Phasers Set To Stun: Star Trek Into Darkness

0:01 Space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows, both new and old, to engage and debate about all things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set to Stunt. Hello, listeners, and welcome to an all new episode of Phasers Set to Stunt, where we continue to show our love for everything Star Trek in this ongoing series from a film by podcast focusing on every system of the expanding Star Trek universe by covering television, movies, animation, directors, merchandise, and much much more. Plotting your course on this voyage is your ever loving Trek crew. I'm Wayne Whited, I'm David Burns, and today we are going to violate the prime directive and travel back to twenty and thirteen.

1:11 Way Wayne, hold on, hold on, we have a hailing film of hailing us. Ah. Well, let's take this message. Let's put him on. Hello, you're on the air mission to come aboard. Captain. This is Jason KOs, lieutenant from the USS Saratoga. Now, as you hear, we have a special guest today. Scott Hoffman is currently on shore leave and you are listening to Jason Koslet. He is a huge Star Trek fan like ourselves and has been a follower of a film by podcast for a long time now, so it's great to finally have him on the show. Yes, it is welcome Jason, welcome to the Bridge. Thank you so much for having me. I very much appreciate it. The honor is all night.

1:56 Well, yeah, hopefully we can have some good conversation here about this film. We won't because, yeah, we are talking about the second film of the Kelvin Timeline is the twelfth film in the Star Trek film film franchise. It is, of course, Star Trek Into Darkness, a film directed by J. J. Abrams from a script by writers Robert ROBERTA Orsi, Alex Kurtzman, and Damien Lindeloff. All right, David, why don't you start us off with a short summary to remind us exactly what happened in this film? Beyond the Darkness Lies Greatness. A terrorist attack occurs in London at a secret base that sends ripples throughout all the Starfleet. It is quickly uncovered who is responsible for it.

2:42 Kirkin's back along with the Enterprise, are sent to destroy him in a place they least expected to go the home world of the Klingons. However, as Kirk captures this man, it is realized just how deep the treachery goes to the very core of Starfleet and its high ranking officials. But that is not all. This person who is responsible for that hold a secret himself, a name that many will know, a name new to this Kirk, but one that runs deep within Star Trek. And that name is con. Now. This film was released on May fifteenth, twenty thirteen, produced on a budget of one hundred and ninety million, and bringing in the box office total of four hundred and sixty seven point four million, which makes it the highest grossing film of the franchise. Now, for me, this was the first Star Trek film that I didn't see in the theater since Star Trek two The rapa Con The only yeah, the only one before that was Star Trek the Motion Picture, and that was because I was really young at the ty came out.

3:43 I'll give you that one. But I didn't go see this in the theater. And I'm gonna be honest, I just wasn't that excited for from the pre publicity and from the trailers and stuff and everything that was taught because it was it was revealed very early on who the villain was, and I was not about this new universe walking over the previous Star Trek stuff, you know, So I didn't. Here's the funny thing for me, Wayne. They beat around the bush for a while about admitting Con was gonna be in this, and everybody knew it was gonna be freaking Con. I called it even walking out of seeing the first film. And when they knew, when I knew they were gonna do a second one, I had a feeling they were gonna go the same route and they were gonna bring Con into this, I wish they had gone a different route with the sequel. I will admit it.

4:31 When I did see this in the theater, I was kind of like, I didn't know which way to go with it. Okay, I was kind of aggravated because I love the wrath of Con so much that I felt like they were stepping on the toes of the original crew. And when you get and I'm sure we'll get to it eventual when we talk about the film, and I'm curious about what Jason's gonna say, But when they did the reversal effect, where Kirk is the one who dies and saves the ship and it's not Spock, and then Spock is the one who says con When I saw that in the theater for the first time, I was like, man, I don't I'm very aggravated by this. I'm not a fan at all. And when I walked out of the theater, I was okay with the film. I thought it was entertaining, and I didn't see it again until I just watched it for this podcast because I had put it off that I did not want to see it again. But I will say watching it again for the first time since I saw it back in what was it twenty thirteen, I was more entertaining this time because I guess that kind of let the things go about. I still aggravated by it, Don't get me wrong, because I love the wrath of Khn, but I kind of let that go a little bit. And I was a lot more entertained this time around because the special effects were fantastic, the score was really really good, and we'll get more into those details a little bit, but I'm curious what Jason has to say about his thoughts.

6:00 Yea, let's hear that Okay, so I will just come out and say I am not a fan of reboots. I am not a fan of remakes. Don't mess with it if it ain't broke. See Planet of the Apes. See what did they do to my Exorcist movies? Yes, yes, yes, so that said, I was not big on this film the first time that I saw it. Now since in order to prepare to talk to you guys. And that sound like a total moron, I've watched it like three different times in the past couple of days, and like you guys, as I said, I wasn't real big on it the first time I saw it, but when I rewatched it, it was just a case of okay, open mind, total focus, forget about what you know, forget about what you know. Because I tried to let go because I hated the first film because as you said, they peed.

