New Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer – I Peed A Little

The new Star Trek international trailer is out and it’s chock full of everything that I’ve been dying to see: more Benedict Cumberbatch, information about the plot, Benedict Cumberbatch, snarky Spock, badass Kirk, a highly involved and BAMFy Uhura, a loyal and concerned Bones, Benedict Cumberbatch, and just enough special effects to justify the cost of an IMAX ticket.  I already bought my ticket for the advanced screening so I’ve already spent more than what I’d reasonably spend on a ticket for another movie, but it’s good to see that I’ll be in for something on par with Tron in the visual effects department.  Sadly, lens flare still appears to be a big part of the special effects, but hey, you win some you lose some.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhz4A5BCMAA]

This is the first trailer where we can start piecing together parts of the plot.  In the first movie (or Star Trek XI, to be precise) James T Kirk is given command of the USS Enterprise even though he is fresh out of the academy and has very little practical experience.  But being a leader is in his blood and he gains loyalty from his crew very rapidly through his crazy-yet-heroic actions.  Now it appears that the senior command staff of the Starfleet are being assassinated by one pissed off (and incredibly attractive) bad guy.  “Your commanders have committed a crime I cannot forgive,” he says and then shit hits the fan.  EXPLOSIONS!  Red lighting which clearly means BAD STUFF IS HAPPENING! Oh no even the Vulcan looks scared! That can’t be good.  It’s all very exciting.

Before we go any further with this, I have a confession to make.  I haven’t seen all of TOS.  I know, I know!  But my goal is to watch all of TOS including the movies before May 15th and so far I’m making great progress.  Last night I watched The Trouble with Tribbles and it was just as amazing as everyone said it’d be.  But one thing that the show has given me that the first movie didn’t was a better understanding of Kirk and Spock’s relationship.  Now I know a bit of what that “emotional transference” between Kirk and the original Spock (bless Nimoy, bless him!) might have entailed.  And it looks like we get some more camaraderie and playful sniping in this film.

There’s an argument about whether their ship will fit between the rocks ends with Kirk cockily telling Spock, “I told you we’d fit.”

“I’m not sure that that qualifies,” Spock replies, deadpan in a way that Vulcans excel at.

More of that, please?  I don’t necessarily feel that the first movie lacked the Kirk and Spock relationship that I’ve grown to enjoy, but it was different.  They started off as antagonists, but by the end there was definitely respect.  But despite that respect, Spock is sarcastic and doesn’t hesitate to point things out to the Captain when he needs to.  This is the relationship that has pulled me into TOS so hard  (and yet, my favorite character in TOS is McCoy, but maybe that’s just because of how awesome DeForest Kelley, I don’t know man).  Episodes with meaningful interaction between those two tend to be my favorite and I can’t wait for that chemistry, or something similar to start to surface in this series of films.

And finally…  Benedict Cumberbatch.  Benedict Cumberbatch.  Benedict Cumberbatch.  I’m not going to lie, here.  I’m a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fangirl.  A “Cumberbitch” if you will.  Back when it was announced that he’d be in this movie I got super excited and started counting down the days.  Then I started watching TOS because the date just wasn’t coming fast enough and I needed something to fill in the void.  Now I’m on a one way path to Trekkie-ville and it’s all his fault and his movie in the franchise hasn’t even come out yet.  Still, the blame lies entirely with him.

I first fell in love with his acting in Sherlock.  I made it a point to start watching/listening some of his other work and was blown away by his acting ability.  And I mean, come on, he is a very beautiful fellow, too, so there’s that.  And now he’s doing something completely different from anything I’ve seen him to so far.  Judging by the trailer, he does villain well.  Very well.

Who’s he playing, you might ask?  Well, at this point we’ve been given the name John Harrison, but people are doubtful.  People initially thought he was Khan, but the creators seemed to try to squash that rumor quickly.  Some people still think there’s a connection to Khan, but not many think he’s actually Khan, anymore.  There was also speculation that he was playing Gary Mitchell from the first season of TOS (hey! I’ve seen that one! Yay!), but that theory lost steam.  It’s unlikely that we’ll know who the villain is before the advanced screenings on May 15th, but whoever the Cumbervillain actually is, Cumberbatch is knocking it out of the park.

So yes, this trailer excited me quite a bit.  For many reasons.  How I managed the write this much and only have a few instances of CAPS LOCK is beyond me.  The fact that this movie is still two months away is just criminal.  Thankfully I have a season and a half of TOS and a bunch of movies to watch.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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