star trek the edge of darkness

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Star Trek Into Darkness

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
When the USS Enterprise crew is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction. As our space heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. — Paramount Pictures
The latest mission of the USS Enterprise crew takes them into deep space to rescue an endangered species from an active volcano. However, once again Captain Kirk's reckless behavior compromises the mission and nearly gets him booted from Starfleet. Turning back to his mentor Admiral Pike, Kirk is demoted to an academy cadet and has to start over. However, when a ruthless warlord attacks Starfleet and shoots Admiral Pike in the process, Kirk takes command and takes the Enterprise deep into the neutral zone and the Klingon homeworld. Unknown to the crew, a Starfleet renegade is manipulating the Federation and the Klingons into a possible war. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew must stop the war before all hell breaks loose. And what awaits the crew of the USS Enterprise on their forthcoming five-year mission? — Blazer346
The USS Enterprise is sent to Planet Nibiru to observe a pre-warp civilization. Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) attempt to save the inhabitants from an imminent volcano eruption which would wipe out the civilization. When Spock's life is jeopardized, Kirk breaks the Prime Directive, exposing the Enterprise to the planet's civilization during Spock's rescue. A number of indigenous people begin to worship the ship as it leaves. Called back to Earth, Kirk is demoted to First Officer and Admiral Christopher Pike re-assumes command of the Enterprise. In London, Starfleet agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) bombs a secret "Section 31" installation. In San Francisco, Pike and his first officer attend an emergency meeting of high-ranking officers at Starfleet headquarters. The meeting is attacked by a gunship piloted by Harrison, who kills Pike. Kirk destroys the gunship, but Harrison flees. With Pike dead, Admiral Alexander Marcus authorizes Kirk to hunt down Harrison, who has used trans warp beaming and fled to the Klingon home world of Kronos. Since Kronos lies deep in Klingon territory and the Federation is on the brink of war with the Klingon Empire, the Enterprise is supplied with 72 long-range prototype photon torpedoes and is ordered to fire them at Harrison's location once he is found. Thinking that the torpedoes could be dangerous to the ship, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott refuses to take them aboard and tenders his resignation (which Kirk accepts), whereupon Pavel Chekov is promoted to Chief Engineer. Admiral Marcus' daughter, scientist Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), joins the crew under a false identity. Arriving at the Klingon home world, the Enterprise's warp core malfunctions. With repairs underway, Kirk, Spock and Uhura use a previously commandeered trader ship to reach Kronos. After being detected by Klingon patrol ships, the three are forced to land. Despite Uhura's attempts to negotiate, the Klingons prepare to kill the trio. Harrison wipes out the Klingons in a show of superhuman strength and confronts the landing party, but surrenders after learning the precise number of photon torpedoes aimed at him. Returning to the Enterprise, Harrison reveals his real identity: Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically augmented superhuman, who has been in Cryo sleep for 300 years after his unsuccessful war to have his superhuman comrades rule the Earth. He advises Kirk to examine the 72 prototype torpedoes and also tells him a set of spatial coordinates. Kirk orders Leonard McCoy to examine the torpedoes, and contacts Scotty on Earth to check the coordinates. The torpedoes are found to each contain a genetically engineered human in Cryo sleep - the remaining members of Khan's colleagues. Khan explains that Admiral Marcus awakened him to use his superior intellect and savagery to develop advanced weapons for a war with the Klingons, keeping his colleagues as hostages. He also says that now Marcus wants to kill Khan to erase every trace of his association with a known war criminal. Kirk realizes that the Enterprise's warp core had been sabotaged on Admiral Marcus' orders, making the covert operation to kill Khan a one-way ticket. Scotty arrives at the coordinates and finds a secret Starfleet shipyard, which he infiltrates. The Enterprise's warp core is repaired, but the ship is soon confronted by an unregistered Federation battleship, the USS Vengeance - a massive vessel built for combat which dwarfs the Enterprise. Admiral Marcus reveals himself as the commander of the Vengeance, demanding Kirk hand over Khan. Kirk refuses, and the Enterprise warps toward Earth, to have Khan stand trial. In Earth's orbit, the Enterprise is attacked by the Vengeance. With the Enterprise severely damaged, Kirk offers to hand over Khan and the 72 bodies in Cryo sleep in exchange for the lives of his crew. Marcus refuses, beams his daughter to the Vengeance, and orders the destruction of the Enterprise-when the Vengeance suddenly suffers a complete power outage, caused by Scotty who had boarded the ship at the secret shipyard. As the Enterprise weapons are too damaged to continue the fight and knowing that Khan was the designer of the Vengeance, Kirk allies himself with Khan and boards the ship. They reunite with Scotty and take the bridge. Meanwhile, Spock contacts Spock Prime to learn of Khan's history and how to defeat him. Khan betrays Kirk and takes control of the Vengeance, killing Admiral Marcus. Khan negotiates with Spock, beaming Kirk and his boarding party back to the Enterprise in exchange for the 72 Cryo torpedoes. Khan plans to destroy the Enterprise, but Spock reveals that real - and armed - torpedoes were beamed to the Vengeance, keeping the Cryo pods on the Enterprise. The torpedoes incapacitate the Vengeance and anger Khan, who believes that his 72 colleagues have been killed. Both ships start descending towards Earth's surface. At the cost of his life, Kirk re-aligns the warp core, enabling the crew to regain control of the Enterprise. The Vengeance crashes into downtown San Francisco but does not kill Khan. Khan tries to escape in the chaos but is pursued by Spock. McCoy discovers that Khan's blood may reanimate Kirk and Uhura prevents Spock from killing Khan, capturing him instead. In the aftermath, Kirk is revived and returns to duty as Captain of the Enterprise. Khan is sealed into his Cryo pod and stored away with the rest of his crew. As the film ends, a restored Enterprise is re-christened and departs for a 5-year mission of exploration.

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Star Trek Into Darkness

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Watch Star Trek Into Darkness with a subscription on Paramount+, Apple TV+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Visually spectacular and suitably action packed, Star Trek Into Darkness is a rock-solid installment in the venerable sci-fi franchise, even if it's not as fresh as its predecessor.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

J.J. Abrams

Capt. James T. Kirk

Zachary Quinto

Dr. Leonard McCoy

Zoe Saldana

Nyota Uhura

Anton Yelchin

Pavel Chekov

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Star Trek Into Darkness

2013 • PG-13

After an unspeakable terrorist act at the heart of the Federation, Kirk, and his crew head off on a manhunt into enemy territory to capture a familiar foe with superhuman abilities.

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Film Review: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’

J.J. Abrams sets his filmmaking to 'stun' with a sequel in every respect equal or even superior to its splendid 2009 predecessor

By Scott Foundas

Scott Foundas

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J.J. Abrams sets his filmmaking to “stun” for “ Star Trek Into Darkness,” a sequel in every respect equal or even superior to its splendid 2009 predecessor, which lovingly and cleverly rebooted Gene Roddenberry ’s long-running space opera following the black hole of 2002’s “Star Trek Nemesis.” Markedly grander in scale, although never at the expense of its richly human (and half-human) characters, “Into Darkness” may not boldly go where no “Trek” adventure has gone before, but getting there is such a well-crafted, immensely pleasurable ride that it would be positively Vulcan to nitpick. Global box office cume should easily warp past the prior pic’s $385 million for this sturdy Paramount tentpole, which opens overseas May 9 before beaming down Stateside one week later.

Abrams, whose last pic was the lyrical “E.T.”/“Close Encounters” homage “Super 8,” here tips his hat to the “Indiana Jones” series, opening with a thrilling setpiece that finds Kirk ( Chris Pine ) and Bones (the sly, loose-limbed Karl Urban ) on the run from a tribe of very angry natives on the planet Nibiru. The natives, decked out in head-to-toe clay body paint, shimmer like human ceramics as they chase the Starfleet officers through a crimson forest, the lush colors of returning d.p. Dan Mindel all but searing the screen. Meanwhile, Spock ( Zachary Quinto ) toils away nearby, attempting to insert a high-tech ice cube into the raging volcano that threatens to destroy Nibiru and its inhabitants — a dangerous mission that quickly goes awry, building to a classic “Trek” standoff between stubborn Vulcan logic and impulsive human emotion.

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The Enterprise crew has scarcely recovered from that one when, back on Earth, a terror bombing lays waste to a top-secret Starfleet intelligence facility and brings to the fore a new galactic baddie: a rogue Starfleet officer named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who claims credit for the attack and, after an equally brazen follow-up, hightails it deep into Klingon-controlled space. The hawkish Adm. Marcus ( Peter Weller ) dispatches the Enterprise in hot pursuit, with this familiar-sounding objective: Shoot first, ask questions later, and avoid starting a war with the locals. Welcome to “Star Trek Into Zero Dark Thirty.”

Only, this John Harrison is a slippery sort who, when given the chance, claims not to be the villain at all, but rather a pawn in someone else’s deadlier scheme. And for much of its running time, “ Star Trek Into Darkness ” makes a good guessing game out of whether this mysterious stranger with the glacial glare and bones seemingly made of steel is friend, foe or — like the “old Spock” of Abrams’ first “Trek” — a little bit of history repeating. It hardly matters, because whatever Cumberbatch is playing, he’s wonderful to watch, infusing the movie with the kind of exotic grandeur Eric Bana’s wan Romulan henchman (arguably the weakest link in the 2009 film) largely lacked. Also making her maiden “Trek” voyage is the lovely Alice Eve as an ambitious science officer who lies her way on to the Enterprise deck and makes goo-goo eyes with the good Captain. She is not, it turns out, the ship’s only stowaway.

Having previously established an alternate “Trek” timeline in which all the events of prior series and movies still happened, but aren’t necessarily doomed to recur, Abrams and returning writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (now joined by “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof) here take that idea and run with it, invoking prior “Trek” lore when it suits them, freely branching off into new directions when it doesn’t. (Hell, there’s even some trouble with a tribble.) It’s a tricky business, balancing reverence with reinvention, but like the young Kirk, Abrams seems altogether more comfortable in the captain’s chair this time — not just in the large-scale action scenes, but particularly in the quieter ones, where you can sense his real investment in these characters and his confident touch with actors.

SEE ALSO: ‘Star Trek’ Premieres in London (Photos)

The film builds particularly well on the burgeoning Kirk-Spock friendship, with Pine showing reserves of vulnerability and doubt beneath his cocksure exterior, while Quinto adds gravitas to Spock’s eternal inner conflict — and his deepening romance with Lt. Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ). But make no mistake: The action, when it comes, is superbly executed, whether it’s giant vessels making mincemeat of one another, or the simpler excitements of old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat and foot chases through crowded promenades.

The best, even-numbered films in the original “Trek” film franchise were shaped by the guiding intelligence of writer-director Nicholas Meyer , who laced the Starfleet jargon with high-toned literary references and a gently self-mocking sense of humor. Abrams, too, manages to keep the mood buoyant even when the fate of the universe is hanging in the balance, more than earning his tears when he finally decides to milk them. But if Meyer’s primary references were Shakespeare, Dickens and Conan Doyle, Abrams’ are Spielberg, John Hughes and Cameron Crowe. In defiance of the self-congratulatory snark that has become de rigueur in Hollywood franchise fare, he brings a shimmering pop romanticism to “Trek’s” stalwart ideals of friendship, heroism and self-sacrifice. There’s something bold about that, indeed.

