Spoilers ahead!
My friends, it could have been epic if we just...
#1 Added Relays
Now, I don't mean to nitpick here, but when you break the established rules of faster than light travel or communication in a genre based around exploration you start a ripple effect. As Roy Moss once pointed out to Kirk in "Best Destiny" having the capability to bop over to a planet well outside of your sector (much less on the strength of a semi-hand-held teleport) negates a lot of the job of star ships.
Want to see what's on that planet four sectors away? Beam on over! And why not? You should be able to communicate just fine with home. After all, if Scotty's cell service is typical, you should have no problem carrying on a real-time conversation even when you are half-way to Kronos!
So what's the solution? Just add a couple freakin' relays. Instead of saying that Khan made a single jump to Kronos, have Scotty say "I tracked his signal through a bunch of relays and..." Yeah, it's clearly foof, but it's swallowable.
#2 Showed Time Delays
Now that we're discussing the problems with real time conversations over vast distances, think about it... what would a conversation between Kirk and Scotty been like if it'd had been more like leaving voice mail messages for each other? You know, since it is unlikely that Scotty has the mother of all cell phone plans?
Scotty could have been getting all irritated as Kirk asked him this favor, talking back to the message. Heck, Kirk could even have anticipated some of the objections as an added bit of humor. Scotty could have gone to Jupiter, grumbling all the way at being persuaded by a glorified voice mail message.
And then, when all seem lost aboard the Enterprise with the USS Revenge bearing down, there could have been a hail from Uhurah. Incoming message - a canned response from Mr. Scott. Kirk calls for it to be played!
And there we have it. Scotty complaining to Kirk and finally announcing that he's seen something odd, and he's going to sneak aboard this weird ship.
Wait... what?
The penny drops and Kirk whirls to look at the weapons heating up on the Revenge, the glow growing, the menace staring down the face and.... pffft. The weapons send out pretty sparks or something.
"Thank you Mr. Scott!" Hollars and shouts of joy from the Enterprise as we cut to see Scotty running down the corridor, trying to get a hold of Kirk.
I mean, come on. It could work just as well (and likely better with a more skilled hand than I to rough out the edges) than what we had.
#3 Allowed Moral Dilemmas
There are two places where I think that the script writers took the easy way out and missed some great opportunities to make people think.
- "I was always going to kill you, muahahaha!"
The set-up was there. Kirk and Khan in an uneasy alliance. The question of how ethical Khan was put right up against Kirk's decisions. In the end, Kirk made the decision to stun Khan - to betray his trust preemptively. This action loses so much meaning when Khan glibly absolves Kirk of all potential guilt and future doubt by saying "Yes, I am going to kill you now for mine is an evil laugh!"
Why not have Khan just muddy the waters? Have him tell Kirk that "You betrayed me first! This proves that all of you need to be ruled and I am justified in my actions."
Worried that places too much doubt in Kirk as a Captain? Easy. Someone can mention that knot to Kirk later, to which Kirk could have said, "I just stunned the man. He was going to kill an entire starship of people and go on to commit mass genocide. No. It was always going to end this way."
But add that bit of doubt there during the scene and you make it that much more real. That much stronger. - The movie opened up with Kirk breaking the rules and judging the consequences to an entire species to be secondary to his friendship. Hmmm... How could we possibly echo that?
Spock and Khan face each other down, neither with an advantage, both ready to kill. Enter Uhurah!
Uhurah: Wait! No! Khan, your people are still alive! Spock, Kirk can still be saved by Khan's blood which, oddly, was never harvested by the people who genetically engineered him to... you know... fix death!
Spock: I propose a trade! Khan, give us a couple pints of your blood and we'll give you your people back!
Khan: Fine!
They make the exchange.
Khan: Ha! Now me and my crew will begin conquering the universe.
Spock: Or NOT! (Spock brings out the trans-warp-transporter of doom and beams Khan and his crew off to a world that he picked at random. You know... some place nice and far. Maybe like....Ceti Alpha V?
Oh, SNAP! We have Khan as a future threat, Spock having made some truly hard decisions, and a lovely echo of history repeating itself. I mean, future-Spock obviously didn't have the time to warn Spock about everything, did he?
#4 Acknowledged Engineering Subordinates
I know that Chekov is the bomb. I mean, he's John Conner's dad for heaven sake. However, on a real ship, there are people called engineers. Most of them study for years and years to do their job. Some of them, in fact, study to improve their rank and to eventually become Chief Engineers.