6:52 All over Star Trek. I'm sorry that is all over it, and I was not happy about that in the slightest that said, though, I tried to let all that go and just total open mind focus. I literally sat in front of my Telly alone, kicked everybody out of the house, turned the TV all the way up, and just like gave myself like a private theater experience and just allowed myself to get immersed in it and enjoyed it so much more. And I watched it again last night before I went to bed again and just totally allowed myself to get immersed in it. And what creative things that they did do with it as opposed to how they were peeing on the Star Trek that we all know and love.

7:38 And I just I really, we all know consomaniac, we all know he's a psycho super genetically altered human being, so and so and so on, but they did so many more interesting things with him in this film, and it was just it really was amazing. I enjoyed the fact that he went to Kronos. It was cool, you know Klingons for you know, hurt met Klingons. I love the fact that Uhura could I already spink Klingon, which was very interesting to me. So yeah, a lot of the little knots and of course, as you said, the effects were beyond belief. And again I thought it was a very well written story, even if it did, like maybe take a few things from some some of the older Star Trek concepts, but overall, as I said, when I rewatched it, I enjoyed it much more than the first time I saw it.

8:35 Yeah, I'm in the same boat as both of you. You know, of course I have the ability I can separate this film from the original. You know, I just look at it. It's an alternate universe. So I don't put any expectations but on how it's supposed to look. But after the first one, which I really enjoyed the first one, you know, after settling in my mind that this isn't this isn't the same as the original star Trek that I'm us, So this is a new version. This is an alternate version. You know, I had a lot of high hopes. There's so many places this film franchise can go, you know, we it's been a long time since we'd seen you know, Kirk Spock, McCoy in the Enterprise and you know, especially young, I mean think the stories are endless. So here we are, second film.

9:21 Lots of expectations and then you know what do we get? We got to rehash yep. And I don't know why, I mean, why are you doing this? What what is the point of bringing all this these you know, familiar stuff, especially you know, why why. Do we have con? Just there's just so much more they could have done. And I agree, And another thing it just felt flat for me, it did. And there's another thing that really aggravated me too, is you don't have the history of Kirk and Con here at all. No, not at all at all. That's another thing I loved about The Wrath of Cohn because you already had that history between those too. So when Kirk discovers in the Wrath of Khan that it's it's con. I mean that was powerful, you know, in this man whatever, he's just another villain, you know that.

10:12 It just it didn't have that connection that. Must agree, must agree. Yeah, because they barely touched on it. I mean they really barely touched on his past and the whole thing with eugenics wars or I don't even know if they even mentioned the eugenic swar. I watched it. They very vaguely mentioned it any time based on. It they did. Yeah, And but it's it's just like a passing mentioned. You know, there's there's no background, and this Con is so different from what we saw before that it just why can't it just be a different character? Agreed to make any sense. Why they had I would agree. Now, I don't want to take anything away from Benedett Cumberbat because he did a fantastic job. Yeah, the scene is one of my favorite things. I'm going to give it away is when he is talking to Kirk about, you know, the loss of his people and he's crying about it. You see the passion that why he cares about them so much, and it makes you almost feel for the villain here. And as we know, anytime you feel for the villain and you care about them, it makes them more powerful and it gets you involved in the story more so. I did like that aspect.

11:23 That was awesome. That again, I'm with you, that is one of my favorite scenes as well. That was so like powerful was it was Benedett coming about really not out of the park on that one. Which would have been even more powerful had we had they not made the character Kahn and we hadn't already known that con is evil, they would have made him a different character that would have even had an incredibly more stronger impact. It's funny, I hate to admit it, but like when he finally said his name, I rolled my eyes in the theater. And the first time I saw it, I'm like, oh, my Jesus.

12:03 It was like, well, duh, of course you are. Yeah, But you know, not to take away from the film anything. I thought the cast did a fantastic job. Again, what I liked about this is you're now starting to get that that vibe that they're all working together with one another. You know, by the end of the first film you got that, But in this one, with the way it opens, and I will say the opening of the film was nowhere near as good as the opening of the first one. Again, it didn't have the impact that the first one had. Its still this one was still entertaining. You're getting that the comedy with gold between some of them, especially Kurt McCoy and Spock and all that stuff here. But you're starting to see the crew mesh better here, and you're starting to get that that feel of the Bridge crew of the Enterprise in this one.

12:52 Very true, very very true. Yeah, you get that. You know, it's really early in their timeline, so of course, you know, Kirk and Spock aren't yet the friends that we would know later on, So there's a lot there's still a lot of conflict, a lot of they don't exactly trust one another completely like they would. So yeah, yeah, but let's let's go ahead and let's let's talk a little bit about the cast. I mean, you're right, they're all fantastic like they were in the first film. I wish it would saw more of Simon Pegg. I didn't think he had that strong of a of a play in this film. But they too.

13:33 But this the rest of the cast, the guest stars and were phenomenal in this film. Like you brought up a ben at a Cumberbatch, He's great and everything he does. In my opinion, Peter. Weller is. Yeah, and I will I will throw another shout out to Bruce Campbell. As as Pike. Yeah, sorry, got my name is mixed up and sorry about that, but yeah, Chris Greenwood, yeah, as Pike. He did such an excellent job of that. It just when I was watching, like his death scene just about brought me to tears. Yep, especially when I was rewatching it last night. I'm sitting there and I'm just about crying at my TV screen. I'm like, oh my god.