“Into Darkness” is a beautifully modulated and sustained piece of work across the board, with visual effects that seamlessly meld live-action and computer-animated elements, given further texture by old-fashioned celluloid lensing (with 65mm Imax used for key action scenes). Post-production 3D conversion by Stereo D ranks among the best of its kind. The Enterprise has rarely looked sleeker than it does on production designer Scott Chambliss ‘ sets. Adding the cherry to the top of this cinematic sundae, composer Michael Giacchino ‘s soaring score once again revives Alexander Courage’s immortal Trek theme for the closing credits.

Movie Stills:

Benedict Cumberbatch in "Star Trek Into Darkness."

Paramount Pictures

Reviewed at AMC Loews 34th Street, May 2, 2013. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 132 MIN.

Production: A Paramount release presented with Skydance Productions of a Bad Robot production. Produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci. Executive producers, Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Paul Schwake. Co-producers, Tommy Gormley, Tommy Harper, Ben Rosenblatt, Michelle Rejwan.
Crew: Directed by J.J. Abrams. Screenplay, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, based on “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry. Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen/35mm/Imax, 3D), Dan Mindel; editors, Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey; music, Michael Giacchino; production designer, Scott Chambliss; supervising art director, Ramsey Avery; art directors, Kasra Farahani, Michael E. Goldman, Andrew E.W. Murdock, Harry E. Otto, Lauren Polizzi; set decorator, Karen Manthey; costume designer, Michael Kaplan; sound (Dolby Atmos/Datasat), Peter J. Devlin; sound designer, Ben Burtt; supervising sound editors, Burtt, Matthew Wood; re-recording mixers, Will Files, James Bolt; visual effects supervisor, Roger Guyett; ILM visual effects co-supervisor, Patrick Tubach; ILM visual effects producer, Luke O’Byrne; visual effects, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixomondo, Kelvin Optical, Atomic Fiction; stunt coordinator, John Stoneham Jr.; assistant director, Tommy Gormley; second unit director, Guyett; second unit camera, Bruce McCleery; casting, April Webster, Alyssa Weisberg.
With: John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Peter Weller, Anton Yelchin, Leonard Nimoy.

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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

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Captain James T. Kirk

Commander Spock

Leuitenant Nyota Uhura

Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

Lieutenant Commander Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu

John Harrison / Khan

Ensign Pavel Chekov

Admiral Christopher Pike

Admiral Alexander Marcus

Dr. Carol Marcus

Ambassador Spock

Thomas Harewood

Rima Harewood

Ensign Brackett

Lieutenant Chapin

Ensign Froman

Navigation Officer Darwin

Science Officer 0718

Lead Nibiran

Captain Abbot

Lucille Harewood

U.S.S. Enterprise Shuttle Ensign

Torpedo Security

Uniformed Mercenary

U.S.S. Vengeance Officer

U.S.S. Vengeance Bridge Officer

U.S.S. Vengeance Ensign

Starfleet Admiral

Transport Officer

U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge Crew

U.S.S. Enterprise Security

U.S.S. Enterprise Nurse

Shuttle Pilot

U.S.S. Enterprise Red Shirt

U.S.S. Enterprise Crew

San Francisco Woman

San Francisco Bar Patron

U.S.S. Vengeance Security

San Francisco Resident

Nibiru Child

Starfleet Ceremonial Guard

Starfleet Memorial Admiral

Additional Voices (voice)

NYU Nurse (uncredited)

Ensign Spyke (uncredited)

U.S.S. Enterprise Security (uncredited)

Bar Patron (uncredited)

Starfleet Admiral (uncredited)

Andrea Carter

Art Department Coordinator

Christine Youngstrom

Andrew Murdock

Art Direction

Harry E. Otto

Kasra Farahani

Lauren E. Polizzi

Michael E. Goldman

Natasha Gerasimova

Assistant Art Director

Stephen Christensen

Chris Snyder

Construction Coordinator

Scott Chambliss

Production Design

Andrew M. Siegel

Property Master

Karen Manthey

Set Decoration

Randall D. Wilkins

Set Designer

Ramsey Avery

Supervising Art Director

Colin Anderson

Camera Operator

Dale Myrand

John Skotchdopole

Philippe Carr-Forster

Director of Photography

Bruce McCleery

Second Unit Director of Photography

Andrew Rowlands

Steadicam Operator

Jaimie Trueblood

Still Photographer

Costume & Makeup

Assistant Costume Designer

Deborah Rutherford

Assistant Makeup Artist

Michael Kaplan

Costume Design

James W. Tyson

Costume Supervisor

Mary L. Mastro

Hair Department Head

Michele Payne

Hairstylist

Sheryl Blum

Janine Rath-Thompson

Key Hair Stylist

Don Rutherford

Makeup Artist

Jeanne Van Phue

Karen Iverson

Vera Steimberg

David LeRoy Anderson

Makeup Department Head

Anthony Almaraz

Set Costumer

Jason M. Moore

Lisa A. Doyle

Myron Baker

Veronica Lorenz

Special Effects Makeup Artist

Daniel Pearson

CG Supervisor

Enrico Damm

Robert Weaver

Brian N. Bentley

Compositors

Adam Watkins

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Cassandra McCormick

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Eugene Collier

Brian Avery

Caryn Mower

Dane Farwell

Doug Coleman

Jennifer Caputo

Jessica Harbeck

Krista Bell

Kurt D. Lott

Mark De Alessandro

Shauna Duggins

Tanoai Reed

Peewee Piemonte

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James Clyne

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Yanick Dusseault

Alisa Simonds

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Brian David Miller

Lorelei David

J.J. Abrams

Dawn Gilliam

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Andy Kaplan

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Juan Ignacio Cabrera

Mary Jo Markey

Maryann Brandon

Julian Smirke

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Rita DaSilva

John McGonegle

Electrician

Alyssa Weisberg

April Webster

Dana Goldberg

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David Ellison

Jeffrey Chernov

Paul Schwake

Alex Kurtzman

Damon Lindelof

Roberto Orci

Stuart McCowan

Cheryl Nardi

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Steve Slanec

Ronni Brown

Sean England

Andrea Datzman

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Ramiro Belgardt

Michael Giacchino

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Pascal Garneau

Peter J. Devlin

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Andy Nelson

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Danielle Dupre

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Matthew Wood

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Bastian Wartenberg

Berter Orpak

Brandon Fayette

Florian Friedmann

Jenn Emberly

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Paul Kavanagh

Sebastian Butenberg

Neville Page

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Burt Dalton

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Dale Taylor

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Richard Ivan Mann

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Star trek into darkness: film review.

J.J. Abrams returns to direct the crew of the Enterprise as Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana face off against Benedict Cumberbatch.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Star Trek Into Darkness Still - H 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness , J.J. Abrams ‘s second entry in his reboot of the eternal franchise, has been engineered rather than directed, calibrated to deliver sensation on cue and stocked with just enough new character twists to keep fans rapt. At its core an intergalactic manhunt tale about a traitor to the cause, the production gives the impression of a massive machine cranked up for two hours of full output; it efficiently delivers what it’s built to do, but without style or personality. The widely admired 2009 series relaunch pulled in $385 million in worldwide box office (an unusual two-thirds of that in the American market), and this one should follow very closely in that trajectory.

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It was like I was seeing a ghost.

Playing With Fire

No shenanigans under my watch.

Like A Boss

We are two badass queens like those bitches who raised Wonder Woman.

The Rhythm Section

I need your help to find the ones who did this. I’ve got nothing to lose.

I could hear the whole tune in my head. It was all there.

J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is the best-reviewed blockbuster of the year. When a ruthless mastermind known as Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) declares a one-man war on the Federation, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the daring crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise will embark on the greatest manhunt in history. It will take all of their skills and teamwork to defend Earth and eliminate Khan’s threat in this “sleek, thrilling epic.” (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)

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Cast & Crew

Star Trek Into Darkness - Full Cast & Crew

72 Metascore
2 hr 10 mins
Drama, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction
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The crew of the Enterprise discovers that Starfleet is in ruins after they are summoned home, and they venture into a war zone to find the powerful villain responsible for the devastation.

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Co-producer, visual effects producer, visual effects exec. producer, cinematographer, production company, assistant editor, art director, supervising art director, set decorator, costumes supervisor, sound mixer, sound effects, supervising sound editor, special effects supervisor, special effects, visual effects supervisor, visual effects, visual effects editor, first assistant director, production designer, unit production manager, post production supervisor, production coordinator, production supervisor, second assistant director, fights choreographer, supervising animator, choreographer, creature design, re-recording mixer, first assistant editor, department head hair, department head makeup, second unit director.

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Star Trek Into Darkness: how it was made, by the people who made it

You know how it went: in 2009 JJ Abrams – creator of Lost, director of Mission: Impossible 3 – exhumed the rotting corpse of Star Trek , not only bringing a dying franchise back to life but making it cool. He achieved this without giving it a radical spin, without going dark and gritty, as is the way these days. He just made it really, really good, rescuing Star Trek from sweaty convention halls, making its niche universe universal.

A key factor was his non-allegiance to Star Trek . He wasn't a fan, thus went to work purely as a storyteller, without having to deal with any emotional baggage or nostalgic attachment. It paid off – the film took $385m at the box office and gave the galactic horn to fans and non-fans alike. But the shock of the new is so 2009, and with this week's sequel, Abrams was not dealing with a reboot but just another Star Trek film. Once again he assembled his crew, blockbuster brainiacs who are constantly in high demand. The good news is that, once again, the film delivers; it's as beautiful as it is breathtaking. We spoke to some of the key players to discuss how they did it.

'The band's getting back together'

Neville Page (creature designer) I got the call from the producers saying, "The band's getting back together." I was so excited. JJ puts together such a great team that it's a family reunion like few other films I've ever had. For that alone you just knew it was gonna be a great experience.

Scott Chambliss (production designer) Since the first film all of us had done different projects, and we all came back with this tremendous appreciation for JJ and collaborating with each other. The first Trek was an experience; it was tough, we had no idea how it was gonna turn out. So it was amazing that we came back with this spirit of, "I just wanna hug you and kiss you and work with you for the rest of my life, I'm so happy to be back!"

NP When I read the script I was so thrilled, because it was all the things the first one had, with the volume turned up to 11.

SC It definitely had a different tone. It had the potential for exciting environmental contrasts and really different story and action beats like the first one did, but new ones; new worlds to define and play off of each other.

'We didn't want to mess with the Enterprise'

Dan Mindel (director of photography) The Enterprise's look and feel has been established, and we didn't want to mess with it. The primary colours in the Enterprise, the uniforms, the healthy look of the actors: it's important. JJ said to me early on that Star Trek was all about positivity and people finding the best in bad situations. He's very driven by that, and we tried to keep that in the movie.

