Beyond Roundup T Minus 3

As promised here's the first of three countdown round ups leading into Beyond on the 22nd July. Each Friday we'll be looking at the top news coming out of the anticipated flick...

TV Spots

There's FIVE new ones to choose from including Bold, Last Report and Discover. We also have a Sulu character focus for you to check out.

Bold contains no new shots or dialogue with most of its content coming from trailers one and two.

Discover contains the most new material kicking off with Kirk and McCoy seemingly discussing the future of the mission. I'd think this is from the very end of the movie where they are talking about "getting back out there" which is also in this TV teaser.

Kirk: Can you imagine what we'll find?

McCoy: Aliens hellbent on killing us

Kirk: That's the spirit Bones.

We also have Kirk and Spock fighting against Krall's forces as they invade the Enterprise and a great shot of the hull detail on the Franklin as Sulu takes the helm. Notice that she's within the planet's atmosphere in this shot (header photo).

Last Report, as with the others retreads the theme of Kirk looking at the path that has led him to the captaincy of the Enterprise backed by the Sledgehammer Rhianna track. This one focuses more on the loss of the starship with only a shot or two of new material as the Enterprise is destroyed. Interesting that all three trailers also feature the Franklin quite heavily in their closing moments and it's the same "escaping from explosion" sequence each time.

"A great captain knows sacrifice, Kirk."

Big Attack brings a voiceover from late addition Shoreh Agadashloo and Kirk indicating that what they are about to embark on is "more than just a rescue mission". It also focuses more on Krall with his "frontier pushing" quote we heard in the first trailer. It looks like desperate times ahead. So desperate that there are seatbelts on the bridge of the Franklin.

Finally Fly focuses on getting the Franklin flight worthy plus the Swarm attacking Yorktown, Jaylah attacking those two alien assailants in the forest and Krall's forces overwhelming the Enterprise. Also is that McCoy in a Swarm ship?

McCoy: I'll see you in the medbay for a checkup.Kirk: Or I'll see me in the bar for a drink.

We've also received four new character featurettes this week for Kirk, Bones, Jaylah and Sulu all offtering brief looks into the characters and backed by the Beastie Boys' Sabotage in a couple of instances. Each of them have a couple of snippets of new footage with Sulu's offering a look at the crew getting the Franklin started up and Kirk and McCoy's show off a little bit of humour with the captain looking for some alcoholic refreshment rather than a checkup after some form of attack. Here's the four character title cards from each:

Rhianna Sledgehammer video - key Beyond moments

What rags me off about this is how suddenly Rhianna has announced that she's been a lifelong Star Trek fan. Great news if she has but I have this feeling that it's been buried for a long time because it's not cool and doesn't suit the image she's been trying to forge. Now, with the franchise being fairly OK with the masses, it's fine to be open about your likes. At least that's what I hope and it's got nothing to do with the fact that she's got this single out which is linked directly into the marketing of Beyond. She's also on a promo video talking about her love of the show. Worth a look. Also, let's just be proud to welcome Rhianna into the fandom. While there are going to be differing opinions over her announcement it's good to see that Star Trek has such a broad appeal. All that hate just makes us Trekkers/Trekkies look like idiots.

While the video isn't Star Trek packed, there are still some key moments worth noting. It's a bit odd but stick with it for three minutes. It also gets in your head. Just a warning.

The planet she's on has Yorktown in the background

The Krall ship swarm swirls across the landscape

What's all that magical hand-swirling about? Is that a hint at the power of the artifact?

Facial markings - links to Jaylah? She's been a big part of the marketing of all this. Let's keep positive she's not another Darth Maul.

There's some issues with gravity - harking to the anti-gravity Kirk sequence in the trailers?

Intro shots of the Enterprise with that wide-mouth frog impulse engine and going all The Motion Picture warp speed

Exit shot of Rhianna versus the Enterprise. Weird.

Empire Magazine Coverage

Offering not just 14 pages on Beyond, Empire magazine also dropped a nice supplemental magazine celebrating 50 years of Star Trek. While Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise get their usual bum deal the mag looks at each of the 12 movies so far plus sections on The Original Series and The Next Generation. It's pretty basic in the coverage but add in a decent William Shatner interview and for £4.99 in the UK it's not a bad deal. The main magazine does offer a few story hits such as the name of Krall's planet (Altamid) and that they're sent on the mission to investigate a nebula which leads them into the bulk of the story from Yorktown. We also get an interview with Beyond guest Sofia Boutella about her career so far plus her role within the movie. Seems Jaylah has been on the planet since she was a child...

Info from other magazines such as SFX and SciFi Now have suggested that the Enterprise has been on a diplomatic mission between two planets (as said by Simon Pegg) which is how they end up at Yorktown to take a break.

New Jaylah Poster

Talking of Jaylah, a new poster of the character lounging out in the captain's chair of the Franklin appeared. It's a cool shot and is perfect for a lockscreen image on your phone as I've discovered.

