Star Trek: 10 MORE Behind The Scenes Decisions We Can't Forgive
3. My Name Is Conrad
This is the lowest hanging fruit possible for a listicle about Star Trek blunders, but here's a John Harrison-is-Khan-level twist: Star Trek Into Darkness is good, actually.
That is until the whole Khan thing happens. We'll get to that.
Star Trek Into Darkness is an easy target for fan ire because it reappropriates plot elements from the universally beloved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. By including these elements, the filmmakers practically begged us to hold the two films up against one another and there was simply no way for Into Darkness to come off looking great.
But Star Trek Into Darkness is less a rehash of Star Trek II than it is a Star Trek-themed retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It's even right there in the title: Heart of Darkness... Star Trek Into Darkness. See?
Like Heart of Darkness, Star Trek Into Darkness tells the story of a quest into hostile territory to capture a comrade gone mad with power. In the journey up river (or into Klingon space), our protagonists wrestle with the moral ambiguity of their missions. For Star Trek Into Darkness, this means presenting newly-minted Captain Kirk with existential and moral dilemmas that serve to develop his character from the brash youngster of Star Trek (2009) into the more reasoned and nuanced man he would become in Star Trek Beyond.
Star Trek Into Darkness is necessary character development for Kirk and it also depicts the maturation of the young captain's relationship with Spock from friendly rivalry to genuine respect.
The problem is, these developments and even the emotional "death" scene near the climax are overshadowed by the big reveal that John Harrison is really Khan. This reveal takes place at the end of act two and hangs over the events of act three, which itself devolves into a repetitive fist fight, rather than exploiting all the character development that occurred in movie's first two thirds.
The Khan reveal sucks not because it transforms Star Trek Into Darkness into a pale imitation of The Wrath of Khan, it sucks because it robs Into Darkness of its own identity and character development. Eight years later it's still one of Star Trek's greatest unforgivable decisions.