Michael Kaplan (costume designer) In the original TV show they would get beamed up, travel, do everything in those uniforms. In this film there are a lot of high-powered meetings with Kirk and officers, and I wanted to add a level of sophistication, where – like any military service uniform – there would be different parts. So they now have dress uniforms, and shuttle suits, which they travel in.

Mary L Mastro (hair department head) Because it's set in the future, I wanted to give it a little futuristic twist. You can't have a futuristic movie and have period hair, it can be distracting. If you look at old westerns, they have hairstyles from the period they were shooting. JJ's very particular about that sort of thing.

MK The wetsuits the crew wear at one point were really difficult to make. I wanted all custom colours, but we looked and they just didn't exist, so we ended up dyeing them, and through a lot of trial and error we found dyes that would work. Zoe Saldana looked pretty stunning in her red wetsuit, JJ's favourite costume. It was a big success putting her in a red wetsuit.

Jack White (food stylist) We did drinks for a bar scene that light up and glow. We used a lot of nice reds, and one black drink. Propmaster Andy Siegel and his crew found some floating light bulbs that glow then go off and come back on again. You drop them in the glass and the glass lights up. A fun thing we found was an ice cube ball, a round ice cube that fits perfectly into the cocktail glass. They're found in traditional Japanese restaurants, a good-luck thing they serve with desserts.

'We built a piece of the red planet in California'

SC Everybody wanted to do some blissful tropical island planet, but nobody wanted it to look like a standard blissful tropical environment we're familiar with here on Earth, because that doesn't feel like you're going any place special, it just feels like vacation. So I thought, "Well, we don't want it to be green." I constantly go to Hawaii, and one of the things I love there is lipstick bamboo. Portions of the trunks are this beautiful magenta. I took a photograph of timber bamboo, a beautiful jungle of it, and played with it in Photoshop and turned it really deep ruby red, and it was beautiful. I thought, "My God, if we put that with the turquoise water of Fiji and then pure white sand, what does that feel like?" That's when the ball started rolling.

DM JJ loves to use as much real set and world as possible. We built a piece of the red planet, including the volcano, outside in Marina del Rey [in California]. We shot it all at night so we could control the lights and manipulate it so that the steam that we were making would block out the sun and give us a lot of texture. All the sparks and fire is real.

MK Spock's suit is to protect him from the heat of the volcano. I'd never seen a space suit in copper, and I think copper's very beautiful. I went for the look more than the correct reasoning. Copper is probably the worst material to use when you're trying to protect yourself against heat. There needed to be ventilation in the helmet so that it didn't fog up, so that Zachary Quinto wasn't perspiring. It's a little bit scary because you have to be screwed into it, and if an actor's claustrophobic he could really start to panic, so I think you have to keep your mind away from those thoughts.

NP The Nibirans are an indigenous culture of people, and the thing that really drove it was the find of a particular guy to play our main Nibiran. His physical state is so interesting and unique that it allowed us to do very little makeup work to create a really unique creature.

MK We tried lots of different things to come up with the right feeling for the natives, and in the end it was draped and dyed fabric. We wanted something that was not too sophisticated, so that it would be very recognisable as a primitive race. The planet is all red, so I chose saffron gold, because it pops out.

'Some actors dwant to be action stars on't want to put in the work. Benedict was the opposite'

Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in a film still from Star Trek Into Darkness

MLM Benedict Cumberbatch was one of the last to be cast. He's our bad guy, and we wanted him to have dark hair, the opposite of our blond Captain Kirk. The day he flew in, JJ called a meeting with the creators involved in what he was going to look like and he walks into the room with super-short blond hair. My mouth dropped open, like, "Oh, great." We had two weeks before we started shooting, so we had to darken and lengthen his hair. I think they changed the schedule a little to give us more time. There was so much for him to work out for his character; having the look helped him to figure that out.

Martin De Boer (Cumberbatch's stunt double) I trained one-on-one with him. We did basic martial arts training, showing him how to punch, how to move. He's very receptive to learning. I've had actors who want to be an action star but don't want to put in the work, and he was the opposite, he said, "I want to train as much as I can." He was very committed. Besides working with us, he was working with his personal trainer five, six days a week; he really got in shape.

MK For the most part he wears civilian clothes, and I wanted him to be pretty dapper. He wears a number of very long, elegant coats. It's nice, even in the distance, to be able to recognise a character right away. He's pretty high fashion-looking.

MDB I had to train him in the movements we'd come up with, to make sure we were compatible. Everyone moves differently, so we have to translate those moves, maybe change them so he can get comfortable. A lot of stunt performers make the mistake of trying to put the fight on to the actors, but you want them to make the fight their own. His character is very strong and powerful so he wanted to have more static and powerful movements. That strength changes the rules of the martial arts we use. You don't have to do five punches, you just have to use a couple of moves and he takes out the guy already.

MLM Alice Eve plays Carol Marcus, who was in a previous Star Trek. Alice doesn't look anything like the person who originally played that role, but we wanted to give her a sensibility that was similar, yet not have it be that period.

MK Last time, Zoe needed to wear underwear, and this time it was Alice Eve's turn. You know, it's a rather large male fanbase, and JJ wanted to appeal to that.

'I tried to make the Klingons sexy: an ugly-beautiful group of men'

NP Of all the characters in Star Trek lore, the fanbase for Klingons is ginormous. Not even fanbase: a culture of people that live, breathe, eat and conduct themselves as Klingons for real. With that in mind, that design had to be dealt with with a great deal of consciousness. Otherwise, JJ gets serious bad press because he's "destroyed" the Klingons. As much as we wanna bring something fresh to the table, we also want to make sure that it is respectful to the culture. I studied Klingon quite a bit, and spoke to a lot of people, the Klingon people at Comic-Con , people who role-play that world. There was this one treatment, a piercing element that the Klingons have, and few would recognise it, but those who are serious fans will catch it.

MK The helmets address a lot of the features the Klingons have without having to show them. You kind of know they're Klingons because they have those foreheads … even when they're wearing their helmets you can tell.

NP One thing I tried to do with the Klingons, which was a tough one, is make them sexy: a beautiful-ugly group of men. I think we got it. Not that the previous actors were ugly, but it was a very conscious choice of who we cast, a very conscious sculpting of the Klingon form to make them look sexy. In a way.

MLM The Klingon costumes have very high collars, but the hair helps to distinguish between one from another. I took human and synthetic hair and made it into dreadlocks, matted, all different textures. Because they were so laden with costumes and helmets and makeup, I just attached it to the back of their helmets, it's more of an adornment. There was no way we were going to put wigs on them, it was already hotter than Hades on the set.

MDB Benedict wanted to do a lot of stunts himself, but there are some liabilities and risks the studio will not allow. If something happens to him we're all screwed. That's why I'd be on the wire, not him. There's a big fight on Kronos where his character is fighting Klingons. There was a lot of jumping involved, he's flying through the air, and we couldn't do that with him. JJ likes to shoot in one take. We'd start the sequence with the wirework and go straight into a whole fight, which makes it more challenging; we can't do one move, cut and pick up again. We jump off a bridge, up about 30ft, fly through the air, land, go immediately into fighting with weapons, knife-throwing, cutting each other open, then we cut. It's not just one person's timing, it's a team, and everyone has to be exactly in tune with the camera moves, movements, reactions. And that is challenging. The result is that it looks cool.

SC Kronos has quite a classical influence. The quadrant of the city where the action takes place is sort of an interpretation of the Roman Colosseum, the warrens below the Colosseum floor.

'On the last day I though: this might actually be a good movie'

SC On the last day we were shooting, and I've never had this experience before, I was thinking, "Wow, this might actually be a good movie." I've never in my entire career felt that way at the end of a project.

MK It's so great to work on a JJ film. The crews go to great lengths that they wouldn't necessarily for another director.

DM I'm incredibly proud and happy to do this kind of work and work with JJ, because he's a phenomenal force. His vision is incredible, and it's a gift to be able to translate it to film.

Star Trek Into Darkness is out in the UK now

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Star Trek Into Darkness

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'Star Trek Into Darkness': Let's talk about that ending (and Benedict Cumberbatch)

Darren is a TV Critic. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFranich for opinions and recommendations.

Nobody knew anything about Star Trek Into Darkness . The trailers for J.J. Abrams' reboot-prequel-sequel were filled with mind-blowing images: Spaceships falling to earth! Spock jumping across flying vehicles! Pretty red trees! But besides a boilerplate plot description that read like a Blockbuster Sequel Mad Libs—"personal score to settle," "epic chess game of life and death," "sacrifices must be made"—the actual plot of Into Darkness was shrouded in mystery. And nothing was more mysterious than the film's newest and most glamourous addition: Benedict Cumberbatch, who was playing a character named "John Harrison," the red herringest of red herring franchise names since " John Blake ." Well, now we finally know the truth. At long last, we can all finally bask in the knowledge that has been kept hidden for so long. SPOILER ALERT from here, because ladies and gentlemen, it's time to introduce: Benedict Cumberbatch.

Yes, despite a year of publicity that saw the cast of Star Trek Into Darkness obfuscate or just tell outright lies, Cumberbatch's "John Harrison" was indeed Khan Noonien Singh, the genetic superman originally played by Ricardo Montalban in the classic Trek episode "Space Seed" and the very first big screen sequel Wrath of Khan .

To be honest, all the secrecy about Cumberbatch's character seems a bit goofy in hindsight. This was essentially a new character. Cumberbatch's Khan didn't really have much in common with the original Khan—and not just because the actor's impeccable British diction and icy-cool personality is miles removed from Ricardo Montalban's Moby Dick -quoting madman. In fact, you could argue that Khan wasn't even really the main villain of Into Darkness . No, the Big Bad of Into Darkness was actually this guy:

Admiral Alexander Marcus, a high-ranking Starfleet officer, was a new addition to the Trek lore, and his role in Into Darkness radically altered the mythology of the original series even more than Abrams' first film. Apparently, after the destruction of Vulcan, Marcus sought to militarize Starfleet. In the process, he discovered Khan floating in the Botany Bay . (This happened much earlier in the rebooted Trek universe than it did in the original Trek , where Kirk and the Enterprise gang found the ship during their 5-year mission.) He brought Khan into the Starfleet fold, using his pre-utopian knowledge to build new weapons and ships.

This might not make a whole lot of sense—it'd be kind of like if the Joint Chiefs of Staff hired a Mongolian warlord to build a new fighter jet—but this twist fascinatingly altered Khan's role in the Trek universe. The original Khan's origins were rooted in mid-century concerns—he was a veteran of the "Eugenics Wars," at a time when "eugenics" conjured up images of WWII-era fascism. The new Khan was quite explicitly a Bin Laden/Hussein figure: A man who was armed by one government to fight another government , who wound up turning on his former allies. (The credits for Into Darkness actually feature a dedication to post-9/11 veterans.)

