Description

Fire everything we've got! Melissa brings the 2009 film Star Trek, written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and directed by J.J. Abrams. Like "Crisis Point" and "Crisis Point 2," this movie dives headlong into the action genre. We discuss vilification of labor, misogyny, and character motivations. We also chat about destiny, humor, set design, and lens flares.

For images discussed in this episode, visit the episode page on our website.

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Connections:

• The Kobayashi Maru scenario is introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and is later depicted in Prodigy S01E06, "Kobayashi."
• Chekhov's accent is notably used for comedic effect in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where he carefully enunciates "nuclear wessels" to a cop.
• Khan Noonien Singh is first discovered (in the primary timeline) in The Original Series S01E24, "Space Seed."
• Khan is only one of the antagonists of Star Trek Into Darkness; the instigator of the plot is a Starfleet admiral trying to provoke a war.
• Star Trek Online primarily takes place in 2409-10, twenty-two years after the destruction of Romulus. Player characters can also be from the Original Series or Discovery time periods; they travel through time to the 25th century at the end of their introductory storylines.

Works Cited:

• Abrams, J.J., Kurtzman, A., & Orci, R. (Creators). (2008-2013). Fringe [TV series]. Bad Robot; Warner Bros. Television.
• Bechdel, A. (1986). The rule [Comic]. In Dykes to Watch Out For. Firebrand Books.
  • This strip introduces the so-called Bechdel Test.
• Woerner, M. (2009, Apr. 27). J.J. Abrams admits Star Trek lens flares are "ridiculous." io9. https://web.archive.org/web/20121221114522/http://io9.com/5230278/jj-abrams-admits-star-trek-lens-flares-are-ridiculous

Our next episode will cover Enterprise S04E18, "In a Mirror, Darkly," written by Mike Sussman and directed by James L. Conway, and S04E19, "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II," written by Mike Sussman & Manny Coto and directed by Marvin V. Rush.

Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.

Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.