effects Technician
• Samuel Allison – Extras Casting Assistant
• Anthony Almaraz – Key Costumer
• Salim Alrazouk – Art Director: Dubai
• Adam Al-Samarae – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Marcos Arias – Writer
• Scott Andrew Armstrong – Rigging Grip
• Tara Arnett – Graphic Designer
• Leona Atkinson – Construction Accountant
• Tania Baaklini – Hotel and Visa Coordinator: Dubai
• Eric Bachtiar – Data Operations
• Kristian Bakstad – Stand-in
• Kurt Barretto – Office Production Assistant
• Christopher Batty – Pre-visualization Supervisor: Kelvin Optical
• Bill Baxter – Electrician
• Eric Benedict – Previsualization Artist
• Richard Bennett – Storyboard Artist
• Kris Bergthorson – Concept Designer
• Justin Bertges – Costumer: Quantum Creation FX
• Uttham Bhalaykar – Roto Prep
• Jacob Bond – Rigging Electric Lighting Technician
• Jeff Bonny – Best Boy Rigging Grip
• Cole Boughton – Key Production Assistant
• Peter Boyer – Orchestrator
• Becky Brake – Supervising Location Manager
• Michael Brazelton – Compositing Supervisor
• Keith Brookes – Set Wireman
• Kurt Bruun – Assistant Property Master
• Shaun Bullied – Digital Asset Manager
• Zack Bunker – Digital Asset Manager
• Richard K. Buoen – Storyboard Artist
• Riki Butland – "C" Camera Operator
• Benjamin Cairns – Third Assistant Director
• Leslie Cairns – Cutter
• Loree Cameron – Graphic Designer
• Lanny Campbell – Key Ager/Dyer
• Matthew Campbell – Lead Greensman
• Max Cannella – Production Coordinator: Paramount Pictures
• Andrea Carter – Art Department Coordinator
• Chris Cavanaugh – Digital Imaging Technician
• David C.P. Chan – Action Sequence Contributor
• Julian Chapdelaine – Grip: Vancouver
• Jesse Chapman – Assistant Editor
• John Chaschowy – Lead Greensman
• Lynn Chaulk – Scenic Artist
• Clem Chen – Painter
• Tom Chen – Video Assist Assistant
• Michael A. Cheng – Photo Double/Stand-in
• Peter Chiang – Visual Effects Supervisor: Double Negative
• Stephen Cholakis – Driver: Set Decorations
• Steve Christensen – Art Director
• Genevieve Claire – Visual Effects Line Producer
• Kelly Coe – Special Effects Fabricator
• Steve Collins – Special Effects Fabricator
• Joey J. Cook III – Second Unit "A" Camera Operator
• Christian Cordella – Costume Concept Artist
• Dave Cory – First Assistant Editor
• Marcela Coto – Previs Coordinator: Proof Inc.
• Brian Cunningham – Concept Illustrator
• John Dale – Construction Coordinator
• Joe Datri – Hydrascope Technician
• Nicholas Dent – Grip
• Olivier Deveux – Digital Matte Painter: Atomic Fiction
• Allison Dillard – Production Safety
• Nick Diomis – Unit Driver
• Daren Dochterman – Prop Concept Artist
• James Doh – Storyboard Artist
• Whitney Donald – Researcher
• David Dowling – Property Master
• Kim Doyle – VFX Production Supervisor
• Cameron Drinkle – Video Coordinator
• Kirsten Dumont-Aubrey – Sculptor
• Rhonda Earick – Costumer Ager/Dyer
• Troy Eirich – Props
• Spencer Ennis – 2nd Unit 2nd Assistant "A" Camera Operator
• James Fantin – Accounting Clerk
• Lisle Fehlauer – Set Dresser
• Suzie Fox – Production Assistant
• Kimberly French – Still Photographer
• Jeff Frost – Concept Model Maker
• Jack Gauvreau – Head Sculptor
• Chris Gibbins – Second Unit First Assistant Camera Operator
• Selena Ginger – Payroll Accountant
• Betsy Glick – Costumer
• Sean Goojha – Assistant Art Director
• Dan Gorval – Best Boy Grip
• Dave Greenbaum – Driver: Hair and Makeup
• Caitlin Groves – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Geoffrey Haley – Steadicam Operator: "A" Camera Operator
• Rupert Hancock – Set Dresser/Set Wireman
• Rod Haney – Rigging Grip Best Boy
• Michael Hanna – Lighting Technician/Set Wireman
• Tommy Harper – Executive Producer
• Melissa Harrison – Assistant Property Master
• Chris Hatchwell – Special Effects Assistant
• James L. Head – Grip
• David Heffler – Makeup FX Coordinator
• Chris Henderson – Animator: Props
• Amy Hetland – Set Costumer
• Rob Hinderstein – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Steven Hoffart – Set Dresser
• Eliza Hooker – Set Decoration Coordinator
• David Husby – Sound Mixer
• Ron Irvine – Transportation Captain
• Elsey Israel – Trainee Assistant Director/Production Assistant
• Annie Jackson – Social Media Specialist: Bad Robot
• Anne Jacobsen – Production Accountant
• M. Faraz Javed – Production Staff
• Trevor Johann – Production Assistant
• Cameron Johnson – Assistant Colorist: Double Negative
• Meaghan Irene Johnson – Additional Trainee Assistant Director
• Dave Joshi – Video Coordinator
• Tex Kadonaga – Set Designer
• Kevin Kasper – Set Dresser
• Leon Keegan – Facilities Captain: Dubai
• Joel Kennedy – Third Assistant Director
• Daniel Castle King – Production Secretary: Los Angeles
• Richard Klein – International Political Advisor
• Scott Kozak – Grip Rigger
• Scott Kukurudz – Additional Third Assistant Director
• Tracy Lai – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Janet Lane – Payroll Clerk
• Vince Laxton – Set Wireman
• Ken Lebre – Senior Dailies Producer
• Michelle Lee – First Assistant Accountant
• Sarah Lemmon – Lighting Data Coordinator
• Terry Lewis – Lead Dresser
• Sandy Lindala – Prosthetics Coordinator
• Stephen Richard Lofstrom – Stand-in: Zachary Quinto
• Nathan Longest – Propmaker
• Spencer Louttit – Assistant Property Master
• Shawn Luke – Set Dresser
• Rohan Lyal – Head Greensman
• Jessica Lythgoe-Green – Canadian Costume Supervisor
• Mark MacDonald – Office Production Assistant
• Richard MacDonald – Lighting Technician
• Harlow MacFarlane – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Boris Maganic – Sculptor
• Jacqueline Makkee – Special Effects Technician: Film Illusions
• Jeff Markwith – Set Designer
• Andrew Masterson – Helicopter Pilot: Dubai
• Nick Mather – Set Dresser
• Sarah Mather – Second Assistant Camera Operator
• Brian Maxwell – Trainee Assistant Director
• Carol McConnaughey – Unit Publicist
• Andrew Lee McConnell – Set Designer
• Christopher McDonald (editor) – Dailies Operator
• Michael McLellan – Second Unit Key Grip
• Curtis McParland – Special Thanks
• Shane Meehan – Roto Supervisor
• Himanshu Meena – Senior Matchmove Artist
• Mark Mentiply – Special Effects Technician
• J.J. Mestinsek – Scenic Paint Foreman
• Valeria Migliassi Collins – Script Supervisor
• Dave Miller – Driver: Cast
• Juhlene Moller – Payroll Accountant
• Ryan Monro – Dolly Grip
• Roderick Dryden Morrison – Production Assistant
• D. Martin Myatt – Assistant Property Master
• C. Michael Neely – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Andy Nettleton – Helicopter Pilot: Dubai
• Christopher Newman – Matchmove Artist: Prime Focus
• Kieu Nguyen – Head Cutter
• Meghan L. Noble – First Assistant Editor
• Jordan Nounnan – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Ron Novak – Set Dresser
• Timothy Oakley – Prop Fabricator
• Carrie O'Bray – Transportation Co-Captain
• Susan O'Hara – Costume Set Supervisor
• Brad Oleksy – Grip
• Martin Ostrom – Construction Crew/Lead Laborer
• Harry E. Otto – Art Director
• Ken Palkow – Prop Fabricator
• Robert A. Pandini – Hair Stylist
• Jessica Parks – Post-Production Supervisor
• Eric C. Pike – Production Controller
• Douglas Plasse – Second Unit First Assistant Director
• Charles Porlier – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Emily Putz – Special Effects Assistant
• Andrea Quaglio – First Assistant "C" Camera Operator: Dubai
• Paul Rabjohns – Music Editor
• Aline Rajan-Harjani – Transportation Coordinator
• Yesi Ramirez – Casting Associate
• Jim Ramsay – Set Designer
• Zina Richardson – Costume Buyer
• Katelyn Rodgers – Specialty Costumer
• Christopher S. Ross – Concept Illustrator
• Aja Kai Rowley – Art Department Assistant
• Tyler Ruocco – Assistant Editor
• Keith Saayman – Libra Technician
• Nava R. Sadan – Costume Supervisor
• Sonya Savova – Set Designer
• Tysen Schieber – Boom Operator
• Douglas J. Scott – Art Department Assistant
• Anna Seltzer – Costumer
• Trey Shaffer – Graphic Textile Designer
• Brian Shaw – Second Unit Camera Trainee
• Hugh Sicotte – Concept Artist
• Dennis Simard – Lead Set Dresser
• Tim Simonec – Orchestrator
• Eira Katrine Sletbak – Assistant Production Office Coordinator: Dubai
• Dane Allan Smith – Visual Effects Producer: Daneiam, Inc.
• Jeremy Stanbridge – Art Director
• Vincent Stander – Production Assistant
• Irena Stepic – Assistant Costume Designer
• Aaron Stewart – Lighting Technician
• Bryan Sutton – Set Designer
• Sophia Tapia – Payroll Accountant
• James Tavet – Matchmove Artist: Atomic Fiction
• Chris Tilton – Orchestrator
• Khanh Trance – Special Makeup Effects Hair Artist
• Stacy L. Tyson – Costumer
• Alex Van Nieuwkuyk – Dailies Operator
• Alexander Vegh – Pre-Visualization Supervisor: Proof Inc. /Second Unit Director
• Spencer Village – Rigging Lighting Technician
• Alan Villanueva – Costume Concept Artist
• Estelle Vockerodt – Assistant Accountant
• Paul Wagner – Props
• Thomas Walker – Second Unit Digital Utility
• Stephanie Walker-Wells – Production Supervisor
• Heather Wasylchuk – Assistant Special Effects Buyer
• Juniper Watters – Sound Utility
• Beth Welch – Second Unit Third Assistant Director
• Randall D. Wilkins – Set Designer
• Allen Williams – Concept Artist
• Joe Wolkosky – Set Designer
• Amos Wong – Special Effects Electronics
• Sauyan Wong – Data i/o Manager
• Steve Woroniecki – Supervising Location Manager
• Jane Wu – Storyboard Artist
• Gary Young – Set Sculptor
• Khaled Zaazouh – Aerial Coordinator: Dubai
• Mariela Zapata – Set Costumer/Stand-in
• Lye Zechari – Matchmove Artist: Double Negative
• Brad Zehr – Special Effects Set Supervisor
• Jason Zorigian – Production Coordinator: Los Angeles

