Simon Pegg, writer, actor, director, creator of the cult comedy Spaced and co-writer of the movies Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul, and The World’s End, amongst other genre classics, who played Scotty in Star Trek: Into Darkness, has told Star Trek fans to “fuck off.”
Fans at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas voted Into Darkness the worst outing ever in the Star Trek franchise. Pegg, in an interview with Mike Ryan at the Huffington Post, responded, “I think it’s like when you tire of an indie band that you love because, suddenly, they get a number one single. You don’t necessarily start disliking their music, but you stop liking them because you’re pissed off that they’re famous, or whatever.”
In terms of box office, and sheer numbers of viewers, Into Darkness is the most successful Star Trek film ever. “More people saw that film than any iteration of Star Trek that existed before. That is probably slightly annoying to some Star Trek fans — which I totally understand.” Continued Pegg, then erupted, “It absolutely isn’t the worst Star Trek movie. It’s asinine, you know? It’s ridiculous. And frustrating, as well, because a lot of hard work and love went into that movie, and all J.J. wanted to do was make a film that people really enjoyed. So, to be subject to that level of sort of, like, crass fucking ire, I just say fuck you. Not you, but the people who said that.”
Pegg qualified his outburst, expressing the possibility that Into Darkness is simply not as loved as previous Star Trek films simply because it is the newest, it hasn’t yet achieved that seasoning of time that through nostalgia renders a special place for even the cheesiest production in the heart of an SF fan.
“It hasn’t been around long enough. It’s the newest one. It’s the one people least recognize. If you look back at things you really love, there’s a big list: The things that you’ve got to re-watch and enjoy, they are going to be more up there. The thing that you know the least will be at the bottom. So it might be that, too, you know?” He added.
We disagree. Stark Trek: Into Darkness was a brilliantly entertaining action SF thriller. Well deserving its success. But what it was not was a Star Trek film. Yes, the characters, the places, the bad guys, the ships, had the same names, even the scenario felt like Star Trek. What it lacked was the Star Trek philosophy, the spirit of exploration, the spirit of an intelligent human culture taking its wonder and hope into the future, the essential Trekkiness that has imbued the TV shows and the movies since Gene Roddenberry created the original in the 1960s.
That’s why it is the worst Star Trek film. Because without that spirit it is not, not quite a Star Trek film.
