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tar Trek’s “Into Darkness”, the second instalment in J. J. Abrams’s reboot of the Star Trek franchise, has been a major blockbuster this summer. It is filled with ferocious action sequences, stunning and vertiginous CGI, and new twists on familiar characters (and even familiar plots). The familiar crew of the Enterprise faces new challenges as an apparent terrorist attack is set off against Starfleet - and the person behind the attacks has a familiar name to longtime Trekkies. While the movie has done well at the box office, many dedicated Trekkies have panned it as being among the worst yet. This likely has to do with some of the plot twists, which I won’t spoil, other than to say anyone who saw The Wrath of Khan will recognize some of them, and they are transposed for this movie in ways that do not always ring true.
Leaving aside the artistic decision about the degree of loyalty to the original franchise, this movie does have the potential to raise a serious question: When does courage cross the line? When does bravery become audacity or even recklessness, without concern for others or for one’s primary directives?
In the end, Kirk undertakes alone an act of selfless bravery. So you can make a case for a certain degree of character development, but - to be frank - not much. The problem with this movie is that Kirk’s audacity is almost always vindicated, accelerating him to a position of leadership even among leaders; so he faces little real or lasting consequence for his more reckless choices. His choice to endanger himself to save others is - while perhaps the only thing he could do - in some sense only a continuation of a reckless tendency to endanger himself and play the hero. Star Trek: Into Darkness could have been a story of courage - but the real courage got lost among the drama and CGI firefights.
The young Captain Kirk, seemingly afraid of almost nothing, endangers himself and his crew in pursuit of what he thinks to be right. He’s warned for it - but does not seem to be humbled in any way by the consequences he faces.
Pranada Devi is a communications professional living in Toronto, Canada. She is the Managing Editor of Parvati Magazine, and serves as an advisor on marketing communications for Parvati’s various projects. Recently, she edited Parvati’s new book “Confessions of a Former Yoga Junkie”, which has gone on to sell out its first printing run.