But the film went even deeper into Trek lore for its most moving scene—a sequence which directly recalled, and simultaneously flipped, the most moving scene from Wrath of Khan :

As the Enterprise fell to earth, a member of the crew had to make the ultimate sacrifice. But not just any member of the crew. Captain James T. Kirk died heroically saving his work-family from a falling spaceship. In the original Khan , of course, Spock died doing just about the same thing: Exposing himself to radiation in order to restore power to the warp drive. This time, Spock was on the other side of the glass, holding his hand up to Kirk's. As Kirk fell down dead, it fell to Spock to deliver the immortal line: " Khhhhhaaaaaannnnn! " It was awesome.

But then came this:

Now, listen. You could argue that Kirk was never going to stay dead. He's the star of Star Trek . And Spock certainly didn't have any trouble coming back from the great beyond. (You'll recall that, in The Search for Spock , his corpse was reanimated by the Genesis Planet and his memories were in McCoy's brain and he aged rapidly until he was the same age he was before and, well, science!) Still, the exact method by which Kirk came back to life is…well, a bit indelicate. Turns out that Khan isn't just a genetically enhanced superhuman; he's a genetically enhanced superhuman with magic resurrection blood that can cure all ailments and even bring you back from the dead, as long as you've only been dead long enough for one final climactic action scene.

This was revealed thanks to a plot point which can only be referred to as Chekhov's Tribble. (That's Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, the famous Russian playwright, not Pavel Chekov, the navigator with the funny accent.) Earlier in the film, Dr. McCoy had injected some of Khan's blood into a dead Tribble, because science. As he stared at the dead Kirk, he noticed something: The Tribble had come back to annoying life! Fortunately, human physiology and Tribble physiology are the same, because science, and Kirk was soon back to his old self. Khan, meanwhile, was frozen along with his other followers. Left unexplored: Whether the Federation would decide to mass-produce the healing elixir of Khan's Blood, thereby ensuring that nobody will ever die.

Now, there's something very interesting in this final twist. I like the idea that Kirk only survived by becoming more like Khan. The film touched on—but never quite explored—the idea that Kirk had something to learn from Khan, who referred to his fellow genetic super-soldiers as his "family" and explicitly drew a link to Kirk's relationship with the Enterprise crew. But I don't know if the movie ever quite figured out what to do with that duality. (It doesn't help matters that, by the end of Into Darkness , Khan—previously a Hannibal Lecter-ish supervillain who planned nine steps ahead of everyone—became a senseless kamikaze villain, smashing his ship into San Francisco.)

Oh, also, unless I missed something, I think Khan just destroyed most of San Francisco. He definitely took out a few skyscrapers. This is probably the worst disaster in the history of 23rd-Century Earth. But the important thing is, Kirk learned a valuable lesson about leadership, and Spock and Uhura's relationship has never been stronger.

Fellow Trek fans and moviegoers, what did you think of the final act of Star Trek Into Darkness ? Did you enjoy Benedict Cumberkhan?

Follow Darren on Twitter: @DarrenFranich

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, star trek into darkness.

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Less a classic " Star Trek " adventure than a " Star Trek "-flavored action flick, shot in the frenzied, handheld, cut-cut-cut style that’s become Hollywood’s norm, director J.J. Abrams’ latest could have been titled "The Bourne Federation."

The plot pits the Enterprise crew against an intergalactic terrorist named John Harrison ( Benedict Cumberbatch , giving his honeyed baritone a workout), who’s waging war on the Federation for mysterious personal reasons. There’s a joke, an argument, a chase, a spaceship battle, or a brutal close-quarters firefight every five minutes, but all the action is intimately tied to character. The major players, particularly Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto ’s Mr. Spock, are as finely shaded as the incarnations played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy . This new voyage of the starship Enterprise is brash, confident, and often brutally violent, and features the most lived-in production design I’ve seen in a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster since " Minority Report ."

Why, then, is the film ultimately disappointing? I suspect it’s the pop culture echo chamber effect: Abrams and his screenwriters ( Robert Orci , Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof ) are so obsessed with acknowledging and then futzing around with what we already know about Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and company that the movie doesn’t breathe. "Star Trek Into Darkness" is peppered with nods to past films and episodes: Kirk’s impetuous decision-making and horndog sexual proclivities; Spock’s denial of his half-humanness; Dr. McCoy’s cranky witticisms; Scotty’s protestations of what he and the ship “canna” do; references to tribbles and neutral zones and the Harry Mudd incident. The central plotline refers to one of Trek’s most celebrated storylines — a callback that alternately seems to honor the original, then turn it on its head, then honor it again. The final act includes an homage to one of the most famous scenes in the entire Trek canon — but this, too, is an inversion, or appears to be, until the script springs another whiplash reversal.

The story starts with a " Raiders of the Lost Ark "-like action sequence: Kirk, Spock and the gang are embroiled in a secret mission on a red jungle planet filled with superstitious tribespeople whose lives are threatened by a volcanic eruption. The correct thing to do is leave Mr. Spock behind, because going back to rescue him would violate the Federation’s Prime Directive against messing with the natural development of primitive cultures. It’s in this opening sequence, for better or worse, that the movie establishes a vexing narrative pattern: The characters have urgently necessary arguments about the morally, ethically, and procedurally correct thing to do in a crisis, then one character (usually Kirk) makes a unilateral, straight-from-the-gut decision that worsens everything; and yet somehow at the end he’s rewarded, or at least not seriously punished.

We’re given to understand that it’s always a good thing to prize personal friendship and loyalty above the concerns of one’s crew, ship, federation or species. Sometimes the reward is quite deliberate — as in the end scene, which finds Kirk being celebrated as a hero after making what looked to me like a series of catastrophic rookie mistakes that ended dozens of lives. Other times it’s as if the cosmos itself is rewarding or at least protecting Kirk, as when he loses command of the Enterprise for his behavior on the primitive planet, then gets it back thanks to another sudden plot twist. A good alternate title for this movie would be the name of one of Steven Soderbergh ’s great books about filmmaking: "Getting Away With It: Or, the Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw." The Federation itself seems to have plenty in common with Kirk: Both the opening mission and a subsequent intergalactic act of aggression are presented as having grave consequences if they fail, then the film just sort of writes them off with a shrug, as if to say, “Well, that’s all in the past, and as long as it doesn’t happen again, no harm, no foul.” (Has anyone in the Federation actually honored the Prime Directive?)

Yes, the film’s stumblebum plotting comes from a desire to give the audience what it wants: Kirk in command, flying by the seat of his tight pants; Spock learning it’s OK to acknowledge and act on his emotions, and that there’s more to life than following rules; etc. But surely there were more elegant ways to get us there! Abrams makes the 23rd century look like a place of actions and consequences, in which humans and other creatures might actually live, think and feel, in a world in which a fall of more than ten feet could break a leg, lava can melt flesh, and people who are dead stay dead. But he also tells stories in which various practices, rules and laws, including Starfleet tactical procedures, the Prime Directive, and gravity, have no narrative weight. Too much of "Star Trek Into Darkness" has what I call a “playground storytelling” sensibility: “Lie down, you’re dead. Never mind, you’re alive again — now fight!” This narrative flailing-about isn’t merely amateurish, it’s at odds with the gritty production design and pseudo-documentary camerawork and references to 9/11 and the War on Terror. It takes a great artist to be both serious and silly. Abrams, for all his enthusiasm, ain’t it.

For all its sloppiness and blind spots and fanboy pirouettes, though, "Star Trek Into Darkness" is still an involving film with more heart than most summer blockbusters. Abrams’ roots in TV ( Felicity , Alias , Lost ) seem to have made him attentive to the dynamics of groups, and to the repeated phrases and gestures that bond viewers to characters. Pine’s beefy frat-boy Kirk is appealing, especially when he’s being called on the carpet; Pine has several strong scenes opposite Cumberbatch’s Harrison and Bruce Greenwood ’s mentor-father figure, Capt. Pike, in which Pine is overmatched as both character and actor but uses the imbalance to enhance the scene. Sometimes you see terror in Kirk’s eyes as he blusters; his vulnerability makes you root for him even though his “I gotta be me!” philosophy destroys careers and ends lives.

Quinto’s Spock is equal to, but different than, Leonard Nimoy’s incarnation, and it’s a relief to see that Abrams has made the destruction of Vulcan in the first film a key component of the character’s psychology. As Spock explains to communications officer Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), his main squeeze, it’s not that he can’t feel any emotion, it’s that he’s decided he’s better off not feeling it: this Spock is a Holocaust survivor who has adopted numbness as a survival strategy. Uhura, Simon Pegg ’s Scotty, John Cho ’s Sulu, Anton Yelchin ’s Chekov, and Karl Urban ’s “Bones” McCoy have their moments, too; they behave like plausibly real people even when the script is asking them to do and say things that common sense tells us is horse manure, and their presences lend the film a dignity it doesn’t earn.

* Edited 6/22/18 to remove a reference to a "forthcoming" detailed blog post on the film that the reviewer ended up not writing.

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 Into Darkness (2013)

Rated PG-13

129 minutes

Chris Pine as James T. Kirk

Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison

Zachary Quinto as Spock

Simon Pegg as Scotty

Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura

J.J. Abrams
Alex Kurtzman
Damon Lindelof
Roberto Orci

Original Music Composer

Michael Giacchino

Cinematography

Daniel Mindel
April Webster

Production Design

Scott Chambliss
Gene Roddenberry

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Screen Rant

‘star trek into darkness’ interview: alice eve on deleted scenes, 'star trek 3,' & 'entourage'.

In our 'Star Trek Into Darkness' interview, star Alice Eve (Carol Marcus) discusses deleted scenes, 'Star Trek 3,' and whether she'll return for the 'Entourage' movie.

After months of build-up and downright divisive pre-release speculation, Star Trek Into Darkness has arrived in US theaters. The film has received an overwhelmingly favorable response from critics (read our Star Trek Into Darkness review ) and is poised to make big bucks at the summer box office - in spite of high-powered hold-overs like Iron Man 3 along with a surprisingly strong performance from The Great Gatsby .

Last week, we had a chance to chat with the film's stars, including Alice Eve who plays the much-talked about Dr. Carol Marcus to discuss the latest Star Trek film, her upcoming projects, and what it was like joining the iconic Star Trek movie crew. We've already posted our interview with Karl Urban (Dr. "Bones" McCoy) as well as Simon Pegg and John Cho (Lieutenant Commander Montgomery “Scotty” Scott and Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, respectively). Make sure to check back in the coming days as we publish further interviews.

NOTE: The following is an abridged (and more concise) version of the interview with Alice Eve. You can read the entire transcript from our conversations with actress by clicking the link below:

Alice Eve (FYI: The unabridged version contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the film)

Next to Benedict Cumberbatch's John Harrison, Alice Eve's Dr. Carol Marcus was one of the most talked-about new characters prior to the Star Trek Into Darkness release. Fans poured over Eve's haircut, uniform, and facial expressions in an attempt to figure out her role in the film ahead of time. Director J.J. Abrams even capitalized on fan obsession over the character - using a picture of Alice Eve in her undergarments to hide a viral marketing link .