So that's the week that was for Beyond. There's been a chunk of stuff out as the campaign ramps up. I expect we'll be seeing Spock, Uhura, Scotty and Chekov featurettes in the very near future plus a few more TV spots although five in a week is going some. 

What's been your highlight of the promotions so far?

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Music to Our Ears

I'm a huge fan of the Michael Giacchino soundtracks to both the 2009 movie and Into Darkness.

Hearing that the same gent would be working on the Beyond soundtrack instilled a lot of confidence and I can't wait to hear what he has produced for this three-quel. To be fair his work has been one of the high points of this reboot hands down.

I'm not a music critic by any stretch of the imagination nor will I ever attempt to be but the released track listing has given a few hints as to what we might be expecting from the movie. Here's the listing with a few thoughts on the movie chucked in for good measure.

1. Logo And Prosper (1:47)

2. Thank Your Lucky Star Date (2:15)

3. Night On The Yorktown (5:36)
Expect this to the big reveal of the edge of the frontier starbase and the crew taking a break from the five year mission.

4. The Dance Of The Nebula (2:22)
Investigating some new part of space following their trip to Yorktown perhaps? Which might lead them to encounter Krall's armada and...

5. A Swarm Reception (2:30)
Self-explanatory but probably a very fast-paced action theme as Krall's ships overwhelm the USS Enterprise.

6. Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard (6:10)
Is this the death theme for the reboot starship? At six minutes it's going to be a long sequence as the Enterprise breaks up and the saucer crashlands on Krall's planet (conjecture).

7. Jaylah Damage (2:50)
A theme that we might see intertwined elsewhere in the film perhaps seeing as how much publicity is being given over to this guest star over Krall? This might well be playing out when she meets up with Scotty as we've seen in the trailer.

8. In Artifacts As In Life (1:51)

So what's this one? Interesting title so could there be an item that has driven everyone to this planet? It would explain that mine/prison facility and the reason that "everyone is here" which we've seen emphasised in the trailer. Is this going to be an Indiana Jones meets Star Trek adventure? What item could be this important it gets its own track?

9. Franklin, My Dear (2:50)

Welcome to the newest starship design in the movie series. A predecessor to the NX Class this is going to be a key element to the movie since it looks like it saves the crew's lives and helps lead their fight back

10. A Lesson In Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17)
OK. Not a lot I can guess from this but could be linked to that "artifact" from track eight but it might also suggest Spock discovers something about the planet. Let's just hope it's not keeping them young - I mean, who would make that the plot of a Star Trek movie...

11. Motorcycles of Relief (3:17)
Well I don't need to think too much about this. We know it's onboard the Franklin as seen in the recent cutaway pics and it's been featured in the trailers too. How it's woven into the plot has to be to do with stopping Krall I guess.

12. Mocking Jaylah (3:26)
Defeated by Krall in the hand to hand combat which was spotted in both the second and third trailers at his ground base. This would then give Kirk a good opportunity to ride in and save the day.

13. Crash Decisions (3:16)
Two possibilities. Either this is out of sequence on the soundtrack and it's actually from earlier in the movie referring to the Enterprise or we're getting to see the Franklin trashed as well. I'm going for the latter to lead into the finale of the movie.

14. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23)
Not a clue.

15. Shutdown Happens (4:35)
Are we thinking that Krall's digging operation/whatever he's doing is ceased rather abruptly through some Starfleet intervention?

16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17)
Looks like this will be Krall versus Kirk in the zero gravity environment we saw at Yorktown in the second trailer but was omitted from the third and final set of clips.

17. Par-tay For The Course (2:46)
All done and could this be the theme to announce the birth of a new USS Enterprise?

18. Star Trek Main Theme (3:45)
Always a pleasure. Welcome back!

As if that's not enough I also believe I may now have seen and heard everything. Not only does Rhianna launch a range of sunglasses partially inspired by Geordi La Forge's VISOR thus revealing her admiration for the fandom but this week we also discover that she's providing a song for Beyond called Sledgehammer. Fans of Peter Gabriel can rest easy that it's not a rehash of his classic 80's song.

I listened to it through for the first time yesterday and I'm not greatly impressed. It works nicely with the trailer building up to that rather repetitive crescendo at the end but overall this is a very average and uninspiring pop song. I'd definitely say that Rhianna has done better material (although maybe not for a while). I'm sure it will still sell millions and become a footnote in Star Trek history as only the second time such an occurrence has happened.

Have to say linking Rhianna and Star Trek was never something I'd considered a possibility and it will be the first time a pop song has been fused with the franchise in the movies. Of course we've had a singer provide a theme before and that certainly split fan opinion didn't it Mr Russell Watson?

Rhianna's Sledgehammer is available right now and the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack will be released on July 29th 2016.

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Trailer Three and the Light Revelations

Big round of applause for Paramount/Skydance/Bad Robot for a third and final trailer which tells us nothing more about Beyond. Honestly plotwise it's a blank but that's not to say we haven't got a lot more to chew on in this two minute titillation.

