WMG / Star Trek Into Darkness

Kirk: Are you drunk?

Klingon forehead ridges

The Klingons on Qo'nos have forehead ridges because after the empire's initial attempt to destroy infected colonies failed (as seen in Enterprise) the Klingons quarantined the uninfected worlds by banning any travel to or from them. Any Klingon that left the system was assumed infected and could not return. Any offworlders landing on an uninfected world were aggressively attacked and destroyed to prevent possible contamination. The masks worn by the warriors were biohazard equipment, and as such were only removed once they confirmed the trespassers were not Klingon and therefore not carriers. The inability to move offworld also caused overpopulation forcing the settlement of previously uninhabited regions. It also created difficulties in controlling the empire since the high council and government were trapped on the home world, explaining the increase in aggression referred to by Admiral Marcus.

The Identity of the Antagonist (specifically Benedict Cumberbatch)

• Khan Noonien Singh, evidenced by visual references to "Wrath of Khan" in the trailers, the villain being described as a "one person weapon of mass destruction", has a couple of super soldiers under his command and waxes on about "vengeance". Confirmed.
• Gary Mitchell, fits the profile of "a threat from within Starfleet" as well as "one person weapon of mass destruction". Alice Eve's character could easily fit the role of Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.
  • The similarities are also there with the alleged "John Harrison" name distributed by the producers. Each name is generically English, has Two First Names, four letters in the first name and eight letters in the surname ...
  • Only Alice Eve is not Dehner, but is actually named as Dr. Carol Marcus. Unless that is also misdirection by the producers?
    • Jossed.
• Sybok, who abandoned the love portion of his cult after the destruction of his home world and is now a Dark Messiah who seeks vengeance on the federation for allowing his people to become homeless. Jossed.
• A small minority of fans on the internet think it's a Mirror-Universe Jean-Luc Picard because Benedict Cumberbatch's voice sounds a tad bit like Patrick Stewart.
  • That said, they have had an Evil Twin of Picard as the villain before, and it didn't end up too great.
• Garth of Izar, also from inside Starfleet, also with unusual powers, higher rank than Mitchell and probably smarter as well. His insanity also fits with statements that are completely ludicrous in view of the destruction of Vulcan.
• An original character, but one who blends elements of some of the above (i.e. Mitchell's Starfleet history and special powers, Khan's thirst for revenge, etc).
  • It seems this is the most likely explanation for now. The character is apparently called "John Harrison". Jossed
• Q, with a strange new bone to pick.Jossed
• Gul Dukat. Yes, THAT Gul Dukat. In this universe, he was born at a much earlier timepoint, and has already started working for the Pah'Wraiths. Either that, or he is the Gul Dukat from the main timeline who somehow ended up in the Mirror-Universe when he tries to escape his prison. As for why he looks human, he just did the same thing he did in the seventh season of DS9 to make himself look Bajoran.Jossed
• New character, but genetically engineered like Khan. That whole offer in the opening preview to save the comatose girl reminded me heavily of Julian Bashir's backstory from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine being cured of his childhood mental disability by his parents paying for illegal genetic engineering to treat him.
• Peter Weller, thanks to all the publicity misdirection surrounding Cumberbatch, will turn out to be a surprise Big Bad, possibly even forcing an Enemy Mine between the crew and "Harrison". Furthermore, Weller's previous Trek role featured him as a follower of Colonel Green, a near-contemporary of Khan's who was obsessed with genetic purity. The connection is murky, but there may yet be one. Confirmed, though he's not necessarily a bigger bad than Harrison.
• "John Harrison" is either the pseudonym of John Arrik Soong, son of the ancestor of Data's creator Noonien Soong, or John Harrison is an alternate-reality-accelerated prototype Soong-type android built by a Soong. Arrik Soong's background in genetic engineering would explain why Harrison claims to be able to help the ailing little girl, while his apparently superhuman abilities can be explained by his being either an android or an Augment as seen in Enterprise.
• Peter Weller is Khan; "John Harrison" is his son. The name John means "graced by God" - not much of a stretch to think that a genetically engineered being thinks of himself (and his offspring) as gods. And the name "Harrison" is a clue because it means "son of Harris (or Harry)."
• John Harrison is Harrison, TOS Starfleet officer. Whatever gave him his superhuman abilities in this timeline drove him mad, and may have physically altered him towards the Caucasian (it's not entirely clear the references to Harrison refer to the character on screen when the name was spoken).
• Nomad, angry at the man he believes to be his creator for programming him to feel pain.
• Porthos, transformed by Scotty's exprimental transporter and bent on revenge.
• 200 tribbles in a man suit.
• Of course, Sherlock Holmes. With Moriarty dead, and Watson went playing with dwarves, he got bored and decided to time travel, steal a spaceship and blow up London.
  • Or, as many fanfics have speculated, Sherlock and John and who knows how many other characters participated in an experiment to make them super human, but some fall out caused the world to turn on them and they were frozen in the torpedoes.
• John Harrison is...John Harrison. Nero was an original villain in the first reboot film, and the sequel will follow suit.
• Harrison is Khan, Mitchell and Garth. Explained here: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/debate-over-john-harrison-star-trek-darkness-consolidation-185100256.html
• Harrison is the robot son of Harry Mudd,who found the planet Mudd earlier in the new timeline. Detailed here: http://popculturezoo.com/2013/03/exclusive-major-spoilers-for-star-trek-into-darkness/