However, the actress never let all the speculation distract her and, instead, tried to stay focus on the task at hand:

Alice Eve: I don't follow that because it's pretty damaging if you get too into that stuff. Obviously I have a bit of an awareness because I go to the internet like everybody else but I don't get too involved in the details of those conversations just because it can hurt you if you stumble on something that's not nice [...] Even with the internet aside there's an element of JJ making an environment where you're able to feel safe. If you feel safe there's no fear or pressure. You feel that you're just there to do your job and serve the movie that everyone's making. There are thousands of people that go into making a movie like this. There's us [the actors] but there's the preproduction, there's the post production and that amounts to a lot of eyes and ears and minds so you're just a part of a big journey and a big bandwagon. You take it day by day.

In preparation for her role, Eve went back and rewatched the first season of the classic Star Trek series, along with several of the original films. Like many of the Star Trek reboot stars, the actress wanted to find a balance between developing her own interpretation of Dr. Carol Marcus while paying homage to the version played by Bibi Besch:

Alice Eve: I enjoy any sort of preparation. I love what I do. The process to doing what I do is to research it and to look into the depths of the person. Especially if there's an established cannon such as there was with Star Trek so I enjoyed that process. That's the process I enjoy; that's the creation, that's the building part of it. That's why I do what I do.

Elaborating on what exactly she picked-up from Besch's portrayal, Eve asserted that it was important to include "purpose" and "strength," elements that are clearly on display in Star Trek Into Darkness :

Alice Eve: I think that when Bibi [Besch] played her in the 1982 films with a real directness, a purpose and a strength. I definitely wanted to bring that to my Carol. But because JJ [Abrams] kind of split the timeline in 2009 it gave us a bit of room for our own interpretation. So obviously that was sort of liberating at the same time it was taking on the hallmarks of who she was as a person [...] She's very strict with Kirk in the film in '82... when they have that screen conversation she's very strict about what she wants Kirk to do and the fact she has information at her disposal so with that information she's direct to Kirk and I guess pedagogical is the word.

Still, there are major differences in the two versions of the character - most notably the addition of Eve's English accent. In fact, Abrams was so concerned that the change would be a sticking point (Marcus had an American accent in the original series), he actually shot an expository scene where the character explains her own backstory - a scene that was eventually cut:

Alice Eve: There was one scene that we shot that didn't make it into the film. That was about me explaining why I had an English accent; my mother moved to England when my father stayed in San Francisco to run Starfleet. I think that JJ felt that plot point wasn't necessary and that you didn't question it beyond the first moment. I think that made sense and we had a certain license with the split timeline.

WARNING: The following segment of the interview contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Star Trek Into Darkness . If you haven't seen the film, avoid spoiling yourself, and scroll down past the warning for the rest of the interview which is spoiler free.

BEGIN SPOILERS

In the original series, Dr. Carol Marcus not only plays a large part in the Khan Noonien Singh storyline, she's also a love interest for Captain Kirk - and the mother of his son. Given that the alternate timeline allows for major changes to the series storyline going forward, nothing is set in stone and it's certainly possible that we will not see Chris Pine and Alice Eve couple-up in Star Trek 3 . However, Eve asserts that a potential Captain Kirk and Carol Marcus love story informed how the two played their Star Trek Into Darkness characters - and is absolutely a possibility for a sequel:

Alice Eve: Yes that was implicit in the trajectory and what had already been established that there was an element of chemistry there between the two of them. There is chemistry mainly because they're quite similar in their determination to achieve their end goals. So I think that they come together in that way. And they see a kindred spirit in each other.

At the end of Star Trek Into Darkness Dr. Carol Marcus joins the Enterprise crew - so fans should be able to expect the actress will return in the next installment. This entry serves as an origin story for the character - helping to layout the differences between the alternate timeline version and the original. However, in our interview, Eve also touched on where she'd like to see the plot take Marcus in Star Trek 3 - claiming that she'd even like a crack at the Captain's chair:

Alice Eve: obviously now I'd like her to take the chair [laughs]. I'd like her to continue with that sort of lacerating clarity she has about what's right and what's wrong. Which is the main focus of Star Trek as a moral line and having everyone walk that moral line. I'd like it to continue to be a force of reason on the enterprise.

END SPOILERS

For many moviegoers, Dr. Carol Marcus is likely to be Eve's most recognizable role but the actress has been active in Hollywood for an entire decade - in films such as She's Out of My League , The Raven , and ATM . That said, TV viewers should easily recognize Eve from her supporting role in HBO's Entourage , as journalist Sophia Monk, a love interest to Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier). Recent reports confirmed that the Entourage film has moved into production , and given the important part Sophia plays in the final season, it's likely that the filmmakers would bring Eve back to reprise the role - an opportunity the actress is certainly interested in:

Alice Eve: you know I really loved working with those guys on Entourage. I definitely know they are looking to make a movie and I'm excited to see where that goes - to see the script. Hopefully it'll happen. I know I'd go and see it even if I was in it or not. I enjoyed [being on the show], it was great.

For an in-depth discussion of the film by the Screen Rant editors, check back soon for our Star Trek Into Darkness episode of the SR Underground podcast . As mentioned, we’ve got more interviews with the cast and filmmakers that will go live in the coming days. However, if you’re eager for more Star Trek Into Darkness info right now, make sure to check out our Star Trek Into Darkness news archive - which includes the following featured articles along with much more:

‘ Star Trek Into Darkness’ Review
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Spoilers Discussion
‘ Star Trek Into Darkness’ Interview: Karl Urban on Secrecy, ‘Dredd 2′ & ‘Star Trek 3′
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’: Simon Pegg & John Cho on Spoilers, ‘Star Trek 3,’ & ‘Star Wars’

Star Trek Into Darkness is now playing 2D, 3D, and 3D IMAX theaters.

Follow me on Twitter @ benkendrick for more on Star Trek Into Darkness as well as future movie, TV, and gaming news.

Next Page: The unabridged transcript of our interview with Alice Eve.

What was it like for you watching everyone dissect your character ahead of the release? Everybody was speculating whether or not you were actually Dr. Carol Marcus or if you had some connection to Benedict Cumberbatch's character that we didn't know. What was it like for you stepping back from that and having people so focused on a role that you were playing?

Alice Eve: On the internet? I don't follow that because it's pretty damaging if you get too into that stuff. Obviously I have a bit of an awareness because I go to the internet like everybody else but I don't get too involved in the details of those conversations just because it can hurt you if you stumble on something that's not nice.

I can understand that. What was it like for you stepping into that character? I know that you personally did a lot of research on it. I think I heard that you had watched a lot of the old movies. So what was that like?

Alice Eve: I enjoyed that actually. Any sort of [preparation]. I love what I do. The process to doing what I do is to research it and to look into the depths of the person. Especially if there's an established cannon such as there was with Star Trek so I enjoyed that process. That's the process I enjoy; that's the creation, that's the building part of it. That's why I do what I do.

Was there anything that you specifically picked up on that you wanted to make sure that you had included about the character [from the previous incarnations]?

Alice Eve: I think that when Bibi [Besch] played her in the 1982 films with a real directness, a purpose and a strength. I definitely wanted to bring that to my Carol. But because JJ [Abrams] kind of split the timeline in 2009 it gave us a bit of room for our own interpretation. So obviously that was sort of liberating at the same time it was taking on the hallmarks of who she was as a person.

What was a hallmark that you felt you needed to make sure was in there?

Alice Eve: She's very strict with Kirk in the film in '82... when they have that screen conversation she's very strict about what she wants Kirk to do and the fact she has information at her disposal so with that information she's direct to Kirk and I guess pedagogical is the word.

Did you have conversations with JJ or anybody else early on about sowing potential romance seeds there? Because that is something that they haven't [addressed] going forward...

Did the returning crew have any recommendations for you in terms of how they sort of handled the pressure of having to step into these iconic roles? You said you avoid the internet but what did they sort of say?

Alice Eve: Even with the internet aside there's an element of JJ making an environment where you're able to feel safe. If you feel safe there's no fear or pressure. You feel that you're just there to do your job and serve the movie that everyone's making. There are thousands of people that go into making a movie like this. There's us [the actors] but there's the preproduction, there's the post production and that amounts to a lot of eyes and ears and minds so you're just a part of a big journey and a big bandwagon. You take it day by day.

Is there anywhere you'd like [to go] or physically explore with that character? You're now part of the crew.

Alice Eve: Obviously now I'd like her to take the chair [laughs]. I'd like her to continue with that sort of lacerating clarity she has about what's right and what's wrong. Which is the main focus of Star Trek as a moral line and having everyone walk that moral line. I'd like it to continue to be a force of reason on the Enterprise.

What's it like being a part of an ensemble like this? I think the film does a miraculous job of being able to serve each character individually. Everybody gets their own good moments and they're not just thrown in there they are actually developed and Carol gets those for sure. How do you serve your character also knowing that you have to fade in and out of this ensemble?

Alice Eve: Well JJ fades you in and out and you just serve the character. I mean that's the truth of it. You turn up and you have a trajectory in your mind and your character has a journey and you're on that journey and then they do that in the edit and their balancing act is something that we're not subject to.

I think that was what struck me the most about the film how everybody was moving in and out of those moments.

Alice Eve: He does do that much like Friends.

Were there any scenes that you had originally talked about doing that didn't make it into the film that you felt precious of with Carol?

Have you heard anything about the Entourage movie are you going to be back for that at all?

Alice Eve: You know I really loved working with those guys on Entourage. I definitely know they are looking to make a movie and I'm excited to see where that goes. See the script, hopefully it'll [happen]. I know I'd go and see it even if I was in it or not. I enjoyed [being on the show], it was great.

clock This article was published more than 10 years ago

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’: J.J. Abrams delivers a blend of new and old

In 2006, when word came that filmmaker J.J. Abrams had signed on to direct a " Star Trek " prequel, even die-hard fans like me had to admit that it was time for an overhaul. The long-running sci-fi franchise had been limping along on one-quarter impulse power for some time, and the handful of Picard-centric films of the 1990s and early 2000s did not have enough juice to kick the Enterprise into warp drive again.

Justifiably criticized for their frequent hammy acting, cheesy special effects, sluggish pace, pretentious story lines and affected dialogue, the 10 pre-Abrams "Star Trek" films had begun to lose sight of what was so great about "Star Trek" in the first place, going back as far as the second film (" The Wrath of Khan "), when the then-middle-aged "Admiral" James T. Kirk first started wearing reading glasses. Where was the hot-tempered horndog of the original television series , which ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969? It didn't help that those horrible new double-breasted uniforms made Starfleet officers look like the kitchen staff of a Las Vegas casino.

The "Star Trek" television series was always something of a hybrid beast: part swashbuckling action-adventure, part intellectual exercise. Conceived by its creator, Gene Roddenberry, as way of exploring such social issues of the day as racism and U.S. military intervention in Vietnam, it was just as comfortable showing a scene of bare-knuckled, hand-to-hand combat between Kirk and some alien dude as it was allowing his character to speechify about the beauty of the U.S. Constitution (" The Omega Glory ").