14:20 Yeah. And you know, going back to what we talked about in the first film, his one of his favorite lines in that movie is when he was talking to Kirk about his dad being a captain for only a few minutes, and again in this film he has something similar that is really like, man, you are really good as Pike. It's when he was talking to Kirk again, he says, you don't respect the chair. You know why because you weren't ready for it. You know. It's so yeah, I agree with you. I think Bruce Greenwood was incredible in this again. And his death scene was probably one of the most powerful scenes in me in the film. Yeah, that whole sequence I loved, but yes, absolutely, yeah. I mean here's a character that they have developed that we do know, you know, since he's from the last film. So his death was a big punch for both, not just for us, but for the characters too, and it worked really well.

15:08 Yeah, because I mean you got to see the raw emotions from Kirk, but you really haven't seen him present like he did there where he was crying and really upset her. I mean, he didn't know his dad, so I mean you would really look at Pike was kind of a father figure to him here and him losing that was like losing a father again. For crying out loud one that he really knew at this point. Yep, got a great gotta great, Like I said, that whole scene that she from start to finish. And then we've got our two other guests star as. We have Alice Eve as doctor Carrol Marcus. This again, just like con it was no surprise when she revealed who she was, right, And again I just I don't see the reason why we have to make Carol Marcus.

15:51 I just didn't think they used her character to the fullest that they could have in this in this because she's she does a great job and she has a good actress. I've seen her. She was on The Iron Fist that the Netflix Marvel series, which I didn't you. Know, they just needed an excuse to get her in our underwear, right, Yeah. It feels like that. It feels like that. But I just you know, she could have played any character, any other character, you know. Again I don't I don't know. She could have absolutely when you're right. And then also we have No Clark playing Thomas Harewood in this film. I am familiar with this actor because he was on another TV series that I absolutely love, and that's Doctor.

16:36 Who Shocker Shocker. Here I'm telling you. Yes. Actually there's there's three stars that were on Doctor Who in this movie. So I was just having a fest with this. You know, you got, I'm sure, yeah, I mean you got. You know, don't forget Simon Peg was on this of course, and and a lot of people don't know this, but ben at A. Cumber Batch has a lot of connections to the show. He played archaelogists Howard Carter in a two thousand and eight Doctor Who audio called forty five, and his mother he actually grew up a little bit on The Doctor Who said because his mother guest starred on the show three times, the classic series all the way back into the sixties through the eighties. There's a lot of stories about during Sevestan McCoy's first episodes of a kid that was on set that he would constantly entertain while they were filming. Wasn't until years later that he was talking about Benny.

17:29 Because Benny, Benny and the Jets. Yeah, so there is something for me to love in this movie, obviously, obviously, So let's take a short break and then we'd be back for more of Star Trek into Darkness. And we're back, and now let's talk about let's dive deep a little more into this film. You guys have any thoughts about the scenes, any any parts that you really really liked, anything you want to bring up about the storyline or the visual effects or anything. On this film. One thing that I love about J. J.

18:12 Abrams and how he is able to weave in some really comedy gold throughout his films, and he did that in the first one quite a bit. You know. One of those scenes I absolutely love was when McCoy was following Kirk around and kept getting the shot. You know, he's telling him, would you quit it? You know? But there's you get more of that comedy gold throughout this film. And one of the things I really like is when her and Spock are fighting and when goes on Yes, it abstutely was when Kirk is on the he's with the horror first before they're going up to the bridge, and he goes, wait, are you guys fighting? What is that even like? And then when they get to the bridge, spot is there and he goes, are your ears burning?

18:57 You know? I lost it? Yes, I lost it. But then yet to go a little bit forward when they're on the shuttle craft and they're heading to Kronos and they're starting that argument there and Kirk is like, is this the right place to be doing this? And then and then he don't get me in the middle of this. He does get in the middle of it. I loved all of them. It was just comedy goal. Yeah, okay, So for myself, Okay, I don't know that either of you have ever read, like Clive Custler's Raised the Titanic, so and they and actually that they made. A movie of that. Yep, so remember that. Okay, So, which the movie sucked, but we won't go into that. That's another story for another time. But the only saving glory to that film was the shot of them actually raising raising the ship that when the enterprise at the very beginning of the movie come out from under the ocean to go save Spot from the volcano.

19:48 That is what that puts me in mind of every time that I sit and watch this thing. And it just was like I'm I'm nine years old all over again, you know, I just I absolutely love that scene. And then another favorite actually is when John Harrison on whatever starts killing klingons on on the single handedly on the asteroid that that is cool. And then and actually just watching zoeis Hodana as her uh uh speak speak. Kling On to the Klingons. That just because again you don't in in in. That older Star Trek series. You don't get that until Star Trek six. So just seeing her so early on speaking Klingon, being the badass that she is and you know, talking to the Klingons is just it's one of my favorite moments of the film.

