Fifty Years, Five Captains

William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula (L-R)

Here's a photo of the five captains of the first five live action Star Trek TV series, taken in 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sixth Star Trek live action series debuts in early 2017, with the premiere being broadcast on CBS, and the entire season available on CBS All Access.

RIP Anton Yelchin

Anton Yelchin, the young actor who portrayed Pavel Chekov in the J.J. Abrams-directed and produced Star Trek films beginning in 2009 and including the forthcoming Star Trek Beyond, has died at the age of 27. More at Variety.

Will New Star Trek TV Series Boost CBS Streaming Channel?

A media expert is weighing in on CBS’s forthcoming reboot of Star Trek, saying the new series will beam directly to viewers and bypassing affiliates, for the first time in the half-century history of the franchise.

CBS says it will to distribute its programming directly to viewers with the rollout of a new Star Trek series in 2017, and bypass its 200 broadcast network affiliates. Dom Caristi, a Ball State telecommunications professor and member of the university’s Digital Policy Institute, says the move is designed to lure subscribers.

CBS will debut only  the inaugural episode of the untitled new series in January 2017 on its regular network stations, with the remainder of the season avaliable only on its streaming service, CBS All Access.

Caristi says there is a race among streaming services to get subscribers. “The big over the top services, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, have all realized that they need original content to drive subscriptions,” he says. “Even Netflix knows that it needs to offer shows like ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Orange Is the New Black.’ Amazon Prime and Hulu are later getting into the act but still provide a fair number of hours of original content. CBS wants to make sure its service is offered on smart TVs and on streaming devices, such as Apple TV, Roku and Chromecast. The devices need content providers and the providers want programs to be offered on every possible service. At the moment, nobody knows who needs whom more. That will shake out as the clear winners are determined by the number of adopters.”

Historically, TV networks have distributed their programs via local television affiliates in about 200 geographic markets across the country. That model is quickly becoming less relevant in an online world.

By creating content available only on its streaming service, CBS hopes to drive subscriptions. Selecting the “Star Trek” franchise as its first original series is a wise choice, according to Caristi. Trek fans are known as a loyal audience. The series might not get enough viewers for a major TV network like CBS, but subscriber numbers for OTT shows don’t need to be nearly as large as broadcast television viewership, he says.

“The series won’t premiere for more than a year, so it remains to be seen how many episodes the network will commit to. That could be the key to gaining subscribers. If the network kills the series after only three or six episodes, they’ll never attract subscribers. But, if CBS commits to at least 12 episodes a year — at least one new episode per month — they are more likely to draw interest.”

More interesting still is the question if whether the new series will be connected to the original Trek universe, or tie in to the new universe of the JJ Abrams films. Its success with viewers ultimately will depend on the quality of the production, however it reaches viewers, and whichever universe it takes place in.

Remembering Datalore

Here's an excellent interview with Brent Spiner and Rob Bowman remembering the creation of "Datalore," the Next Generation episode which introduced Data's brother Lore and changed the course of Star Trek in many ways. As you'll see, it allowed Brent Spiner new insights into Data and more freedom in his acting, without which we no doubt would never have had the Erik Soong story arc on Enterprise, and probably would not have seen as much growth in Data's character throughout the rest of TNG and into the first two TNG movies.

Star Trek Into Darkness Easter Eggs [SPOILERS]

Here are the ones I noticed; feel free to mention any I missed in the comments.

* The uniforms worn by Admiral Marcus and the other admirals at Starfleet HQ evoke Kirk's Admiral's uniform from the opening minutes of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

* Kirk sleeps with two Caitians; this cat-like race also produced one of the members of the bridge crew on Star Trek: The Animated Series.

* Sulu briefly takes command and ponders a possible future as a captain in Starfleet, saying, "Captain has a nice ring to it." In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (and a Voyager episode with a flashback to that same time period), Sulu was captain of the USS Excelsior.

* Section 31 is responsible for reviving and manipulating Khan. Section 31 is the same super-secret Starfleet black ops division that recruited and manipulated Dr. Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

* The Kelvin Archive, target of the first terror attack and secretly a base for Section 31, refers to the USS Kelvin, the ship briefly captained by George Kirk in the previous film. It's likely called The Kelvin Archive because Nero's attack on the Kelvin prompted Starfleet's move to a more militaristic stance.

* Kirk craves, and is eventually granted, a five-year mission. He later references this in his "Captain's Oath," which is nearly word-for-word Shatner's opening dialogue from The Original Series, except with the Next Generation modification of "...where no one has gone before," instead of "...where no man has gone before."

* Among Admiral Marcus's collection of model spaceships is Zephram Cochrane's warp-capable breakthrough and a Vulcan starship from Enterprise, as well as the previously-mentioned USS Kelvin.

