COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS 5-page preview

[SalvorHardin]

serenitytrek1 wrote:

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alex macus.....is that carol's dad?

I believe so.

[JarodRussell]

So Mom and Grandpa, and then even Dad, all worked in Starfleet, and that's how David Marcus hated Starfleet?

[Marten]

serenitytrek1 wrote:

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alex macus.....is that carol's dad?

Could be. The ages match pretty well.

We also have a smuggler by the name of Mudd. Relative to Harcourt, maybe?

[Franklin]

JarodRussell wrote:

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So Mom and Grandpa, and then even Dad, all worked in Starfleet, and that's how David Marcus hated Starfleet?

Well in this new universe, Carol must've followed her dad into Starfleet. In the Prime Universe, she apparently didn't, or at least didn't make a career out of Starfleet. Poor David probably won't even be around in the new universe to have an opinion about Starfleet one way or the other, as it looks like Kirk and Carol don't get together.

As far as David's attitude towards Starfleet in the Prime Universe goes, if Carol had been in it at all (no way of knowing), then she left for some reason that may have tainted his opinion of the institution. Maybe her opinion soured. One way or another, why can't David hate (or at least be skeptical of) Starfleet?

[Christopher]

ChristopherPike wrote:

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Wasn't there a rumour sometime ago that Cumberbatch's villain was a protege of Weller's character?

I heard a speculation to that effect, but it didn't sound like anything more than some fan's wild guess.

[SalvorHardin]

Franklin wrote:

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as it looks like Kirk and Carol don't get together.

It does? They probably won't get together in this movie based on what we know so far, but we also know the attraction is there so nothing stops them from getting together in the future.
Unless Cumby kills her of course.

[WarpFactorZ]

Marten wrote:

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We also have a smuggler by the name of Mudd. Relative to Harcourt, maybe?

Perhaps Harry's daughter or wife. And if she is a business woman, as indicated, that might mean she's a partner of Harry.... who is the CEO of a company... which might imply Peter Weller plays him, based on earlier interviews where he describes his character.

[ChristopherPike]

Christopher wrote:

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I heard a speculation to that effect, but it didn't sound like anything more than some fan's wild guess.

Oh, I remember now. It was around the same time, Peter Weller was cast, and Benicio Del Toro was briefly courted. There was some impossible talk about him reprising Paxton and that the main villain could be Colonel Green. Just the usual join the dots fan theory in the absence of actual evidence to go on. Based on who he'd played previously in Star Trek and the WWIII era person they revered.

I think there'll be a close relationship between Weller and Cumberbatch's characters though. The protege thing, I recall reading along with the CEO description, "Do I look like an alien?" and "he has his own ship" details that came from Weller at some red carpet event appearance Trekmovie.com covered. He showed Anthony Pascale an image of his son sat in a Captain's chair, on a bridge not unlike the current Enterprise set. There was no online posting of that personal momento. Just described for those in search of clues. CEO wasn't to do with Paxton being a business man but rather Executive Officer, with the actor's agent more used to talking with the former, confusingly putting Chief in front of it.

Therefore Alex Marcus as areference to April's first officer, seems to be a piece that's fitting into place.

[The Wormhole]

JarodRussell wrote:

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So Mom and Grandpa, and then even Dad, all worked in Starfleet, and that's how David Marcus hated Starfleet?

I've been thinking this matter over. Keep in mind, in TWOK Carol was a civilian. It's possible she was in Starfleet in the Prime timeline, but when she left it wasn't under the best conditions. Her bitterness about Starfleet obviously rubbed off on David which is why he hates Starfleet.

Of course even today you have people who serve in the military but their children develop a dislike of it. No reason that won't change in the future.

[Christopher]

^There's a popular fan conjecture that Carol Marcus was the "little blond lab technician" that Kirk almost married according to "Where No Man Has Gone Before." And a number of tie-ins have proposed that she and Kirk met at Starfleet Academy. One, DC Comics's "Star-crossed" by Howard Weinstein, had Carol as an Academy cadet who resigned upon becoming pregnant with David. Though another, earlier version from DC, an annual by Peter David, had Carol as a civilian college student that cadet Kirk got involved with.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Of course even today you have people who serve in the military but their children develop a dislike of it.

It's pretty common, in fact.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I always assumed that, since Carol and Jim Kirk's relationship apparently soured in the prime timeline, that colored her attitudes towards Starfleet (even considering her line in TWOK about "Starfleet has kept the peace for a hundred years"). So if she resented Kirk in some way, she would most likely raise David with the same kind of bias. That happens a lot...a relationship splits, and the custodial parent raises the child to dislike the other parent.

[Saul]

That Enterprise design is pretty bland. Would like to see more pointy bits on her. Something more TOSy.

Christopher wrote:

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So canon really doesn't mean all that much. Dwelling too much on what falls under that label just gets in the way of enjoying the stories being told.

If that was the case then the 2009 movie didn't need to explain the whole alternate timeline thing as a way of preserving what came before.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Quite. Even if STXI had been a flat-out reboot, not mentioning anything from the prime universe (and not having any kind of time travel), it STILL wouldn't have been anything other than an alternate timeline - it still wouldn't have destroyed the prime universe or anything like that.

[Christopher]

Saul wrote:

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If that was the case then the 2009 movie didn't need to explain the whole alternate timeline thing as a way of preserving what came before.

But that wasn't about worshipping canon as a holy principle. It was about considering the audience's (and creators') affinities and trying to balance the need to create something new and unbound by continuity with the desire to honor and carry forward what came before. It wasn't about what label you stick on a thing. Canon is just a label, and labels are not the sole and absolute source of meaning in the universe the way some people seem to imagine they are. They're just descriptions or approximations of more fundamental things. The label "canon" is a description that relates to certain aspects of creativity and continuity, but it's just a description. There are more important, ambiguous, and complicated things going on underneath it, and those real, meaningful things are a more worthy focus of our attention than the mere label.