Companies [ ]

• April Webster & Associates – US Talent Casting
• Atomic Fiction – Visual Effects Company
• Audiolink Radio Communications – Walkie Talkies
• Center Forward Productions, Inc. – Production Company
• Clark & Page Casting – Canada Talent Casting
• Clear Angle Studios LTD – Visual Effects Company: Cyber Scanning
• Codex Digital – Digital Recording Equipment
• Cool Air Rentals LTD
• Daneiam, Inc. – Special Effects Company
• DediCam – Aerial Drones
• Double Negative – Visual Effects Company
• Entertainment Partners Canada – Payroll Services
• Film Illusions – Special Effects Company
• Kelvin Optical – Visual Effects Company
• K/O Paper Products – Production Company
• Miranda Davidson Studios – Extras Casting: Dubai
• Otto Nemenz International – Camera Equipment Contractor
• Prime Focus – Visual Effects Company
• Proof Inc. – Pre-Visualization Company
• Quantum Creation FX – Special Effects Company
• Sessions Payroll Management – Extras Payroll Services
• Vex Motorsports – Vehicle parts
• Star Trek Beyond (soundtrack)
• Star Trek Beyond (DVD)
• Star Trek Beyond (Blu-ray)
• Star Trek Beyond (Blu-ray 3D)
• Star Trek Beyond (4K Ultra HD)

References [ ]

2164 ; 2204 ; 2263 ; acid ; Akima's species ; Ancient Ones ; Abronath ; Altamid ; Armstrong -type ( starship ); Attack on Krall's base ; Attack on Yorktown ; away team ; backseat driver ; barn dance ; base of operation ; Battle of Altamid ; Beastie Boys ; bed ; bedside manner ; bee ; birthday ; birthday party ; Book (device) ; bread ; camouflage ; Federation cargo shuttle ( cargo shuttles ); cauterization ; classical music ; cliff ; closed network ; closet ; coat hanger ; Code 1-Alpha-Zero ; color ; commodore ; compression chamber ; Constitution -class ( starship ); Co-Co's species ; crash landing ; critical alert ; dark ages ; dilithium chamber ; distress call ; Earth-Romulan War ; EPS ; EPS conduit ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise -A, USS ; Enhancement sequencing unit ; environmental processor ; episode ; escape pod ; excellency ; excrement ; fan ; favoritism ; Fibonan ; Fibonan High Council ; Fibonan Republic ; Federation archive ; " Fight the Power "; fire ; five-year mission ; Franklin , USS ; Freedom -class ; Gagarin Radiation Belt ; General Council ; gift ; Glenfiddich ; goggles ; goo ; green ; headband ; hell ; Hewlett Packard Enterprise ; horse ; horse and buggy ; horseshit ; IFF ; image refractor ; inertial dampener ; Jaylah's drinks ; Jaylah's family ; Jaylah's species ; Jaylah stick ; Kalara's crew ; Kalara's escape pod ; Kalara's ship ; Kelvin pod ; Kevin ; Kirk, George ; Kirk, Winona ; Krall's base ; Krall's command ship ; language analysis ; locker ; Lordy ; Magellan probe ; Manas' language ; manual override ; manual release room ; medical school ; megahertz ; memorial ; military ; military service ; Military Assault Command Operations ; monorail ; monstrosity ; mortality ; murder ; Natalia ; nebula ; Necro Cloud ; Necro Cloud sector ; New Vulcan ; Non-Federation ; optimism ; Park ; polarized hull plating ; police ; protoplaser ; Public Enemy ; pulse phaser cannon ; puncture ; PX70 motorcycle ; Quarantine (device) ; quarters ; radio ; refractor belt ; renting ; roasting ; romance ; Romulan ale ; Russia ; " Sabotage "; Salcombe , USS ; San Francisco Fleet Yards ; safety area ; saucer ; saucer separation ; Saurian brandy ; Scotch ; Scott's grand nanny ; Shakespeare, William ; Schlerm ; shrapnel ; shuttlepod ; sneeze ; snow globe ; space lane ; spatial torpedo ; Spock (prime) ; stabilizer ; star cocktail ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet Charter ; Starfleet uniform (mid 2160s) ; Stargazer , USS ; Starship-class ; subspace link ; Swarm drone ; Swarm gun ; Swarm ship ; Takayama -type shuttlecraft ( unnamed 1 , and 2 ; ; survival kit ; Teenax ; Teenaxi ; Teenaxi Delegation ; Teenaxi symbols ; Thasus ; theft ; thief ; toast ; tracking device ; train ; treaty ; turbolift ; uncharted space ; United Earth Military ; United Federation of Planets ; universal translator ; unnamed plants ; vein ; VHF ; vice admiral ; vodka ; vokaya ; Vulcan ; Vulcan ; warp coil ; welcome mat ; Wilbur's species ; workbee ; wormhole ; wristwatch ; Yorktown ; Yorktown Central Plaza ; Yorktown database ; Yorktown Headquarters ; Yorktown satellites ; Yorktown sentry ship ; Yorktown tree ; Xindi wars

Graphic references [ ]

Altamid system ; ångström ; Federation database ; gray mode ; Kelvin , USS ; Medical shuttle 37

Balthazar M. Edison's personnel file [ ]

2255 ; boot camp officer ; captain ; carrier ; corvette ; cruiser ; derelict vessel ; diplomatic vessel ; escort vessel ; frigate ; Ginwald, T. ; hospital ship ; inventory log ; Iowa ; maintenance log ; mining vessel ; missing in action ; Murrysville ; Pennsylvania ; Pine, T. ; Riverside Shipyard ; science vessel ; Scott ; scout ; Starfleet Administration ; Starfleet Communications ; Starfleet Diplomatic Corps ; Starfleet Engineering ; Starfleet Intelligence ; Starfleet Medical ; Starfleet medical courier ; Starfleet Operations ; Starfleet Research ; Starfleet Science , Starfleet Security ; Starfleet Tactical ; supply vessel ; support vessel ; survey vessel ; transport vessel ; United Earth Military

Diagnostic wrap display [ ]

cellular collapse ; critical alert ; foreign substance ; organ failure

Public transporter menu [ ]

Arts / Culture ; Attractions ; Bars / Nightclubs ; Gardens ; Museums ; Parks /Nature; Restaurants ; sightseeing ; zone

Starbase Yorktown memorial wall (unseen material) [ ]

Al Kaabi, Faisal ; Al Razouk, Salim ; Bailey, Rico ; Barretto, Kurt ; Barth, Heather W. ; Benediktson, Dave ; Bitbit, Reynaldo ; Chedotal, Jordane ; Clarke, Leigh ; Darbar, Hamza ; Davidson, Miranda ; Denis, Natasha ; de Zoysa, Nuwan ; Di Rezze, Kay ; Diwadkar, Pranali ; Esmaeili, Samira ; Fisher, Rob ; Gale, Natasha ; Garcia, Mayra ; Gardiner, Lyall ; Gluck, Peter ; Goj, Ruslan ; Haley, Sean ; Haney, Rod ; Heimer, Mandy R. ; Hermansen, Dan ; Huet, Dwight ; Ibebuchi, Daniel ; Ismail, Mohammed ; Issel, Faldela ; Jackson, James ; Johnston, Sam ; Kamel, Rochard ; Kankara, Pradeep ; Kozak, Scott ; Lee, Jenne ; Lliev, Peter ; Lemay, Eric ; Lotosova, Irma ; MacAuley, Scott ; Mashaba, Patrick ; McMaster, Sam ; Mitchell, Regan ; Molchanov, Maxim ; Mussell, Ian ; O'Souza, Neville ; Pacula, Peter ; Riley, Simon ; Sacco, Sandrina ; Sadekar, Raju ; Saleh, Rodolphe ; Schiro, Janine ; Shumylo, Oksana ; Swart, Marius ; Thaler, Scott ; Thomas, Gareth ; Welff, Lindsay ; Yosifov, Plamen ; Zhelyazko, Monislav

Spock Prime's holophoto – Senior staff of the USS Enterprise -A [ ]

Chekov, Pavel ; Enterprise (prime), USS ; Enterprise -A (prime), USS ; Kirk, James T. ; McCoy, Leonard ; Scott, Montgomery ; Sulu, Hikaru ; Spock Prime; Uhura, Nyota

Spock Prime's obituary [ ]

2230 ; 2263; ambassador ; executive officer ; second officer ; stardate ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise , USS

Unreferenced material [ ]

Andorian herpes ; Chapel ; Cialis ; Deep C-Zar ; gangorian clap ; Hilts ; jumper ; Romaine

Deleted graphics references [ ]

744 ; 752 ; Acamar I ; Acamar III ; AF006 ; AF014 ; Alpha Cygni ; Andoria ; Andorian ; Andorian embassy ; Andorian system ; Arcturus ; argon ; bathymetry ; BDR-258 ; BDR-529 ; Bolarus ; Bolarus II ; carbon dioxide ; Centauri ; CGM-852 ; Cygnus II ; Cygnus VII ; Cygnus system ; exobase ; FGNI-592 ; GHD-258 ; Habitability Index ; helium ; JL006 ; JL008 ; KE091 ; Kepler-22 ; magnetosphere ; mesosphere ; NCV-1248 ; NCV-1539 ; NCV-1690 ; neon ; nitrogen ; Organian ; oxygen ; Rigellian ; Risian ; Sol ; student officer ; Tellarite ; thermosphere ; Translink ; troposphere ; Xindi

External links [ ]

• Star Trek Beyond at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek Beyond at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek Beyond at Wikipedia
• Star Trek Beyond at the Internet Movie Database

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Star Trek Beyond

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Watch Star Trek Beyond with a subscription on Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Star Trek Beyond continues the franchise's post-reboot hot streak with an epic sci-fi adventure that honors the series' sci-fi roots without skimping on the blockbuster action.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Captain James T. Kirk

Zachary Quinto

Commander Spock

Doctor "Bones" McCoy

Zoe Saldana

Lieutenant Uhura

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

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"There's no relative direction in the vastness of space," a Starfleet high mucky-muck tells  Enterprise  Captain James T. Kirk ( Chris Pine ) in "Star Trek Beyond." "There's only you." She's asking him whether he wants to give up his captain's seat for a chance at a powerful desk job on the eve of his thirtieth birthday, a year younger than his father was when he died. Her language is meant to spur Kirk to look inward, and for a moment we might hope that he will, and that the film will look inward with him. 

