Star Trek: Into Darkness

• Title:  Star Trek:  Into Darkness
• Director:  JJ Abrams
• Date:  2013
• Studio:  Paramount
• Genre:  SF, Action
• Cast:  John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Peter Weller, Anton Yelchin
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"...You misunderstand, it is true I choose not to feel anything as my own life was ending.  As Admiral Pine was dying I joined with his conscienousness and experienced what he felt at the moment of his passing:  anger, confusion, lonliness, fear - I had experience those feelings before, multiplied expontentially on the day my planet was destroyed.  Such a feeling is something I choose never to experience again." -- Spock

"Don't agree with me Spock, it makes me very uncomfortable."  -- McCoy

The opening vignette of Star Trek Into Darkness has Kirk and McCoy disguised on a red Class M planet.  Kirk holds a scroll and is running away.  The Natives follow, throw spears at him, and at McCoy as well.  However, Kirk's actions had been a distraction, so the Enterprise's shuttle can drop Spock, in a fire suit into the volcano to drop a cold fusion device in the active and ready to erupt volcano to prevent the eruption and save the indigenous life on the planet.  Kirk and McCoy dive into the water to escape the natives, and board the Enterprise.  However, Spock is in trouble and could be killed.  Kirk and the Enterprise, but incur Star Fleet's wrath at the flagrant disregard for the Prime Directive.

A mysterious man (Benedict Cumberbatch) offers to cure the ill daughter of a Star Fleet officer.  He soon discovers the price as he has to blow-up a Star Fleet Archive building.

Pike finds Kirk in a bar, and brings him back to Starfleet.  He asks Kirk to be his first officer, Kirk accepts, and Pike takes him to a gathering of all Starfleet's captains and first officers to discuss the destruction of the Archive and Starfleet's response to the terror attack.  Kirk, wonders, however, why anyone would destroy an archive, especially when the information held there is public record.  Just as Admiral Marcus, Pike, and Kirk are realising that protocol for an attack calls for just this occurrance - all the captains and first officers in one room, the room is attacked by a helicopter-like gunship.  (Because apparently Starfleet never heard the old adage about not putting all your eggs in one basket.)  Pike's killed.

Admiral Marcus calls Kirk and Spock into his office, he offers Kirk the Enterprise again, and Kirk asks for, and is granted, Spock as his first officer.  But Marcus's plan is chilling - not only does he want Kirk to track down "John Harrison" the ex-Starfleet officer responsible for the attack - he wants Kirk to kill him.  Specifically, even though Harrison is hiding on the Klingon home world and an attack on the home world would lead to all-out war, he wants Kirk to hide in the Neutral Zone and fire a new long-range photon torpedo at the uninhabited province where Harrison is hiding and obliterate him.

Scotty quits when the torpedoes are loaded on the Enterprise, and the security detail with them refuses to tell him what the payload is.  Scotty fears an interaction with the warp core. Kirk accepts Scotty's resignation.

During the trip to the Neutral Zone, however, Kirk has second thoughts (helped by his conversation with Scotty, and additional conversations with McCoy and Spock) about blindly following the orders of Admiral Marcus to kill Harrison rather than capture him.

Kirk decides rather than killing Harrison outright, Kirk decides to capture Harrison.  He will take a landing party, and using the transport vessel from "the Mudd incident" will land on the Klingon home world, capture Harrison, and return him to Earth.  Kirk, Spock, Uhura and a guard take the shuttle down.  Uhura attempts to reach an agreement with the Klingons who attack their ship and force it down.  She's doing OK, when they are attacked.  The fire fight is chaotic, but a mysterious man rescues them.

Kirk brings this man, Harrison, to the Enterprise and locks him in the brig.  However, he soon learns from the man, that, as Admiral Marcus had pointed out, the Archive that was destroyed wasn't an archive or library - it was Section 31 HQ, home to Starfleet's secret military and spy organization.  Moreover, Harrison wasn't simply an agent there as Marcus said.  Harrison is Khan, a genetically engineered superhuman, who, with 72 other similar super humans was sent from Earth.  Marcus found his ship, kept the crew in cryo-suspension, but revived Khan.  Seeing Khan as the brilliant warrior he needed, he gave him a new identity (John Harrison) and set him to work developing weapons for Starfleet.  Khan tells Kirk, he had no choice, Marcus held his crew hostage.  However, he rebelled against being forced to make weapons and to create a "militarized Starfleet" - which was Marcus's dream.

