The scene in Star Trek Into Darkness where Alice Eve stripped to her underwear just because wasn't the most forward-looking element of the film. No matter what goodwill a character like Uhura might have earned the original series, there's no excusing that kind of shoddiness in how a film portrays its female characters, and especially not in 2013. Hopefully, though, next year's Star Trek Whatever They Call It will redress the balance somewhat. Film Divider have learned that three of the new characters, and crucial ones at that, will be women. First of all, there's Bones' ex-wife. He's had a couple of different ex-wives, depending on which part of canon you're snooping around, and it's entirely possible that Simon Pegg and Doug Jung's new screenplay will invent another one altogether. Then there's the captain of another Federation ship. The Film Divider report says that she's going to be a match for Kirk, and the filmmakers are looking for the match of Chris Pine to take the role. This one is bound to launch some big casting shortlist stories from the trade papers - I can't imagine it won't be a hotly contested role. And then there's a female President for the United Federation of Planets. Again, another good role for a woman, we'd hope. Though, of course, I would have said the same thing about Carol Marcus before I saw Into Darkness and the pants-and-bra bit happened. The fourth new character is a male, and he's apparently going to be the villain. The story says that Bryan Cranston is the studio's pick, or has at least had a meeting of some kind about the role. They describe him as being "Bryan Cranston-like" but I suppose he would be, rather inescapably, if Cranston gets the role. I hope he does take the part. Cranston in Trek sounds like all sorts of fun. There's no indication in the story if this villain will be a new character, like Nero, or another one from Trek history, as happened last time. It wouldn't matter so much to me, but I can understand the argument for an original creation much more than I can any appeal for a rehash of somebody we've met before. Star Trek 3, which will hopefully have a much better name than Star Trek Into Darkness, is set for release on July 8th, 2016.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