There's a precedent for this sort of thing. Where all of the TV incarnations of " Star Trek " were mainly about morality and philosophy, with characterization serving as a means of examining those dramatic values, most of the big-screen film versions, including the '80s and '90s versions of the flagship TV show, were mainly concerned with the heroes' personalities. The screenplays gave us detailed examinations of, say, the relationship between Kirk and his half-Vulcan first officer Mr. Spock, between Kirk and the United Federation of Planets, between Kirk and the Klingons who tormented his civilization and killed his only son, and between all the characters (Kirk especially) and the prospect of aging and death. It was more soap opera than space opera at times, but always fun to watch, sometimes moving. 

What undermines "Star Trek Beyond" is that it's ultimately not interested in taking a long look at the "you" of Kirk, Spock ( Zachary Quinto ), ship's doctor "Bones" McCoy ( Karl Urban ), communications officer Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), and the rest of the NCC-1701 crew. Sure, it nods in that direction. Even the worst "Star Trek" stories do. But in the end it's mostly a good big-budget sci-fi action movie that's been marinated in "Star Trek" flavor packets—and thus not terribly different from the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot or its sequel, " Star Trek Into Darkness ."

"Star Trek Beyond" pits the crew of the  Enterprise  against another bellowing megalomaniac ( Idris Elba ) who wants to punish the United Federation of Planets for its perceived sins. It's the best of the new "Trek" films, but it's still an unsatisfying effort if you want "Star Trek" to be something more than a military-minded outer space action flick, with familiar, beloved characters shoehorned into a standard mix of martial arts slugfests, close-quarters firefights, and scenes of starships and cities being shredded and burned. Advance publicity hyped "Star Trek Beyond" as a return to the original series' roots as a showcase for a bunch of eccentric personalities traveling the galaxy, ingeniously solving problems, and indulging in populist philosophizing about civilization and the frontier as they went along. But that's not what we get here—not really. 

Yes, there's a promising setup (the  Enterprise  crew is held hostage by a vicious bad guy who rules a backwater planet a la Kurtz in "Heart of Darkness"). And there are suggestions of classic "Star Trek" style action-plus-characterization-plus-cleverness, and pleasing performances by a cast that has settled into each others' rhythms, as a real-world naval crew would after years of sailing together. 

But the movie never delivers on its considerable promise because it's always in such a hurry to get to the next action scene. And aside from three magnificent setpieces—the first, crippling sneak attack by a fleet of tiny ships that swarm the  Enterprise  like explosive bees, and two vertigo-inducing chase-and-fight scenes in which geography goes all M.C. Escher on us—the action is not good enough to be the film's main course. Lin, who proved in the "Fast and Furious" series that he could do great or near-great action, here substitutes wobbly camerawork, chop-chop editing and rumbling sound effects for suspense and a sense of spatial design. It's a step up from the action in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" movies, but that's not the sort of thing one should brag about. A climactic reprise of a certain overused Beastie Boys song might be the franchise's low point, rivaled only by the laughable credits sequence of "Star Trek V," which cut from a helicopter shot of a lean young stuntman scaling a craggy peak in the Pyrenees to a close-up of the 57-year-old star/director Shatner's meaty hand in a studio, gripping a fiberglas "rock."

Simon Pegg and Doug Jung's screenplay provides the right amount of homage (as when Kirk grumbles after an opening action scene that he ripped his shirt again), plus Spock/McCoy odd-couple banter and some marvelous, character-based laugh lines (Scotty demands that Kirk give an opinion on one of his engineering improvisations, because "if I mess it up, I don't want it to be just my fault"). There's psychological nuance, irony, even a political subtext (Elba's character, Krall, a reptilian Che Guevara-type who wants the galaxy's "frontier" to "push back" against the Federation's expansionism). Too bad none of these aspects are filled out with the detail they deserve. Krail's fire-and-brimstone sermonizing is turned to nonsense by a pointless and self-defeating third act "twist"—like we need another one of those after the boneheaded fan service of "Darkness"!—and there are points late in the film where "Star Trek Beyond" seems jolted by the sudden remembrance of things that it told us it was going to deal with but didn't. 

Uhura spends most of the movie in a prison camp. Kirk, Spock and even McCoy have human moments, but they spend too much of their screen time sprinting through hallways, firing phaser pistols, and piloting spaceships while yelling and grimacing in tight closeup, like the heroes of every other science fiction-flavored action movie projected in theaters recently. Krall and other characters allude to the Federation's fake-benevolent brand of imperialism, but unless you're familiar with examples from elsewhere in the "Star Trek" universe or got briefed by a super-fan before buying a ticket, you'll leave with no sense of whether the villains' grievances are legitimate, much less if you're supposed to feel mixed emotions at Kirk's inevitable triumph.  

Spock, whose home planet was destroyed by a renegade Romulan warlord in the first movie, suffers most from the filmmakers' preoccupation with  pew-pew-pew! a ction-adventure. For three movies now, Spock's been carrying a crushing load of survivor's guilt. The character's barely disguised Jewishness, brilliantly articulated by the late Leonard Nimoy in the original TV and movie series, is more pronounced in the new franchise: he's been turned into a holocaust survivor, part of a fragile Vulcan diaspora haunted by genocide. But the scripts seem scared of treating Spock's predicament with the seriousness it deserves, much less daring to put it at the center of a film. Here it's treated mainly as an explanation for why Spock can't seem to keep a relationship going with Uhura. The death of Leonard Nimoy is integrated into the story by having Vulcan diplomats inform Spock of the death of Ambassador Spock, an alternate-universe incarnation of the character who dispensed advice and plot points to new Spock whenever the screenwriters painted themselves into a corner. The film's method of mourning Nimoy's Spock makes the Spockus ex machina  thing worse. New Spock mourns classic Spock as if the two were dear friends who had dinner every Monday at the same Chinese restaurant.

The missteps of writing and direction are more depressing when you consider the excellence of the core cast. Quinto and Saldana give the Spock-Uhura relationship and their own spotlight moments a lot more than the film gives them. Pegg is a hoot as Scotty, colorful but never hammy, though we may justifiably raise a Spock-like eyebrow at all the times that the actor-screenwriter lets his character save the day. Pine's Kirk seems to be morphing seamlessly into Shatner's, complete with surprising pauses and intonations, but he's more credible as a strong, respected leader; watch how the actor grows more calm and friendly whenever Kirk's bridge crew is becoming more agitated. Elba is such a strong presence throughout, even near the end, that it's a shame Krall is never granted the depth and complexity that his character keeps threatening to disclose. 

At this point it's worth asking what, if anything, this franchise is good for besides generating cash for Paramount and its above-the-line talent. Everything that made the original TV series and its follow-ups, small- and big-screen, seem so open-hearted, intelligent and playful is marginalized to make room for hyperactively edited action scenes and displays of hardware and production design. These are technically state-of-the-art but ultimately not all that different from what you see in most other CGI-driven action pictures, superhero as well as sci-fi—long, loud spectacles that are filled with people fighting, blowing up cities and planets, and crashing things into other things, instead of finding some other, more surprising way to move the plot along. What's the point of giving up pleasures that the "Star Trek" franchise is good at providing, to make more room for pleasures that most big-budget science fiction and fantasy already give us, month after month and year after year? Why boldly go where everyone else is already going? 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence.

120 minutes

Chris Pine as Kirk

Zachary Quinto as Spock

Karl Urban as Bones

Zoe Saldana as Uhura

Simon Pegg as Scotty

John Cho as Sulu

Anton Yelchin as Chekov

Idris Elba as Krall

Sofia Boutella as Jaylah

Deep Roy as Keenser

Alice Eve as Dr. Carol Marcus

Writer (television series "Star Trek")

• Gene Roddenberry

Writer (uncredited)

• Roberto Orci
• Patrick McKay
• John D. Payne

Cinematographer

• Stephen F. Windon
• Greg D'Auria
• Dylan Highsmith
• Kelly Matsumoto
• Steven Sprung
• Michael Giacchino

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‘Star Trek Beyond’ Review: A Spectacular Movie About Nothing

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Despite an expansive universe stretched across over a dozen feature films and numerous television series, the appeal of “Star Trek” is pretty straightforward: a motley group of colorful characters hurtle through mini-adventures in deep space, sustained as much by their chemistry as the variety of alien civilizations in their path. The first two films in the rebooted franchise attempted to raise the stakes with various cataclysmic events threatening its cast of fresh faces, but “ Star Trek Beyond ” goes back to the television roots. Spectacular as it looks, this is a $150 million blockbuster about nothing.

A lighter, funnier effort than the previous installments, “Star Trek Beyond” reflects a changing of the guard. With JJ Abrams passing the baton to Justin Lin , the latest entry plays like a CGI-heavy “Fast and the Furious” movie set in the future, with fancy gadgetry and fast-paced showdowns taking prominence over plot. Simon Pegg does double-duty, returning to the role of Scotty and co-writing the screenplay with Doug Jung. The result has Lin’s eye for outstanding set pieces and Pegg’s ear for injecting familiar genre tropes with wit. There’s an odd disconnect between the movie’s undercooked conflict and its epic scale, to the point where it barely exists as more than a series of flashy moments. But its trivial qualities come as something of a relief — this is a movie engineered to avoid overextending its allure, which differs greatly from so many of its summer movie peers that do exactly that.

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The overall inconsequential nature of “Star Trek Beyond” stands in stark contrast to 2013’s sprawling “Star Trek Into Darkness,” in which rising Starfleet leader Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ) at one point loses his job, and at another briefly loses his life. At the beginning of “Star Trek Beyond,” he’s faced with a more immediate issue: Boredom. Three years into a planned five-year mission to explore the cosmos, the Captain explains in his starlog intro that boldly going where no man has gone before can get awfully redundant sometimes.

Lin’s camera glides beautifully through the Starship Enterprise, capturing the various familiar members of the crew — Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), Scotty, and Chekhov (the late Anton Yelchin, sadly given little to do in a thankless role). They’re all still there, pressing buttons, sharing drinks, beaming about on unspecified missions. “What is it we’re trying to accomplish?” Kirk wonders, and the answer just dangles there.

