30 Things Wrong With Star Trek Into Darkness

The latest Star Trek film is a train-wreck from beginning to end. There were only a few moments in the film that were actually tolerable. I've already written about my disappointment with Star Trek Into Darkness, but I decided to shed a little more light on the situation. This truly is a dark day for Star Trek.

Here are 30 Things Wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness (Spoilers)

1) The Opening 5 Minutes

This sequence could have made a great original series episode. It could have been paced out a lot better and formatted into a hour-long show. Instead, the filmmakers compressed the entire thing and rushed through something that could have been so much more.

2) The Enterprise in the Ocean?

This made absolutely no sense. The Enterprise should have been in orbit above the planet. There was no practical reason for it to be submerged underwater.

3) The Prime Directive

Spock didn't want Kirk to come save him because the natives would have seen the ship rise from the ocean. It's great that Spock wanted to uphold Starfleet's no-intereference order, but it wouldn't have been an issue at all if the ship wasn't pretending to be a submarine at that point (See #2)

4) Khan

I swear the movie makers thought they were making a comic book film. They must have sat around a table and said, "Who's the main bad guy in Star Trek? Let's get him."

The problem is that in this altered timeline, Kirk and Khan have no history or rivalry. Khan's origin isn't explained and it's assumed that we know who he is because of his previous appearances in Star Trek lore - appearances that are supposedly null and void in this new universe.

We aren't given any backstory on him at any point in this film. We don't even hear his name or a hint of who he is until halfway through the film and when we do find out who he is, it is insignificant in the story. Without the prior knowledge of the die-hard Trekkies, his name meant nothing.

5) London

Why is this movie set in London? Starfleet headquarters are in San Francisco.

6) The sick child

Khan has a superior intelligence and super-strength. He wouldn't have needed to extort a desperate father into an act of terrorism. He would have preferred to do it himself and to be a little more clever with it.

7) Kirk gets demoted 

The first mission under his command and Kirk violates Starfleet highest commandment. He gets demoted for it. It seems like a pretty hefty consequence for a first time offence.

As viewers, we know he is not out of the picture at all. Like in cop movies when the characters lose their badge but continue doing their jobs. This time it's even worse though because he gets reinstated to his command in only a few minutes of film time.

8) Kirk becomes First Officer

Captain Pike regains command of the Enterprise, Spock asks for a transfer to another ship, and Kirk gets his job as First Officer.

9) Pike dies. 

In the original series, Captain Pike gets paralyzed. I was hoping for that to happen in this movie. He didn't have to die.

10) Kirk regains command and reinstates Spock as his First Officer.

This all happens within the first 30 minutes of the film. It is way too rushed. The filmnakers must have known the story was bad but hoped that noone would notice if they kept up a breakneck pace to the entire thing.

There is a lot more wrong with this film. 

Continue Reading #11 - 20

30 Disappointing Moments from Star Trek Into Darkness

Why is the Enterprise in the Ocean? See #  2

We are going through Star Trek Into Darkness and looking at the 30 Disappointing moments in the film.

Here are the 30 Things Wrong With Star Trek Into Darkness.

11) Weird Photon Torpedoes 

Scotty didn't want these new weapons being loaded onto the ship. He refused to sign for them and Kirk fired him over it. There was obvious foreshadowing here but it could have been much better done.

12) Sulu takes the Con

We all know that Sulu gets his own command in Star Trek VI so the joke about him sitting in the captains chair makes the Trekkie in all of us smile. But to me, it seemed like the first of many gimmicks in this film.

Star Trek, at its best, was never about gimmicks. It has smart writing. So far, this film has been completely lazy.

We are now up to the 40 minute mark of the film.

13) Spock and Uhura's fight

I don't understand why these two were given a love story in the first movie of this reboot. Their lovers' tiff seems like a cheap way for the writers to explore Spock's Vulcan heritage. Once again, this is rushed. It could have been much better served with a fleshed out opening sequence.

14) Khan beams himself to the Klingon homeworld after another act of terrorism

This wasn't even possible in the time of The Next Generation. It is so completely absurd but I can actually give them this one since it was kind of set up in the 2009 film.

15) The Klingons wear face armor???

Klingons are a honor-bound and pride race of warriors. I cannot even fathom them wearing face armor. It goes against everything the Klingons have ever stood for in every other incarnation of Star Trek.