Kirk isn't sure how much of this he buys, but he's keeping an open mind, deciding to bring Harrison/Khan to Earth to tell his tale.

It's easier said than done, when two problems occur:  first, the Enterprise Engine Core leak, that had stranded the ship short of it's warp point goal, is getting much worse, threatening the entire ship.  And second, Admiral Marcus has arrived and is he pissed off that Kirk hasn't killed Harrison/Khan, talked to Khan, and might believe Khan.

From what Marcus says, it's clear that at least some of what Khan has said is true.

However, Marcus beams his daughter Carol from the Enterprise to his own dreadnought-class ship  then attacks the Enterprise.  Kirk, who's also heard from Scotty, who checked on some co-ordinates Khan gave him.  Khan convinces Kirk the only way to defeat the dreadnought is from within.  Scotty has hidden aboard the ship.  Kirk and Khan space jump to the other ship, using jets to maneuver.  During the jump, Khan saves Kirk's life.  Scotty lets them in.

But on the bridge, Khan shows his true colors.  He wants revenge on Marcus.  Kirk tries to arrest Marcus.  Khan kills him.  Kirk, Carol, and Scotty are transported to the Enterprise brig.  Spock had transported the torpedoes to the dreadnought.  However, the torpedoes were primed and blow the ship.  Khan escapes.  Khan's crew, the 72 cryo tubes are in sickbay on the Enterprise.

However, the Enterprise is dying - the damage to the warp core is so bad the ship is dying and about to crash into Earth.  Kirk and Scotty try to fix the ship, but the engine core is mis-aligned, and can't be fixed because of the radiation in the compartment.  Kirk goes into the compartment to fix it.  He succeeds and saves the ship but is dying from radiation poisoning.  Spock pulls the ship out of it's dive.  Scotty calls him and asks him to come down.  He goes, and in a reverse of Star Trek II:  The Wrath of Khan, it's Kirk who dies and Spock who must watch.  There fingers even touch on the glass separating them.  Spock screams, "Khan!".

Khan, meanwhile tries to crash his ship into Starfleet HQ and misses (He does destroy the Great Fire Memorial in San Francisco though.)  Spock chases down Khan, ready to kill him for killing Kirk.  Uhura stops him - McCoy's realised that Khan's blood can save Kirk, because of it's regenerative abilities.

This works, and Kirk Lives.  One year later, Kirk re-dedicates the new Enterprise, reciting "the Captain's Oath", which we know as the opening to classic Star Trek.

JJ Abrams directs Star Trek:  Into Darkness at a breakneck speed.  The film moves, extremely fast - so fast, it's hard to keep up with it at times.  However, the film also has it's moments.  Harrison, as played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch, is brilliant, from lone terrorist, to scientist who's work is poached for weapons, to revenge-seeking madman, each of Khan's roles is well played.  I avoided all spoilers when this movie came out last year, even the name of Cumberbatch's character - so I was surprised to find out that "Harrison" was Khan. I enjoyed the film in the theater and enjoyed watching it again yesterday.  The film is fun, and the cast is excellent.  I really do like Pine, Quinto, and Urban.  And Cumberbatch played a multi-faceted villain with relish and even, at times, compassion.

Though not too much - because even if Marcus had cold-bloodily killed Khan's crew, Khan's attacks would have been over-kill.  The film, like the best Star Trek episodes and films raises questions.  Questions about the power of the military, questions about the ability for news events to be shaped, and public opinion to be manipulated.  And it's Kirk's noted ability to stand against the rules and go with his gut that save him and his crew.  Kirk is willing to follow rules and regulations as needed, but he won't stand by and watch a planet die because of them - nor will he kill a criminal who should rather be put on trial.  It's a enjoyable rollar-coaster of a film, with a bit more to it, and I liked it.

Recommendation:  See It!

Rating:  4 out of 5 Stars

Next Film:  Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country