The views expressed here are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect those of the crew of the USS Tiburon, the 888th MSG, Starfleet, KAG or any affiliations with anyone or anything other than the author. (Aaand I’m pretty sure they don’t.)

From the Hole normally scheduled for this week is pre-empted so we may bring you a special “Star Trek Into Darkness” edition.

A nice dark hole is always a good place to watch a movie. Slowly but surely the majority of the crew of the USS Tiburon and the 888th MSG Tigersharks (Starfleet Marine Corps) have been making the journeys to their favorite movie holes to see the latest in the JJ Abrams reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Having watched all the trailers, read posts and seen reviews from a large number of other folks, some Trekkers but most not, I didn’t really know what to expect when I finally made it to the theater to see it for the first (and most likely only) time.

As I suspected when I saw “The Hobbit” the extended trailer that was offered with that movie actually is the lead in for this one. This isn’t much of a spoiler especially if you didn’t pay the extra money for the extra pre-footage. If you’ve kept up with all the hype you already know what the Klingons look like and yes, they do make what you could call, a guest appearance. Without giving a huge amount away I will say that JJ Abrams took characters and events from both a TOS episode AND a TOS movie and twisted them. He also loaded in a couple of magic bullets and anyone that watches the film can see what’s coming as soon as Kirk takes custody of the villain.

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Here is the second crew review of Star Trek Into Darkness.

These of course are the opinions of the members themselves and do not represent anyone or anything else.

Submitted by Mike Maginnis (member since  6/08)

J. J. Abrams latest big-screen Star Trek spectacle hit theaters this week, and it’s safe to say that as a Trek fan, you’ll probably want to go see it.  Whether you will like it is another question.  “Into Darkness” hits the ground running and, with only a couple of momentary exceptions, doesn’t really slow down throughout its 132 minute running time.

Abrams brings us into the action as Chris Pine’s Kirk flees a tribe of local savages.  You might think that he’s angered the chieftain for an indiscretion with yet another green-skinned slavegirl, but in this case there’s method to his madness.  While he draws the angry mob away from their village at the base of a volcano that’s just about to erupt, Spock is busy employing the Treknology Plot Bomb to save their species.  One might wonder if an indigenous people so stupid as to live at the base of an active volcano should be spared in the first place.  One might. But not Abrams.  And it doesn’t really matter – this is all a big plot device to deprive Kirk of his command at the helm of the Enterprise for violating the Prime Directive.

This isn’t as spolierific as it might seem at first, because Jim gets his captain’s chair back a few minutes later.  And herein lies the problem with, well pretty much everything in the film that isn’t a set piece battle, high velocity space jump, or lens flare effect… God… the lens flare.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Kirk’s demotion is meaningless because it never becomes an obstacle.  Nothing is on the line for him, or his crew, and he does literally nothing to earn it back.  He doesn’t have to grow as a person, or as a Starfleet officer – no difficult decisions faced, no hard sacrifices made.  There’s a death that happens as part of the setup which is supposed to provide Kirk the impetus to act, but really as a Starfleet Captain on the bridge of the fleet’s flagship, shouldn’t following orders be motivation enough for any action you take, right or wrong?  The death is meaningless, because it didn’t have to happen.  Then again this is Hollywood and, as J.J. reminds us on several occasions, Starfleet are explorers, not military.  But things blow up real good, bad guys are menacing and there’s a lot of running from station to station on the Enterprise.

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Here is the second crew review of Star Trek Into Darkeness.

These of course are the opinions of the members themselves and do not represent anyone or anything else.

Submitted by Jennifer Sontag (member since  1/05)

As the crew of the USS Tiburon gathered on Wednesday to see the new Star Trek movie there was high anticipation for the movie because of all the hype and previews. The newest movie directed by J.J. Abrams didn’t disappoint.

The movie was very fast paced with a chase through an alien planet, the Enterprise rising out of the water like the fabled city of Atlantis and the introduction of the main villain. Although the main villain was someone that every Star trek fan will recognize, the build up to the revealing of his was very predictable and once you knew who he was you could see where the movie was going.

I will say the movie didn’t disappoint me, it was visually stunning (without the lens flare) and I like the way the characters were portrayed.  All in all the movie was good not great but I would go and see it again. And once again the Tribbles saved the day.  GO TRIBBLES!!!!!!

Over the next several days members of the USS Tiburon will be submitting reviews on their opinions of the newest Star Trek movies, Star Trek Into Darkness.

These of course are the opinions of the members themselves and do not represent anyone or anything else.

Submitted by Nicholas Villarreal (member since  6/12)

Join members of the USS Tiburon at the Star Trek Into Darkness 3D Sneak Peek Wednesday Night May 15th at the Aurora Century Theater at 9pm!

Members of the group USS Tiburon will be headed over to the Theater Wednesday night to be some of the first across the country to see the newest in the JJ Abrams vision of Star Trek.

Here is a quick film synopsis: In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of the enterprise is called back home to earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Peter Weller and Anton Yelchin.

If you are planning to be there head on over to the USS Tiburon’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USSTiburon