Idris Elba’s Trek Character
2 min read
Star Trek Beyond‘s Idris Elba will be playing Krall, who is *not* a Klingon.
Krall is heard in the new teaser, saying “This is where it begins, Captain. This is where the frontier pushes back!”
Fans have speculated as to what character Elba was playing; a Klingon, a Gorn, a Jem’Hadar. But he is none of these according to Director Justin Lin.
Krall is a member of “new species that we discover in this chapter,” said Lin. He went on to describe what type of character Elba is playing and Krall’s motivations.
“When [talking to Elba] about this character, it wasn’t about this or that; it was about building or having a philosophy or point of view. And I like his character because his character is really challenging the way of the Federation’s philosophy and there are a lot of things that when I was growing up I wanted to see.”
“What would happen if you were going on a five-year journey and you’re trying to also not only explore, but also maybe introduce other people to this way of thinking,” said Lin. “What would that mean? What are the consequences to that? I mean, spreading a philosophy that you believe in that you think is great, are there gonna be any other points of views that’s gonna counter you? And I think that those are the things that I thought of as a kid. And also then as an adult when I watch Star Trek. And I think we got to kind of explore that a little bit [in Star Trek Beyond].
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Reading the last paragraph makes me wonder whether that guy’s even heard of the prime directive, or merely pretending it never existed.
Given that Kirk DID try to spread his philosophy across the galaxy in TOS, I think Mr. Lin knows what he’s talking about.
Ok now I know what the movie is about: They are a food source.
Regardless of the Prime Directive, Picard seemed to spend a lot of time lecturing aliens about how they needed to be enlightened like him.
Seriously? The TV guide description for every other TOS episode could’ve been “Kirk violates the Prime Directive.”
and the other episodes were ‘Kirk violates the Prime directive … then the antagonists’ wife.’
I get what you’re all saying – my point was, the prime directive getting violated has already been a plot point for many, many episodes in multiple series, so what Lin is saying is absolutely nothing new – despite what he’d like us to think, it doesn’t sound like he’s bringing anything to the table that hasn’t already been done before.
The premise of Federation exceptionalism spreading its philosophy throughout the galaxy is nothing new. The premise of someone on parity with said Federation saying, “hold on a minute now”, is not as frequently explored.nnThat, and the prime directive usually only applies to pre-warp species who don’t have much of a concept of what lies outside their star systems. Th inhabitants of Nibiru in the last movie are a good example of this, which is why Kirk’s blatant violation of the prime directive led to consequences. In this, the antagonist and his cronies are clearly aware of other species out there and likely have FTL conveyances of their own, based on the number of swarm-downed ships on that planet of theirs.
Didn’t the series cover this ground in “Arena” and even “The Savage Curtain” and many others? In TOS, there were always technologically and/or socially advanced “superior” aliens who demonstrated, forcibly or otherwise, to Kirk that humans can’t make all the rules. Not so much in the spinoffs, especially Enterprise.
It might. They still aren’t supposed to interfere in the natural development of another civilization, whether or not that other civilization has warp drive.