Star Trek and Superweapons (Beyond spoilers)

[Cyke101]

So we have yet another superweapon, this time the Arbonath. But it made me think back to this trend in other Trek movies, in that our heroes and villains spend the majority of the story around a weapon of mass destruction built specifically for that movie itself.

-Vengeance (Into Darkness): super-ship, reappropriated to attack Starfleet HQ
-Narada/Red Matter (STXI): super-ship with devastating anti-planet weapon
-Scimitar/Thalaron weapon (Nemesis): super-ship with devastating anti-planet weapon
-Sona Metaphasic Collector (Insurrection): would have rendered the Baku world uninhabitable
-Trilithium Probe (Generations): anti-star weapon
-Chang's Bird of Prey (TUC): more for political destabilizaton, but one to which our heroes have little defense
-Genesis (TWOK), the most famous example, a device for life turned into a weapon of death

First Contact would be a stretch or a twist, depending on how you feel: the Borg weaponize time travel.

I suppose an argument can be made as well for the Whale Probe and V'Ger, in that they're not inherently weapons per se but can and have caused mayhem, with our heroes' primary objective to stop these objects. But in any case, stopping cosmic WMD seems to be the order of the day for all three generations of movies. Thoughts? I liked Beyond just as much as most people here, but can Trek ever have another movie that doesn't revolve around a WMD?

 

[shapeshifter]

A big summer tentpole? Probably not.

 

[drt]

A big summer tentpole? Probably not.

Or a big-budget movie at all for that matter.

Since Star Trek started out as a TV show, I think there is the idea that the dozens of more routine missions are what end up as TV episode-like adventures, while the super-significant missions are what end up as movies, so the stakes have to be raised appropriately.

A common complaint about Insurrection is that it felt like a two-part episode, which it seems like if you're a fan of a TV show should be a positive, not a negative.

 

[Cyke101]

A common complaint about Insurrection is that it felt like a two-part episode, which it seems like if you're a fan of a TV show should be a positive, not a negative.

It's funny because that seems to be the reverse of Beyond, at least from what I've read in reviews, like critics saying that it felt like an expanded TV episode, but meaning it in the best way possible.

 

[Dilandu]

Basically, the overcomplicated weapons of mass destruction was always the part of any Star Trek.

Actuallyt, it was always completely unclear, why somebody from spacefaring civilization need any complicated superveapons to just destroy the enemy planets. The old Heinlein maneuver (drop the rock from space) worked perfectly. Just get this rock at sublight speed, and its kinetic energy would do more damage to planet than "Narada", talaron weapon and Genesis combined.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Eventually the tent should have enough framework to stand up on its own.

 

[Desert Kris]

It's funny because that seems to be the reverse of Beyond, at least from what I've read in reviews, like critics saying that it felt like an expanded TV episode, but meaning it in the best way possible.

It partly may be that there isn't a ST series on TV running at the same time as these movies. It may also be that people perceive this particular "episodic" movie to still be more consequential, and of higher quality than, say Insurrection was. You're right that there's a certain amount of irony. Context can really change things up a bit, I guess.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Posted by Pegg

 

[F. King Daniel]

Waitasec, they're in the Andromeda galaxy in Beyond??!?

 

[SalvorHardin]

Waitasec, they're in the Andromeda galaxy in Beyond??!?

Yeah, it could be a mistake maybe Pegg will clarify.

 

[shapeshifter]

The Kelvins brought it!

 

[lurok]

Hasn't Trek always had big ol' space weapons/superships that threaten individual ships/planets/the cosmos?

 

[Desert Kris]

Imagine if Admiral Marcus had found that thing during the "aggressive search of distant quandrants" he had ordered. Maybe a little more controllable than the likes of, say, Khan. It's a bit more exactly what he was looking for, I'll bet. It still would have bit back at him, though, I imagine.

 

[DonIago]

^I can see a hybrid movie where Marcus was using the Vengeance as his command ship and had seized control of the swarm in some manner (given how they're ultimately disposed of, it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that they could be controlled), and Our Heroes Save the Day by somehow redirecting the swarm at the Vengeance, killing two birds with one stone. Perhaps enough of one or both birds survives that maneuver for one last gasp of a confrontation.

 

[Cyke101]

Hasn't Trek always had big ol' space weapons/superships that threaten individual ships/planets/the cosmos?

In terms of movies, not always. TSFS had the cast dealing with the direct effects of Genesis, and TFF had no superweapons whatsoever. Depending on your perspective, it could be argued that the Borg in First Contact also didn't have a superweapon (or, if you want to bring the Cube into it, Starfleet defeated that thing in the first act, so it was a non-factor for the rest of the movie. I wouldn't count it as a supership for that reason).

 

[Kemaiku]

Final Frontier had the ultimate doomsday weapon ever, God.

Guy wiped out planetary populations with less reason than any Trek villain.

 

[Cyke101]

Final Frontier had the ultimate doomsday weapon ever, God.

Guy wiped out planetary populations with less reason than any Trek villain.

That wasn't Sybok's goal though -- he certainly didn't intend to weaponize God and was horrified when he found out that God was malevolent. Plus, God's a living being like V'Ger (but killed by a dinky old Bird of Prey. I swear, that ship's got a pretty impressive win ratio).

 

[Kemaiku]

Intent was never mentioned, just destructive potential.

 

[Tosk]

"God" was hardly dangerous at all. He couldn't get off planet, he couldn't survive a disruptor blast...he could barely catch up to an old man clambering over rocks.

 

[DonIago]

Couldn't survive? IIRC there's no clear evidence that he dies.