* When Chekov takes over engineering and has to wear a red shirt, he looks distinctly uncomfortable. Red-shirted crew members are notoriously disposable.

* Security Officer Cupcake, from the 2009 film and the IDW comics, appears.

* The Mudd incident from the IDW comics is mentioned, and her ship is used in Kirk's covert op on the Klingon homeworld. (That's right, her ship. You are reading IDW's in-canon Abramsverse Trek comics, right?)

* The Klingon mining facility on Praxis appears to have exploded decades earlier than in the original timeline (as seen in The Undiscovered Country).

* McCoy uses his "I'm a doctor, not a..." line.

* Leonard Nimoy cameos as Spock asks his older, more experienced self about Khan when the ship and every life on it as threatened.

* Chris Doohan, son of Scotty Prime actor James Doohan, appears again (he was in the '09 film) as a transporter operator.

* Carol Marcus mentions Christine Chapel, who in this universe apparently felt the need to head to deep space after a fling with James T. Kirk. In the original series, Nurse Chapel was  key member of Dr. McCoy's medical staff, and played by Majel Barrett, wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

* Chris Hemsworth and Jennifer Morrison are listed in the credits, and apparently their voices are among those Kirk hears (or imagines hearing) when he wakes up from being, um, dead. They played Kirk's parents George and Winona in the 2009 movie. (From MTV.com.)

* In the film's final scene, Kirk welcomes Carol Marcus to the Enterprise family, and Marcus responds that "It's nice to have a family." In the original timeline, the two have a son together, David Marcus. (From MTV.com.)

* The Daystrom Institute is mentioned. Richard Daystrom was a scientist on the original series.

* Jonathan Archer's USS Enterprise (NX-01) is visible among Marcus's model ships. (From the comments to this post.)

ADD's Personal and Spoilery Review of Star Trek Into Darkness

Warning: This review contains spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness. Do not read any further if you want to be surprised by the events of the film.

The four years between 2009's Star Trek directed by J.J. Abrams and the release of his sequel film, Star Trek Into Darkness, were four of the longest years of my life.

Not just because I was waiting for more of the new universe of Trek Abrams and his team had created. I loved the 2009 movie (here's my review to prove it), but also because it was a rough four years. The economy had begun its long slide into hell in 2008, and in 2010 that fact hit home when I was laid off from my job, a period of unemployment that lasted for some 19 months. I wasn't the only one to lose his job in that period; many people were in the same boat. Many people I knew personally. The world had seemingly changed, and we wondered if it was ever going to change back, if there was even a place for us anymore. One of the things that got me through that nearly two years was Star Trek, both the franchise in general, watching it, writing about it -- and J.J. Abrams's new vision in particular, which fired my imagination and got me excited not only about Star Trek, but about the idea that perhaps it was going to survive after all. After the release of Nemesis, the last of the Next Generation movies (and deservedly so), and the cancellation of Enterprise, it was clear the 1990s-era cultural love affair with Star Trek (Kirk and Picard made on the cover of Time, dude) was well over, and us Trek nerds were once again in the minority.

The long, four-year stretch of Treklessness was only moderately alleviated by hints and allegations of what the next movie might entail; its release date kept getting pushed further and further away, and I began to wonder if I'd live long enough to see its release. I wish I could tell you I'm kidding, but I love Star Trek that much, and the wait was that frustrating for me. As the lights went down last night and the Bad Robot logo danced across the screen, I could feel that four years wash away with a great sense of relief. I made it to the next one. Star Trek is back, and I had a job, and enough money to buy tickets at ridiculous 3D prices to bring my son and my wife out for an evening at the movies, watching the new Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the gang get put through their paces.

I should note that the evening came at the end of a pretty awful, and certainly frustrating week. I had taken the week off, partially because of Into Darkness and my hopes of seeing the Wednesday night midnight showing. What I had hoped would be a week of relaxing and not thinking much about work instead turned into a week of pain, fear and frustration and not thinking much about work. On Monday a routine annual physical for my 17-year-old son ended in disaster as he had a reaction to a vaccination and collapsed in the doctor's office, slamming his head into a wall and breaking his nose. Upon awaking from a brief period of syncope (Syncope was also one of the film studios with a vanity card at the beginning of Into Darkness, how weird is that on multiple levels?), he had some convulsions that, as a parent, scared the living shit out of me. He recovered pretty quickly (literally getting a clean bill of health in the same doctor's office an hour before we went to see Into Darkness), but the rest of my week included a day lost to lower back pain, ice packs and heating pads, and an allergy attack that drove me to pick up some Claritin-D, which I take against medical advice, but which is the only medication that moderates my somewhat severe seasonal allergies. If you're asking what this has to do with Star Trek, read the headline again. This was a personal event for me, this movie, and I want to put it into context. Also, if you're still reading by now, I assume you don't mind the spoilers, which, yes, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS KHAN.

