“Have you ever read Milton, Captain?”
Star Trek Beyond is proceeding to the next phase of its filming, which includes shooting on location in Dubai much like the recent blockbusters Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Furious 7, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
At a recent press conference, the film’s producer Jeffery Chernov said the location was chosen for story reasons, “”Dubai represents the future of what the frontier would be like in our film, and is an excellent place to shoot the movie as well as a special opportunity for all of us. This is not just the third of three movies, but has a new, refreshing twist, and Dubai’s great visuals really fit the story.”
A new and refreshing twist. Could that involve a somewhat famous star system introduced in the original series episode “Space Seed?”
Why do you think the desert planet is Ceti Alpha VI?
Well, the reboot series hasn’t looked away from story elements present in the original series. After all, Star Trek Into Darkness was in a way an unofficial remake of Wrath of Khan. However, we’re more interested in what the planet means in the context of the greater Star Trek canon.
If you recall in “Space Seed,” Kirk leaves Khan and the crew of his ship, the Botany Bay, on Ceti Alpha V in order to build their own society. However, as we learn years later in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, another planet in the star system, Ceti Alpha VI, exploded and screwed up the orbits of other planets in the system. Ceti Alpha V was turned into a wasteland, which is one of several reasons Khan is feeling wrath toward Kirk in his film.
When the crew of the Reliant finds Ceti Alpha V years later, they think it’s Ceti Alpha VI… which leads us to believe the sixth planet of that system is an arid world.
The Enterprise is supposedly on their five year mission here. Does the timing work out?
We think it’s possible. According to Khan in the film, Ceti Alpha VI exploded “Six months after we were left here,” which means the Enterprise was still in the middle of its original five year mission when that happened.
The thing is… planets don’t just explode.
You think Idris Elba might be trying to destroy the planet?
That’s exactly what we think. Of course it’s all speculation, but the fact that Ceti Alpha VI just went and blew up never made much sense. Star Trek Beyond might actually be able to explain why. More importantly, it might actually provide some poetic redemption for the Enterprise crew. After all, they failed to stop the destruction of one desert planet. Perhaps they can redeem themselves by saving Ceti Alpha VI, and thus the life on other planets in the system.
