We went to the movies yesterday. Prior to departure we had to decide which movie to go see. On Saturday, Robin had volunteered that she still wanted to go see The Great Gatsby, if for no other reason than to hear Jack White’s rendition of The Edge’s song, Love is Blindness. Here is the bridge in that song:

A little death Without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
that almost makes sense

If you haven’t heard Jack’s rendition of it – available on You Tube, you are missing an extraordinary cover. You can feel the emotion that The Edge was feeling when he wrote the song, apparently a reflection of the breakup with his first wife. To say Jack’s version contains raw emotion is to do it an injustice. It really is a primal scream.

Back to the movie: because Emily was with us, we decided to go see Star Trek: Into Darkness. The ‘hero’ (anti-hero, really) John Harrison/Khan was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, a guy with a fabulous name and a history of great performances on Masterpiece Theatre. Not to be missed is his Sherlock: a modern day version of the Conan-Doyle classic. He and Martin Freeman – lately of Love, Actually and more famously Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – have great chemistry together. The series is riveting (to quote Sheriff Bart) and two seasons are now available on Netflix. The third season is in production, but delayed because of Benedict’s star turn in the Star Trek franchise. God that all sounds like a cheesy ET report, doesn’t it? Pardon me whilst I put a finger down my throat for a second.

There – all better. Back to my point. Star Trek: Into Darkness.

This is the second of the ‘prequels’ with Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine playing the young Spock and Kirk characters. The first of their efforts was good enough to justify a second, and this one does not disappoint. But about a third of the way through, I began to get it: kind of like Gen-X “Let Tra Chore”. This isn’t just another shoot-em-up in outer space flick: this is MET TA PHOR I CAL…Draw out that word and repeat it three times, and you’ll get a sense of what’s goin’ down here.

There was very little edginess to the plot, so I’ll just tell you what it is: this guy John Harrison, no really Khan, John Harrison is just his alias, starts shooting up Star Trek heroes from previous episodes along with a few other extras. Who is this guy and why is he doing these mean things? Kirk and Spock are sent to kill him. Period. Bad dude..kill him with 72 photon torpedoes.

They go to the Klingon “Homeland” (first clue to the METAPHOR) where Harrison/Khan is hiding. The S/T crew are about to be killed by Klingons when Harrison/Khan shoots all of those guys who don’t look nearly enough like Mr. Warf. When Kirk goes to ‘arrest’ him because his other do-gooder pals are paling at the idea of being executioners (second clue to the METAPHOR) Harrison/Khan asks how many photon torpedoes are on the ship. When Kirk tells him 72, the bad dude immediately surrenders. Um hm…

Aw, gee – no more plot, just cut to the chase with the point. The Metaphor: we are being taken to task for having responded to 9/11 by doing all the things we’ve done, are doing and are telling people we will continue to do because it’s justified. The victims have become the hunters. Seems John Harrison was a guy in suspended animation from another time, awakened to help the Federation get a pre-emptive jump on the Klingons to destroy them. The 72 photon torpedoes each contain one of Khan’s crew members, essentially being held hostage to ensure Khan does what he is told. When Kirk answered him with the number 72, Khan knew his crew was still alive in those torpedoes, on the Enterprise. So he sacrifices himself to save them.

Everybody’s known since the days of Nimoy and Shatner that those Klingons are really terrorists determined to kill all us white folk. But in the plethora of previous Star Trek episodes, the Federation never crossed the pre-emptive strike line before. They’ve always played defense, and at the end of the episode the world was safe again – at least until those dastardly Klingons dreamt up a new strategy to do us harm. But see Mr. Warf’s color? I noticed these Klingons got lightened up – in fact I said something about it during the movie, but Emily told me in no uncertain terms that there was no talking in movies, so any further comments had to be kept to myself. But you can’t tell me this “lightening up” of the Klingon characters was a subconscious act on the screenwriter’s part. This was likely a combination of political correctness and their attempt at subtlety. Sorry, buddies, but I’m onto ya!

So in the end, it’s always gonna be about – the drones. Yes, I’ve said it: the God Damned Drones. As I have stated before, and I will say it again: the drones will be the downfall of all we know and hold dear. Kirk makes a statement at the end of the movie. He says it’s easy to lose sight of what’s right and attempt to take revenge on those that attack us. But that’s not who we are. Oh yeah? Apparently it is who we are and who we intend to continue to be.

So back to those bridge lyrics – you knew I’d get back around to that sooner or later, didn’t you?

A little death Without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
that almost makes sense

Sounds like God Damned drone strikes to me.