‘Star Trek Beyond’ Has A Tribute To Justin Lin’s Father You Probably Didn’t Notice
Even though he wasn’t born until four years after the series ended its original run in 1969, directorJustin Lingrew up watching episodes ofStar Trek: The Original Series. Reruns would come on at 11pm on Channel 13 in Los Angeles, and from 10 years old until he was 18 years old, he and his family would watch Star Trek after they closed their fish and chips shop and had dinner. So it should come as no surprise that Justin Lin attributes his connection to Star Trek to the connection his family had with the show.
More specifically, the filmmaker believes his father lived vicariously throughStar Trekbecause of the sacrifices he made for that family. Lin explained that his father was a pilot back in Taiwan among plenty other things, but when he decided to give his family a shot at a better life in the United States, he didn’t get a chance to do some of the things he wanted to do back home. As Lin tellsDeadline, “He latched on toTrekbecause of the sense of exploration and discovery, and hope.” Therefore, there was only one way that Justin Lin felt he could honor his father inStar Trek Beyond, and while it’s an obvious tribute, you probably didn’t even notice.
Find out about theStar Trek Beyondtribute to Justin Lin’s father after the jump, but beware of somespoilers.
InStar Trek Beyond, the crew of the USS Enterprise finds themselves stranded on a planet in deep space when a race of aliens and their swarm of ships tears apart the Federation ship completely. It appears they have no way to get off the planet until Scott (Simon Pegg) meets an alien woman named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) who has a hidden ship she’s been trying to repair in order to get off the planet. It’s an abandoned Federation ship, and it’s the only chance they have of getting off the planet.
Do you remember the name of that ship? It’s called the USS Franklin, andTrek Corepoints out that the nameplate on the ship has the named situated in such a way that it’s a clear tribute to Justin Lin’s father, whose name isFrank Lin:
Notice that little extra space between Frank and Lin on the ship nameplate? That’s a nice touch. And funnily enough, this kind of tribute isn’t something new forStar Trek. Director J.J. Abrams always fits in his grandfather’s name Kelvin into his movies somehow, and the name of the Federation ship from the opening sequence of the movie is the USS Kelvin. That’s the ship under the command of Captain Kirk’s father, George Kirk, arole that will be reprisedby Chris Hemsworth forStar Trek 4.