16) Uhura speaks Klingon???

Since when?

17) Khan kills an entire squad of armor-laden Klingons single-handedly.

Once again, these are Klingons. Khan might have been smarter and stronger than the average human but taking down so many Klingons alone, still doesn't make any sense.

18) Klingons don't look like Klingons.

We do see one of them remove the face armor and he doesn't look anything like the Klingons we know from either old films or TNG series.

19) Khan surrenders when he learns how many photon torpedoes are on the Enterprise.

And no one on the ship or on the away team has the fainest clue why. Everyone with half a brain in the audience does though.

20) A Tribble. Really?

Let's take iconic characters and moments from the original and throw them into this movie for no good reason.

That Tribble didn't need to be there.

Read More

I have 10 more things that the creators of Star Trek Into Darkness just couldn't get right.

How disappointing!

10 More Embarrassing Things Star Trek Into Darkness

We are going through Star Trek Into Darkness to illustrate just how dark a day this is for Star Trek fans everywhere. I cannot believe that they've made two horrible films in a row. And as bad as the 2009 reboot was, this sequel is even worse. It is practically unwatchable. Here's why . . .

30 Things Wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness

Read #1-10 and #11-20

21) Future Spock

Future Spock's cameo in the last film made sense. This scene really served no purpose and didn't need to be included. More gimmicks for a weak film. Very disappointing.

22) The Real Enemy

Just past the halfway mark of the film, we find out that the real enemy was a Starfleet big wig. The admiral alone could have been the main villain here. His accomplice could have been anybody and really didn't need to be Khan.

The fact that Khan was in this film without any of his backstory or history really cheapens the original character and how well it was played by Ricardo Montalban.

23) The Starfleet Supership

This ship is more powerful that Enterprise D in The Next Generation. It can follow a ship through Warp and fire at those ridiculous speeds. This makes no sense in the Star Trek universe. This technology is at least 300 years ahead of its time. It doesn't mesh in this timeline at all.

24) Scotty sabotages the supership

He did this before in the original run of movies. Once again, Star Trek writers repeating the past. It was just gimmicky here too.

25) Diving from ship to ship

This is highly improbable and unrealistic even in this new and crazy world of Star Trek. That being said, Data did the same thing in Star Trek: Nemesis. Star Trek writers can't seem to come up with anything new, can they?

26) Kirk and Spock's death scene reversal

The writers tried to be cute with this one.

The scene was near identical to the one in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan but this time Kirk dies instead of Spock.

The bad thing here is that we were never given a chance to mourn Kirk. We truly believed Spock was dead in the original film and we cried. It was a beautiful scene.

27) Kirk's resurrection

This was so painfully obvious and unbelievable. It made no sense. At least in Wrath of Khan we thought Spock was dead and had no idea how he'd come back. In The Search for Spock, we are given a good reason for his revival. One that makes sense.

Khan's blood - come on, that makes no sense.

28) Fight Scene on Space Cars

I don't think it's possible to have a fist fight on top of cars on the highway so it's even more improbable to have one on top of Space Cars zooming through the air.

29) Uhura saves Spock

This relationship makes no sense. Now there are three people on top of a space car too.

30) Spock's humanity

Spock says, "You are welcome, Jim." In the original series, Spock was cold and emotionless for quite some time. He never called Kirk by his first name, not until many years later. It seems like they've rushed this whole thing. Especially since he lost his planet in the last movie. You figure he'd hold onto his heritage a little more stubbornly than this.

Those are my thoughts on the film. Agree with me or disagree?

Please leave a comment below.

My Classroom is a Laser Field

"My kids have been getting really stir crazy the past few weeks… between bad weather, a muddy playground, and spring break jitters, they’re all too bored of the classroom. So I had to get creative.
My TA and I took red streamer paper and made the room into a laser field."

How cool is that?

"The kids loved it, especially the boys (and with four times as many boys as girls in my class, their opinion, unfortunately, usually takes precedence!). They had to jump and crawl and climb and above all, be CAREFUL to not touch the ‘lasers’. Kept them busy for an entire afternoon as we worked through our lessons."

What a great idea!

It comes from a semi-anonymous preschool teacher who blogs under the name Blue and Grey. Her Tumblr has some great ideas.

She even admits that this idea wasn't completely unique. But like all good teachers, she took it, ran with it, made it her own, and inspired her students in the process.

