5. Usurping Religions
Right from the start Into Darkness opens with an original series cliche, but one that factors in an important part of Kirk's instinctive personality, something which has always been a big part in his relationship with Spock, and is continually a major part of the film. Right up there with Kirk getting the girl and redshirts meeting a grizzly fate, was Kirk's ability to topple the religion of an alien civilization, and pretty much start his own. Admittedly these were often planets under the control of a malevolent alien or artificial intelligence with it's wires crossed (thus not technically breaking the Prime Directive that Starfleet is so fond of, as Kirk wasn't the first to interfere), and it has to be said that he didn't do a bad job of pointing them back in the right direction. Take the inhabitants of Gamma Trianguli VI for example. Yes Kirk destroys Vaal, the self-aware super computer who governs them, but by doing so allows them to not only build their own culture, but also "learn something about men and women, the way they're supposed to be", in the sly way that only the 1960's ladies-man of the USS Enterprise could. Unsurprisingly the episode was called The Apple, and is a prime example of the metaphorical storytelling that only science fiction could get away with at the time. As far as Into Darkness is concerned, although I have to admit I'm not quite sure what Kirk was doing with the Nibrian's sacred scroll in the first place, the fact it gets discarded to make way for the Enterprise is a great start to the film; an integral story idea that is hidden behind a tongue-in-cheek jab at Star Trek enjoyed by both Trekkies and Newbies alike, but it did set the precedent that too many other plot points followed...