20:37 Yeah, that when when Cohn's kicking ass to the Klingons, you kind of get that the camera goes with Kirk Kirk is watching him kicking assn KLA. Yeah, so you know, that was that was a cool scene. Manne. What about you, though, I'm curious what you what you think? I agree with you about the opening not being as strong as the original the original film, but I really did like the opening though, you know, despite that, I thought it was a great way of just, you know, of bringing open the film that, you know, saying that you know, they've already been out on adventures, they're they're halfway through this one. And that shot at the Enterprise rising up out of the water was just absolutely beautiful, you know, and plus the shots of Spot inside the volcano too.

21:22 I loved all those in his rest es. Yeah, it did, it did. But all in all of this film, what I did like, I think the most was the they really have the three actors really have their their interactions spot on with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Yes they do, agreed, agreed, you can you can just you know that you can tell the characters that they're definitely playing the characters. They're very familiar. There's a lot of great banter, a lot of great lines that they have. I love when McCoy is trying to give the the and the non inspection but well yeah he's he's waving the medical devices over. Kirk and the orders.

22:04 Yeah, and all all the little the bickering in the argument that goes through the film with between the three, it's just it's just perfect. I think that that makes probably this film bearable for me is just watching the cast play these characters so well, because they do. They really do. Yes, yes, sir, they do indeed. And again, forgive me for stepping on you, but yeah, yeah, they really do such a good job. And and I'm gonna say this, you know again, I'm gonna go back to Zoe Saldana. I'm probably gonna sound like a fanboy, believe it or not. I'm not for her to step into. Michelle nichols shoes because Michelle Nichols. Dear Jesus, shout out to Michelle Nichols. Rip. Yep.

22:44 She was my favorite character. Like my mother could tell you stories that when I was very very young, I would sit and watch Star Trek reruns Michelle Nichols or her. She was my favorite character forever in a day. And saw Dona does her such just especially in this film, that it just it blows my mind. And I'm so glad that that I was able to rewatch it and appreciate that even more. Again. Absolutely, Yeah, Wayne, I'm curious about something if you noticed in the score. I know we're not we aren't talking about the composer yet, but Jason brought up the Klingon fight when they're when they're fighting. Did you hear the anvil?

23:26 I did. I'm curious if that was a nod to James Horner. It wouldn't surprise me. He had some nods in his first Star Trek score, so I'm sure he had to think that. Yeah, I know he's a big fan of both Horner and Goldsmith's. So he is, Yeah, because I didn't. When I watched it again, it really stood out. I'm like, wow, there, listen to that anvil. He was going at it. Loved it. How about some behind the scenes. Did you guys find anything interesting about the making of the film or the production behind the scenes. Well, I think one of the things that we definitely need to discuss or at least given nod to this is little even his last time a Spock, Yes, because he passes away in twenty fifteen at the age of eighty three, So we definitely have to give a nod to that. It was good to see him again, prosper that's right, Live long and prosper Linna nimoy. For sure, it was good to see him to get to do it one more time, and in a nice fitting spot too, to at least be able to tell Spock this Spock of who con really is. So I thought that was very fitting.

24:31 It was kind of sad it's such a short appearance. I'm so glad that they were able to do this, But he really is showing his age. He is really fortunately with Spock. I mean, I guess at that point Spock is pretty ancient at that point too, so. He is about one hundred and fifty six give it take. But it was great to see him again. I agree. I'm so glad they were able to get that one last appearance for spot. Yeah. Did you guys know something odd about this film? The Enterprise never fires a weapon? Truths? Yes, yes, I did notice that when I was watching last night. The Enterprise never fired a shot. It was like, there's always weapons were down.

25:12 Through the whole I never noticed that. You're right, Yeah, that's kind of interesting, I said. Okay, but weapons were always down through the whole freaking film. Yeah. I mean, he gets the crap beat out of it, but it never fires a shot. Yeah, then almost hit San Francisco on top of it, So yeah, raise the Titanic and then yeah, down goes the Hindenburg. Yeah. Another thing I found interesting too is JJ Abrams pitched the villain to Benedict as a combination of the Joker, Hanmile Elector and Jack Torrance from The Shining. I don't think he actually came out either to say it was con when Benedict was going for the role. So I find that kind of interesting.

25:57 Interesting and very valid because yeah, I could I can easily see because I'm very familiar with all three characters, because I'm a fan of all three, you know, characters in general. So yeah, I can I can very valid I can see that. Yeah, yeah, I can see. You know the character that Benedict played, Yeah, matches that. I can't really see that description fitting the original version of con though. That's very indientional, which you know, I mean, they were going for something completely different. I don't, don't get me wrong. You know, they were trying they were reusing an original character, but they were going for a completely different route on that, so that makes sense. Yeah, I don't know. I guess there was a lot of argument behind the scenes about whether to use that character or not.

26:38 Come. I guess Linda Loof wanted to use it, but the other writers did not, and it took a while for them to actually come to a compromise. I feel think they shouldn't have. I agree, I still think they should have come up with an original character. Yeah. You know, the reasoning for bringing him back is because they felt that the best Star treks were the ones that had a central villain. And they're right, they're very right. But just say, you could have created a new one. Of course, Well, they could have left him. I'm sorry, I don't mean to know. They could have left him specifically as the person that he started out with, the John Harrison character. Yes, let him rogue Section thirty one. Agent absolutely crackers, you know, YEA.

