<Sailesh Ghelani>

After what was an amazing reboot of the Star Trek franchise by JJ Abrams in 2009. The film was a critical and box office hit and certainly knocked the Star Fleet-issue boots off me! Sure they rejigged the whole timeline by blowing up Spock’s home world of Vulcan but that’s just so they can reinvent the wheel and start a whole new franchise of movies with the original (and dare I say it, most popular) series characters.

Chris Pine (Captain Kirk) and Zoe Saldana (Uhura) are afraid in Star Trek Into Darkness

Now the new film’s announcement video (like a teaser to the teaser trailer) and the recently released teaser trailer have caused quite a bit of conjecture in the Trek world as to what’s the movie all about, who is the villain and what’s the plot. We all know that BBC Sherlock Holmes series actor, the awesome Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing the baddie (on IMDB ‘rumoured’ Khan as credit) with a voice to stir fear in the hearts of stone sculptures. We see the Enterprise being crashed into what maybe the San Francisco Bay, lots of destruction and fear in the eyes of the Enterprise crew, sweeping vistas of the city and a ‘red forest’ as well as Kirk (Chris Pine), Bones (Karl Urban) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) jumping from various heights.

Check out the Announcement video:

People have speculated that the new villain (who mentions that he is ‘back’) may be Khan Noonian Singh from the Original Series and the second original feature film, The Wrath of Khan. He may also be Gary Mitchell, a former Star Fleet officer who was endowed with great power in the original series episode Where No Man Has Gone Before.

Check out the Teaser Trailer: 

While the announcement had a voiceover of the menacing villain played by Cumberbatch, this one starts off with a voiceover of Admiral Christopher Pike (who was supposed to be the captain in the Original Series and appeared in the pilot episode) played by Bruce Greenwood in the Star Trek film in 2009. He’s admonishing Captain Kirk for his arrogance and lack of humility, which he warns will lead to the crew’s downfall. Coming-of-age film anyone?

Benedict Cumberbatch as…? in Star Trek Into Darkness

We also see a new character (who is seen screaming in the announcement video) played by Alice Eve and listed on IMDB as Dr Carol Marcus. Now she was one of Kirk’s love interests and appeared in the original series movies Wrath of Khan and Search For Spock as the designer of the Genesis device. This lends credence to reports that the villain will indeed be Khan. Well, hopefully it won’t all be that predictable.

But… but wait, all this may just be a way to throw you off course and think that it is Khan. Alice Eve may well turn out to be Dr Elizabeth Dehner from the same episode where Gary Mitchell gets his super powers and she too is converted into a demi god.

Check out the pics and specs below:

Benedict Cumberbatch in the brig with Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Chris Pine (Kirk) in Star Trek Into Darkness

What’s this? A scene that looks like the Spock death scene from Wrath of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness

Check out Cumberbatch’s collar design here and then below, Khan’s from Wrath of Khan

Looks similar in pattern to the one above but I’m still not entirely convinced

Alice Eve supposedly playing Dr Carol Marcus but…

…doesn’t she look like character Dr Elizabeth Dehner who joins Gary Mitchell in the Where No Man Has Gone Before episode

 Check out the LATEST Trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness:

And new information says that Cumberbatch will be playing a ‘terrorist’ called John Harrison (well we’ll see how things play out). Watch the interview with him and Alice Eve here: 

The makers of Star Trek Into Darkness (releases May 17, 2013) have done a pretty nice job of creating an illusion of mystery about the film. Who do you think the villain is?