Lindelof On Harrison/Kirk Similarities

[Vic 17]

 

Star Trek into Darkness Co-Producer/Co-Writer Damon Lindelof spoke about his work on the movie and one of the topics was the mysterious John Harrison.

 

In this latest Trek movie, the events of Star Trek (2009) weigh heavily upon the Federation.

 

Star Trek is “the idea of keeping the vision of optimism, keeping the idea of mankind – and I include all genders in there – going where no person has gone before,” said Lindelof. “I think it’s the idea that we can all achieve the best of ourselves and, although there is a part of us that is less than great, that is inclined to bad behavior, or war-like behavior, or just violent behavior or dystopian thought processes, Trek is always about striving for utopia and optimism.

 

“But the world is complicated, and I think when you weigh what happened in the first movie, which is the destruction of Vulcan, it has cast a pallor over this entire Federation that needs to be reconciled. So I think, in a lot of ways, Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise is fighting for the soul of Starfleet in this movie. I think that’s one of the really powerful themes there.”

 

Harrison, the villain of the piece is a “distorted mirror image” of a protagonist,” said Lindelof. “John Harrison in many ways is a cautionary tale for what Kirk could potentially become if he allowed himself to go down a certain road.”

 

Although speculation about Harrison abounds, Lindelof firmly agrees with not letting details emerge before the film is released and before fans see the story themselves. “We’ve always prided ourselves on the fact that Kirk and Spock and the crew of the Enterprise, they are you,” he said. “They are the audience. So the audience shouldn’t know more than Kirk and Spock do when they buy their tickets to the movie. We’re trying to preserve that effect for them. That’s really why we’re keeping our mouths shut. And, ultimately, I feel like there’s been so much fanfare about ‘Who is Benedict playing?’ and ‘Is it such a character?’ that, if it’s not those things, that there’s just going to be a fundamental letdown or a sense of disappointment. So, like I said, we’re only keeping the secret to preserve the relationship that the audience has with the characters going into the story.”

 

 

 

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