Spoilers Concerning Krall's back story

[Franklin]

Krall seemed to be Krall for mostly the same reason Khan was Harrison for a while. If Krall had had kept his human name and used it in the movie (or he looked more human from the start) I guess it would've spoiled the reveal at the end.

If at the end he had become just human enough again to realize what he was doing was wrong, that what he did to survive had taken away his humanity and made him a crazed sociopath fixating on what he came to blame made him that way, I think he would've been a far more complex and sympathetic character. Imagine how tragic his character would've been if he began to feel remorse or regrets at what he started, and sacrificed himself to stop it. Maybe he could've even have worked with Kirk and lived, a tragic figure spending the rest of his life on a rehabilitation planet to pay for his crimes.

As it is, he simply joins purely evil Trek villains TWOK Khan, Krug, Chang, Soran, the Borg queen, Ruafo, Shinzon, and Nero as the ninth baddy killed by our hero (Kirk or Picard) at the end of a Trek movie. Considering STID is the only other Trek movie with a real villain (I wouldn't count Sybok -- who it turns out did sacrifice himself for the others) it seems STID Khan got off lucky with only being refrozen.

For what it's worth, the idea of someone who was trained to be a warrior having to learn how to fit in in a peaceful world was far better handled on DS9 through the character of O'Brien.

 

[Klondike307]

If at the end he had become just human enough again to realize what he was doing was wrong, that what he did to survive had taken away his humanity and made him a crazed sociopath fixating on what he came to blame made him that way, I think he would've been a far more complex and sympathetic character. Imagine how tragic his character would've been if he began to feel remorse or regrets at what he started, and sacrificed himself to stop it. Maybe he could've even have worked with Kirk and lived, a tragic figure spending the rest of his life on a rehabilitation planet to pay for his crimes.

This would have been great and I actually thought it was going to happen. After Krall was lying on the ground beaten and Kirk told him it's better to die saving lives then live after taking them I actually thought he might come around. Even the way he slowly stood up when Kirk was trying to open the panel looked like he was about to try to help Kirk..... but then he just started throwing punches again.

 

[Franklin]

This would have been great and I actually thought it was going to happen. After Krall was lying on the ground beaten and Kirk told him it's better to die saving lives then live after taking them I actually thought he might come around. Even the way he slowly stood up when Kirk was trying to open the panel looked like he was about to try to help Kirk..... but then he just started throwing punches again.

I thought that, too. As if Kirk was trying to reach him. As it is, Krall came off as someone would probably should've undergone PTSD treatment or psychological analysis after leaving MACO rather than be given captaincy of a starship. In his way, he was more hawkish than Admiral Marcus, for crying out loud, but with less or no focus. Really, he was behaving like an anarchist.

 

[Commander Richard]

He was trying to protect the status quo and couldn't stand the kind of progress he saw.

 

[mattman8907]

I wonder how the crew of the Franklin came about their Alien names.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I would just like to toot my own horn here, and reference everyone to a post I made in December concerning Krall and his possible identity:

Spoiler: December 2015 post

Walking back from the dentist today, I came up with a great story that fits the trailer. The planet they find is some type of time anomaly, where time flows at a different rate (hence Boutella's line "I know why you're all here"). Elba plays the captain of the USS Franklin, which crashed there 50 years ago and he's trying to keep it secret. He controls the Swarm army, promising them eternal life in exchange for their protection.

Then I realized that it sounded almost identical to Insurrection, and dropped the train of thought before it took form...

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/idris-elba-role-revealed.275128/page-3#post-11389376

I guess I was on to them!

 

[Klondike307]

I would just like to toot my own horn here, and reference everyone to a post I made in December concerning Krall and his possible identity:

Spoiler: December 2015 post

Walking back from the dentist today, I came up with a great story that fits the trailer. The planet they find is some type of time anomaly, where time flows at a different rate (hence Boutella's line "I know why you're all here"). Elba plays the captain of the USS Franklin, which crashed there 50 years ago and he's trying to keep it secret. He controls the Swarm army, promising them eternal life in exchange for their protection.