But then just enough happens to generate the semblance of high stakes: A mysterious alien object stored in the ship’s hull generates the interest of the villainous Krall (Idris Elba, under layers of makeup that suggest Klingon by way of triceratops), a criminal leader of unknown origins who invades the ship and uses his mechanical space army to take down the starship. The ensuing crash sequence drags on for minutes on end, unfolding as a breathless series of daring maneuvers, flying bodies and flaming debris that, for a brief moment, suggest real peril for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, once the Enterprise stops moving, the movie grinds to a halt as well. Lin grounds the crew on a boring planet alongside a lame bad guy. Krall’s eerie ability to sap energy from his prisoners receives just one tossed-off scene, and the reasons behind his evil intentions receive only a pithy explanation in the final act. Much of the movie finds various members of the Starship roaming the planet trying to figure out ideas for escaping it. This kind of scenario often sustained single episodes of the original show, but struggles to congeal as a single 142 minute package.

Per usual, some interactions generate more sparks than others. At first alone in the woods, Scotty comes across fierce survivalist Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a pale-faced warrior apparently inspired by Jennifer Laurence’s individualistic teen in “Winter’s Bone.” Jaylah’s not the most original ass-kicker around, but her ability to manipulate invisibility fields and bound about the woodsy terrain with ease provides the movie with a nice burst of attitude.

The rest of the cast just toys around, making it clear just how much these movies are driven by personalities. Much has been made in news reports about the decision to turn Sulu gay, a revelation that fills approximately three seconds of screen time. That’s as it should. Even as the last two films emphasized Kirk’s challenges with his father’s legacy in the captain’s chair, the core “Star Trek” cast have very little in the way of backstories. They’re defined by their exchanges with each other: Forget about Spock’s complicated backstory as a member of the Vulcan race; the stone-faced character’s big challenge in “Star Trek Beyond” is his relationship troubles with Uhura, and when he winds up stranded on the planet alongside the surly Dr. McCoy, the doctor takes on new duties as a shrink.

When they’re done feuding and teasing each other, the movie turns back to its bare-bones plot. Eventually, the survivors gather at a ramshackle base to plot a means of overtaking the Starship from the bad guys, yielding another set piece — this one based around motorcycles and jump cables — before Kirk finds an excuse to blast “Sabotage” for a breezy sequence that plays like a 3D “Space Invaders.”

Toss in a few more vibrant alien species and geeky one-liners (“There’s no relative direction in space, you have only yourself”) and voil à : While “Star Trek Beyond” lacks a center, it compensates with an endless parade of distractions. When the movie moves along at a breezy clip, it’s partly because it feels so purposeless. The central threat revolves around the most explicit MacGuffin in recent memory (a box that contains some enigmatic thing of unknown destructive potential that many different people want to get their hands on), and yet that’s enough to let the strengths stand out, particularly the stunning effects work.

The massive space port Yorktown is a swirling helix of human activity, while the Enterprise itself speeds through hyperspace in shiny closeups that would have been unthinkable just a few years back. As a franchise that celebrates technological progress, it’s only appropriate that the “Star Trek” movies have become a shining example of just that.

Nevertheless, this playful, meandering saga ultimately arrives at a bland third act finale featuring the so-called “Climbing Killer Syndrome” in which the antagonist must irrationally flee to an inescapable high elevation while explaining his entire motive. Toss in a tenuous connection to some earlier “Star Trek” entries to keep the series’ street cred in check and everybody gets to go home happy.

Nothing about this polished movie suggests the slightest attempt to reinvent the wheel. If “Star Trek Beyond” existed outside the arena of reboots and sequels that mandated its existence, the movie’s casual air might be downright radical for such an extensive production. Instead, it’s just a sturdy riff on the same old routine.

“Star Trek Beyond” opens nationwide on July 21. 

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2016 • PG-13 Years into their five-year mission, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves deep in uncharted space where they encounter a new enemy who challenges them and everything the Federation stands for.

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Star Trek Beyond is a stirring return to the big ideas that made the series great

After two disappointing entries in this rebooted film franchise, the new movie gets it right.

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Share All sharing options for: Star Trek Beyond is a stirring return to the big ideas that made the series great

There’s a lot to like about Star Trek Beyond — the stellar cast, all of whom have grown into their roles since the franchise rebooted in 2009; the exuberantly staged action scenes from first-time Trek director Justin Lin , who previously rebooted the Fast and the Furious franchise so effectively; the effortless way the script, by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung , balances character, comedy, and conflict.

But as a longtime fan of the Star Trek series, what I appreciated most about the new film was that it represented a return of sorts to the big ideas that drove the series in its earliest incarnations.

It’s the first Star Trek movie since that 2009 reboot that actually feels like Star Trek.

The original TV series was a stirring defense of 1960s political values

The original Star Trek TV series , which aired for three seasons on NBC starting in 1966, was a vehicle for social and political commentary, with many of its episodes working as overt metaphors for contemporary issues.

As Timothy Sandefur wrote last year in The Claremont Review of Books , series creator Gene Roddenberry was a World War II veteran deeply concerned about the rise of totalitarian governments. Thus, the series often functioned as a sci-fi-flavored defense of liberal internationalism and humanist individualism.

Those values were built into the show’s essential concept: Hundreds of years in the future, the galaxy is largely united under the banner of the United Federation of Planets, a kind of interstellar United Nations designed to unify human and alien species in a peaceful and prosperous order.

The Federation works through Starfleet, a spacefaring navy used for a combination of diplomacy, research, and — when necessary — defense against those that might threaten Federation values and interests. The series followed one of Starfleet’s starships, the Enterprise, and a diverse (especially for its time) crew that reflected the show’s commitment to inclusion, peace, and individualism.

Many of the series’ episodes pitted the crew of the Enterprise against groups and societies that didn’t share the Federation’s liberal values.

Often, those stories forced its characters to contend with twisted versions of themselves: In "Mirror, Mirror," one of the series’ best episodes, Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty find themselves in a parallel timeline where the Federation is a cruel empire and the Enterprise is its enforcer. In "Balance of Terror," the crew encounters the Romulans — an alien race that began as a violent offshoot of the logical, peaceful Vulcans with whom the Federation is aligned. The show’s chief antagonist came in the form of the Klingons, a rival power that prioritizes strength and domination and is often presented as a negative image of the Federation.

Perhaps more than anything else, Star Trek was a show about the clash of cultures, an extended argument for individual diversity bound together by shared values. It was a spacefaring adventure, yes, with phaser weapons and aliens and starship shootouts. But it existed first and foremost as a forum for exploring big ideas about society and morality through science fiction metaphor.

Star Trek’ s values existed across its many different versions

It’s true, of course, that the series’ metaphors could sometimes be a little too obvious.

In the season three episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," the crew of the Enterprise encountered the last two survivors of a civilization ravaged by a war fought between two peoples whose faces are split between black and white. The battle lines are drawn between those whose faces are black on the right side and white on the left, and those whose facial colors are reversed. In the end, after attempting to drag the crew of the Enterprise into their deadly squabble, the pair of warring aliens are doomed by their mutual, all-consuming hate.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the whole thing was an extended, not-very-subtle riff on race relations. But even with stories this hokey, the series retained an essential charm, because of the durability of its cast and characters, and because both its head and its heart were always in the right place.

"Let That Be Your Battlefield," for example, includes a mini monologue by Kirk to the ship’s visitors warning that violence and the use of force are relics of the past and will not be tolerated aboard his ship.

"You’re new to this part of the galaxy," Kirk says , "which is governed by the United Federation of Planets. We live in peace, with full exercise of individual rights." The original was full of moments like this; it was a show that knew what it stood for, and it wore its values on its gold-ringed uniform sleeves.

Clashes of ideas and values remained part of the Star Trek franchise throughout its various incarnations.

Star Trek: The Next Generation forced its crew to face down out-of-control collectivism and capitalism, respectively, in the form of alien societies the Borg and the Ferengi. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine grappled with terrorism and religious fundamentalism. Star Trek: Voyager stranded its crew far from Federation space, challenging them to see how their ideals held up without a support network.

The movie versions of Star Trek were driven more by action spectacle than the TV shows but never lost sight of Roddenberry’s original vision. In 1991, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country gave the original crew a fitting sendoff with a story about the end of the Klingon empire that worked as a parallel to the end of the USSR and the Cold War.

Star Trek Beyond once again pits the Enterprise against those who oppose its values

But when the franchise rebooted in 2009 under director J.J. Abrams , that all went away. Abrams transformed Trek into a modern blockbuster franchise, rapid-fire and action-heavy, with little time for social and political engagement. His focus was on the characters themselves and their personal and emotional journeys, rather than on the context and ideology of the world in which they lived.

Abrams borrowed all the visual trappings of the franchise, and connected his films to the original series via a variety of fan-friendly Easter eggs — but stripped the story of its reason for being. Yes, his update was fast and frenetic and full of sci-fi spectacle in a way the series had never managed before, but it felt deeply hollow: The Abrams vision of Star Trek had no ideology except nostalgia.

It’s fitting, then, that as Star Trek Beyond opens, Captain Kirk (now played by Chris Pine ) and the crew of the Enterprise feel like they’re drifting, struggling to find a purpose. Life, Kirk says in a winking nod to the 50-year-old franchise’s history, has begun to feel "episodic."

Turns out that’s not such a bad thing: The movie feels more like an episode of the original Star Trek than either of Abrams’s outings, because it once again pits the crew of the Enterprise against a foe driven by a warped ideology that runs counter to their own.

( Warning: major plot spoilers ahead .)

The villain in Beyond is an outlaw alien named Krall ( Idris Elba ), who sets the action in motion when he uses a fantastically destructive swarm attack to chew apart the Enterprise and strand the crew on an alien planet.

Krall, a ridge-faced alien of a type the crew have never seen before, turns out to have a vendetta against the Federation and all it stands for. "Federation is an act of war," he barks at one point, "Federation has taught you that conflict should never exist." He boasts of having grown up in a place where he "knew pain" and where "struggle made us strong — not peace, not unity."

As it turns out, Krall is actually a former soldier and Federation ship captain whose body has been warped by alien technology. He grew up fighting the wars that led to the Federation’s creation and, after struggling to fit in to a peaceful era, eventually went insane.

"You won the war!" Kirk shouts during the movie’s climactic battle. "You gave us peace!" Krall, a soldier who never bought into the Federation’s ideals, was a victim of that peace — a person left without a purpose.

Krall’s motivation and background are not as fleshed out as they could be — it’s still a big summer action movie, after all — but they’re very much in keeping with the spirit of the original series , where the villains were often mirror images of the heroes who simply took a different path, and the Federation’s particular ideas were central to the conflict.

It’s a callback to classic Trek that’s far more effective than any of Abrams’s empty nostalgia ploys, because it delivers what both Kirk and Krall are searching for: a reason for being.

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Den of Geek

Star Trek Beyond: 12 questions answered

A few spoiler-filled questions from Star Trek Beyond, and thoughts on their answers...

