Crazy Star Trek Rumor

[RottingCorpse]

*seethe*

1. Because you read it?

2. Because I posted it?

3. Or because of what it says?

[nacho]

4. Because we're doubling up enemies! You're going to bring in Cumberbatch doing Khan -- arguably the best known and most dominant Star Trek baddie from the classic era (admittedly thanks only to Star Trek 2)  -- and then throw in the Klingons for good measure? Both being reintroduced and brand spanking new?

It's 90's Batman syndrome. Redoing Space Seed -- and maybe taking it to the next level -- is a movie in itself.

Now we get to fight the Klingons, too. Next the Penguin, Catwoman, Bookworm, and the Riddler will team up and take over a starship.

[RottingCorpse]

Now Simon Pegg is saying Khan *isn't* the villain.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9285164/How-Simon-Pegg-became-a-big-fish.html

This time, Pegg isn’t the only Brit in the world of Starfleet. Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as a villain. Pegg is full of praise for Cumberbatch’s baddy, whom he describes as “not just another disgruntled alien. It’s a really interesting… sort of… thing,” he squirms. “Obviously I can’t talk about it.” Given internet rumours that Cumberbatch has been cast as Kirk and Spock nemesis Khan, will this be a very different “wrath of Khan” from the 1982 film of the same name? “It’s not Khan,” replies Pegg, annoyed. “That’s a myth. Everyone’s saying it is, but it’s not.”

Is that misinformation from the famously secretive Abrams camp? “No, I think people just want to have a scoop. It annoys me – it’s beyond the point to just ferret around for spoilers all the time to try to be the first to break them,” says Pegg, a fanboy’s fanboy who wrote an autobiography called Nerd Do Well and who seems to have forgotten that part of the thrill of being a comic book/film/sci-fi fan is about getting as many details as possible in advance. “It just spoils the film,” he complains. “It masquerades as interest in the movie but really it’s just nosiness and impatience. You just want to say, ‘Oh f--- off! Wait for the film!’”

[nacho]

Good for him!

(And for us.)

[RottingCorpse]

Cumberbatch rumor du jour is that he's playing Gary Mitchell. Supposedly it was Karl Urban who accidentally let that detail slip in an interview

If true, my geek dials just ratcheted up to eleven.

[nacho]

That makes so much more sense.

And, Jesus, wouldn't he be a good evil-omnipotent Gary?

The problem? Gary was supposed to be Kirk's old cadet buddy, right? So they have to retcon the academy days.

And, also, that finale is something of a sitzkrieg, isn't it? Though that's easily dressed up, I suppose. Plus we get a money-saving planet-bound battle so that the third movie can be all about BSG meets Klingons.

[RottingCorpse]

The big philosophical question is why we as fans accept Mitchell but reject Khan. Is it because the original series never quite took advantage of any Gary Mitchell follow-up?

[nacho]

It's because Ricardo Montalban made the character iconic and strangely timeless.

Replacing the Enterprise crew is fine because we've watched them age, so saying that these are the "younger versions" is fine since we're 40 years removed from the actual younger versions (who, in all honesty, haven't quite stood the test of time).

Montalban did something with Khan. He transcended the usual Baddie of the Week and created this weird villain who possessed more gravitas than anybody he shared a scene with. This was such a stand-out performance that, yes, it essentially became the foundation for what we could arguably call an early reboot of the movie franchise. 

His return was a very different and very powerful Khan. He stole the entire fucking movie... He killed Spock!

Replacing Khan would be as painful as replacing Doc Brown and Marty from Back to the Future, rebooting Die Hard with a new John McClane, redoing Alien without Sigourney. Can you picture any of that? Sacrilege!

Gary Mitchell is a great character... But, come on, that's a shit-ass clunky episode with styrofoam rocks, over the top acting, and it just screams "I'm from the 1960's!!!"

Space Seed has clunky moments, and also dates itself horribly... But don't you think that early Khan was engaging and unique? They even took the daring step of portraying him as not entirely evil... There are so many complicated turns that episode takes. Spock's admiration of Khan, Kirk's decision to be merciful, Khan's acceptance of defeat and punishment. All of that played against these moments of stalking terror as Khan takes the ship.

So I went on Youtube to look for some of those great scenes where Khan defends himself (and tries to explain that he wasn't such a bad dictator) and, instead, I found this:


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7IdiFVm1MM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7IdiFVm1MM</a>

[nacho]

Looks like Mitchell is confirmed...and we're getting "new footage on youtube" after Comic-Con, according to Karl Urban.

[RottingCorpse]

Whatever. Fuck it. I'll wait for the movie.

Roberto Orci, screenwriter of the previous and next Star Trek movies, confirmed to TrekMovie.com: Benedict Cumberbatch will not play Gary Mitchell in the next Star Trek movie.

[nacho]

Haha! See, the Lost misdirection thing is fun when you have a TV show that's picking up again in a couple months. It's not so much fun when you have a single product that's a year away.

[RottingCorpse]

Now I'm angry again because it's Khan and people who make movies are stupid.

[nacho]

It just can't be Khan...

[RottingCorpse]

Alice Eve is apparently playing "a character we've seen before" and scuttlebutt (which has been so reliable of late *cough*) suggests she's playing Carol Marcus from the Wrath of Khan.

Or she'll be Nurse Chapel.

But who knows?

[nacho]

Or McGivers (since they'll have to do Space Seed not Wrath).