Both of those elements survive intact in the Abrams films.

Trekkies — excuse me, Trekkers — will be delighted to see that " Star Trek Into Darkness " features a lengthy sequence of mixed-martial-arts-style action between Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the film's villain (Benedict Cumberbatch), who opens the fight by knocking the Pointy-Eared One's phaser from his hand. But the new movie also boasts a highly topical plotline that involves terrorism, as well as the suggestion that those who fight evil run the risk of becoming evil themselves.

The presence of that ripped-from-the-headlines plot point is pure “Star Trek.” The fact that it’s handled with a degree of subtlety is not. The old “Star Trek” could be terribly preachy at times.

Abrams, of course, has been praised for bringing back a Kirk with a libido, in stories by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who were joined by Damon Lindelof of " Lost " on "Into Darkness"). Their films honor the original characters, while allowing them room to grow.

There will always be those who complain that the Abrams films have ruined the franchise by allowing too much room to grow. The time-travel plot of the 2009 film helps explain why a number of things about the Abrams movies don't line up — at all — with the sacred "Star Trek" canon.

The complainers would be wrong.

While time travel is a favored trope of Abrams, it's also a beloved "Star Trek" plot device, from such episodes of the original TV series as 1967's " The City on the Edge of Forever " to the 1986 "Star Trek" film, " The Voyage Home ."

In fact, the prevalence of time travel in "Star Trek" explains the existence of the Temporal Prime Directive . That, as any good Trekker knows, is the rule forbidding interference with events of the past, in order to avoid changing future outcomes. It's a rule that applies to all Starfleet crews.

Open-minded fans will have to make an exception in the case of Abrams, who, like Kirk, is something of a rule-breaker.

May he — and his “Star Trek” reboot — live long and prosper.

The Unexpected Resurrection of Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison died in 2018. Now, thanks to J. Michael Straczynski, he’s back. And louder than ever.

In 1968, a notoriously caustic science fiction writer accused Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry of peddling “utopian bullshit.” In 1978, this same writer — in an introduction written for Doctor Who paperbacks — mocked Star Wars , decrying it as “adolescent nonsense.” In 1983, when he learned that James Cameron had admitted to “ripping off” one of his stories, he sued and got his name put in the end credits of The Terminator . In a 1979 interview in Starlog , Mark Hamill, baffled by this angry, impish contrarian, said: “I don’t want to get on a panel with Ellison… I thought he was like a game show host.” So who the hell was Harlan Ellison? And more importantly, why did he matter?

For generations of science fiction and fantasy aficionados, saying the name Harlan Ellison is like uttering a dark spell. Ellison’s writing — primarily in short story format — is fantastic and provocative, but his reputation for contentiousness was equally potent, often overshadowing the art itself. And for younger genre fans, the name Harlan Ellison might not mean anything at all. If you’re into science fiction and fantasy and came of age in the new millennium (and his 2014 Simpsons cameo went over your head), there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Ellison.

“There was a time when he was one of the hottest speakers on college campuses anywhere, and now, he’s fallen between the cracks,” J. Michael Straczynski tells Inverse . “It was really important for me to introduce people to Harlan’s work again. A lot of his work just hasn’t been available for the past 10 or 20 years.”

Following Ellison’s death in 2018, Straczynski — comic book writing legend and creator of Babylon 5 — set out to reboot the legacy of the most energetic, and perhaps misunderstood, figure in all of speculative fiction. But this mission isn’t an attempt to sanitize or censor Ellison. Instead, with the release of a new book Greatest Hits (edited by Straczynski, with introductions from Neil Gaiman and Cassandra Khaw), Ellison’s specific brand of fantasy has re-emerged from those cracks, zombie warts and all.

The Leader of the New Wave

American writer Harlan Ellison in Boston in November 1977. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images)

Harlan Ellison in 1977.

Harlan Ellison hated labels. Especially the label of “sci-fi writer.” In a 2013 profile written by Jaime Lowe for New York Magazine , Ellison said, “Call me a science-fiction writer and I will come to your house and nail your dog’s head to the coffee table!”

Part of his animosity stemmed from his tireless work to undo the genre stereotypes and constraints put on writers who worked outside of the mainstream. From the beginning of the 20th century up to the 1960s, the genre of science fiction was very different from what came next. A huge part of that change was the revolution of the “New Wave” of science fiction writers who pushed back against the stodgier and stuffier traditions of “Hard SF” and infused the genre with more literary and poetic sensibilities. Some started saying the written genre of “SF” stood for “speculative fiction,” not just science fiction. But without Ellison, science fiction (or speculative fiction) might never have grown up.

“What Harlan did in particular was to codify the New Wave,” Straczynski says. “With Dangerous Visions , he pulled it all together into one place and made it an event.”

Published in 1967, Dangerous Visions was a massive SF anthology of short stories, all edited and acquired by Ellison. (It’s just been republished, complete with a new introduction from Patton Oswalt. ) The goal was to give writers a home for short stories that were so extreme or taboo that even science fiction publications wouldn’t touch them. The first volume included edgy tales from Philip K. Dick, Robert Bloch, and J.G. Ballard, while the second volume, Again, Dangerous Visions , boasted classic short stories from the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Kurt Vonnegut, Joanna Russ, and Kate Wilhelm. As something of a trademark of Ellison, each story contained a lengthy introduction about the author, written in a rapid-fire, off-the-cuff style that would make Hunter S. Thompson blush. In his introduction to Dangerous Visions , Ellison brazenly declared : “What you hold in your hands is more than a book. If we’re lucky, it will be a revolution.” In a sense, he was right.

“There’s the whole thing about social movements,” Straczynski says. “Often, one person stands up and sort of embodies all of what they’re saying, and then it becomes a movement, and then it becomes a thing. And with Dangerous Visions and the New Wave, Harlan became that movement and that spearhead.”

But beyond bolstering the careers of others (he was Octavia Butler’s mentor and champion) Ellison’s own writing was unlike any other science fiction stories in the field. His two most famous stories, “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktock Man” (1966) and “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1967), are simultaneously arresting and, for their time, extremely creative. In the first, a future society obsessed with time subtracts minutes from people’s lives when they are late or break the law. In the second, a sadistic AI keeps six human beings alive and tortures them to the ends of the Earth. But that’s just the tip of the dark matter iceberg that is Harlan Ellison.

“He pulled it all together into one place and made it an event.”

He pioneered stories about super-powered telepaths with his classic “Deeper Than Darkness” (1957) and touched on concepts of immortal, undying evil in “Mefisto in Onyx” (1993). When read today, his doppelganger story “Shatterday” (1977) feels like a condensed version of a David Lynch movie, combined with the parallel worlds antics of contemporary Apple TV shows like Constellation and Dark Matter .

But Ellison’s brand of dark speculative fiction wasn’t just limited to the page. He was also part of a growing trend in the 1950s and 1960s, in which authors of prose sci-fi began writing for TV. With thrilling episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Outer Limits , plus authorship of what is considered to be the best episode of the original Star Trek , Ellison was like a one-person Black Mirror . Indeed, one of his sci-fi horror stories, “Life Hutch,” was adapted as part of Love Death and Robots in 2021.

So with all of this success and brilliant output, why was Harlan Ellison so angry?

The Antichrist of Science Fiction

Writer Harlan Ellison at Mile High comics book store in 1982.

Harlan Ellison wrote Star Trek ’s seminal time-travel tragedy, the 1967 episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.” For almost six decades, this single story has often been cited as the best episode of Star Trek , ever, and its legacy continues to be relevant to the canon today — Michelle Yeoh’s upcoming Section 31 movie is a direct result of her character, Philippa Georgiou, stepping through the Guardian of Forever , a time portal originally introduced in Ellison’s episode.

Ellison infamously hated the aired version of the episode. While at least one entire book has been written about this kerfuffle, Ellison’s frustration basically comes down to a rowdy, and utterly divergent rewrite, which he said compromised his artistic integrity. Ellison felt steamrolled by Gene Roddenberry, which was ironic because just one year prior he’d formed “The Committee” — a select group of massive science fiction authors, including Frank Herbert , A.E. van Vogt, and others — with the express purpose of making sure Star Trek remained on the air.

“I think he just saw a lot of sloppiness going on [with Star Wars ].”

“What Star Trek really did was popularize science fiction in ways that hadn’t been done before,” Straczynski says. “It brought a new language in the vernacular to the popular culture. It galvanized the space program. There will never be another Star Trek any more than there’ll be another Beatles, and their place in the culture cannot be overestimated. The downside of that is that it codified a certain kind of storytelling in ways that limit other opportunities.”

Ellison clearly saw the rise of big franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars as a double-edged sword for the larger world of speculative fiction. Yes, it made SF more mainstream, but it was also reductive. So he went on the attack. In the humorous and raunchy story “How’s the Nightlife on Cissalda?” (1977), Ellison, still annoyed by his Star Trek experience, depicted a fictionalized version of William Shatner unsuccessfully trying to seduce an alien creature.

William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock before a glowing ring known as...

The classic Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever.”

When it came to Trek , Harlan Ellison liked to bite the hand that fed him.

“He could dine off of ‘I wrote for Star Trek ’ for quite some time,” Straczynski says. “He was able to parlay that to success in many respects, even though he hated the process.”

While his anger over being rewritten explains some of his animosity with Star Trek — and its fans — why was Ellison so anti Star Wars ? As someone from the print world of science fiction who had tried to start a more progressive, literary trend in the genre, Ellison almost certainly saw the gee-whiz swashbuckling brand of Star Wars’ heroism as inherently regressive, more reminiscent of the conservative era of SF publishing in the ’30s and ’40s, than anything from what was then the modern era of speculative fiction.

“I think he just saw a lot of sloppiness going on [with Star Wars ],” Straczynski says. “Harlan was fairly rigorous in his writing, and there was just so much there that didn’t make sense.”

Ellison was hardly a voice in the wilderness on this topic: His friend and colleague Ursula K. Le Guin also trashed Star Wars in 1978, writing , “What is nostalgia doing in a science fiction movie?”

Because of his acerbic and often petty put-downs, Ellison behaved in public more like a bratty rock star than a writer. In a 1977 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction , he even referred to himself as “the antichrist of science fiction.” In 1982, in the introduction for Ellison’s book Stalking the Nightmare , Stephen King acknowledged that not everyone was down with Ellison’s brand of iconoclasm but defended his artistic idealism, writing, “People who are afraid don’t like people who are brave.”

A Rebirth Before Death

Actor Walter Koenig and writer Harlan Ellison on stage during the a Star Trek convention in 2014 in ...

Harlan Ellison and lifelong friend Walter Koenig (of Star Trek fame) at the Star Trek Las Vegas Convention in 2014. Ellison’s animosity toward Trekkies lightened up in the last years of his life.

Because he cared about human rights (and the often tramped-on rights of writers), Ellison didn’t make things easy on himself. As Straczynski writes in his introduction to Greatest Hits , it was “exhausting” to be Harlan Ellison.