So, let's just tweak slightly, shall we? Instead of sending Chekov down to completely screw up the chain of command in Engineering for no good reason, let's send him down to oversee. "Lt. Anderson is next in line down there, but he's new on board. Chekov, go help him out?" Then we just kill Lt. Anderson off during the first salvo. Instead of, you know, leaving him to stew at the fact that some know-it-all just stole his temporary promotion from him.
Hey - maybe Anderson is the one who sabotaged the engines? "Send some teenager down here to take MY job away? I'll show them!"
#5 Let the Tribble Die
"I'm going to inject Khan's blood into this FULLY DEAD tribble. You know. Just for giggles." McCoy says this and we instantly all know that someone is going to die and come back. Never mind the fact that McCoy just seems to be hauling a dead tribble around for no reason. A dead tribble that he injects, and then leaves to continue decomposing on his desk.
How about a slightly softer "I'm going to run a bunch of tests on his blood. There's something off about it, and I want to know what!"
That line passes almost unnoticed and doesn't raise nearly as many flags giving away the crucial emotional crisis of the movie. When Kirk is dead, McCoy can reach desperately for the regenerative properties of the blood not knowing what will happen. Neither he nor the audience will have the amazing ex-tribble to look at as proof that everything is going to be just dandy.
#5 Faced Consequences!
Without even squinting I found two places where natural consequences should have been allowed to play a little longer on the screen.
- I could be wrong, but I don't think that Into Darkness takes place more than five years (at the most) from the first movie. Now, stay with me here. That was the first movie where a crap-ton of ships and Starfleet people got decimated. So many so that, Kirk, a cadet, got a Captaincy.
So, even at the beginning of this movie we have to have less ships in the Fleet right now than we should. And, even if we'd started cranking out cadets the moment the first movie ended, we'd still be fairly low on people.
By the end of this movie Khan takes out Starfleet command and the senior crew of how many ships? The Admiral is killed ala that guy from Blade Runner (Yes, JJ, I saw what you did there. Very nice call back!) And let's not forget this is the Admiral who, during the course of doing his job, became absolutely certain that war was right on the horizon?
Oh, crap! Starfleet is like....in serious trouble here! And the Klingons are coming!
But, hey. It's okay. Let's send out our most decorated ship on a five year purely exploratory mission. Too soon? Okay, fine. We'll wait a whole year to do this. Because, everyone knows, a year is long enough to make everything better.
I know we want to keep the exploratory feel, but just add a line of "and we're going to look for allies and watch for danger" to the explanation of that new five year mission and we just might feel a lot less like Enterprise is sailing off while Rome burns. - This one has a bit more to do with presentation than consequences but hear me out. It was never really likely we'd believe that Kirk would stay dead even without the deus ex tribble. We know our Trek history and we know our ticket sales. Wrath of Khan came at the end of a long series and could easily have read as a "grand gesture" to end out the whole deal. This movie does not have that feel to it and we haven't established these folks nearly well enough to think of having them go away yet.
However, in having Kirk die, then come back, then be Captaining, all within the last five to ten minutes of the film, we reduced the whole thing to sitcom level. The problem was introduced, solved, and wiped away faster than I could drain the last of my diet coke.
So why not take a book from Empire Strikes back? Why not have the end of the film be with Spock and McCoy around Kirk's bed?
McCoy: He's still in a coma. He was dead for twenty minutes and the radiation... but he's got brain function. He's alive, Spock. It's just going to take a while. (He glances to Spock. Spock has turned to the window to gaze at something outside. McCoy speaks into the silence, to reassure Spock and, perhaps, himself). He will be back on his feet in no time.
Spock: I know he will Doctor. And we'll be ready for him.
The camera pulls back to show the decimation of San Fran outside and, in the distance, the Enterprise being repaired.
There! See? No neat bow of how everything is okay but we can skip over the nasty realities of a decimated Starfleet, thousands dead in San Francisco, a ruined Enterprise because we're with unconscious Kirk. You can start out the next movie with Kirk awake, Starfleet stable and JUMP into the five year mission because you allowed those restful beats here.
In the end, I believe Into Darkness does make it on the top five best Star Trek movies. The actors were flawless, their parts perfectly written, and it was a joy to see all of them allowed to shine at different moments.
However, if there had just been a little bit more trust displayed by following the rules of the universe and belief that the audience could handle mature topics or down-time where things were allowed to sink in, it could have been the best.
However, if there had just been a little bit more trust displayed by following the rules of the universe and belief that the audience could handle mature topics or down-time where things were allowed to sink in, it could have been the best.
