Star Trek Beyond Review: 8 Ups And 2 Downs

6. It’s Like A Feature-Length Episode

I think where Beyond is really going to win back diehard Trekkies is that it’s essentially a feature-length episode from The Original Series. Star Trek was a prequel and Into Darkness a non-surprise Wrath Of Kahn remake, but this is just pure Trek; The Enterprise is on a mission, gets wrapped up in this planet and find a plot that reflects their own internal conflicts. There’s dashings of different genres in there, but it all comes back to that crew.

And the cause for this big difference between Beyond and Abrams’ films isn’t the director, but the writer. Simon Pegg co-wrote the script with Doug Jung and you can just tell it comes from someone who doesn’t just understand, but loves, Trek. His screenplay is full of so many little easter eggs and shout outs to the classic series and the complex continuity, and also expertly balances the more humorous bits carefully throughout, so this never threatens to come close to being a comedy - the opening captain’s log is tongue-in-cheek send up full of in-jokes that almost steals the show.