Star Trek Beyond

I watched Star Trek Beyond this weekend, as I said I would, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the sour taste of Into Darkness, Beyond was wonderfully Star Trek. The story wasn’t based off of an older film or television episode, but it still felt like Trek. Simon Pegg, the writer/Scotty, grew up with and loves Star Trek, which really came across in the script. The cast remains perfect, and there is a heartfelt tribute to both the original cast and to Leonard Nimoy.

                As many of you know, this year marks Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary, and many fans were holding onto hope that Paramount would release something worthy of this milestone, and I’d like to think that they did. Certainly it was a better celebration of the franchise than Skyfall was for Bond. The plot took many typical action movie routes, but it also harkened back to the roots of Star Trek with the discussion of morals and grey areas, and science. Best of all, the feeling of hope that the television series were known to impart was back in full swing. I left the theatre happy and hopeful, which is something that hadn’t happened in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I usually leave the theatre happy and content, but the feeling of hope isn’t something one usually leaves a theatre with, and it certainly wasn’t something I left Into Darkness feeling.

                There was a great moment right at the start of the third act that could’ve just been a typical action movie moment, but the script from Pegg and Doug Jung elevated it by the simple inclusion of science in the dialogue. The humour and heart that was the soul of Star Trek came back in full swing for this film. The banter between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy felt plucked from The Original Series, and it was flawless. Every insult that McCoy threw Spock’s way came from a place of deep respect, and the viewer could pick up on that. From the way Kirk interacted with all of his crew, you could see the trust he has in them. And the easter eggs. Oh my goodness, the easter eggs. From references to the MACO and Xindi wars to the cast of TOS, the easter eggs were plentiful and amazing. If I have one gripe with the script, it’s an extremely nerdy one. At one point Scotty mentions that the crashed ship they find, the USS Franklin, was the first warp 4 capable ship, unfortunately, according to its registry number (and the fact its captain fought against the Xindi before becoming a captain) it was built after the Enterprise NX-01, which was the first warp 5 capable ship. Casual viewers won’t pick this up, but it did take me out of the movie for a moment, especially since the new Trek films have mentioned the NX-01 before.

                Nerdy griping aside, the film had a beautiful tribute to Leonard Nimoy’s passing woven into the story. Early in the film, Spock finds out about the passing of Ambassador Spock, and decides that he is going to leave Starfleet and go to New Vulcan to finish Ambassador Spock’s work. He believes that this is what the Ambassador would want. But at the end of the film he is given a package that contains several items from Ambassador Spock. Included in these items is a photograph of the original cast taken during the filming of their last movie together. This is the part where my eyes started welling up. The credits say that the film is in memory of Leonard, and following that was the simple message: “For Anton.” That’s where I actually cried a little. The Star Trek family lost two members in its fiftieth year, and instead of cashing in on that, Star Trek Beyond pays them a beautiful tribute that was full of hope for humanity. This message of hope is something that our real world, with its daily terror attacks and mass shootings, sorely needs.