Ten Year Rage Anniversary: A Look Back at Star Trek Into Darkness

[yurasama_love]

Comments

[sarahvma]

I miss the solid year or so that we spent scorching Cumberbatch at every opportunity. I like to think we contributed to him taking a step back from playing neurodivergent stereotypes for at least a little bit.

[automaticpeople]

Wait, so the character was originally white, but then they cast a white guy and changed the character’s race? Idgi.

I haven’t seen Into Darkness. The way JJ dismissed Alice Eve stripping was a joke.

[sarahvma]

The original actor was a white Mexican/Spaniard, but Khan Noonien Singh is an explicitly racialized name, and Montalban was certainly coded as nonwhite in the original.

Brownface/Asianface is gross, but I think people assumed that the remake would rectify that issue by casting an actual Asian person. The fact that they felt the need to lie about it so much in the leadup suggests that they probably got a bit embarrassed about the decision as they drew closer, but tried to play it off as a "surprise".

[sarahvma]

To add because #ONTDDoesntRead and I see which part of the article you're referencing now -- that's odd, but I suspect Montalban would've (again) read as nonwhite to a 60s audience despite not being Indigenous Mexican, so they made the role "generically Asian" because... you know, it was the 60s.

[alwayspolaris]

The character was originally a pan-Asian character and they fumbled a little with the original casting, but it was important to the character of Khan that he was non-white. The original series was post-WWII at the point where eugenics was gaining popularity again and people thought if you just took the racist aspect out it would be ok, but the original episode demonstrates that any time you start saying some groups of human beings are "better" than others - whether because of their nationality, their intelligence, their strength, etc. - you end up with violence. It was a very important message then and it's an important message now. The reboot lacked any of that nuance.

God what they did to Carol Marcus's character was so horrible too. This is a woman who is such an incredible scientist that she recreated the origins of life! She did what no one else has been able to do in the world of Star Trek (or in reality)! And they reduced to a sexy daddy's girl in her underwear. Poor Alice Eve.

I'm definitely still raging 10 years later lol!

[potter_lover456]

I have rewatched the original reboot many, many times and have occasionally caught the 3rd movie on TV.

I have never felt the urge to rewatch the second. It's a pretty poorly done from start to end, as OP clearly illustrated.

Not only did I hate that Kirk was brought back 2.5 seconds later, but it was so hammy when Kirk asked Bones what he was doing then he injected the tribble with Khan's blood. What's could possibly be the significance of that scene?!?!? If only I, the dumb viewer, could connect the dots.

[potter_lover456]

I did laugh when JJ left Star Trek to do Star Wars. I knew how that was going to go.

[varioussaints]

I also laughed at JJ leaving Star Trek to destroy yet another beloved franchise. at least we got Star Trek Beyond out of it.

[war_machine_rox]

Oh god I had completely forgotten about Cumberbuns asking if Star Trek will ruin his career 😅

I remember the rumors of it being Wrath of Khan when Benicio was cast and then had to drop for whatever reason. It's like they refused to hire correctly from the beginning.

Also Uhura telling Kirk to hush while her and Spock are fighting on an away mission. Such dumb writing all around.

[bakemonos]

Anton. ;_;

[queen_bartonia]

They hired Benicio and we all pretty much guessed he would be playing Khan and the internet spent vast amounts of time wondering what his interpretation of Khan would be like (and if we would be able to understand him...)

then he dropped out and they cast Balderdash Humpback. the internet got angry about Khan being a white person, but they claimed: NO! he's not Khan! calm down!

and then it turned out that he was cast as Khan, the whitest yt guy ever playing Khan Noonien Singh

[emptyobsidian]

I had seen almost no Star Trek before this one (yes, my friends have exposed me to more now) and I don't remember hating it as much as everyone else did. Like, then my friends showed me the original movie and it was so much better. Like, this felt like a remake, but way less meaningful and stripped of any of its nuance. I honestly don't get why they went this direction with it at all. I mean, hell, just make BC some other villain and write an original plot of some sort? Why do a cheap remake of a well-beloved film?

[xdecadentx]

From what I gather fans hated the first one too and I enjoyed it.

I remember a friend of mine who liked Star Trek telling me these films were like someone wrote Star Trek fanfiction.

[sarahvma]

Purist Trek fans are a lot like LotR fans: they whine about whatever's newest and pretend they didn't hate the earlier iterations just as much when they first came out.

[varioussaints]

as a Star Trek fan I shamelessly loved the first one (aside from the whole Spock/Uhura thing-way to tank her character right out of the gate). the purists will never be happy.