Then I realized that it sounded almost identical to Insurrection, and dropped the train of thought before it took form...

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/idris-elba-role-revealed.275128/page-3#post-11389376

I guess I was on to them!

Epic guess! Know any good Lottery Numbers?

 

[Odyssey47]

I thought Krall was going to help Kirk at the end also, especially after he saw his reflection. I thought that was a good way to go about it, but of course the masses want the villain to die.

 

[Franklin]

I thought Krall was going to help Kirk at the end also, especially after he saw his reflection. I thought that was a good way to go about it, but of course the masses want the villain to die.

Yep. We were promised a unique villain in Krall. Sorry, I didn't see it. Maybe, if he'd been like John Gill becoming lucid and realizing he was wrong tragically late in "Patterns of Force", he would've been a better character. Even Sybok realizing the futility of his ways in TFF and giving himself up for the safety of the Enterprise. The problem is, Krall/Edison apparently always had (at least latently at first) these beliefs. They weren't forced onto him by the means in which he survived, they only became doctrine for him.

Many say the movie captured the spirit of TOS. In the main characters, it tended to very well. But how many TOS episodes had villains so mindlessly bent on hatred and destruction? In that area, I'm sad to say I think STB failed. Krall was not what was promised. I saw nothing sympathetic in Krall/Edison. I saw nothing valid or even debatably defendable in his position. He was made a starship captain in a time of peace (he helped to create) basically as a reward for his years of being a top soldier. What about the alternative was better? Why was it so hard for him to live in a world of peace and inclusion? Why should those difficulties challenge the entire idea of a Federation? The character was painted as someone who was supposed to be real challenge to the idea of a Federation. He was supposed to be the means by which our heroes even questioned the very validity of what they were doing. Where was that? He turned out to be an amazingly unintellectual character. Even Nero's motives made more sense in his circumstances. To be brutally honest, I think that's the part of the movie that let me down. Krall was weak.

 

[Khan444]

When you're trained and spend your entire career fighting against enemies, and then you're told "well now things have changed and we're cool with them now. Oh and here's this rust bucket ship now go off on vague exploring missions that you were never trained to do." Yeah for someone who's used to a certain mindset the change is hard to accept. TUC explored this idea as well. Unless you been in that situation, saying "well why can't he just suddenly get over it" is hard to know.

And I like that he didn't turn back at the end (which would have been cliché). He had gone so far done this path that he just couldn't let it go.

 

[Oso Blanco]

As it is, he simply joins purely evil Trek villains TWOK Khan, Krug, Chang, Soran, the Borg queen, Ruafo, Shinzon, and Nero as the ninth baddy killed by our hero (Kirk or Picard) at the end of a Trek movie.

I disagree on Soran ... he was not an evil villain who wanted to destroy whole civilizations just to take revenge or something. He was trying to get back into the Nexus ... everything that happened on the way was "just" collateral damage. Out of all Star Trek Movie villains, I think he was the most relatable.

 

[gerbil]

When you're trained and spend your entire career fighting against enemies, and then you're told "well now things have changed and we're cool with them now. Oh and here's this rust bucket ship now go off on vague exploring missions that you were never trained to do." Yeah for someone who's used to a certain mindset the change is hard to accept. TUC explored this idea as well. Unless you been in that situation, saying "well why can't he just suddenly get over it" is hard to know.

And I like that he didn't turn back at the end (which would have been cliché). He had gone so far done this path that he just couldn't let it go.

I agree 100%. I loved him catching his own reflection in the piece of glass. There's almost a moment of clarity and I was almost expecting a redemption. Instead, he seems to decide that he needs to complete his mission so he grabs the glass and goes after Kirk. It was perfectly done.

