Star Trek Out From The Darkness

Back in 2009, Paramount Pictures rebooted their epic franchise into new films based off their original Star Trek TV series. They did everything the right way. Securing J.J. Abrams to recreate it and carefully selected a talented cast, but it wasn't without risk. The idea of it being a Star Trek origin story was an idea that didn't sit well with fans and in the era of the Superhero Origin story... did everything have to be "When Kirkie met Spockie"? Abrams found a way to carefully balance an new origin as well as pay tribute to the original series. He talked Leonard Nemoy into reprising his role as Spock and recruited writers from his TV series Fringe, who have returned to pen Star Trek Into Darkness.

The first installment of the series, Abrams casting played very well into the finished product. Some actors chose to make their characters their own (Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and John Cho) while others chose to make their characters an homage to their predecessors (Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin). There was always a fresh and familiar feeling about this series. Nevermind that Abrams directed the film's action sequences well, but he also brought characters from the original series like Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter's character from the Pilot episode). This sequel reprises other characters like Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As long as Chris Pine never yells out, "KHAN!" this movie should be successful.

Back to the cast, Pine's James T. Kirk never conjures up imagery of William Shatner- like Quinto's Spock or Urban's McCoy- but that's a positive for both men that play the Enterprise's Captain. No need to make a comparison on who did better. Saldana's Uhura was more than just a background character- even with the switch to Spock as the love interest. Rumors has her role reduce in Darkness, but how much so?

Well, J.J. Abrams' has set a high bar after the well done first film and with Abrams splitting time between Star Trek and Star Wars, one has to wonder if one series will affect the other. Perhaps as audiences enter Darkness, so will the series. In the meantime, there's a sequel to enjoy next weekend.