I was only thinking this morning that it must be due and his afternoon we received. Now I could just run through the clips as standard and see what we've got but there really is very little point because about 85% of it is exactly what we've seen already. It's also a little bit "London Bus" with nothing for ages and then two trailers within a matter of weeks of each other.

"We were overwhelmed by something...something we'd never seen before. I know this isn't the last of my crew but this is my last report as the captain of the Starship Enterprise."

The big reveal is Kirk's comment in his final log entry but this isn't unexpected seeing as the destruction of the enterprise has been a key part of every trailer. So too is there a bit more action showing Krall's men taking control of the starship but really it's a reorder of what we've already seen. So instead, here's a drop through of all the new stuff and its potential relevance.

Did you also spot the nice big swirly graphic that Kirk is looking at, presumably on Yorktown? There's one heck of a big nebulous thingy in the centre top which might be the nebula they are sent to investigate which leads them to Krall? The soundtrack does have a track that points to this!

Reflections on the events during the '09 movie versus the Narada, also shots of Kirk's dad on the Kelvin and finally Kirk looking up at the Enterprise being constructed in Iowa also from the same movie.

We also get to see a larger ship as part of the Swarm - there's a three pronged ship not dissimilar to a Xindi Insectoid fighter that screams across the screen at one point. Most likely the command ship or the craft from which Krall is able to board the Enterprise?

Intro shots of Starbase Yorktown - not used as much as trailer two and played down against the rest of the trailer which is very action orientated.

Krall's soldier shooting a trio of Starfleet officers - that is one serious gun he's carrying if it can take out three people in one shot. Krall's forces might not be like anything we've ever seen before so this could be a pretty brutal movie.

Clearer shot of the prison camp space - just as the crew are rounded up. Still no clearer on what that site is or why the crew are being incarcerated there. Are they being forced to dig for something? An artifact?

Rear shot of Kirk and Jaylah on the motorcycle - from the cycle sequence we've had in all three trailers now. Really have no idea where this fits or its purpose but it does look like Jaylah will be key in the fight against Krall.

There's a shot of something launching - could be saucer sep or an escape pod. I'd love to say this is the former and we are getting a shot from the saucer clip as the secondary hull drops away. Thanks to TheIrishTrekkie I've got this rather cool little comparison (left) to the unused Andy Probert sequence designed for The Motion Picture. Nice homage to an unused idea if this is the case. I wonder if the saucer sep is how the crew manage to escape Krall's forces as we also see the secondary hull riddle with holes and on fire beginning a downward spiral.

We get to see the Franklin speeding into a fiery situation towards the end of the trailer. Could this be the big climactic explosion they're escaping from? Also check out the still at the bottom of this article because it looks like the Warp Four starship is heading into some sort of distortion effect as part of its journey.

Longer sequence of Kirk watching the saucer crash from his escape pod. This makes it clear that the saucer makes a planet fall as it drops away from Kirk's view. Check out the fact that there's no bits of the secondary hull attached to it which holds up to the suggestion that the saucer sep is crew initiated rather than being ripped off in the attack. Also check out the ridiculous amount of damage that the saucer is carrying on it's downward spin.

Kirk and Chekov being led through a forest by an unnamed alien wearing a Starfleet evac suit. This is the same alien we saw in that bridge shot a few weeks ago. The biggest shot of the trailer though comes right after that where we have Kirk and Chekov looking down to the crashed saucer section. What is it that they need to get back to find? Also given that the evac suit the alien is wearing has differences to that of Kirk and Chekov's, could this be a lone survivor from the Franklin? Also in line with this they must be on the saucer for a while or it takes a time to get there since their escape from its wreckage takes place in the dark.

That's a decent amount of new shots but nothing really big and jaw dropping to reveal anything about the movie more than we already know. I still can't believe how little we have to go on less than a month to premiere!

The Rhianna track (available now) gives it an almost romantic feel and means that each trailer has its own distinct approach to the film and markedly different considering the journey we've come on since Sabotage blared out over the first one! Funny how she came out as a fan just before this was released huh?! I'm saying nothing.

Rather than give us lots of new material there's been a distinct edge to each tease we've seen whether it's action, more character related or now more ethereal. They're certainly trying to cover every audience base. This one does seem to have a leaning back to the action and thrills of the first trailer but that Rhianna single doesn't make it anywhere near as intense or as Fast and Furious. It's actually nowhere near as obviously an action movie as trailer one but I'm not convinced we're in for deep and meaningful character development when you couple what we see here with Chris Pine's recent comments around not being able to make a Star Trek movie that isn't an action flick. 

Reflecting back on the third Into Darkness trailer in comparison we were handed a lot of new info including much better images of the Vengeance and a brand new trailer overall which gave me a lot to discuss. Beyond is playing a much longer game with a strong poker face. Nothing is being given away and I do mean nothing even at this time.  Looking back on that trailer I felt as optimistic as I do now. I'm keeping fingers crossed that this will still be maintained after 22nd July.

"Let's make some noise..."

What did you spot in the new trailer? Still confident we're in for a better experience than Into Darkness?

Check out my musings on the first and second trailer plus watch the final trailer HERE

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