M+E Daily

LOS ANGELES — In the 10-year history of the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater — a cozy 190-seat venue, hidden in the bowels of the Griffith Observatory — no feature-length Hollywood film has ever been screened.

So it was fitting Oct. 24 that Paramount Pictures broke that streak, showing off “Star Trek Beyond” — a film dedicated to the theater’s namesake — just a week before it’s available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

“[For this screening] what better place to be in than the Leonard Nimoy Theater?” actor Simon Pegg (who co-wrote the script for the latest “Star Trek” entry, and stars as Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott) said in a pre-recorded video message to those attending the event.

Nimoy, who died in early 2015, wasn’t in the film, but Pegg and co-writer Doug Jung (“Banshee,” “Big Love”) made sure his iconic Spock character was given the right send off in the story. “Star Trek” fans will especially take note of nod to the original films at the end of the movie.

“It ended up being a nice emotional moment for Spock’s story,” Jung said at the event.

Jung — who also has a cameo in the film as the husband of franchise mainstay Hikaru Sulu — said that the Spock arc of the film helped keep with “not just the canon, but the spirit” of the “Star Trek” franchise, but added that he, Pegg and director Justin Lin (“Fast & Furious”) sought to make their film in the new “Star Trek” franchise their own.

“There are some liberties you can take … and we had the luxury of being the third one out,” Jung said. “There are a lot of things we don’t have to adhere to. “J.J.’s [Abrams] movies were platform movies. Could you imagine if we had to be the ones to start them on the five-year mission?”

Jung said that “Star Trek Beyond” challenges, in a way, the original vision of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, that humanity’s exploration of the universe the utopian, all-inclusive “Star Trek” of old. “[We wanted to] show the downfalls of it, what’s lost,” he added.

And, keeping with the theme of screening the film at an observatory, Jung noted that the science of “Beyond” is based in just that: science. Just check out the way the Enterprise looks traveling at fast-than-light warp speed. “’Star Trek’ is one of the few franchises that wears science on its sleeve,” he added.

The film is available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray combo packs, DVD and VOD Nov. 1 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.