// SPACE.COM — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
The next 'Star Trek' movie will be inspired by 'Crimson Tide', and 'Strange New Worlds' latest episode just showed them how to do it
The chain of command collides with questions of right and wrong in this space-set spin on the '90s submarine classic.
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During the recent press rounds for Apple TV's Ryan Reynolds/Kenneth Branagh vehicle "Mayday", writer/director duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley talked about their plans for the next "Star Trek" movie. As well as confirming their story will feature an all-new crew, they mentioned that the in-development project will be inspired by a pair of hit films from the '90s and '00s, both of which — coincidentally — feature Denzel Washington operating at very different ends of the moral spectrum.
"Training Day" is a gritty police drama, where Ethan Hawke's rookie finds himself under the ethically dubious wing of the Oscar-winning Washington's corrupt cop Alonzo Harris. "Crimson Tide", meanwhile, is a tense submarine thriller in which Washington's executive officer argues with Gene Hackman's captain about whether to launch some nuclear weapons. The stakes? Only kicking off the Third World War.
The latter feels particularly suited to a Starfleet bridge. The greatest "Star Trek" movie of all, "The Wrath of Khan", also borrowed heavily from submarine movies, with the USS Enterprise given a naval makeover and space battles that played out like games of underwater cat-and-mouse. And while "Crimson Tide" doesn't necessarily fit with Gene Roddenberry's vision of a conflict-free professional environment, it's easy to picture a seasoned starship captain locking horns with an idealistic first officer about the right course of action.
In fact, if Paramount executives are having doubts about the premise, they should check out the latest episode of "Strange New Worlds", which has just given the premise a dry run. Because to all intents and purposes, "Orders of Magnitude" is "'Crimson Tide' in space" — and it's every bit as thrilling as that sounds.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! ANYONE YET TO WATCH "ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE" SHOULD PROCEED WITH CAUTION TO AVOID VIOLATING TEMPORAL PRIME DIRECTIVES.
The chances of Captain Christopher Pike and first officer Una "Number One" Chin-Riley coming to blows on the bridge are slim, especially as Michael Burnham's mutiny on the USS Shenzhou (in the opening episode of "Star Trek: Discovery") will still be fresh in Starfleet minds. Writer Alan B McElroy instead makes the smart move of marooning Pike and Chin-Riley on an alien planet, forcibly detained by a group of Andorian mercenaries.
So when self-proclaimed "wily old war dog" Admiral Simon Reeger (guest star Joe Morton) comes on board to commandeer the Enterprise for the top-secret pursuit of a cloaked enemy vessel, it's ranking officer James T Kirk — making one of his implausibly frequent visits to his future home — who steps up to become the ship's temporary number one.
Reeger initially seems like the ideal commanding officer, friendly and considerate enough to learn his subordinates' names before he arrives. But — as happened with Captain Ramsey and Lt Commander Hunter in "Crimson Tide" — it quickly becomes clear that this working relationship with Kirk is going to be a fraught one.