If there is one thing J.J. Abrams and co. love, it’s homage. So when they came along to reboot the Star Trek universe, it surprised exactly no one that the new films threw in a healthy bunch of references to the original movies and TV series.
With the new series existing in an alternate timeline to the originals, the scope for referencing was enormous, and to be honest it’s been kind of hard to draw the line where homage to old ends and the reinvention begins. So with that in mind we thought – why not both?
So with the third installment in the new series Star Trek: Beyond due in cinemas here on Thursday 21st July we thought we should run through the 5 Best Times The New Star Trek Films Paid Homage/Reinvented The Originals...
Using Time Travel To Retcon/Reboot The Universe
Now this is a trope that goes back a long way in the Star Trek canon, with time travel frequently being used to reset the status quo after some particular damaging storyline has either seen main characters die off or just get so emotionally scarred as to be unrecognizable. So when it came time for J.J. to ‘boldly go where no man had gone before’ by rebooting the universe, reaching for the old time travel reset button was a no brainer.
And while I won’t bore you by listing all the time travel plotlines in Star Trek history (we just don’t have the time lol) I will point you to my favourite and possibly the most ridiculous, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where the crew have to travel back to the present (1986 at the time) to rescue whales and somehow the universe. Yeah crazy right, but it was the 80s.
Matching Uhura With Spock Instead Of Kirk
Now this one pissed off a lot of purists (which let’s face it, anything but a plodding and philosophy heavy snore-fest of a reboot would have done so), but matching Uhura with the sensitive and understanding Spock instead of the gung-ho machismo fest that is Kirk was a great way to avoid some of the originals’, shall we say, less than feminist undertones. Case in point here below.
Kirk Loves Alien Girls
Staying with the romantic theme, one thing the new films lifted right from the originals is Captain Kirk’s love of interstellar tail. Seriously the guy has green fever. In case you didn’t know, the original TV series would often see the dashing Kirk played by a pre-belly young William Shatner getting up close and intimate with sexy female aliens, who somehow not only always spoke English but, we assume, had genitalia vaguely resembling those of human woman (although we can’t be sure, who knows what Kirk was into).
The new films took this up with a cheeky scene of Kirk jumping out of bed and leaving a green skinned and flame-haired Orion Starfleet Cadet. And while it’s hardly a landmark role for women, at least she was an Orion Starfleet Cadet and not an Orion Slave Girl like in the originals.
Leonard Nimoy Returning As Old Spock To Save The Day
Not sure if this counts as an homage or a case of reinvention, but as anyone who has seen either of the new films will know, in both cases the day is saved by old Spock – aka Spock Prime – from the original timeline, played of course by the late Leonard Nimoy, who had traveled back in time to battle the bad guy from the first reboot, Romulan mining maniac Nero.
Whichever way you look at it though, having the original Spock along for the ride was awesome (even if he Deus Ex Machina-ed into the plot out of nowhere to save the day, as well as know that as much as Kirk was the phaser-slinging protagonist of the originals, Spock more often than not was the calm and reasoned old sage who had to come and save Captain cowboy’s ass time and time again.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!
Now this one really pissed fans of the originals off, with Benedict Cumberbatch‘s shouty performance of the universe’s premiere villain Khan receiving unilateral derision from fan boys everywhere, if no one else (Trekkies, amirite?). What rankled them even more was, instead of killing Spock, Khan killed Kirk in the new series leaving Spock to utter Shatner’s iconic “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!” scream.
Personally, though, I loved this as it was the one thing I wasn’t expecting. And while it looks like Kirk is back in action for Star Trek: Beyond, killing off Kirk still has to be one of the biggest eff-off moments in reboot history.
Star Trek: Beyond is out in Australian cinemas Thursday, July 12st, and in the meantime check out all the already released Star Trek films here.
