There is a moment in Matt Shakman's new film "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" that very strongly resembles a scene from Robert Wise's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
"First Steps" has its head tilted toward the heavens. The titular heroes received their powers from "cosmic rays," absorbed while they were on a space mission. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) are expecting their first child, and Reed is deathly afraid that the baby will be born with some kind of unusual genetic
problem. After all, what happens when two cosmically enhanced people reproduce? The film will later reveal that their child possesses an uncanny power called the Power Cosmic. Even babies are infused with star stuff.
In the universe of "First Steps," everything on Earth has been transformed into a utopia. Reed Richards, using his knowledge of space travel and extrapolating from his own superpowers, has allowed technological miracles to proliferate across the globe. Want has seemingly been eliminated, and the world's nations are united under Sue Storm's expert diplomacy. So far, the film already resembled "Star Trek" in many ways.
The greatest threat to humankind is Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a destructive, all-consuming deity from beyond the stars. The Fantastic Four (Pascal, Kirby, Jonathan Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach) have to confront Galactus on the edge of the galaxy where his planet-sized ship drifts ever closer to Earth. As the Fantastic Four's faster-than-light spacecraft approaches the enemy vessel, it is taken over by a deep red tractor beam and pulled into the massive ship's interior.
Trekkies may notice a definite similarity between this scene and the scenes of the U.S.S. Enterprise being pulled inside the massive, galaxy-sized space cloud V'Ger in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
Read more: The 10 Most Powerful Star Trek Ships, Ranked
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Borrows Images From Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Many people, even Trekkies, refer to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" as "the boring one." For the record, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is handily one of the best "Star Trek" movies. It's the most underrated at any rate. Robert Wise's film is (depending on the cut) about 132 minutes long, and the bulk of the film involves the U.S.S. Enterprise floating gently through the interior of a massive space machine. As further evidence of its sluggishness, many also like to point to the extended flyby sequence early in "Motion Picture," wherein audiences have to sit through four straight minutes of Kirk (William Shatner) and Scotty (James Doohan) gazing lovingly at the Enterprise.
Audiences should recall, however, that "Star Trek" was previously only seen on small screens with small budgets. "The Motion Picture" wanted the Enterprise to seem large and real, and the flyby sequence, in that context, is astonishing. It also, like "2001: A Space Odyssey," reached for the vastness of space in a way that few sci-fi films attempt. The largeness of V'Ger and its ultimate purpose make humanity feel small. We are but a tiny speck in the ocean of the cosmos.
"The Fantastic Four" doesn't reach that level of cosmic elevation, but it was careful to make Galactus feel that large and intimidating. The ship is menacing and gargantuan. It's almost too big to fit into one's imagination. The Fantastic Four enter Galactus' ship in the same fashion that the Enterprise encountered V'Ger. Shakman may have been paying a direct homage to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," especially since he almost directed a "Trek" movie himself, although he may have merely been trying to add a sense of terrifying scale to a cosmic dreadnought.
The Silver Surfer Evokes Ilia
Some Trekkies have also noted a parallel between the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) and Ilia (Persis Khambatta). Ilia, recall, was the Deltan support officer on the Enterprise who was kidnapped and killed by V'Ger. Well, she wasn't so much killed as mechanically altered to serve as a mediator between Admiral Kirk and V'Ger. After her alteration, Ilia spoke in a robotic voice, and sported an eerie blinking light on her throat. She served as V'Ger's herald.
It seems that the Silver Surfer has a similar story. In "First Steps," it's revealed that the Surfer was once a moral woman named Shalla-Bal, and that she offered to serve as Galactus' servant if he agreed to spare her planet from destruction. Galactus altered her body to be metallic and blessed her with the ability to scour the heavens at many thousands of times the speed of light. She served as an intermediary between Galactus and his potential victims.
V'Ger and Galactus are both all-powerful, ineffable space phenomenon whose motivations are initially unclear. Galactus will prove to be destructive, while V'Ger will prove to be curious, however, so they don't quite follow the same parallel.
"First Steps," however, will ultimately depict the title heroes pushing Galactus through a portal, ridding the solar system of his apocalyptic threat. It's resourceful humans, using their intelligence and their space-given powers to essentially eject God from the galaxy. "First Steps" is about 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 we never got to see Shakman actually tackle the "Star Trek" universe.
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