There is a moment in the new film by Matt Shakman “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” which is very much like a scene of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” by Robert Wise.
“First step” with a tilted head towards the heavens. The titular heroes received their powers from “Rays Cosmic”, absorbed while they were on a space mission. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) await their first child, and Reed was fatally afraid that the baby was born with a kind of unusual genetic problem. After all, what happens when two improved cosmal people happen again? The film will later reveal that their child has a strange power called Power Cosmic. Even babies are infused with star stuff.
In the world of “first steps”, everything on earth has been transformed into utopia. Reed Richards, using his knowledge of space trips and extrapolating of his own superpowers, allowed technological miracles to proliferate around the world. Desire has apparently been eliminated and the nations of the world are united under the expert diplomacy of Sue Storm. So far, the film has already looked like “Star Trek” in many ways.
The greatest threat to humanity is Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a destructive and devouring deity beyond the stars. The Fantastic Four (Pascal, Kirby, Jonathan Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach) must face Galactus on the edge of the galaxy where his ship the size of a planet drifts more and more soil. While the spacecraft faster than the light of the four approaches the enemy ship, it is taken up by a beam of deep red tractor and pulled in the interior of the massive ship.
Trekkies can notice a definitive similarity between this scene and the scenes of the USS Enterprise drawn inside the cloud space Cloud the size of a galaxy in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps borrows Star Trek images: The Motion Picture
Many people, even trekks, refer to “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” like “The Boring One”. For the record, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is easily one of the best “Star Trek” films. It is the most underestimated anyway. Robert Wise’s film is (depending on the cup) about 132 minutes, and most of the film involves the USS company floating slowly inside a massive space machine. As an additional proof of its slowness, many also like to point out the overflow sequence extended at the start of the “film”, in which the public must pass through four consecutive minutes of Kirk (William Shatner) and Scotty (James Doohan) looking with love with the company.
The public should however remember that “Star Trek” was previously seen only on small screens with small budgets. “The film” wanted the company to seem great and real, and the overview sequence, in this context, is amazing. It is also, like “2001: A Space Odyssey”, reached the immensity of space in a way that few science fiction films are trying. The greatness of V’Ger and its ultimate objective mean that humanity feels small. We are just a small grain in the cosmos ocean.
“The Fantastic Four” does not reach this level of cosmic elevation, but he took care to ensure that Galactus feels as large and intimidating. The ship is threatening and gargantuan. It is almost too big to adapt to his imagination. The Fantastic Four enter the Galactus ship in the same way as the company met V’Ger. Shakman may have paid a direct tribute to “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, especially since he almost made a film “Trek” himself, although he may have simply tried to add a terrifying scale to a cosmic dreadnush.
The silver surfer evokes Ilia
Some trekks have also noted a parallel between the silver surfer (Julia Garner) and Ilia (Persis Khambatta). Ilia, a reminder, was Deltan’s support officer in the company who was kidnapped and killed by V’Ger. Well, it was not killed as much as mechanically modified to serve as a mediator between Admiral Kirk and V’Ger. After her modification, Ilia spoke in a robotic voice and sported a strange flashing light on her throat. She was Herald de V’ger.
It seems that the Silver Surfer has a similar story. In “First Steps”, he revealed that the surfer was once a moral woman named Shalla-Bal, and that she proposed to serve as a servant of galactus if he agreed to spare his planet for destruction. Galactus has changed his body to be metallic and blessed it with the ability to browse the heavens several thousand times the speed of light. It was intermediary between Galactus and its potential victims.
V’ger and Galactus are both all-powerful and ineffable of the space phenomenon whose motivations are initially clear. Galactus will prove to be destructive, while V’ger will be curious, so that they do not follow the same parallel.
The “first steps”, however, will finally represent the title of hero pushing Galactus through a portal, ridding the solar system of its apocalyptic threat. They are ingenious humans, using their intelligence and their powers given in space to essentially eject God from Galaxy. “First steps” concerns the secular triumph of human intuition. And that too is a central theme of “Star Trek”, a series that takes place in a post-religious world. It’s just a shame that we could never see Shakman attacking the “Star Trek” universe.
