Star Trek Into Darkness: 5 Pros & Cons Of Benedict Cumberbatch As Khan
3. Faithful To The Original Timeline
Is it not fitting that Khan appears in the second of the new Star Trek films? There are several reasons why.
In the 2009 Star Trek reboot, the planet Vulcan is destroyed and Spock Prime shares the screen with Spock. Director J.J. Abrams nudged the film away from canon just enough to allow the reboot to explore new territory. Using a methodology that only science fiction can, 2009s Star Trek preserves the canon of the original television and film series while allowing for the fact that the young enterprise crew is off on a similar but slightly different path than the crew of the original series. Having Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime more or less state this placated the Star Trek fan base. It therefore makes perfect sense that the second film in the Star Trek reboot franchise follows a path similar to that of the original film series by making Khan the films villain. And given the logic of similar but separate timelines, having plot elements from Star Trek II cross over into Star Trek Into Darkness makes for some interesting moments. The climactic scene in the radiation chamber and the delivery of the line Khaaaaaaan! remain, but are rendered with some bold differences here.