Synopsis:

The three Star Trek reboot films are a mixed bag for me. It's great to have new adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and all of the Enterprise crew. It's a treat to see the Trek universe with modern SFX. It's endearing to see the camaraderie and (some of) the callbacks to the original series. It's a joy to discover (many of) the updates they made, e.g. Uhura still looks awesome but now her input is frequently essential to the story. But... the storylines are weak, the villains uninteresting, camera work distracting (and already feels dated), too many scenes feel more Star Wars than Star Trek (the worst offender being the Millenium Falcon shaped ship trying to escape the Klingons through a "canyon" in Wrath of Khan Reboot). Then again... it is more Trek, new Trek. So it'd be great to add these movies to the list of "let's rewatch them every once in a while, in rotation with other ST shows".

Intentions:

The mission then: to improve pacing, trim the most distracting camera work, and more. This fanedit of ST Beyond is improved by a calmer camera style: reduced moving shots in action scenes (less Fast & Furious). Trimmed jokes, less time spent crashing the Enterprise, less time stuck on the planet, smoother final battle: all improve the pacing. Krall's dialog improves his motivation. Extended shot of the Yorktown, because wow!

Change List:

- Trims to moving camera shots. To create a calmer visual style (less Fast & Furious). - Trims to jokes that run a line too long. The camraderie works better when not every funny moment has a punchline. - Trims for pacing. Less time spent crashing the Enterprise, less time spent stuck on the planet. - Replaced shot of Bones, Kirk, Spock looking at Yorktown with a shot of Yorktown itself (retain Bones-Kirk dialog). Yorktown shot taken from the 4K disc, slowed to halfspeed with Flowframes, zoomed-in with Vegas Pro. It's amazing, it deserves more screentime! - Alter Krall's alien-language subtitles to add mention of the weapon earlier in the story. - Cut story about Jaylah's dad, so Krall's second-in-command is no longer a personal vendetta for her. - Several trims to Krall's dialog to reduce his far-fetched motivations. Cut his belief that the Federation abandonded him and his crew. - Cut Kirk's talk with the villain at the start of the final fight. Annoying script-writing! - Not cut: Kirk and Krall floating/flying inside the starbase. The slipstream concept is not very clear, the actions and dialog add little to the story, and it's possible to cut this seamlessly. But when I did, the final fight felt too short. It was clear that something was missing. So I restored (most of) the scene. - Cut non-Paramount logos at the opening. I don't care if Abrams's production company got a slice of the proceeds, for me Trek will always be a Paramount affair. - Cut song from end credits. Cut planets-animation portion of the end credits because the swooping camera upset my stomach the way a rollercoaster does. - Total # of changes: 100+. - Updated English subtitles.

Additional Notes:

Note: This fanedit uses no material from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I started sketching out this edit 5 years ago, before the excellent Pike series was announced, and gave the sub-title based on the fact that in this movie, we catch up with Kirk & crew during their five-year mission "to explore strange new worlds".

Special Thanks:

TM2YC for tremendously improving ST Into Darkness and showing that these Trek films have plenty of room for improvement.