27:18 Do not have to yell River and say, okay, I am three hundred years old, I am con y'all. Let him be John Harrison. He was doing fine, he was. I mean, it would have still worked. He uncovered the plot of that. You know, this admiral was wanting to create this military to fight the Klingons and can go against what Starfleet stands for. So I mean it would still fit. You didn't need. Con No, not at all, Not at all. This story did not need con No. The best scripts, the best films are when the characters are integral to the plot. There's a reason for having him there, and there's no reason him to be con It could be anybody, none whatsoever.

27:59 Did you guys know two d twos in this film? No, okay, if our two made an appearance, I missed it. He makes an appearance. So it's exactly one hour and seventeen minutes into this film. It's when the Vengeance fires on the USS Enterprise. When they're both at ARP. You can see R two DH being sucked out into space. The son of a son of a son of are so right? You are so right. I hate you, David. I hate you David. He was like, I gotta go back and watch it again to see that you're seeing it. I just I didn't put no thought into it at the time. It was like son of up yep, maybe excuse go back and watch it anyway, and you're welcome.

28:39 Yeah. I think at that point in the film, I was watching it, but not as closely as I i'd like to. I was kind of getting a little bored, you know. I I tried looking into any like what ifs or alternate versions. You know, there really wasn't that much to this. This was pretty straightforward script writing. The only thing I was founded that they had originally thought about calling this film Star Trek Vengeance. Which would have worked too, I suppose. I mean, the End of Darkness thing is is great, obviously, but you know. It's it's kind of like, you know, going from uh again, going back to the Star Wars thing, going from Revenge of the Jedi to Return of the Jedi. You know, well, the reason they change this is because of the ghostwriterish spirit of vengeance coming out, which I don't see any conflict there, but you know.

29:27 I I someone else. They still they stole my subtitle. Remember one of my scripts is called Into Darkness, and they decided to and they decided to go ahead and use it. You know how they always feel ideas from us. Oh yeah, yeah, we still have a bloody of geniuses. We know we've been. Looking for that that hidden microphone somewhere around the place for years. We know they're listening. Try try that TV screen right behind Ja Wayne. They probably are. All right, Well, we touched a little bit on this, but let's let's get into it right now. You know, of course, we can't talk about any Star Trek film without going into an in depth discussion about the musical score. Yeah, and it was no question that frequent JJ Abrams collaborate collaborator Michael Giacchino would return to score this film. The film score was recorded at the Sony Scoring sound Stage in Culver City, California, on March fifth to April third, twenty thirteen. Well, David, what did you think about his second take at a star Trek score.

30:30 Just as I felt the first film was felt better than this one, I feel the music is too. Don't get me wrong, I thought the score was fantastic in this one, but I think what happened was in the first one he kind of caught me off guard because with the themes that he brings to us in the first film, he brings into this one too, which obviously you know you hear as soon as the paramount symbol starts to come up, you're getting that theme he's creating, and it's fantastic, Don't get me wrong. Anytime the enterprise, like when it's coming out of the water, or it's coming up out of the clouds and stuff like that on Earth when it was falling, when the score reaches that crescendo, incredible work. And again I'm gonna talk about his love of you know, Goldsmith and Horner. You can hear that again in all of his music that he's doing here in this sequel, and I thought it was very fitting to the movie. I mean, when it needed to be action packed, it was action packed, and sometimes the music bled into what was going on screen, which is what you want. You don't want it to realize you're listening to the score when you're seeing something happen on screen. You wanted to blend together beautifully, and that's exactly what he did with this movie, and it was perfect.

31:44 In my opinion, it was really well done. Again, I don't think it was as good as his first round, but I still think it was fantastic. Jason, what did you think about the score? Okay, so, being fresher on this, I'm gonna have to go back and you know, break down and watch the first film again. Here is sometimes shortly but when upon my rewatch last night. So let me backtrack for just a second and say, I am a music person to begin with. I live, breathed, and die for music that interests me. So a lot of my enjoyment of this film actually is the musical cues, you know, as as y'all were saying, you know, the whole action when it needs to be action, subtle when it needs to be subtle, thriller when it needs to be thriller, blends together beautifully, and yeah, I would actually listen to this on a on a loop, just the music, just to sit and chill.

32:40 Buy. Yeah, beautiful score all the way around. It is. It is a very beautiful score, but and I agree that I think his his first film was a little bit stronger. But of course it was all original, right, I just he really reused a lot of themes from that and there are some parts where it just felt like that it was a little bit of a rehash. But he did create some new, some new things for this, which I absolutely love. I love the fact that he used piano, David, you know, I love and so I know you do. Yeah, And there's very little you know, Star Trek doesn't use piano very often. I Cliff Idelman used it in Star Trek six, but Goldsmith kind of stayed away from it completely. And I was so glad to hear that. I love that nice little theme. And then also I have to point out that.

33:25 Choir you love, I love choir. That is that they were actually chanting the Klingon language in that wonderful, wonderful and very powerful piece. So it's it's a great it's a great score. I do love it. I think it's probably the weakest of the three, but that's saying that it's still I'm not putting it down. I don't want to, definitely don't want anyone to get the impression that I'm putting it down because it is wonderful score. He's he's a great composer anyways, he is. He's fantastic. Any Anything he does, it's great. So I get another little tidbit. It's kind of like I guess it would be kind of an easter egg. Do you know that when Spock and Connor fighting at the end that he flipped in the score from a mock time where kurkith Bach are fighting to death?

