20 Most Cringeworthy Moments In The New Star Trek Movies

3. The Captain's Oath From Star Trek Into Darkness

Paramount PicturesParamount PicturesWe're skipping ahead to the end of Star Trek Into Darkness, and the scene in which the Enterprise is rededicated one year after the ship is nearly destroyed by Admiral Marcus, just before it launches on its five-year mission. Kirk is giving the speech, for obvious reasons, and he says that he recalls the words that Admiral Pike told him before he took command, the Captain's Oath... ...and then we get the famous opening narration "Space, the final frontier..." yadda, yadda, yadda... Wait, what? That's the "Captain's Oath"? Since when? There's nothing remotely oath-like about it! Aren't oaths generally worded in such a way that the person making the oath is saying "I will pledge to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before, and to bang lots of alien chicks along the way"? Or is it just sloppy editing that makes us think that's the Captain's Oath, and that whatever Kirk really says is a lot more mundane and therefore not as interesting as the "Space, the final frontier" speech? Hell, can that even be called a "speech"? And people wonder why Star Trek fans have higher blood pressure than anyone else.
Contributor
Contributor

Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.