Scifi Diner Rewind 363 - Star Trek: Beyond (Our Expectations and the Best of the New Trilogy)

Tonight's Menu: On this rewind, our discussion of Star Trek: Beyond, our discussion of the motivation of the villain, the great chemistry of the core cast, the homage the movie made to the original series, and more. Scifi Diner Rewind 363 - Star Trek: Beyond (Our Expectations and the Best of the New Trilogy) This show is brought to you by Patreon Supporters: Jame Husband Mike Crate Support us on Patreon Special thanks to Lee Kemp who manages our Facebook page. Star Trek: Beyond Three years into its mission, the USS Enterprise arrives at Yorktown, a massive space station, for resupply and shore leave for its crew. Struggling to find meaning in their endless exploration, Captain James T. Kirk has applied for a promotion to vice admiral; he recommends Spock as his replacement. Meanwhile, Hikaru Sulu reunites with his family, Montgomery Scott works to keep the ship operational, and Spock and Nyota Uhura amicably end their relationship; Spock also receives word from New Vulcan that Ambassador Spock, his counterpart from the original timeline, has died. The Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission after an escape pod drifts out of a nearby uncharted nebula. Its occupant, Kalara, claims her ship is stranded on Altamid, a planet in the nebula. As the Enterprise exits an asteroid field within the nebula, a massive swarm of small ships ambushes and quickly overwhelms the starship, severing the ship's warp nacelles in a matter of seconds. The swarm's leader, Krall, and his crew board the crippled Enterprise, capture and kill many crew members, and recover a relic, the Abronath, that Kirk had recently obtained. Scotty manages to restore enough power for the ship to attempt to flee, but Krall orders his swarm to destroy the Enterprise, and they smash the ship in half. Kirk, having recovered the Abronath, orders the crew to abandon ship, leaving the remains of the Enterprise to crash on Altamid. On the planet, Krall captures Sulu, Uhura and other survivors. Kirk and Pavel Chekov, accompanied by Kalara, locate the Enterprise's saucer section. Realising that Kalara knew they would be attacked, they trick her into revealing herself as Krall's spy. To escape Krall's soldiers, Kirk and Chekov use the ship's thrusters to flip the saucer over, and Kalara is killed in the maneuver. Elsewhere on the planet, Dr. Leonard McCoy and a wounded Spock search for other survivors. Spock explains to McCoy that the tension he witnessed between him and Uhura at Yorktown was due to his intention to leave Starfleet to help the Vulcan survivors, and continue the late Ambassador Spock's work. Jaylah, a scavenger who previously escaped Krall's encampment where her father was killed, rescues Scott and takes him to her makeshift home, the grounded USS Franklin, an early Starfleet vessel reported missing over a century earlier. Scott is reunited with Kirk, Chekov, McCoy and Spock. Threatening to kill the crew, Krall coerces Ensign Syl to hand over the Abronath that she had concealed for Kirk, then uses it on her to demonstrate an ancient bioweapon that can disintegrate any humanoid. With the device complete, Krall intends to kill Yorktown's inhabitants, then use the base to attack the Federation. Kirk and the others free the crew as Krall launches into space with the bioweapon, leading his drones to Yorktown. As the Enterprise survivors power up the Franklin and launch her in pursuit of Krall, they deduce that such a massive swarm must coordinate its attacks via radio signals, specifically in the VHF frequency band. Scott transports Spock and McCoy into one of the swarm ships to seize control of it. Matching the swarm's frequency, they jam and disorient the swarm by broadcasting the 1994 song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, destroying almost the entire fleet. Krall and his three surviving ships, one of which contains Spock and McCoy, are chased by the Franklin through Yorktown. The chase ends at the station's headquarters, where the Franklin's sudden appearance causes the three ships to smash into it. As Krall flees into the starbase, Uhura and Kirk discover from the Franklin's logs that he is actually Balthazar Edison, former captain of the Franklin. A pre-Federation human soldier, Edison rejected the Federation's principles of unity and cooperation with former enemies like the Xindi and the Romulans. When he and his crew were stranded on Altamid by a wormhole, the three survivors used the extinct natives' technology to prolong their lives at the cost of the others, and re-purposed the ancient race's dormant drone workers into the swarm. Thinking the Federation had abandoned them, Edison planned to destroy the Federation and resume galactic conflict. Kirk pursues Edison into Yorktown's ventilation system, where Edison activates the bioweapon. Before it can spread, Kirk ejects it and Edison into space, where the weapon kills Edison. Using the alien ship they commandeered, Spock and McCoy save Kirk moments before he is also blown into space. In the aftermath, Commodore Paris closes the files of Captain Edison and the USS Franklin crew. Kirk decides to keep his position as the Enterprise's captain; Spock chooses to remain in Starfleet, and begins to renew his relationship with Uhura. On Kirk's recommendation, Jaylah is accepted into Starfleet Academy. As the crew celebrates Kirk's birthday, they watch the construction of their new ship, the USS Enterprise-A—and when the ship is completed, they resume their mission. (Wikipedia)