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This article first appeared on Den of Geek UK . It is FULL of nothing but spoilers.

Like all blockbuster movies, some of Star Trek Beyond sometimes leaves you with questions. Occasionally they have answers that are implied, or stated so quickly you might miss them, and occasionally they just don’t give you much to go on and you have to make up your own mind. As ever, we’ve tried to anticipate what questions you might have after seeing the movie and then answer them. Spoilers for Star Trek Beyond , quite naturally, follow.

Why did Edison change his name to Krall?

Well, using a fake name got Khan pretty far in the last film, so…

In this case, though: maybe he was trying to further disguise or distance himself from his humanity and the Federation. Maybe he just needed something that everyone could say. Judging on previous form, they’ll presumably do a tie-in comic that explains this so if you genuinely want to know, keep an eye on the racks.

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Where did Old Spock get a photo of the original TOS crew?

Well, when he was flying the jellyfish in the first movie, there was plenty of room in his robes for him to be carrying who knows what under there. It’s not inconceivable that he carries that photo around with him at all times, the big softie.

Why did Krall/Edison’s face keep changing?

It looks like the alien machines he used to prolong his life (which he found on Altamid after the Franklin crashed there) gave him the appearance of whichever alien/aliens he absorbed life-force from. By the end of the film he’s absorbed a bunch of human life energy, which is why he looked more like himself.

Who was Kalara really, then?

Kalara (the alien woman who asked the Enterprise for help to lure them into a trap) was presumably someone who was working with Krall/Edison as part of a general movement against the expansion of the Federation. It’s possible Krall/Edison did lure her ship to Altamid and kill her crew like she said, but maybe she was convinced to join him. Either way, this is another one of those questions you’ll probably discover the answer to when they do the prequel comic that I’m sure will be out within the year.

How did the Franklin get to Altamid, if it’s only on the fringes of the Federation a century later?

Well, given that it really was only a Warp 4 vessel, the “unstable wormhole” theory mentioned in the film seems correct. If you’re not familiar with the Trek -science, that means a wormhole (a direct link between two distant points in space) where one or both ends appear and disappear randomly, meaning once you go through you can’t get back the same way, because the exit you came through has already disappeared.

Why did the Enterprise need to separate its saucer section if it was already cut to bits?

The saucer section was still trying to draw power from the warp core, which was housed in the (severed) stardrive section. Since no saucer separation had been initiated, the impulse engines in the saucer couldn’t be engaged, which is why Kirk (and eventually Uhuru) had to manually jettison what was left of the stardrive section.

Where did Krall’s swarm of drones come from?

In his final log, Edison mentions finding “mining drones” of some kind. Over the next hundred years he presumably used the knowledge of his allies/prisoners and the resources on Altamid to turn them into a larger weapon – assuming he didn’t just steal it outright, that is.

How come the USS Franklin was still operational after 100 years crashed on Altamid?

Well, Jaylah seems to have patched it up for the most part with a view to getting it space-bourne again. But that’s why she needed Scotty – to help her through the last few steps so that she could actually get the ship working.

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Why did the Beastie Boys make the swarm ships blow up again?

It interrupted their communications, causing them to crash into one another and explode.

How come no-one else was able to help stop Krall on the Yorktown?

I think we can chalk this up to a combination of several things. First, Krall sent the rescue vessels to completely the wrong place by intercepting Sulu and Uhura’s transmission and changing the co-ordinates. Second, the drones probably did quite a fair bit of damage to any ships in the area at the time anyway. And finally we imagine there was some pretty serious evacuation going on behind the scenes of that last action segment, so maybe that was keeping them occupied.

Why did they get Jaylah a place at Starfleet Academy?

It just seemed like a natural end (at least for now) to her narrative arc in the movie.

What’s so tough about crossing a nebula such that Kirk is pleased they now know a route through it?

Well this one appeared to be full of very dangerous asteroids, and, well… the thing is… space is… it’s… I mean… Best we just go with this one…!

BehindTheCurtain.com

Concise Reviews for Movie Addicts Who Don't Have Time to Waste

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Sofia boutella upstages the crew of the enterprise.

Chris Pine, Sofia Boutella, and Anton Yelchin in ‘Star Trek Beyond’ (2016)

Once again, the Enterprise crew is sent on a rescue mission to a planet at the galaxy's edge. And once again, they encounter a mysterious foe, with mysterious motives, who gets the upper hand. In fact — no spoiler here — the Enterprise goes down early. Most of the crew is captured, and the rest — conveniently, the stars — are separated and stranded on the planet.

Our villain, Krall (surprise: under that makeup is Idris Elba), believes the Federation's focus on unity among the races will be its undoing. The Enterprise crew believes it's their strength. They must make a believer out of their only ally on the planet, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a clever and resourceful survivor who has made it on her own and who aims to visit vengeance on Krall for killing her family. Can they hang together, or will they hang separately?

Of course you should see it. Even if you've never seen any of the previous movies or TV series (theoretically, there must be a few of you), you'll be able to follow the story as Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) try to bring the downed Enterprise back to life. And Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) bicker nonstop while trying to avoid the bad guys. And Scotty (Simon Pegg) befriends Jaylah, who turns out to hold the keys to their ride back home.

This is inarguably the best crew of actors ever to don Federation uniforms. But even they are outdone by Boutella, who is feisty and funny without overplaying her alienness. And it's fun to watch her fight with a dancer's grace. If she's not in the next Star Trek movie, I may have to revisit my commitment to being a completist.

Action Science Fiction

7 August 2016

Century Shoreline

The Filmmakers

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Star Trek Beyond review – a watchable adventure still heavy on the bromance

Zachary Quinto’s Spock remains the real star of the latest instalment, even if Idris Elba’s Krall could have been given more to do

H ere is the latest of the rebooted Star Trek franchise with Justin Lin (of the Fast And Furious movies) taking over direction – and the first in which Britain’s own Simon Pegg assumes co-scripting responsibilities, with TV writer Doug Jung. Pegg injects plenty of fun and wit and certainly doesn’t hesitate to give his own acting role, chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, a touch more dramatic significance than might otherwise have been the case. However, he naturally also adheres to the tradition of responding to Captain Kirk’s requests for emergency improvised measures with frantic sentences beginning “I cannae...!” and “We cannae....!” – before naturally delivering the goods.

This movie is, poignantly, the final outing for the late Anton Yelchin in the role of Russian officer Chekov, a part which he made his own with boyish eagerness. It’s also notable for including a unambiguous gay relationship: for Sulu, played by John Cho, who is revealed to have a male partner, a civilian from outside Star Fleet, and crucially they also have a child. George Takei, the actor who originally played the role, caused some consternation when he announced he would rather an entirely new gay role was created. Perhaps Takei was uncomfortable with the idea that “his” Sulu has therefore been somehow timidly in the closet all this time. Sulu’s gay identity here is not much emphasised, but unlike the coy and evasive hints in the recent Independence Day movie, the statement is clear enough.

The real star, as ever, is Zachary Quinto’s imperturbable First Officer Spock, who conveys logical calm, droll humour, and a kind of martyred romanticism. He rules the movie with a single raised eyebrow. Without Spock, this might be a bit ordinary.

Star Trek Beyond doesn’t go that far beyond what we might expect: a very decent, watchable franchise episode which is marooned for quite a long time on a distant rocky planet. There is a potent new force for evil in the form of anti-Star Fleet insurgent Krall, played by Idris Elba, although his full personality and motivation take a fair bit of time to flower.

We find ourselves three years in to the Enterprise’s legendary five-year mission, and officers Kirk and Spock are approaching a kind of quarterlife crisis, both in terms of career and their relationship with each other – and it is not entirely facetious to say that their top-level bromance is still far more important, in this heteronormative world, than any actual gay couple. Kirk is brooding about his personal and professional destiny in the vast reaches of space and Spock also has issues: his relationship with Uhuru (Zoe Saldana) is in deep trouble and he receives a sombre communication concerning the great elder, Ambassador Spock. (The grave features of Leonard Nimoy are glimpsed.)

But a phoney and duplicitous distress call plunges the crew into peril, connected with a powerful, Maguffin-y weapon, the Abroneth, yearned for by Krall. Kirk finds himself confronted with the terrible choice of having to abandon ship, and the crew are marooned in alien territory: a happy reminder of the visual language of the 60s Roddenberry TV show. Here, they encounter a fiercely independent kickboxing survivor called Jaylah (reportedly Pegg was inspired by Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone – hence J-Law or Jaylah). It’s a strong performance from Sofia Boutella: her character Is not a million miles away from Daisy Ridley in The Force Awakens, but a bit tougher.

The dilithium crystals powering the new Star Trek film are in pretty good shape: it motors along and Chris Pine shows himself again to be a very good actor with easy charm and authority. The bantering relationship between Karl Urban (as Dr “Bones” McCoy) and Quinto is, as ever, very enjoyable. At one stage, McCoy dismisses something Spock says as “horseshit”. Quinto demonstrates great comic timing in the pause he deploys before his dignified reply: “I fail to see how excrement of any kind plays a part.” Maybe this is the real bromance, actually.

This new movie could arguably have given Elba more to do, earlier in the picture, but it is the inter-relationship of the Enterprise’s crew which is the real source of drama. An entertaining adventure.

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Star Trek Beyond Plot Details Revealed

When the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond landed a few months back it had many fans of the classic franchise scratching their heads. For a series that often uses science fiction to ask deeper questions about humanity, there seemed to be an awful lot of things exploding. Simon Pegg even came out to relieve concerns and tell us that the trailer was not representative of the final film. Now Pegg is back and the co-star and co-writer of Star Trek Beyond is finally giving us some information about what the film actually is all about, which as it turns out, is questioning the core assumptions of the entire franchise.

Speaking with Empire , Simon Pegg talked a little bit about the setup for Star Trek Beyond . As we had already heard, the film picks up two years into the Starship Enterprise’s five-year mission, and we find the crew more than a little worse for wear. They stop off at a Federation outpost which Pegg describes as a "diplomatic hub" to get a little rest from their ongoing work. It’s at this point that Idris Elba’s character, Krall, makes his appearance by attacking the outpost.

You see, Krall doesn’t think much of the Federation or its ideals, but that’s where Star Trek Beyond really finds itself according to Simon Pegg. He says this random attack by an alien will cause the crew of the Enterprise to question their entire purpose.

We’re gathering a great community within the galaxy, but to what end? What does it all mean?

While this brief setup does look to have more than its share of things exploding, and there’s nothing wrong with that, what always made Star Trek great is something else entirely. The TV series and films would cause the viewer to look at themselves and ask questions about humanity in the modern day by looking at these people within a fictionalized future. Fans of classic Star Trek will likely be somewhat relieved to hear there are some more cerebral aspects of Star Trek Beyond to go along with the action.