But then, after 2006, following a surreal acceptance speech at the Hugo Awards, something unexpected happened: Harlan Ellison, publicly, appeared to repent for some of his bad behavior. He was no longer giving terse and angry interviews. He was apologizing. He allowed a documentarian to chronicle his life. He even lightened up on Trekkies. In 2014, with the full cooperation of the Star Trek licensing division, IDW Comics published Star Trek: Harlan Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever, a five-part miniseries that presented Ellison’s original award-winning teleplay as an episode of the classic Trek. In the letters pages, Ellison even walked back long-held assertions about how his script was misinterpreted, admitting, among other things, that despite decades of complaining about other writers not knowing the difference between “runes” and “ruins,” it turns out no such confusion ever existed.

In 2011, I was asked to call Harlan Ellison, after having written a review of his short story, “How Interesting: A Tiny May.” Fearful of his litigious reputation (I had compared Ellison to the Gallagher brothers from Oasis in my essay), I dialed the number with trepidation. But it turned out that the angry old man had merely wanted to thank me, saying “I appreciate you taking the time to read my story and say something about it.”

So, what happened? Why did Ellison mellow out later in his life? While it’s a much longer tale — that Straczynski plans to tell in due course — let’s just say that the lighter, more ebullient side of Ellison was partially because of the influence of Straczynski himself. There’s a reason why Ellison chose Straczynski to take on his literary estate, and their friendship and trust for each other is part of why Ellison’s final years were ones of good humor and grace.

A Writer’s Writer

Harlan Ellison, around the time he edited Dangerous Visions in 1967.

Ellison disliked the pretension of writers and often insisted it shouldn’t be thought of as a “holy chore” but a job like any other. He often would sit in the windows of bookshops with his typewriter and write short stories based on prompts that were put in sealed envelopes ahead of time. In the final short story in Greatest Hits — “All the Lies That Are My Life” — Ellison makes a working-class distinction between an author and a writer . The former was someone who liked awards and prestige, the latter was “someone who gets hemorrhoids from sitting on his ass all his life… writing .”

This kind of attitude is probably best exemplified in his epic “Pay the Writer” rant , which highlights the ways in which the act of writing is so brutally devalued in the capitalist nightmare. Celebrated writer Patty Lin — the author of the recently published memoir End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood — remembers Harlan Ellison’s staunch support of the rights of writers fondly. At the end of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, Lin recalls Ellison being furious that the WGA had capitulated too easily. Wearing “rumpled pajamas,” Lin says, Ellison chastised the union leadership for not going far enough. “We had them by the balls,” Lin remembers Ellison saying, depressed that the WGA didn’t get a better contact.

“It was that no-bullshit, justifiably angry way he expressed it that was so on brand.”

“I loved Harlan Ellison for what he said that day,” Lin tells Inverse . “It was exactly what I was thinking and what many other people in that room were probably thinking. It was that no-bullshit, justifiably angry way he expressed it that was so on brand. And that dramatic flair was what made him a great storyteller.”

As the title suggests, Greatest Hits is a kind of historical document. These are stories that don’t necessarily reflect where science fiction and fantasy are going but where the genre has been, as seen through the dark lenses of Harlan Ellison. Some of the stories (like “Shatterday”) hold up beautifully. Some, as Cassandra Khaw points out in her introduction, have problematic elements.

But unlike recent reissues of books by Roald Dahl or Ian Fleming , these stories remain uncensored. The fight against censorship was one of Ellison’s lifelong passions, and so, other than a few content warning labels in the book, the sex, sci-fi, and rock ’n’ roll of this writer's vision remains intact and raucous. Like the punk rock of genre fiction, Ellison’s stories are as jarring and blistering as ever.

“No, no, you don’t touch Harlan’s stuff, man,” Straczynski says. “Even if he’s dead, he’ll come after you.”

Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits is out now from Union Square and Co.

Greatest Hits (Harlan Ellison) Edited by J. Michael Straczynski

Science Fiction

Star Trek's Section 31 Are Becoming a Literal God-Level Villain - Theory Explained

In Star Trek #19, the sinister Section 31 enters the franchise-spanning god war.
Section 31's agenda with Ensign Sato and the crew of the Theseus remains a mystery for now.
Section 31 having access to the Pleroma could spell bad news for the galaxy.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek #19!

The secretive Section 31 are set to become god-level villains in the Star Trek universe. Working from the shadows, Section 31 works to keep the Federation safe–no matter the cost. Controversial among Star Trek fans, Section 31 has nonetheless become a fascinating part of the lore. Now, in Star Trek #19, the agency approaches one of Sisko’s crew with an offer that may doom the universe.

Star Trek #19 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Megan Levens. Throughout Star Trek’s previous storyline, Ensign Sato became more and more disillusioned with Starfleet and the Federation. At the end of issue 19, she is approached in her quarters by a man identifying himself as “Martin” and using a person named Sloan’s override. Martin appeals to Sato’s growing dissatisfaction, telling her that “mistakes have been made” and certain Starfleet officials “lack leadership.”

Martin then offers Ensign Sato a job with Section 31.

Section 31 Is The Darkest Aspect of Star Trek Lore

Section 31 has a long history of violence and terror.

Star Trek depicts a utopian society that has moved beyond money and the need to acquire wealth. This idea is embodied in the United Federation of Planets. An organization such as Section 31, that works in the shadows and routinely uses torture and murder to further their ends, would seem at odds with Gene Roddenbery’s optimistic view of humanity. Indeed, Section 31 has proven to be a point of contention among fans. Some portions of Star Trek fandom oppose it because it violates the show’s core principals, while others have hailed it as giving the franchise nuance.

Star Trek's Original Ban on Female Starship Captains Is Even Weirder Than It Seems

Section 31 first appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s sixth season, in the episode “Inquisition.” Created by Deep Space Nine’s creative team to explore the darker sides of Federation life, Section 31 works to keep the Federation a paradise. However, their means are extreme. Section 31 has been responsible for assassinations and staging coups. They have allegedly infiltrated nearly every other agency in the Federation, giving them eyes and ears everywhere. The closest real-world analogy to Section 31 is the Central Intelligence Agency. Section 31 also finds echoes in the Romulan Tal’Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order.

A handful of Star Trek episodes, including the Original Series episode "The Enterprise Incident" and The Next Generation's "The Pegasus" have been retconned to have involved Section 31.

No Star Trek show or movie has explored the history of Section 31, but it is (chronologically) one of the oldest agencies in the franchise. They derive their authority from Article 14, Section 31 of Starfleet’s charter, hence the name. This part of the Starfleet Charter allows the organization to take extreme measures in times of great crisis. Section 31 has been active at least as early as the 22nd century. Malcolm Reed, the Tactical Officer under Captain Jonathan Archer, was affiliated with Section 31 earlier in his career.

By the 23rd century, Section 31 had grown, and seemed to be working even further undercover. The agency had a presence on board the USS Discovery, which was using the then-new “spore drive,” that tapped into a universal mycelial network. Discovery’s affiliation with the agency only grew as crew member Ash Tyler was recruited, as was Empress Phillipa Georgiou, from the Mirror Universe. Finally, the AI Section 31 relied on, tried to seize control of the agents, and use them to unleash chaos on the galaxy. Discovery was instrumental in stopping Section 31, but was sent to the future.

Star Trek: Earths First Deep Space Colonists Evolved Into a New Species

In the 24th century, Section 31 was instrumental during the Dominion War. As the war dragged on, and casualties began to pile up, Section 31 bioengineered a virus that could kill Changelings. During this time, the agency approaches Doctor Julian Bashir, seeking to recruit him. Much like Ensign Sato in Star Trek #19, Section 31, represented by Luther Sloan, approaches Doctor Bashir in his quarters. However, unlike Sato, Section 31 did not find a receptive audience in Doctor Bashir. Bashir also finds a cure for the virus Section 31 designed, which helped end the Dominion War.

Although Section 31’s plans to use their virus were thwarted, the agency still took an interest in Changelings. Season three of Star Trek: Picard revealed that Section 31 experimented on Changelings, even after the war’s conclusion. These rogue Changelings broke free of Section 31, and in an act of blowback, killed thousands of Federation citizens. They also allied themselves with the Borg Queen, who also sought revenge against the Federation. Section 31 is even still active in the 32nd century, as seen in subsequent seasons of Star Trek: Discovery.

Section 31 has also appeared in the Kelvin Universe films, including 2013's Star Trek: Into Darkness

Despite the moral ambiguity of Section 31, it has proven irresistible to generations of Star Trek writers and directors. The agency has been a part of nearly every Star Trek show since its introduction on Deep Space Nine , even Lower Decks . The gray areas Section 31 works in provide even more depth and substance to the Star Trek universe. Deep Space Nine regularly explored the darker sides of Starfleet and life in the Federation, and Section 31 was perhaps its most scathing interrogation of these ideals. Section 31 showed that even a utopia can have a dark side.

Section 31 Adds Darkness--And Depth, to the Star Trek Franchise

Section 31 can change the course of the god war.

And now Section 31 is seemingly joining the franchise’s god war–but in what capacity remains to be seen. Previous issues of Star Trek have seeded Section 31. Harry Kim had seemingly allied himself with them. Kim worked closely with Ensign Sato during the Tzenkethi crisis, which may have led to her recruitment. In a recent interview with ScreenRant , Star Trek writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly commented on Section 31’s involvement, cryptically teasing that the answer may lie in the distant past, as opposed to more recent events. They did not elaborate on this further.

Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly are no strangers to the Star Trek comics universe, having masterminded Year Five , also from IDW.

In the same interview, Lanzing and Kelly discussed Sloan’s presence, or lack thereof. Martin, the agent sent to bring Ensign Sato into the fold, invokes Sloan’s name in his override code. Lanzing and Kelly pointed out Martin is not Sloan in disguise. However, Martin’s use of Sloan’s code is another hint, they revealed. Elaborating on the point, Lanzing stated that some Section 31 agents may feel Sloan did not go far enough in his plans. This would echo Martin’s comment about Starfleet officials “lacking leadership.” The murderous and duplicitous Sloan has become a rallying point for Section 31.

Kahless’ recent crusade against the gods of the Star Trek universe no doubt caught Section 31’s attention. The god war Kahless instigated threatens far more than the Federation, but the entire fabric of reality as well. The god war is the exact type of situation Section 31 was designed to combat. Section 31 has access to technology the average Starfleet officer does not, which can give them an edge in a fight with Kahless or his god-killer. Furthermore, the god war also fundamentally altered Lore. Now on a quest for godhood, Lore must be stopped as well.

Are Section 31's Intentions Truly Honorable? Or Are They Merely Looking Out for Themselves?

With kahless' god-killer technology, section 31 could be unstoppable.

Section 31 may also have less than noble intentions by recruiting Ensign Sato. Sato, and the rest of the Theseus’ crew, are headed to the Pleroma, the newly revealed “realm of the gods.” The Theseus’ excursion to the Pleroma represents a new frontier in knowledge for the Federation, but it could also be a huge threat as well, one Section 31 will want to be well primed on. Kahless and his god-killer have proven that the franchise’s god like beings can be killed, a technology Section 31 might want their hands on too.