34:15 Did you did? I thought it was my imagination, but yes, I did too when I was watching it. No, he did it. Yeah, I listened re listened to the score earlier today and I was the same way. I thought, maybe I was just imagining it. No he did. Okay, awesome, it was great. That's couch yep now. The film soundtrack was first released a week after the film by a Very Sarah Band on May twenty first of twenty thirteen on CD. It contained fifteen tracks sequeling forty seven minutes, a score which also included the song The Growl, composed by J. J. Abrams and Charles Scott with vocals by Cassia Conway. A year later, in accordance to Paramount's desire to see all all the Star Trek musical source receive a complete release. Very Sara Band brought it out again, this time is Start Trek Into Darkness.

35:06 The Deluxe edition it was available through their online CD club and now it was featuring nearly one hundred and nineteen minutes to music on fifty one tracks, which is the complete score, along with two suites of themes newly written for the film, including that piano piece that I absolutely love. The original release is still widely available for anyone, but the Deluxe edition is out of print on CD, but it is still available through the Very Sarah Band website as a digital download if you'd like to own it and add it to your collection. Nice, No, I'm a vinyl note. I need it on vinyl or I don't want it. It is out on vinyl. They did bring it out on vinyl time. I'm glad you mentioned that. Yes, it's on a I believe it's a three LP sets.

35:49 I forgot a lot because I would take every minute of the score to this movie seriously, because the music consist and you keep going on about the piano piece. I too love piano music. Quite a bit. You know, Elton John's one of my favorite people, so you know. I love some of these music, so yeah, nothing wrong with that. All right, Well, we've just discovered some triples in our engineering, so we're going to take a break right now and we'll be back shortly. All right, We got those all cleared out and shot off into space, So let's get back to our discussion with Star Trek into Darkness. We talked a little bit about our favorite moments.

36:31 Are there anything else you guys would like to bring up about what you liked or didn't like about this film? So the whole sequence of the Enterprise falling to Earth getting pulled down by gravity, I thought all of that was filmed incredibly well. Yes, the special effects and how they were just able to make that look as good as they did is just mind blowing, you know, when things are falling down and twisting and turning and just you know, it just amazes me every time. When I've watched it the second time, I just watching it and just amazing. You lose track of things because you're paying attention to one spot of the screen. Something else is happening on the other side of the screen because so much is going on. It's easy to miss stuff. But that whole sequence I thought was I cannot imagine having to put that down and planning that way. And you know, you and I have done some filmmaking and planning some stuff out. Can you imagine sitting down and actually store budding that entire seating forever?

37:33 Yeah? Oh yeah. How many storyboarders they had on this, because that's a lot of drawings. Yeah, you're right, the cuts, just the whole planning out is just wind blowing. Yeah. And it was an incredible scene. Yeah, and when they finally got it together and it falls through the clouds, but then it comes back up through the clouds and then again you get that amazing score. Love that scene so much. And Dave, I'm gonna agree with you that scene and another work of mine I live by association. That scene very much reminds me of the scene in the original Planet of the Apes of the Icarus crashing to what we would later find out to be Earth. Just the different point of views and as you said, you know, on one side of the screen, one thing's happening.

38:20 On the other side of the screen, something else is happening. Just lots and lots of action, beautifully done, the effects are out of this world. So yeah, I'm going to absolutely agree with you. That is a fabulous scene. Oh yeah, I agree to. Actually, that's what I was going to bring up the ending the properly about that would say about the last twenty twenty five minutes of the film. Just absolutely phenomenal, and the visual effects are outstanding. Question it's ILM, so of course they're They're fantastic, but they really outed themselves some of the most beautiful effects I've ever seen in Star Trek. Yeah, they should have been tipped grandly for their work on The Darkness. That definitely was Star Trek at its finest sci fi right there. That whole ending sequence was just an incredible and then when you think it's done, oh no, it's not, because Constill has to crash down and then he gets out and then Spot goes after him. It's just the whole sequence was just amazing.

39:13 Yeah, I agree, I agree, it was fabulous. Yep. But for dislikes, Wayne, I think we kind of talked about some of the dislikes that we have on this, you know, a few eye rolls for me. One was when he said his name, but then I mentioned this earlier in the podcast. It's the whole reversal of Kirk, you know, sacrificing himself now instead of Spot. And I really felt the whole Spock thing when he yelled Con was kind of like they did that on purpose, because everyone knows from the wrath of Conmin Kurt yells con and you know, I just yeah, okay, sure, but it just again another eye roll for me when I saw this for the first time.