Want to see that full trailer? We have it for you right here:

The newest Star Trek film is directed by Justin Lin of Fast & Furious fame, and continues the story of the rebooted universe begun by J.J. Abrams . We’ll get to see where a new director, and writer are able to take the final frontier when Star Trek Beyond is released July 22.

Did you know that Star Trek is about to celebrate a MONUMENTAL anniversary? And that the producers have huge plans for a fan event that happens very, very soon. If you love Trek , you are going to want to know all about this. Read on!

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Attendees at CinemaCon in Las Vegas were stunned when Paramount concluded its footage presentation without showing anything new from Justin Lin ’s Star Trek Beyond , It turns out Paramount was saving its Star Trek footage for a different event.

Here’s what you need to know about a Star Trek Beyond Fan Event, which plans to debut the newest trailer

What else do we know about Star Trek Beyond at this point?

- Idris Elba is playing the main villain. Read about him here .

- Simon Pegg reached out to fans when he hit a snag while writing the screenplay. Here’s what they helped him figure out .

- There’s a revolutionary new way that Star Trek Beyond will be screened in select theaters. This one you HAVE to read about.

- And finally, will William Shatner actually appear in Star Trek Beyond ? Here’s what the legendary actor said.

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Here's What We Can Piece Together About the Plot of Star Trek Beyond From the Trailer

The Star Trek Beyond trailer is full of beam-outs, fight scenes and explosions. But what does it mean? We went through it frame by frame, trying to figure out just what kind of mess Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew have gotten themselves into. Here’s our detailed gif-and-screencap breakdown!

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Warning: Spoilers in the form of guesswork follow.

Appropriately, since he wrote the script for this one, the trailer starts with Scotty investigating where the sound of the Beastie Boy’s “Sabotage” is coming from. Because we’re already giving shout outs to the first of these reboot movies.

Also, this looks like our cast is trying to get a ship off the ground—and it’s an old vessel that’s been crashed for a long time, not our shiny Enterprise. See how old and beat up things look?

Also, there are readouts about the topology and status of the planet on the ship’s screens.

And we get our hero shots: Scotty, Kirk, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, and Spock are all on this junker.

“It’s a good choice,” says Kirk, who trashed his stepfather’s car to this song.

Lots of different jacket choices at play here.

And why are they trying to get this ship working? Well, a swarm of bombs/ships/somethings have taken out the Enterprise.

It’s shredded, and Kirk can see that as he takes an escape pod away and down to the planet below.

“We’ve got no ship. No crew. How are we going to get out of this one?” Kirk asks.

There’s some fiery devastation here, that doesn’t quite jibe with the way the planet the crew has landed on looks in other scenes. It’s too dark for one thing. It looks like something crashed, though.

Kirk was on his own in his pod, whereas Spock (with a big old burn in his side) is with McCoy. We’re going to get some good old fashioned “McCoy hates Vulcans, and Spock in particular, but in a gentle, grumpy way” banter, I bet.

Lots of ship parts here, too. This whole planet might be a ship graveyard, where any ship that gets too close is downed.

Also alone in his pod? Scotty. We’ve also got a new voice telling us, “We will find hope in the impossible.” It’s Spock.

“At least I won’t die alone,” says Bones. And then Spock is transported away. To which Bones grumbles, “Well, that’s just typical.” Bones isn’t on the bridge of the old ship, by the way? Is this him getting separated? Or just a fun way to torture the man who hates space the most?

Kirk rides a motorbike through some sort of encampment. You know how we all do motocross in the future?

Here’s a totally new character doing a lot of what we see her do in this trailer: Fight.

“This is where it begins, Captain,” says a distorted voice. Could be Idris Elba in his still secret villain role. Looks like the same swarm that took out the Enterprise has made it to some Starfleet outpost. Possibly Earth.

More fighting.

This looks like our big bad and the white woman fighting in the encampment, while the cut to Kirk looks like it’s from back on board the Enterprise. As does the sparking hole in the wall.

This is definitely an incursion onto an Starfleet ship at red alert, with someone in yellow getting tossed around engineering. History suggests Kirk is getting his ass kicked again.

“This is where the frontier pushes back,” continues the voice. The trailer suggests the big scaly alien is the one speaking.

“I know why you’re here,” says the new character, to Scotty. Right before showing him into a dark space filled with cables. Is this the old ship that they fix up to escape? Whatever happens, she’s clearly an ally of our heroes. We’ve seen set photos of a crash set, which could be this ship or the Enterprise.

No idea who this is, but they’ve got prominent placement. It looks like the same character crawling through the flaming, dark rubble before. And the shadow? Could be a ship taking off.

The structures in the background look like the same ones that Kirk does his bike thing through. While we saw Scotty with the white woman, Kirk on his own, and Spock teleported away from Bones, we see Sulu and Uhura are with the majority of the Enterprise crew, who are being imprisoned.

There’s Keenser in the background of this shot.

This looks like the same place as the scene above, and Uhura is separated from something bad happening. Wherever the crew is being herded to, it can’t be good.

And we’re back in space, watching the Enterprise get trashed.

This looks like the end of the fight scene we saw earlier, with Kirk getting to his new ally in time for both of them to be beamed out, instead of falling to their deaths. Kirk is still wearing his motocross goggles. “Okay, let’s never do that again,” says Kirk.

Details on Star Trek Beyond are surprisingly sparse. What we can see from this trailer is that neither Romulans nor Klingons are the villains here. It definitely looks like the Enterprise goes somewhere they shouldn’t, with the ship being destroyed by the swarm of bombs or fighters or whatever they are. And it’s not the only ship to meet that fate, since the surface of the planet is littered with the scraps of old ships.

On the planet, most of the crew (Uhura and Sulu included) are captured. Scotty and Kirk end up elsewhere, and they meet up with the white alien woman, who helps them. Possibly by showing Scotty an old Federation ship which he is able to fix. Spock and Bones are on their own adventure.

The villain has some beef with the Federation’s exploration of the frontier, and this looks like how he fights back. And that’s pretty much what we’ve managed to cull from this trailer. It’s crazy how little has been leaked.

Contact the author at [email protected] .

The Biggest Plot Holes In Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond is as close to a stand-alone spin-off as you can make without being a stand-alone spin-off. For the first time in the reboot series, producer J.J. Abrams conceded the director's chair to Justin Lin ( Fast and Furious ), while Scotty himself (Simon Pegg) wrote the script. That's a great recipe for action and laughs (both of which are in abundance), but their new spin on the iconic series takes the Enterprise far from anywhere we've ever been (both literally and conceptually). That means there might be a few more unanswered questions than normal, several of which we ponder below.

How does Krall know Kirk has the artifact?

By the way, where's Krall's crew? Although he reveals his true identity as the evil swarm commander in the third act, we only ever see one henchman, a bunch of mechanical drones, and a few other aliens he forced to temporarily work for him.

Quite a convenient crash

When Krall unleashes his drones to violently rip the Enterprise apart, the high-speed battle takes place above a nearby planet. Uhura separates the ship's saucer section, allowing it to crash-land on the planet. Meanwhile, the other key members of the crew (all of whom, incredibly, survive) are split up in separate escape pods that scatter like debris. When they land, however, they all somehow end up in basically the same town. Scotty, in particular, winds up on the doorstep of Jaylah's home – which, luckily, turns out to be the wreckage of the USS Franklin, missing for nearly a century and super-vital to Krall's story. This is like skydiving from the Moon and landing in your backyard.

Scotty's cliffhanger

Of all the Enterprise crash survivors, Scotty winds up in the most precarious of landing spots. Woken from a deep cryo-sleep in his escape pod, he manages to instantly eject and fall rapidly onto treacherous cliffs, where he executes a crazy (and physically impossible) maneuver to hang onto the ledge. But that's not even the spectacle's biggest eyebrow-raiser — Once Scotty is dangling by just a few fingers, the movie cuts away. Next time we see him, he's walking around on solid ground, totally fine. While the alien Jaylah does save him from restless natives, that still doesn't explain how Scotty made it off the cliff.

Where is Starfleet?

Plus, when Kirk asks her for a job as vice-admiral, she must not be interviewing a ton of candidates, because she all but hands him the incredibly important gig, on the spot. Meanwhile, crickets from everyone else we've ever met at Starfleet.

When Scott realizes that Jayrah's "house" is actually the 100 year-old, long-lost USS Franklin, the Enterprise engineer figures there's a chance he can put some of the archaic equipment to use. But the century of rust and decay must have been pretty easy to scrub away, because he's able to get just about everything he needs up, running, and online exactly when he and Kirk need it. Even more impressively, they get this giant ship back in the air with little more than a push.

The trouble with time travel

Trying to establish firm ground rules for time travel is like opening a can of wormholes. And things have certainly been messy with Spock's two alternate timelines ever since the first installment of the reboot, when the time-jumping older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) paid a visit to his younger self (Zachary Quinto). Elder Spock was supposed to be in Star Trek Beyond , but Nimoy tragically died during pre-production. To explain his absence, Young Spock learns that "Ambassador Spock" has died. Although the elder was always careful not to reveal too much information about the future (because it could alter the present), learning about his own demise didn't cause even the tiniest ripple in the space-time continuum. Although he was definitely bummed out, so there's that.

Explosions as transportation

Letting one explosion blow you to safety is one thing, but surviving several huge ones without a scratch (especially when they come at key moments in the storyline), is the definition of "plot hole." Kirk and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin) somehow surf on white-hot waves of fire (that kill other characters), both on the crashing Enterprise and then again at Krall's base. At a certain point, you stop believing fire can even harm them — if anything, the explosions just help them get where they're going quicker than beaming ever could (and don't even get us started on how easy all that once-complicated teleporting seems to have become).

How bad WAS music in the 22nd century?

Kirk signed up for Starfleet as a young man in 2255, but the Beastie Boys seem bigger than ever. The rap trio's hit "Sabotage" is the song playing in a car when the kid version of Kirk steals it in Star Trek , and it plays a pivotal part in Beyond when Scotty finds a copy of the song (along with Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise") on the USS Franklin. Even if that ship has been missing 100 years, that still means the crew were listening to the Beasties' Ill Communication more than a century after its release. Sure, they refer to it as "classical" music, but don't you think the Franklin crew would've had any music from their time?

Spock is highly illogical

All that's not even considering the Wolverine-esque healing abilities he must possess to immediately recover from what was supposed to be a potentially fatal injury. Highly illogical, Justin Lin. Highly illogical.

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Star Trek 4 potential release date, cast and everything you need to know

A new writer has boarded the USS Enterprise.

