10 Screenwriting Lessons You Can Learn From Star Trek Into Darkness
9. Sometimes Fan Service Doesnt Add Much
Although this may not apply to all screenplays, it is still something to keep in mind. If you put some sort of in-joke or wink to the audience, make sure it really, truly needs to be there. If youve seen the movie, then you know Im mostly referring to the Khan reveal. See, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan was the main villain who had a history with Captain Kirk. When he returned, it was to exact revenge on Kirk who deserted him 15 years earlier. It was a sly metaphor for your past sins coming back to haunt you. This provided some emotional weight to the film as we watched Captain Kirk try to defeat Khan.
In Star Trek Into Darkness, Khan has no past history with Kirk since this takes place on a new timeline. Therefore, when John Harrison reveals himself to be Khan, it doesnt carry as much weight since hes basically a brand new person that the Enterprise crew has never met. So then why was he included at all? Most likely as fan service since they knew how popular of a character he was. If he wouldve stayed as John Harrison, it wouldnt have affected the film one bit. And when you start seeing those sorts of things in your screenplay, thats usually a good indication that they can be cut.
In this instance, they couldve saved Khan for another film and used him to full effect. Here, he seems a bit squandered. If you can cut or change something in your script and it doesnt affect the rest of it at all, it can probably go.