39:56 It's it is, it's a lot of eye rolls because to anyone that has seen Loves Start Trek to the Rat the Coon, Yes, it's like, why are you doing all this? Yeah, exactly all of us. You know, why are you Why are you doing this? Why? Why are you bringing it back? Why are you changing all this stuff? Now? To anyone it's never seen the film, Okay, yeah, sure, and you know you might love that. And that's probably why it had a lot of mixed h fifty to fifty reviews on this room. A lot of people loved it and a lot of people hated it. It's you know, I can see why. Yeah, I agree myself. I can understand like a tribute or an homage or you know, just a you know poke and you know to say, hey, yeah, we know you, but I'm with you again, Dave. You know, lots of eye roll moments. Uh, the whole con thing.

40:39 I wanted to It's not very often I want to like kick a TV. But it's just like, oh my god, you know, and some of the other various things that Wayne was bringing up, and it's just like, you know, we know because you know, of course we live through it all. You know, the millennials will be fine, you know, but for us that like, no, it's just like, damn it. We grew up with it. We know. The bottom line from my opinion is if if it's you're doing a retelling of a bad film, then that's one thing. You know, you want to make it better than the bad film. But if you're going to do retelling of one of the best films, not just in the Star Trek franchise but sci fi in general, you better have the most perfect script ever otherwise you're going to be torn apart.

41:26 And that's what. Happened with this film. It didn't wasn't necessary. It wasn't necessary to have that to have this film forward, because if you take out all those elements. It's not that bad of a film. I agree. No, I agree, I agree wholeheartedly, and and and I'm going to say this even though again a right p Leonard Nimoy take out his piece of it, and take out the fact that John Harrison identifies as Cohn, and you have the same perfectly good movie without without you know this all this unnecessary like baggage. Yes, actually, all right, let's uh, let's take a look at some film facts. Everything about the film that I found fascinating and at times somewhat humorous. All right, you too, Did you find anything about the film that you'd like to bring up?

42:14 So there's a few things I found very interesting about this. One of the things I found humorous was when check when Kurt tells check Off to change shirts. Yes, that's right, put on a red shirt, and he kind of like like Paul is the first second ago. Okay, I thought that was fantastic. We all know about red shirts. I don't know if I want, right, And it was immortalized I'm gonna touch you guys's actual musical knowledge here for just zec. It was immortalized in the song beat Me Up Scottie by Local Chicago group Aliota, Haynes and Jeremiah in about nineteen seventy two or so on their Lake Shore Drive album Everybody knows what the Red Shirts mean?

42:57 Make sure do. When did you see one of the shuttles is named after George K? Yes? I did. I love that. I missed that. Yeah, yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. Man, That's very very cool as well. Shut up, because you know georgeha K was is awesome. He's absolutely. He did Sulu so wonderfully and here taking you in a little bit of a different direction. If y'all one of the few John Wayne movies I can sit through the Green Berets. He was awesome in that. Yes, that's right, absolutely, you know. So you know, George Chak was very very cool. And and I'm gonna say this going back to I think, uh not real, real long ago you guys did Star Trek four The Voyage Home.

43:38 I was mad that George K did not get his his his scene where where he's supposed to have the extended scene where he met his great grandfather or whatever. I was I was pulling for that. That irritated my soul, even as a kid. That irritated me. I agree that it's a pity they didn't have that in the film. I love that. Yes, yes, And another one that I caught to Wayne, I'm polloing at you on this one. It seems like I've caught so many in me. You is getting all these there's a few of them. This one I actually caught when I was in the When I saw this in the theater back in twenty thirteen, I was like, oh, hey, that's kind of cool. When Sulu commands the crew to prepare the transport captured during the mud incident last month, I thought that was awesome. Not too am I missing?

44:24 Man? Use the other top of this stuff? You went right over my head. Ah, well, what I I did catch a few things, believe it, or I was paying attention. To the watching it all right, Yes, yes you were, You're a professional. What I did notice is that this is the first Star Trek film to use the the new and current twenty twelve Paramount Pictures logo. It sucks, but that's just me. The writers of this film have stated that this film is roughly six months to a year after the previous film Star Trek. And one I did I'd notice is the little models in Admiral Marcus's office. Those were very familiar as they quickly walked by. It was the Ares five the Phoenix. Of course, from first contact we got the USS Enterprise three three zero, which is seen was seen on the wall of the in Star Trek motion picture on the Enterprise. I can't think of the name of the room, the entertainment, the big room that they all met in there, of course was the Enterprise in XO one Archership, and then the US s Kelvin and the Vengeance, and then they brought up Section thirty one. See, we are very familiar. We've been talking a little bit about this recently. First appeared in the later seasons of Star Trek Deep Space nine.

45:45 Amen, which is my Star Trek right there. That is actually the only Star Trek series that I actually physically owned the whole series too. Excellent. We'll be talking about that series very shortly this year. Yep. Cool. But they also appeared in Star Trek Enterprise, Star Trek Discovery and the recently released Section thirty one film on Paramount plus. Section thirty one. Now this one, I heard the number and I made a mark about it, but I actually had to look this one up to make sure I was correct. But the er the number of torpedoes that had CON's crew in it was seventy two. That's the number of members that had survived with Con back in the original series Space Seed. So that is correct. Very cool, very cool.

