All image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
A misunderstanding is how it begins, revenge is what’s sought, and the adventure continues- that’s Star Trek Beyond in a nutshell. Obviously, there will be some Spoilers ahead, so stop now if you haven’t yet seen the latest entry of the Star Trek ensemble.
“Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, brings the crew together once more to thwart a terrorist bent on killing millions of Federation citizens for revenge….from the loss of a job.” This is the caption that should have been stamped on the promos for this film- a glorified CGI masterpiece with a cookie-cutter plot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a tried and true Trek fan, but the revenge motif has been played-out far too many times for it to be enjoyable. However, there are a few redeeming factors in Beyond that make the film worthwhile.
Concept art for Yorktown- a massive starport with millions of inhabitants. (Image courtesy of Memory-Alpha Wikia)
In this installment monotony sets in for the crew and rightfully so, considering they’ve been exploring space for 966 days. So much so, that Kirk applies to give up command of the Enterprise to take a desk job while Spock, affected by his other self's death contemplates resigning from Star Fleet to take on the role of establishing a new Vulcan homeworld. Low on supplies and desperate for shore leave, they decide to head to Yorktown- a massive starport with millions of Federation inhabitants.
I was impressed with the idea and visual conception of the Yorktown and hoped they would have disclosed more information on it than what was provided but no such luck. How long did it take to build? Where did all the materials for its construction come from? What powers the station? More importantly, why hasn’t anyone made a feature film about it?
According to Sean Hargreaves, the designer behind the Yorktown, the starport consists of city-sized interlocking rings with several radiating arms that measure out at 17 ½ miles each. The whole construct is encased in a spherical surface with openings to allow starships to enter. The station itself is divided into zones, which include sections for the arts, parks, recreation, restaurants/bars and a shipyard. With a station this large, transporters are needed for travel, although it does feature monorail trains for those who prefer not to have their molecules scrambled.
With its enormity, I wondered how many engineers inhabit the station, with a population in the millions, it would have to be a good percentage as even futuristic technology needs to be maintained, replaced or designed for that matter.
Scotty and Jaylah inside her home- the USS Franklin. In the future, flashlights have 3 beams. (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
Shortly after arriving at the Yorktown, the crew is dispatched on a rescue mission near a nebula and is attacked by Krall, a lizard-like being who needs an artifact the Enterprise has for a biological weapon he intends to use on the starport. The Enterprise is subsequently destroyed with most of the crew becoming Krall’s hostages and what’s left of the Enterprise and a few of the bridge officers crashing onto Altamid, Krall’s base of operations.
Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Checkov regroup with the help of Jaylah- a scavenger and onetime guest of Krall’s encampment. It turn’s out the house Jaylah’s been living in is actually the USS Franklin, a Star Fleet vessel that crashed on the planet a century ago when Earth was in the throes of war with a race known as the Xindi (see Star Trek Enterprise).
As you might have guessed, Krall is the former captain of the Franklin and descended into madness when he and his crew were not rescued and left to fend for themselves. Luckily for them, the planet housed the remains of advanced technology left behind by the previous residences and was able to prolong their lives and repurpose drones to act as the swarm.
In any event, Scotty gets the Franklin up and running while another party rescues the hostages from Krall’s encampment. Krall in the meantime finds the artifact needed for his bio-weapon and gets ready to head to the Yorktown to get his revenge. Why revenge? Besides being left behind, he was a soldier during the Xindi war and loved his job, but when the war was over, he was assigned as the captain of the USS Franklin, a position he detested.
As Krall heads to the station, Kirk and the rescued crew hijack the now-working Franklin and follow pursuit. Not wanting to repeat what happened to the Enterprise, Kirk needs to find a way to disrupt Krall’s swarming ships so that they can’t act in unison. They soon find that a specific signal ties the ships together and can be disrupted using the same frequency. Scotty manages to beam the signal via Beastie Boy’s Sabotage, and the ships become disoriented, allowing Kirk to catch up to Krall and ultimately stop him by jettisoning him out of an airlock into space.
Besides the Yorktown, I have to say that the other redeeming factor for the movie is Scotty with his quick thinking and plan of action. Without him, Krall probably would have succeeded. Could Spock have gotten the Franklin up and running? Most certainly - but probably not as quickly as Scotty.
Star Trek Beyond is an OK for a one-time watch, certainly for the CGI cinematics. However, it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre that hasn’t been done a thousand times over.
I give it 2.12 stars out of five.