How Marvel's Avengers Inspired Star Trek's New Comic Era

Star Trek #19 advances a horrifying notion: Section 31 having control of the Pleroma. If Section 31 gets their hands on Kahless’ technology, they can use it to extort and threaten the beings in the Pleroma. Bringing these beings under their thumb, Section 31 could become a truly existential threat to the Star Trek universe. With god-like powers at their disposal, Section 31 could implement and maintain one of the most oppressive surveillance systems ever known. Dissension will become a thing of the past, as Section 31 imposes their will on the rest of the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek #19 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

Star Trek's Section 31 Are Becoming a Literal God-Level Villain - Theory Explained

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Photo story: behind the scenes of sdsu’s best-kept secret.

Tucked among the towering pines east of San Diego is SDSU’s Mount Laguna Observatory. It’s a learning lab for budding astronomers — and bonus, in the summer it opens to the public with a Saturday night visitor program.

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What are the best places for stargazing and space exploration in San Diego? The Fleet Science Center, the San Diego Air & Space Museum — both in Balboa Park — and Caltech’s Palomar Observatory quickly come to mind. But between mile markers 21.5 and 22 on Sunrise Highway, a scenic drive that cuts through the Laguna Mountains on the eastern edge of San Diego County, is a lesser known but equally captivating destination: SDSU’s Mount Laguna Observatory.

Founded in 1968, SDSU’s Mount Laguna Observatory is a research tool for the university’s astronomy department and its partners, which include the University of Kansas and the University of North Carolina. Four white domes, each with a large telescope inside, sit perched on the mountainside, views unobstructed by the surrounding pine and oak trees on the 5-acre property.

While MLO is closed to the public, it opens its doors every summer on select Saturday nights to visitors through a program led by master’s students that started about 30 years ago. In addition to completing their degree programs, these students conduct research, work as teaching associates and organize outreach events such as planetarium shows and star parties. They’re passionate about what they do, eager to educate new generations of astronomers and conscious that even the smallest act can have a big impact.

Just as MLO stands out as a humble powerhouse among its natural environment, this small group of astronomy master’s students plays a large role in the SDSU and surrounding community. From the classrooms at SDSU to the telescopes at MLO, here’s a day in the life of the astronomy department with graduate students Margo Thornton and Josh Bardwell.

Women looking at a piece of paper that a man is holding up.

Thornton, a second-year astronomy master’s student shown here with senior Jusraunaq Farmahan, works as a TA in the astronomy department and loves “teaching people about this amazing subject,” she says. “I’ve become very passionate about communicating some harder topics to understand in a simplified way.”

After graduation in May, Thornton will pursue a Ph.D. “The main thing I hope to get across is that science is possible for anyone,” Thornton says. “And I want to show my younger self, the little girl watching ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ that she can soon understand what they’re talking about in the show.”

In Thornton’s Astro 109 class, sophomores Tommy Zhang (from left), Kegan Moon and Katrianna Suarez use handheld spectroscopes to observe a spectrum of light emitted from excited gasses.

Thornton says she’s always touched when she sees how excited students get from witnessing firsthand the cosmic phenomena she taught them about in class. Once, a student took a photo of the Orion Nebula through a telescope’s eyepiece during a class trip to MLO and eagerly returned to campus the next week announcing that he was able to point to the night sky and show that nebula to his friends.

“I was so proud of him,” she says. “It was really cool to see that my students are taking it outside of the classroom, teaching people what they're learning and showing people what’s up there.”

SDSU’s astronomy department and clubs like the Schwartz Astronomical Society regularly host star parties on campus. During these events, members of the school community gather to observe astronomical phenomena using tools like the department’s 8-inch and 10-inch telescopes, as well as the Unistellar eVscope 2, which can shed light on very faint celestial objects.

Master’s students also do a variety of outreach, including five to 10 planetarium shows at the start of each semester. During these hour-long planetarium shows on campus, grad students illuminate the domed ceiling with real data, projecting the actual positions of the moon, sun, stars and planets in various locations around the world and across different points of the day.

“The planetarium helps students orient themselves with respect to what we see in our night sky,” Thornton says. “It helps them understand how stars move and why they move the way they do.”

On the rooftop of the Physics/Astronomy building, sit three small observatories with big historic significance. The center dome originally housed a telescope that was used for the International Geophysical Year, an 18-month-long global collaboration that began in 1957 and involved a series of wide-ranging scientific studies conducted at the peak of the Cold War and start of the Space Race. The SDSU–based project, which aimed to refine the moon’s orbit, was funded by the U.S. Naval Observatory and carried out by the university’s inaugural astronomy majors, including professor emeritus Ronald Angione.

“Four of us were hired to take four photographs of the moon every four hours when it was visible,” Angione says. “We would develop the 8-inch square glass plates, identify and mark the stars whose positions were well-known, then ship the plates to the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., for measurement.”

After grad school, Angione returned to SDSU as a faculty member in 1969, the year the U.S. landed the first humans on the moon. The photographic camera used for this project is on display in the MLO museum.

Image of a person with their back turned.

When MLO first opened 56 years ago, student and faculty researchers stayed in dorms onsite to conduct overnight research. However, researchers, like Bardwell here, can now remotely operate a 40-inch telescope at MLO from this nondescript room on the second floor of the Physics/Astronomy building.

“In addition to our large research telescopes at MLO, we have a system called Evryscope that consists of 20 telephoto lenses covering most of the observable sky all night, every night,” says Robert Quimby, director of MLO and professor of astronomy. “We use it to capture the first hints of light from distant novae and supernovae as they begin to explode.”

Image of a group of students with a circle formed listening to a speaker.

TAs, like astronomy master’s student Nissia Indradjaja in the pink beanie, make the hour-long drive from SDSU to MLO with each of their intro-level astronomy sections once a semester. They first meet at the dirt visitor parking lot below MLO to go over ground rules. These trips mark some students’ first time seeing planets through a telescope or even the Milky Way.

Image of a group of students walking through a forest

The short hike up to the observatory from the parking area gives students — including (from left in front) sophomore Bryan Deng, junior Steven Tacto and sophomores Layne Hawley, Belynda Adajar, Grace Haskins and Emilee Smith — a chance to get to know each other and prep for some astronomical firsts. “I’ve had students cry because it was just so beautiful,” says Thornton, who teaches two Astro 109 sections per semester. “In the fall, we can see Saturn, and they will climb up the ladder, look through the telescope and be like, ‘No way! That’s fake!’

“I still haven’t gotten over seeing Saturn at MLO,” she says, noting that the first time she saw the gas giant through a telescope was when she started teaching this class.

Image of a person with their back turned facing the observatory.

Thornton says she feels “like a new person” after her time at SDSU. Her confidence has grown as a result of diverse hands-on experiences, including conducting research using MLO telescopes and organizing outreach events. “This program has helped me in so many ways,” Thornton says. “I feel a lot more like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

A $14 million gift in 2021 from the late Theodore William Booth, a pilot with an interest in astronomy, and his late wife Nhung Lu Booth (’85), an alumna of the College of Sciences, gave the astronomy department a boost to attract top students like Thornton and Bardwell, both of whom are benefiting from this donation. The gift created opportunities for scholarships and funding to meet other student needs.

Says Bardwell: “For many of us, a master’s in astronomy includes getting involved in research, science communication and teaching opportunities — while taking a full load of graduate courses. This scholarship allowed me the opportunity to pursue all my passions and gain as much experience as possible during this ephemeral period of my life.”

Thornton manually opens the dome and positions the 21-inch Reginald Buller visitor’s telescope to point at planets, stars and galaxies. Built in 1950 by J.W. Fecker Inc., the telescope alone (not including the cast iron base) is around 1,000 pounds of Pittsburgh steel and glass. It was donated to SDSU in 1988 by its original owner, Reginald F. Buller.

Quimby says, “Buller’s daughter Betty Buller Whitehead told me about observing with her dad in their backyard observatory. He was an astrophotographer, taking long exposure images of celestial objects through the telescope and developing the film himself.”

There is no shortage of sweeping views from MLO, and as a part of the 460,000-acre Cleveland National Forest, it’s also surrounded by more than 500 species of wildlife. “I’ve seen deer walking through, rattlesnakes warning me to stay away and deer mice that we occasionally need to evict from the telescopes,” Quimby says. “A couple times I have seen mountain lions in the area, and there are actually flocks of turkey near the road we walk up. Others have reported walking outside during an observing run to find cows from a neighboring ranch.”

On select Saturday nights in the summer (weather permitting), master’s students put on a visitor program at MLO, welcoming the public to trek up the mountain and look beyond the world. Families, students and curious hikers take in the breathtaking landscape as the setting sun casts pastel hues onto the horizon. The night begins with a lecture, each week a different master’s student presenting a topic within their area of expertise. As night falls, it’s time for stargazing and spotting astronomical objects like galaxies, nebulae or planets using this observatory telescope.

A person standing in front of a classroom.

Bardwell, also a second year grad student, focuses his study on black holes and is advised by a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard.

Bardwell and Thornton, an exoplanet specialist advised by SDSU professor William Welsh, both attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo for their undergraduate degrees. The two met to discuss their plans for grad school while completing their degrees virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Here at SDSU, you’re given so many opportunities to do really cool things,” says Bardwell, who started undergrad as a business major before switching to engineering. “Just being in grad school for two years, we led observatory lectures and star parties and outreach events, all things we looked up to our heroes doing.”

It takes about 20 minutes for one’s eyes to adjust to the darkness, allowing for better viewing of the night sky, and only seconds for white light to ruin the progress. Red lights like these help preserve night vision for Thornton and other stargazers.

On one of the viewing decks at MLO, Bardwell calibrates an EV scope to the luminous Orion constellation, using a handheld laser to point out the Orion Nebula within it.

“Really complicated fields get extra barriers of entry because scary buzzwords like astrophysics get in the way,” Bardwell says. “That’s why science communication is so exciting to me, because watching someone, whether they’re at their oldest years of their life or their youngest years, getting super stoked about learning something new is just super cool.”

The summer visitor program this year starts Memorial Day weekend and runs through the peak of the Perseid meteor shower in August. But it's important to call the information line below first to be sure it's scheduled that night.

Thornton and Bardwell still plan to work at least a few of the programs this summer, before moving on to their post-graduation chapters. Bardwell even led the design of new merch that will be sold in the observatory’s cash-only gift shop.

“All of the people working the summer visitor program are eager to answer questions; they love talking about space, and they think there’s no such thing as dumb questions,” Thornton says. “When we tell people tiny little facts about what they’re looking at through the telescope, they connect what they learn to what they are seeing. In that moment, they are doing science, they are astronomers.”

Discover for Yourself

Call 619-594-1415 for details about the MLO Summer Visitor Program and learn more about the SDSU astronomy department below.

SDSU Astronomy Department
MLO Summer Visitor Program

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