I knew this ahead of time, having read that obnoxious review from down under a few weeks back. Obnoxious not because it contained massive spoilers (like this one is about to), but because it was written from a spoiled, entitled point of view that didn't appreciate at all what Abrams and Orci and Kurtzman and company have done. Like Bones McCoy reviving a dead man with inspiration from a tribble, they have taken something seemingly strong (if you're a fan Star Trek seems like an unkillable force of nature) that is actually quite fragile most of the time, dependent on cultural whims and easily overshadowed by much dumber entertainment that by virtue of its fairy-tale imbecility seems to appeal to the entire planet. Did I mention J.J. Abrams is directing the next Star Wars movie?

So yes, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Khan. (True story: A friend of mine who is a big Trek fan actually thought the villain's name was "Benedict Cumberbatch" up until a couple of weeks ago.) If you come into the story with no previous attention having been paid to the copious theories about the true identity of the bad guy, you might be surprised (well, not anymore; my bad); at various times the clips and teasers and IDW's Countown to Darkness comic had me convinced it was Gary Mitchell or Robert April, but there were convincing arguments that it might be Garth of Izar or even, (could they? WOULD they?!?) Khan himself.

But before we get to Khan, we have an original series-worthy opening vignette on the planet Niburu, where still-new and still-brash Captain James T. Kirk has been assigned to monitor a pre-warp civilization and not violate the Prime Directive. The Federation, you see, has rules against allowing peoples who have not achieved faster-than-light travel to know that the universe is full of other living beings with big starships and phasers and whatnot. It's the futuristic, cultural equivalent of the old "Old enough to pee, old enough for me" justification. "Old enough to warp, old enough to, erm, know other people can warp too. I said WARP TWO, Sulu!" But I digress.

While busy monitoring life on Niburu, Kirk (spoilers!) goes ahead and violates the living shit out of the Prime Directive when he saves Spock's life (against Spock's stated and somewhat hilarious wishes) by allowing the natives to see the Enterprise as it saves Spock from dying in a volcano he is trying to stop from erupting and destroying the population. Kirk lies in his log about these exciting events, which really get the movie rolling quite well, while Spock, being Spock, is painfully honest in his report to Starfleet, which gets Kirk busted back down to Commander, as Chris Pike, disappointed and fatherly, takes command of the Enterprise once more, and Spock is reassigned to another ship. This was one of the elements I was concerned about after reading that early, spoilery review, but it is believable and dramatic on the screen and flows logically (see what I did there?) from the events of the previous film.

Following all that, we see "John Harrison" (Khan, but that's not yet revealed in the movie) manipulate a desperate father into carrying out a terrorist attack on an important Starfleet facility; Kirk, Pike, Spock and other captains and first officers gather at Starfleet HQ in San Francisco, and during a meeting to plan response to the attack, Kirk realizes they've been tricked into assembling all in one place so Harrison can carry out his real plan, which is to kill all those captains and first officers.

There are layers within layers as far as these events and their true motivations go, but it's never confusing and it all made sense to my wife, who I always use as a baseline for the comprehensibility of Trek, since she likes it but is not engaged in a lifelong love affair in the way her husband is. She understood what was going on throughout, and especially liked that Kirk twigged to the real attack just seconds before Harrison started shooting up Starfleet, killing Chris Pike and providing a serious investment in Harrison's capture (or killing) for both Kirk and Spock, to both of whom Pike was a mentor.

I should mention that I was really happy the earlier film found a way to keep Pike around, as he has always fascinated me, kind of being the Captain Pete Best of Star Trek. Bruce Greenwood did nice work as the character, but in Uncle Ben fashion, his death here really moves Kirk to the next stage in his development as an officer and as a human being, and the death scene, with Vulcan mind meld, is brilliantly and movingly depicted. Zachary Quinto is a miracle as Spock, a complete reinvention that requires no willing suspension of disbelief at all. Even when Leonard Nimoy is onscreen (and he is here, briefly), Quinto still utterly inhabits and channels our most beloved Vulcan with genuine and powerful credibility. Whatever differences there are in his character as opposed to Original Spock are convincingly assigned to the destruction of Vulcan and the death before his eyes of his beloved mother Amanda in the previous film. Of course he would be different, emotionally. But he is still Spock, and he still commands our respect, our affection, and our sense of wonder.

The hunt for Harrison is a Zero Dark Thirty-like secret and deniable mission into Klingon space. The new Klingons don't look a lot like any previous Klingons, but if you're going to quibble about Klingons not looking like other Klingons, perhaps you've picked the wrong franchise to invest yourself in. The previous movie couldn't even make Romulans that looked like the Romulans from the previous movie (Nemesis), and those Romulans were from the same universe (I'd explain, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it, so, trust me). I always just think about how different Caucasians look from Africans look from Asians look from blah blah blah -- there's a wide disparity in appearance on our world, perhaps the disparity is wider for Klingons and Romulans, okay?