Star Trek 4 potential release date: When can we expect Star Trek 4?

Star trek 4 cast: who's going to be in star trek 4, star trek 4 plot: what's going to happen in star trek 4, star trek 4 trailer: any star trek 4 footage yet.

Star Trek 4 still isn't close to being released, but we do at least know that development continues on the long-awaited movie .

In March 2024, it was reported that Steve Yockey – who developed The Flight Attendant – had become the latest writer to tackle a new draft for the movie, which is intended to bring back Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña.

This is separate from the other two Star Trek movies in the works: a prequel movie directed by Toby Haynes and Star Trek: Discovery spin-off Section 31 , which finished filming in March 2024.

We'll likely see both of those movies before we see Star Trek 4 , but at least it should be released one day. But while we wait, here's everything you need to know about the (potential) return of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek 4 .

Is Star Trek 4 confirmed?

As far as we know, Star Trek 4 is definitely going to happen despite the fact we're nearing eight years since the last movie, Star Trek Beyond , was released.

The long-gestating movie finally looked to be on track in February 2022 when it was announced that JJ Abrams was returning to produce with Matt Shakman directing, to the surprise of the cast as much as the fans.

Unfortunately, Shakman left the movie in August 2022 to direct Fantastic Four for Marvel instead . And then in September 2022, Paramount took the movie off the release calendar entirely.

In March 2023, JJ Abrams – who has produced all three movies in the reboot trilogy and directed two of them – said that a search for a director is ongoing.

"I will say it's the first time [since the original reboot] that we have a story that feels as compelling as the first one," he told Esquire . Of course, Pine also called the franchise "cursed" so it depends how hopeful you feel like being.

We've heard nothing since about a potential director for the movie, but at least we know is that Star Trek 4 is in active development at Paramount, given that there is now a new writer on board.

Once upon a time, Star Trek 4 was scheduled to be released in cinemas on December 22, 2023.

Of course, that never happened, and Star Trek 4 hasn't got a confirmed release date as of May 2024. There's no rumours either about when it could reappear on the schedule.

In June 2022, prior to Shakman leaving the project, Paramount boss Brian Robbins did confirm development was under way on the fourth Star Trek . "We're deep into it with JJ Abrams, and it feels like we're getting close to the starting line and excited about where we're going creatively," he said .

However, in November 2022, star Zachary Quinto told The Independent : "At this point, I honestly have very little attachment to it.

"All of us would like to come back and make another movie, but I’ve learnt to only get excited about things I know are actually real. And there's nothing about a fourth Star Trek movie that feels real right now."

Other people involved seem to have faith in the project moving forward, though, and hopefully a new writer joining is a positive step.

All we can do is watch this space.

Even when Star Trek 4 was originally being released in December 2023, it hadn't been 100% confirmed that the reboot cast would be back.

That being said, during his June 2022 announcement, Robbins did say he knew audience "wants that cast in this movie" – referring to the reboot cast.

So, if it ever does come to fruition, we'd be surprised if it was with a brand-new cast. You can likely then expect the returns of Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldaña (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), John Cho (Sulu) and Simon Pegg (Scotty).

Urban certainly seems keen for a return, although he also revealed in March 2022 that, like Pine, he hadn't read a script yet . "I would love to work with those guys again; so much fun, the best hang. We'll see," he enthused.

It all feels very up in the air, as per Quinto's quotes, but that doesn't mean we can't hope.

The initial plan for the fourth movie was to have a timey-wimey adventure that featured Chris Pine's James T Kirk somehow joining forces with his long-dead dad, played by Chris Hemsworth .

Hemsworth opened up in May 2019 about why he stepped away from the movie , saying: "I didn't feel like we landed on a reason to revisit that yet. I didn't want to be underwhelmed by what I was going to bring to the table."

It's unclear if this new version of Star Trek 4 plans to bring Hemsworth back or if it's gone in a totally new direction, but Hemsworth seems open to a return for the fourth movie.

In October 2022, Rings of Power bosses JD Payne and Patrick McKay teased more about what their original idea for the fourth movie was going to be. "The conceit was that through a cosmic quirk in the Star Trek world, they were the same age," McKay explained.

We also don't know yet whether the new movie will recast Pavel Chekov following Anton Yelchin's tragic death in 2016. "It's bittersweet because we are coming together for a fourth time, and one of us is no longer with us," Saldaña said in March 2022 .

"But we honestly feel that going back and keeping the Star Trek family together is a way to really keep him alive in our thoughts and our hearts."

Right now, we don't have any confirmed plot details for the fourth movie, and it's not clear how closely it'll follow on from the ending of Star Trek Beyond .

The third movie ended with Kirk declining the promotion to vice admiral and staying as the captain of the USS Enterprise. Spock also chose to remain in Starfleet and reignited his romance with Uhura.

As the movie ends, they're all set to continue their mission on a brand-new USS Enterprise after the previous one was destroyed during the movie's events.

It means that the fourth movie can go anywhere. But, for Pine, he believes that whatever the plot is, it shouldn't try to compete with Marvel .

"I've always thought that Star Trek should operate in the zone that is smaller. You know, it's not a Marvel appeal. It's like, let's make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek ," he said.

"Let's make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great. But make it for a price and make it, so that if it makes a half-billion dollars, that's really good."

You're kidding, right? We'd love to get all timey-wimey ourselves and show you a trailer for Star Trek 4 from the future, but we're stuck in the Mirror Universe.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

Gabriella Geisinger is a freelance journalist and film critic, and was previously Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy. She loves Star Wars , coming-of-age stories, thrillers , and true crime. A born and raised New Yorker, she also loves coffee and the colour black, obviously.

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Exploring a Significant Inconsistency in Star Trek’s “And The Children Shall Lead” Episode

I n the Star Trek episode “And The Children Shall Lead,” there is a notable oversight that Trekkies have observed. It pertains to Captain Kirk’s premature knowledge of the antagonist Gorgan’s name prior to it being disclosed onscreen. Despite not being informed of the name until later in the episode by the character Tommy (Craig Huxley), Kirk incorrectly uses it earlier, indicating a lapse that went unnoticed from scripting to the episode’s final cut.

This instance of inconsistent writing is highlighted on the Orion Press website as a probable editorial slip-up during the production process. Nevertheless, it is one of the many spots that dedicated Star Trek enthusiasts—an avid group fond of identifying such errors—frequently uncover and discuss with a mix of critique and amusement.

Honing in on these narrative missteps has turned into something of a sport for fans, and author Phil Farrand has even compiled comprehensive guides detailing such discrepancies across the Star Trek franchise.

Beyond the error involving Gorgan’s name, the episode “And The Children Shall Lead” contains additional slip-ups. Examples include neglecting the fate of a pair of security guards and showing a recording device within in-universe archival footage. These details underscore a broader trend of playful vigilance among the Star Trek fandom.

The practice of poring over episodes for mistakes is a testament to the attentiveness and ardor of the show’s fanbase, converting fandom into an engaged, “full-contact sport.”

What was the plot hole in Star Trek’s “And the Children Shall Lead” episode?

The plot hole involved Captain Kirk referencing the name “Gorgan” before the character was officially introduced by that name in the episode.

How did the Gorgan name error occur?

The error is thought to be an editing oversight that occurred during the scriptwriting phase and was not caught before the episode was produced.

Has someone documented errors in Star Trek episodes?

Yes, author Phil Farrand has published several books, such as “The Nitpicker’s Guide for Classic Trekkers,” that detail errors found in Star Trek episodes.

Are there other errors in the episode aside from the Gorgan mistake?

Yes, there are other errors including leaving behind security guards on a planet, visible recording equipment in supposed archival footage, and characters arriving at their destination in a turbolift without giving any voice instructions.

Though “Star Trek” has long captivated audiences with its imaginative storytelling and iconic characters, it is not without its flaws, as the episode “And The Children Shall Lead” demonstrates. The endearing enthusiasm with which fans unearth and discuss these imperfections is a salute to the enduring impact of the series and the devoted community it has fostered. Despite any on-screen missteps, “Star Trek” remains a beloved and influential part of science fiction history, celebrated both for its vision and the camaraderie it inspires among those who navigate its vast universe.

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Star wars' upcoming tv show sounds like a star trek ripoff - & that's perfect.

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Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Cast, Story & Everything We Know

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• Star Wars: Skeleton Crew shares a plot similar to Star Trek: Prodigy , a departure from the standard Star Trek format.
• Although the plot overlap is there, it's an interesting convergence between rival sci-fi franchises.
• Focusing on a group of kids going on an adventure, Skeleton Crew 's premise sounds perfect for Star Wars .

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will be the next addition to the "Mandoverse" Star Wars TV shows , but its premise sounds like a ripoff of a certain Star Trek series. Set to release around Christmas 2024, Skeleton Crew is a coming-of-age drama starring Jude Law and a group of children as they travel across the Star Wars galaxy. Little else is known about the series, but that leaves Skeleton Crew full of potential, and the basic premise promises a moving and heartfelt story.

However, some fans were quick to note that the plot of Skeleton Crew is remarkably similar to one of the recent Star Trek TV shows . While this is likely a coincidence, as Star Wars shows spend years in development, it's still a rare and fascinating convergence between two rival sci-fi franchises. So what exactly makes the two shows seem so similar, and why might it actually be good for Skeleton Crew ?

The upcoming live-action TV show, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, looks to be a fascinatingly unique Disney+ show. Here's what's known about it so far.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Follows A Very Familiar Star Trek Formula

Star trek: prodigy also follows a group of kids who find a spaceship.

Although Skeleton Crew is meant to expand the Star Wars franchise, its premise sounds incredibly similar to the animated Star Trek: Prodigy . According to series creator Jon Watts, Skeleton Crew will follow a group of kids traveling the galaxy, desperate to find their way home , a description that undoubtedly caught the attention of Star Trek fans. Prodigy also follows a group of children forced into a life of mining, but when they discover a state-of-the-art Starfleet vessel, they commandeer the ship and set out to find the United Federation of Planets in the Alpha Quadrant.

While no story is ever completely original, it is admittedly funny that the basic plot of Skeleton Crew is so similar to Prodigy . Star Wars is often accused of copying itself with recent movies and TV shows, so it's a strange turn of events to see Star Wars accused of copying its biggest franchise rival. However, one aspect of Prodigy may illustrate that Skeleton Crew is taking the correct approach with its story.

Star Trek: Prodigy Felt Like A "Wars" Show Anyway!

A band of heroes on an adventure is standard for star wars.

Apart from being the franchise's first 3D animated series, Prodigy doesn't really feel like a Star Trek show , at least not at the beginning. Most Star Trek shows follow a group of experienced Starfleet officers on a mission of exploration and discovery, but Prodigy takes a different approach by focusing on aliens who know nothing about Starfleet or the Federation. A group of ragtag underdogs banding together to go on an adventure and fight a powerful enemy is a formula normally associated with Star Wars .