46:31 I did not make that immediate but that immediate connection myself. But yeah, that sounds about right. It's been a minute since I watched the Space Seat, I admit it. And then the big meeting at Starfleet Command took place in the Daystrm conference room. We all know who Daystrum is. He was introduced in the original series The Ultimate Computer and mentioned in lots of Star Trek episodes, most recently in Star Trek Card. Now, this is another thing that I had to look and check to make sure that this was correct. But when they did the shot of the klingon home World in Space Cronos, you can actually see the remains of the moon praxis. Really yes, yes, yeh okay, I got that. Yeah.

47:11 How it got destroyed so early on, you know, over decades before it did in Star Trek six, I don't know, but it's there. That's real. And then finally yeah, it's go ahead, that's yeah. It was like I said, I saw it wasn't sure. I mean, I saw the moon. I knew that it had You know, Cronos has a moon, and I wanted to make sure that it was the same one I did. Now, this film had a lot of tie in merchandise to go along with it, just like the previous film, there was the novelization of the film, again written by Alan Dene Foster. IDW Publishing solicited a four issue prequel comic for this for this film, titled Star Trek Countdown Into Darkness. Like the previous film's comic book prequel Star Trek Countdown, which was done for the first film, it was written by Mike Johnson and drawn by David Messina. Great Artist HASBA released Creo and Fighter Pod toys to remote the film, Plus Mattel released three new hot Wheel Star Trek Into Darkness models. Quantum Mechanics released plans A. Quantum Mechanics released a number of replicas based on the flight models that you seen that I just mentioned, as well as a phaser, tricorder, and communicator. And there was a video game titled Star Trek released just before this film premiered. It was actually made for the first film, but Paramount had them hold it off and release it for this film, and that's what I found.

48:40 Yes, I have one more in joke reference that they put in the film that I absolutely loved. So do you remember when Scotti was on the ship and he was the security guard came up, he goes, what are you doing? M and he puts the other hand behind him and security guard to go, show me your other hand. That's in referenced to James to hand because he never showed both hands. On Yes, yes, yes, yeah, Oh that's great. Love it. Learn something new every day listening to you too. All right, how about our final thoughts on Star Trek into Darkness? Anything else you'd like to contribute.

49:22 So I think we kind of covered a lot of our bases on this. This is a proof that when you've seen a movie a long time ago and you didn't really like it, give it another chance down the road. You know, after this long period of time of me not seeing it again watching it for the podcast, I do appreciate this film a lot more now than I did then. So definitely take that opportunity when you have a situation where you didn't like a film at first, give it a second shot. Who knows. You may like it. You may like it like I do this one again. If they would removed Gon from this, this movie would have been completely a better film in my opinion, because you did meeting at all. I agreed, yep.

50:03 That sums it up completely for me. Yeah, yeah, same, same, same same. You know, let John Harrison be John Harrison. He does not need to be conn Like I said, I love uh like you said, Wayne. Of course, it was beautiful that they gave the spot to Leonard Nimoy, but I did, on the other side of that, feel that it was not necessary per se to move the story forward to get to where they. Needed to go. So you know, if if I was doing like a fan edit of this, you know. That'd be one of several things that I probably would would remove, you know, I got to do like the Highlander two renegade edit or whatever. Yeah, yep, And that concludes our look back at the film Star Trek Into Darkness. We'd like to open a subspace channel to our listeners and here just what you thought about this entry into the Star Trek universe, your stories of how you saw it first, and your opinions of the film today. Who knows you might even mention or appear on a future show like Jason.

51:03 Yes, yes, yes, again, thank you for allowing me on your bridge. Yeah, Jason has been a pleasure man. We love having fans like us to come join us talk about what we love. And we all love Star Trek, so it's always nice and when we can get together and break it down. Oh yeah, this has been This has been nothing but fun. Yeah. Like I said, yeah again, I watched it just to make sure, you know, I wasn't like conflating my my movies or whatever, so you know, I made sure I watched it before I went to bed last night. And yes, this has been such fun. And again I love listening to you too. Anyway, go back and forth. It's beautiful. Thank you, Star Trek. Star Trek is a great way to meet friends, it isn't, David met yep. Nice And we were so happy that you're on the show.

51:47 And again, I thank you so much for even you know, putting up with me for an hour. I appreciate it so so much. It's been a pleasure, man. It really the same same, same, same same. I gotta say I'm kind of worried about something because when Scott left or shortly I think he had a red shirt on. Oh no, I think you're right. We better send a security detachment. To Oh yeah, I'd say so. Of course, you can email at us at a Film by Podcast at gmail dot com, find us online at a film by podcast dot com, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and x and if you're looking for more exclusive content our swag, you can join our Patreon and find out what incredible gems are hidden within. Thank you David for joining me and the listeners for another fascinating discussion, and a great big thank you to our number one fan, Jason Cowswick for coming onto our show and talk about into Darkness.

52:44 Absolutely, Thanks again, Jason, Thank you. You guys have a great one you too, Thank you, And. If you haven't already done so, go back and check out our podcast reviews of the other films and TV shows in the Star Trek universe, and then join us skin soon where we reach the end of our journey into the Star Trek film franchise. For now, when we talk about twenty sixteen's Star Trek Beyond, Let's see if they can go beyond hacking up old and classic ideas and come up with something fresh and exciting, and we hope that everyone will join us again for that discussion on the next episode of Phasers, set to stunt