The official Star Trek Into Darkness* synopsis is making the rounds this morning. It finally gives some context into the story but, as it pertains to the villain, the lead-up to this film is as vague as ever:
In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
The mystery of who the villain is may have already been solved however, as Karl Urban let slip that Benedict Cumberbatch would be playing Gary Mitchell in the film. Of course Urban could have been taking a piss, but I think the synopsis goes a long way in cementing Cumberbatch as Mitchell.
Why? Let’s get nerdy.
“An unstoppable force of terror,” fits Mitchell to a tee. Mitchell was a Starfleet Lieutenant Commander on TOS and close buddies with Kirk from their time in the Academy together. Ol’ Gary appeared first on the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which was actually Trek’s second pilot after the first one got rejected. But it was the third episode to air after the show was greenlit (head explodes).
When Mitchell is aboard Enterprise he gets zapped with something called the Galactic Barrier and inherits god-like powers. He turns into a bit of dick about it though, and tries to eviscerate Kirk and his crew. Kirk’s all like “Settle down, bro,” and Mitchell’s all “Hell naw, I’m a kill errbody.” So Kirk vanquishes him. End scene.
It’s actually one of the better episodes of Trek, and I’d be very interested to see how it plays out.
*I might be in the minority on this, but I do love that title.