What Progressive Vision? Fun With Script Doctoring and How Star Trek Into Darkness Fails the Bechdel Test

I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness again last night.

My review still stands: Abrams' newest movie is a well-calibrated thrill ride; it is nothing more or less. The cinematography and sound design are excellent. Abrams' aesthetic eye gives me hope for his role as Director of Star Wars: Episode VII. Now, with my expectations sufficiently lowered, I was able to enjoy the empty calories of Star Trek Into Darkness with relative peace.

There are some questions and problems that becomes even more obvious on a second viewing.

1. Abrams' Trek universe is very empty. The Enterprise is engaged in a huge space battle with a much larger dreadnought class ship near Earth. One would think that there would be shipping traffic, other patrol craft, or space vessels in the area.

2. The Enterprise is never contacted by The Federation. There are no ships sent to aid her. As the Enterprise falls into Earth orbit there is no radio chatter. In a glaring error, there are apparently no satellites or planetary defense systems in orbit over Earth.

3. Khan's attack on Starfleet headquarters is misplaced in the plot. What should have been a horrific act of terrorism, which then animates the narrative going forward, is left for the end of the movie. We then leap forward one whole year and everything is fine. What of the loss of thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, in that attack?

4. The tension between Khan and Kirk in the original film was personal, intimate, and obsessive. And as cultural critics have suggested, their relationship is very erotic and laden with same sex desire.

Star Trek 2 is the Moby Dick of Roddenberry's film and TV universe.

Chris Pine's Kirk wants to kill Khan because he is an Osama Bin Laden stand-in. Kirk's pursuit of Khan in Abrams' Trek never felt that personal or intimate. The actors tried, but there is not enough history between them to convince the audience of the sincerity that these friendships--and losses--matter.

5. I like to play script doctor. Abrams could have made a few fixes that would have elevated Star Trek Into Darkness from mediocre to very good. What if Benedict Cumberpatch was actually Gary Mitchell? In this new continuity Mitchell would then be a senior lieutenant to Lord Khan. Weller has Khan, along with the other super soldiers locked away in suspended animation. Mitchell goes rogue when it becomes apparent that Weller has no intention of freeing his compatriots.

This leaves Khan and his super soldiers for use in a future war with the Klingons--Star Trek Into Darkness does foreshadow a return of Khan and his men for a sequel--and gives Cumberpatch some real motivation for the reign of terror he unleashes on Starfleet.

Alternatively, I would have loved to see Abrams bring back Harry Mudd, and have the latter's robots be used to infiltrate Starfleet and/or be used as foot soldiers in a war of terror against the Federation. Who is controlling them? The Romulans, the Klingons? A new alien race?

Given the destruction of the Vulcan homeworld, there could have been a faction of that race who have retreated from the principles of rationality and IDIC. They are traumatized and want to recapture all that their people have lost. This would also play nicely with Star Trek's lore. We have long heard about the "times before Surak" and the Vulcan's past of war fighting and wanton violence. Abrams could have shown the audience something new. Such a plot would also create some great growth for Quinto's Spock and force his relationship with Pine to deepen.

Star Trek is supposed to represent a hopeful and inclusive vision of the future. Yes, Abrams' Trek has a multiracial crew, as well as aliens and synthetic lifeforms, on the ship. He has checked those boxes. But, Roddenberry's vision was more substantive and less superficial. Remember, Roddenberry's Trek had the first interracial kiss on TV. The show was understood to be such a cultural landmark that Dr. King himself called Nichelle Nichols and asked her to remain on the show as Lieutenant Uhura when she was considering leaving it.

On a second viewing Abrams' failure to advance that vision is even more apparent. We are in space, but men are still in charge. The two female leads have their roles in the movie centered on the relationships of them as women with the men in their lives. Here Star Trek Into Darkness fails two of the three criteria from the Bechdel test.

In the 24th century I would hope that humankind and Abrams' Trek would be doing better than to simply reproduce the male gaze in outer space. Star Trek Into Darkness is a cheap thrill. Do not expect anything more from it and you will be satisfied.