In one of the movie's cleverest reversals, we realize Kirk lied to Admiral Marcus (a scenery-chewing Peter Weller) when he said he was going to hunt Harrison down and kill him. Instead, Kirk decides to be true to his own moral compass and despite his righteous outrage over Pike's death, he decides to capture him alive and bring him back to face justice for his actions. Imagine if Bin Laden's hunters had made the same choice? There's some sophistication to be found in the ideas of this film, believe it or not, and I choose to believe it's not coincidence or accidental evocation. Into Darkness, for all its action and Easter eggs (hello, reference to Harry Mudd from the IDW comics), is about not just terrorism but our response to it and even possibly our implicit role in its existence. This movie asks questions I wish Los Estados Unidos had asked, as a people and at the highest levels, before invading Iraq, or after finding out where Bin Laden was. But as in Into Darkness, there are people who don't want the public to know the truth about terrorism, its motivations and causality, and they use violence and patriotism to stifle debate and destroy any chance of learning the root cause for such desperate actions.

That's the real spoiler of Into Darkness; that Khan has a good reason (from his point of view, at least), for what he does. Perhaps moreso than in "Space Seed" and Wrath of Khan, his motives are understandable and even evoke some sympathy. We don't necessarily agree with his choices, but we understand his rage and his frustration and if you're anything like me, there are points in the film where you wish he and Kirk could find common ground. They do, briefly, ally themselves against their common foe, in one of the most thrilling divergences from Wrath of Khan. Ricardo Montalban and William Shatner never were in the same place together in that much-loved film; here, though, they work together, they fight each other, and Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch bring a jolt of chaotic, unpredictable electricity to their scenes together.

I don't want to go over the plot beat by beat, and I am not spoiling the actual ending, but I will say that every worry I had about the evocation of Wrath of Khan was overcome by the excitement and artistry on the screen during Star Trek Into Darkness. The destruction of Vulcan is a plausible reason that the Botany Bay is discovered not by Kirk and crew, but by a more pro-active and reactive Starfleet looking to gird itself for war. Nero's arrival and its implications for the future have scared the shit out of men like Admiral Marcus (much more the villain here than Khan, and I totally dug Cumberbatch as Khan), and changed Starfleet.

While I hope any future movies in this franchise explore strange new worlds in a manner in keeping with nearly 50 years of Star Trek history, the use of such tropes as tribbles, Section 31 and friction with the Klingons (hey, was that Praxis in orbit around the Klingon homeworld?) flows organically in Into Darkness, and I have no complaints.

I read a lot of dissatisfied and unhappy reviews of this movie, claiming it is a hollow echo of Wrath of Khan and misappropriates a lot of the situations and dialogue from that film. Me, I choose to see it, like the first movie, as an entirely credible reimagining of a beloved story, familiar events and beloved characters as seen through the lens (flare, ha ha) of a truly altered timeline. Of course they will find themselves in similar situations to what we saw before; of course they might say similar lines of dialogue in those circumstances. If every movie from here on out rehashes and reheats stuff Star Trek made a meal of decades ago, then I would agree that Abrams and company have failed in their mission. But this time out, I had even more fun than I did with the 2009 movie. I fucking loved Into Darkness, and the only moment I might have considered cutting was Leonard Nimoy's cameo, as I think this crew is ready to fly into its own future. But my wife felt it made perfect sense that in that much danger, with the ship and every life on it threatened, our new, young Spock would turn to his older self for advice. And you know, she's right. And it was glorious to see the two Spocks interact again, just for a couple of minutes.

It reminded me of just how much Star Trek has given me over the 47 years of my life. Last night, it gave me and my wife and our teenage son a fantastic night at the movies, after which we went out for a marvelous dinner and talked mostly about how much we loved the movie we had just experienced together as a family. I had resolved not to talk about it, so as not to be a bore. But they, casual fans of Star Trek, who might never have watched it at all if not for knowing me, they loved it, and they wanted to talk about it. And I, of course, was delighted to do so. Star Trek Into Darkness is great entertainment for anyone looking to be entertained, and great Star Trek for anyone who still loves these characters and believes there is life left in them yet.

Final Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer

With one month to go before the U.S. release of Star Trek Into Darkness, here is the action-packed final trailer for the film, with many new shots and sequences not seen in previous trailers. Included are some annoying flipped shots (keep an eye on where the Starfleet insignia is on Kirk and Spock's shirts), and as this shot-by-shot analysis reveals, the strongest suggestions yet that the villain of the movie may indeed be Khan. The title card similarity to the original Wrath of Khan trailer is too spot-on to be coincidence, but it certainly could be misdirection. The presence of apparent cryo-tubes, however, suggest not. A month from today, and hopefully not sooner, we'll know for certain.