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Prodigy is the first TV series in the Star Trek franchise marketed toward children, and one of the few animated series in the franchise. The story follows a group of young aliens who find a stolen Starfleet ship and use it to escape from the Tars Lamora prison colony where they are all held captive. Working together with the help of a holographic Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the new crew of the USS Protostar must find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation of the deadly threat that is pursuing them.

This means Skeleton Crew is on the right track with its premise, even if it is similar to Prodigy . It wouldn't be the first time these franchises copied each other, as J.J. Abrams was heavily inspired by Star Wars when he directed the 2009 Star Trek reboot . All that matters is whether Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a good show and a meaningful addition to the franchise, but fans will have to wait until later this year to find out.

Sloppy Scripting Put A Massive Plot Hole In Star Trek's And The Children Shall Lead Episode

In the "Star Trek" episode "And the Children Shall Lead" (October 11, 1968), the Enterprise discovers a remote science station where the entire staff seems to have died by their own hands. Chillingly, the children of the staff — all of them under 12 — seem oblivious to the dead bodies scattered around, happily playing and giggling as usual. Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) posits that the kids might have blocked out the horrors as a form of protective amnesia, but soon the real plot is revealed. In private, the children are visited by a ghostly being named Gorgan ( star lawyer Melvin Belli, who was referenced in David Fincher's "Zodiac" ) who imbues them with eerie mental powers and gives them dark instructions.

Gorgan tells the children to take over the Enterprise, which they are able to do by pumping their fists and hypnotizing the crew. Sulu (George Takei) looks at the viewscreen and sees knives and swords. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) looks in a mirror and sees that she is now 100 years old. Gorgan aims to abscond to another planet where he'll have a home base from which he can take over the galaxy. The kids are his mere pawns.

Because Trekkies have a keen eye for details (a polite way of saying "nitpickers"), many have noticed a small error in "And the Children Shall Lead." When the children want to summon Gorgan, they perform a specific invocational chant. Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) record the chant and play it back to conjure Gorgan themselves. Partway through the episode — as seen in the script archived on the Orion Press Fanzines website — Kirk requests that Spock "summon up the Gorgan." It won't be until later, however, that Kirk will be told Gorgan's name for the first time.

Kirk shouldn't have known that

Prior to the "summon up the Gorgan" moment in the fourth act of the episode, Kirk hadn't been told Gorgan's name, and there was no way he could have learned it. Later, when Kirk finally confronts Gorgan, he asks the apparition's name. One of the kids, Tommy (Craig Huxley), informs Kirk for the first time. "He is Gorgan," Tommy says. "He is our friend — and he is all-powerful."

Kirk's use of the name "Gorgan" appears both in the original script and in the final broadcast version of the episode. It was an error that slipped through all the way to production. The Orion Press website posits that the gaffe was the result of an editing error during the scriptwriting phase.

Spotting errors in "Star Trek" is, of course, a robust extracurricular sport commonly played by Trekkies, and is usually done playfully. Indeed, author Phil Farrand  assembled several definitive texts of "Star Trek" errors in "The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers" (1993), "The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers" (1994), "The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Volume II" in 1995, and "The Nitpicker's Guide for Deep Space Nine Trekkers" in 1996.

Farrand noted several other conspicuous errors in "And the Children Shall Lead" beyond the mere Gorgan gaffe. For one, Kirk seems to have abandoned a pair of security guards on the planet when the Enterprise left with the children. Oops. In another scene, the children watch archive footage of their parents, and the recording device can be seen in the archive footage. Oops. Later on, Kirk and Spock enter a turbolift, give no voice instructions, yet still arrive at their destination.

Nitpicky? Definitely. Fun to spot? Absolutely. After all, being a Trekkie is a full-contact sport .

Roger Corman Tried To Copy Star Wars & Gave Us Peak '80s Cheesy Sci-Fi

Roger Corman's quest to match the meteoritic success of Star Wars included collaborating with major sci-fi legends.

The Big Picture

• Roger Corman, legendary filmmaker known for creating low-budget classics and launching the careers of many iconic directors, has passed away at the age of 98.
• The success of Star Wars led Roger Corman to produce Battle Beyond the Stars , a sci-fi film that drew inspiration from Star Wars , The Magnificent Seven , and Seven Samurai .
• Battle Beyond the Stars featured an all-star team including director Jimmy T. Murakami, screenwriter John Sayles, composer James Horner, and a young James Cameron.
• Despite mixed reviews, Battle Beyond the Stars was a surprise success, earning $11 million on a $2 million budget and gaining cult status among film fans.

If you make a successful, genre-defining film, chances are that someone will try to replicate it. The success of The Avengers not only proved that the Marvel Cinematic Universe could work, but the blockbuster sent every studio into a race to create their own "cinematic universe." Barbie has already led Hasbro to start developing a plethora of toy-related movies — including Uno , for some reason. However, nowhere is this phenomenon more prominent than with Star Wars . George Lucas ' vision of a galaxy far, far away has spawned many imitators. Some of them were surprisingly good, like Spaceballs , while others reek of hubris, particularly Max Landis 's Bright , which he believed would be "his Star Wars " (the reception proved otherwise). Perhaps the biggest Star Wars imitation is the 1980 space Western Battle Beyond the Stars . Not only did it take overt influence from Star Wars , but it also came right on the tail of The Empire Strikes Back . In the end, the Roger Corman -produced film has a unique charm, as well as some major science fiction legends behind its production. With the news of the Oscar-winning filmmaker's passing , there's no better time to revisit and reflect on some of the works that rightfully earned him the title of "King of the Bs."

Battle Beyond the Stars

A farm boy recruits a band of outlaws to save the planet Akir from forces that threaten to wipe them out from the face of the universe. A battle stretching beyond the stars begins here.

How Did Star Wars Inspire Roger Corman With 'Battle Beyond the Stars'?

Roger Corman was one of the most interesting figures in filmmaking history. He produced and directed a wide variety of films across a wide variety of genres, including Frankenstein Unbound and Death Race 2000 . Corman would also give several Hollywood legends their start, including Francis Ford Coppola , Ron Howard , and Martin Scorsese . Yes, you read that right. Of course, one can't forget his producing credit on the first-ever film adaption of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four (which has never seen the light of day). Needless to say, Corman was an intensely savvy businessman, so when Star Wars: A New Hope exploded in popularity, he decided to hop on the bandwagon and produce his own sci-fi epic .

But George Lucas wasn't Roger Corman's only source of inspiration. Battle Beyond the Stars also draws major inspiration from the Western classic The Magnificent Seven , which itself is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa 's Seven Samurai . The war epic had previously inspired a lot of films — ironically, Star Wars was chief among them — but it also helped in part to kick off the wave of spaghetti Westerns that would populate Hollywood until the 1970s. Both films and Battle Beyond the Stars share a similar plot: a small colony is besieged by enemy forces, which leads the population to seek out help from local mercenaries . In the process, the mercenaries and townsfolk form a strong bond and manage to repel the invaders. Though the plot and the setting might change, Seven Samurai has become universal — to this day many filmmakers cite it as an influence.

Sorry, Star Wars TV Shows Are Better Than the Movies

Battle Beyond the Stars managed to mix elements from both Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven . Instead of a town, there is the planet Akir, named in honor of Kurosawa . Many of the mercenaries that young farmer Shad ( Richard Thomas ) finds to defend Akir happen to be cowboys — particularly the Scotch-slinging gunslinger who's actually named Cowboy ( George Peppard ), and the fugitive Gelt ( Robert Vaughn ). Ironically, Vaughn played a similar role in The Magnificent Seven as the on-the-run gunslinger Lee. The fact that this movie managed to pay homage to both of the films that inspired it, while also chasing Star Wars ' glory, is a feat in and of itself.

Sci-fi Legends James Cameron and John Sayles Worked on 'Battle Beyond the Stars'

To bring Battle Beyond the Stars to life, Roger Corman wrangled together an all-star team including director Jimmy T. Murakami ( Heavy Metal ) alongside screenwriter John Sayles and composer James Horner . Sayles would go on to script other science fiction films including E.T.: The Extra-Terrestial and The Howling , while Horner would score Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and The Rocketeer . But his biggest get would have to be none other than James Cameron. Yes, the same James Cameron who would bring the world the Terminator and Avatar sagas to life got his start working on a Star Wars pastiche.

James Cameron was brought onto Battle Beyond the Stars by Corman when he was 25 , first serving as a model maker before becoming the art director of the film. Cameron's skill for crafting worlds out of full cloth is on full display throughout Battle Beyond The Stars , especially when it comes to the vehicles. The spaceships populating the film have their own flair, particularly the living ship Nell. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that the ship bears more than a passing resemblance to the female reproductive system, which is extremely ironic given the themes of motherhood that run through Cameron's other works. Cameron has only continued to push himself forward when it comes to visual effects in movies, and it all started with Battle Beyond The Stars .

'Battle Beyond the Stars' Was a Surprise Success

When it premiered in theaters, Battle Beyond the Stars managed to gain a considerable profit, earning $11 million off of its $2 million budget. A lot of this is in spite of the quality (the film received mixed reviews upon release) and due to the fact that the nation was still in post- Empire Strikes Back euphoria. Years later, a prequel comic titled Battle Among the Stars was released by Bluewater Productions, which depicted the long-standing feud between Akir and the malevolent Sador. Battle Beyond the Stars would gain cult status , with film fans conceding that while it wouldn't reach the height of Star Wars, it's still worth a watch.

Ironically, Battle Beyond the Stars has something of a modern successor in Rebel Moon . Zack Snyder 's science fiction epic originally started life as a Star Wars pitch prior to Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm. Snyder retrofitted it into an original story, though, like Corman, he specifically cited Seven Samurai as an influence. Battle Beyond the Stars is worth a watch, whether it's viewers who enjoy Corman's bombastic B-movie fair or want to learn how to properly ride the coattails of a popular film.

Battle Beyond the Stars is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.

Watch on Tubi

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By Andreas Wiseman

Andreas Wiseman

Executive Editor, International & Strategy

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A new Guy Ritchie project is launching at the Cannes market with Black Bear .

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Black Bear is set for a busy  Cannes market , launching projects including David Michôd’s Christy Martin film starring Sydney Sweeney; Gregg Araki’s thriller,  I Want Your Sex , starring Olivia Wilde; and bigh-budget Mahershala Ali-Tom Hardy thriller,  77 Blackout,  from director Cary Joji Fukunaga and producer Charles Roven; and an untitled Jason Statham-Baltasar Kormakur pic.

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