Star Trek - Into Darkness

This new Star Trek cycle has a strange relationship with continuity. For the most part Star Trek - Into Darkness uses what came before as a vague talking point, remixing Gene Roddenberry's philosophical space adventures into a breezy incident deluge. Star Trek 2 spends two-thirds of its running time building a pop-art elsewhere tale centred around Benedict Cumberbatch and his piledriver punches. John Harrison starts out as a renegade star fleet operative that forces the Enterprise crew to re-examine where their allegiances lie.

Although played like a twist, Harrison's badly kept secret identity should matter less in this universe, after all, aren't we dealing with a blank slate? Surely we're dealing with a meta flourish designed to amp up an attentive audience for a co-operation themed finale? Why watch Kirk and Khan butting heads when you can see them team up to trash RoboCop's ludicrous stealth starship? Unfortunately for the final act Star Trek 2 pulls the rug. Zachary Quinto's Spock rings up Leonard Nimoy for some message board spoilers, then the film junks any new ideas to replay Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan beats with embedded cop-outs.