"I had seen something similar on Pinterest done in a hallway with string… But lets face it, who has a classroom that narrow?! And though this was a little bit of a distraction here and there, it definitely shook the 'I’m bored' out of them.

You can’t be afraid to change up your classroom every once in a while! :)"

Very wise words from a fellow teacher!

Teaching Tip Tuesday is a weekly series here on Silent Cacophony that offers tips, tricks, lessons, and other great ideas to use in your classroom.

There are close to 200 Teaching Tips in the archive and more get added every week.

Doctor Who Lego?

When I saw this fan-made Lego creation of the interior of the TARDIS, I was completely blown away. It was an incredible piece of art and something that I wished had come in a set. I would have bought it without a moment's hesitation.

You can find out about the construction of this wonder from Mr. Xenomurphy's wesbite. His Doctor Who Lego creation is so detailed and breathtaking. I can't say enough about it.

I just bought this kit. It's not an official Lego product but it the blocks are compatible.

It also comes with mini-figures of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory, and River Song.

I absolutely love that it comes with a mini-TARDIS as well.

When I have put together the console room, I will take a picture of it and share it with you as well.

Time to go play!

Star Trek Into Disappointment

I was really hoping that the second film in the Star Trek reboot could capture the essence of the original movie franchise. I also wanted to enjoy a new Star Trek adventure.

As such, I avoided all spoilers and promotion for Star Trek Into Darkness and watched the movie tonight with an open mind.

My efforts were shut down with weak storytelling that lacked any sort of emotional depth.

There was only one moment in the film where I exclaimed, "Woah" and it had nothing to do with the massive special effects. It had to do with the name of a character.

Even though, I did my best to avoid spoilers, I came across this image and thought I knew who this character would be in the film. I thought the writers of this second movie were retelling the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

But I was wrong.

I won't give away exactly who she is. I think it's the one thing that could surprise you in this film.

If you don't want any SPOILERS, read no further.

I need to speak my piece on this movie that failed on so many different levels. Quite frankly, I'm shocked that the writers and producers learned nothing from their first lackluster effort.

I am also upset that so many Star Trek writers mine old stories for new adventures. It's lazy storytelling that adds nothing to the Star Trek universe.

This second Star Trek movie blatantly rips off Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And if that wasn't bad enough, Star Trek: Nemesis already did that several years back. This movie has now been made three times. And the original was an amazing film that should have been left alone.

This movie copied scenes directly from The Wrath of Khan and tried to get cute with it by reversing Spock and Kirk's roles in the story. In this one, Kirk dies saving the ship instead of Spock. But we don't have to wait for the next film to get him back. Bones brings him back to life almost immediately.

There is no beautiful death scene like in the original second film. We aren't given time to mourn him because it is so obvious how he will be revived (even if it is ridiculously unbelievable)

This is a lackluster movie for lack of a term but it doesn't need to sound the death knell on the franchise.

Star Trek has always been able to bounce back from a lackluster movie. Star Trek II, Star Trek IV, and Star Trek VI are incredible stories that are well told, while Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III, and Star Trek V left much to be desired but they weren't merely chopped full of flashy effects, rushed storytelling, and a reliance of past history to help move the story along.

I wanted to like this movie. I tried my best to give it a chance but it's all flash and no substance. And definitely a dark day for Star Trek. I guess the title speaks volumes. The filmmakers have truly thrown this franchise into a deep, dark pit of despair.

Star Trek Into Darkness - that is exactly what this movie is. I just hope someone new can come in and reanimate the franchise like Bones reanimated Kirk or like the Genesis Planet reanimated Spock.

30 Things Wrong With Star Trek Into Darkness (More thoughts)

Sifton Bog Boardwalk Nature Trail

It's time for another photographic tour.

This time we are going to explore the broardwalk nature trail at Sifton Bog in London, Ontario, Canada.

This portion of the trail starts on Oxford Drive.

This trail is nice for a short stroll. If you want to go for a trail run, you really need to run the back trails of Sifton Bog. 

The boardwalk is over a kilometer long.

It bends and it weaves throughout a forest

and then comes out at this bog.

This is the viewing platform.

It really is a nice natural area. And it's right in the middle of the city. It's great for a short walk but not really suited for a run.

If you want to go for a run, click on the link below and find a nice trail near you.

More Photographic Tours and Running Trails