 

[Smellmet]

I agree 100%. I loved him catching his own reflection in the piece of glass. There's almost a moment of clarity and I was almost expecting a redemption. Instead, he seems to decide that he needs to complete his mission so he grabs the glass and goes after Kirk. It was perfectly done.

I loved that bit. It was a small scene that managed to add something to the character. It was well done.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Krall/Edison was a interesting villain. And I liked his ENT connection.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I also really like the fact that he is a throwback of so many of the Star Ship Captains gone mad trope of TOS...

That was my thought exactly. I was thinking he was basically a Ronald Tracey or a more sinister version of Garth of Izar (actually I'm a little disappointed they didn't go with the DIRECT Garth reference but it worked either way). Encapsulating it as a plot twist was a pleasant surprise; the way Krall described his origins made it seem like he was describing your basic Alien of the Week from Military World bad guy, but it turns out that "Military World" is actually pre-Federation Earth. That's a fascinating deconstruction of a very old trope IMO.

I thought that, too. As if Kirk was trying to reach him. As it is, Krall came off as someone would probably should've undergone PTSD treatment or psychological analysis after leaving MACO rather than be given captaincy of a starship. In his way, he was more hawkish than Admiral Marcus, for crying out loud, but with less or no focus. Really, he was behaving like an anarchist.

Early Starfleet didn't exactly receive top marks in screening their officers for competence and mental health. Just look at who they put in charge of NX-01!

 

[nx1701g]

I disagree on Soran ... he was not an evil villain who wanted to destroy whole civilizations just to take revenge or something. He was trying to get back into the Nexus ... everything that happened on the way was "just" collateral damage. Out of all Star Trek Movie villains, I think he was the most relatable.

He really is. He's a man who lost everything - his planet was destroyed by the Borg, he lost his family, and he lost his connection to joy and he just wanted to be happy again and regain what he lost.

Soran came back in the novels for those who may not know. They encountered his 'echo' and it wasn't a rather bad fellow.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I wonder how the crew of the Franklin came about their Alien names.

Well, you know what they say... before you can walk, you have to learn to Krall.

 

[Commishsleer]

He really is. He's a man who lost everything - his planet was destroyed by the Borg, he lost his family, and he lost his connection to joy and he just wanted to be happy again and regain what he lost.

Soran came back in the novels for those who may not know. They encountered his 'echo' and it wasn't a rather bad fellow.

I had no sympathy for Soran and his family (who we never saw). And he didn't have the excuse that he was insane. How many years did he wait and plot to get back into the Nexus. He had time to make a new start.
If perhaps Soran said he planned to use the Nexus time-travel feature to stop the Borg assimilating his planet then I would have had some measure of respect for him. Instead he wanted to go into a fantasy world and take out billions to get there. If real-life was so bad he had other options.

Maybe my lack of sympathy for Soran and even Picard is that we never saw Soran's family or the billions on that planet Picard was concerned with.

At least we saw Krail's shipmates. In fact I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Krail's logs and interaction with his crew before he went cray cray. I just wanted a touch more.
At least Krail didn't end up being Archer or any of the ENT crew. That would have been terrible.

 

[photon70]

2 hours in the cinema never went as fast and furiously as when I watched STB (twice now!).

Kudos to Lin & team but you can see how little time they had to put the story together.

Had they been afforded another 12 months of pre-production, I wouldn't have minded another 30 minutes!

In terms of Krall's back story, perhaps a prologue showing how the Franklin got into trouble, crashing and Edison going mad. Cut to the 'present day' for Captain Kirk's mission as a 'neutral' representative!

The big reveal would have been the same, when Kirk/Uhuru and the audience finds out Krall is Edison.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

At least Krail didn't end up being Archer or any of the ENT crew. That would have been terrible.

You know... It probably would only need a tiny bit of redub over some of the dialog to change the name Edison to Mayweather and tweak his backstory into him seeking revenge for 10 years being a bland glorified extra as an ensign despite having his name in the opening credits.