So Harrison is in fact Khan Noonien Singh. Good job people who guessed it.

Leonard Nimoy will provide the voice of the Enterprise computer

• He did the voice of the Excelsior's computer in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which was supposed to be the Enterprise's successor. Majel Barrett (bless her soul) won't be able to do it.

A Major Character Will Die

• Chekov. He's wearing a Red Shirt in the trailer. 'Nuff said. Jossed.
• Kirk. In a twist, Jim will be the one to sacrifice himself for the many. Confirmed. Kind of. He got better.
• Pike. Confirmed.
• Probably too obvious, but Spock. Jossed

Assuming that the new villain is an Augment, in this universe, the Klingons will be the ones who discover the Botany Bay

• In the most recent trailer, one can see what at first appear to be coffins. But if you look closely, the glass is fogged on them, so perhaps they are cryo-pods. Also, the Klingons seem to be playing a heavy role in the movie. So perhaps instead of the Federation discovering them, the Klingons happen to run into the ship. John Harrison's one-man war against Earth is all part of an elaborate plan to save them from the clutches of the Klingons, after all, "Is there anything you would not do for your family?"
  • This one goes both ways. Yes, those were cryo-pods, and yes, the villain was an augment, but the Klingons didn't discover them.

John Harrison will become Khan by the end of the film

Although the main bad guy appears to be a new character at this point, and not a returning bad guy from the original series, it's possible that he may become Khan at some point during the movie, possibly at the end. After accomplishing his vengeance, or being defeated and fleeing into deep space, Harrison decides to adopt a new name for himself, one that will strike terror and fear into all systems, and models himself after the historical Genghis Khan, one of the greatest conquerors who ever lived. But instead of seeking to conquer a continent, Harrison seeks to conquer entire planets. Thus, he takes the name of Khan, and sets off to terrorize the galaxy.

• Zig-Zagged. Harrison won't become Khan, Harrison is Khan Noonien Singh. Although how he became John Harrison will be left up to the film.

Brent Spiner will be in this movie

Not as Data or B4 but a Soong, I doubt Arik is still alive but that family runs on Identical Grandson.

• Jossed.

The Big Bad is a former member of Section 33.1

Rule of Cool

• What's section 33.1?
• Assuming you meant Section 31, confirmed.

The plot will take cues from DS9 episodes "For The Uniform"

And in the end Kirk will be forced to play the villain to get John Harrison to willingly surrender.

• Jossed. Spock and Uhura just beat the crap out of Harrison. Subdue him. Whatever.

Spock is going to save Kirk from certain death at some point

The part of the film shown in IMAX showings of The Hobbit ends with McCoy telling Kirk that if Kirk was the one facing certain death in the volcano, Spock would let him die. It seems reasonable that this is foreshadowing for a later event.

• Confirmed. Spock captures Harrison so they can use Harrison's delicious super blood as Applied Phlebotinum to cure Kirk of fatal radiation poisoning.

Pike's "There's greatness in you..." speech from the trailer isn't meant for Kirk, it's for Benedict's character

Just a random guess.

• Gee, you don't say ... this IS the WMG page after all.
• Jossed.

The villain is Gary Mitchell, but acts like Khan did.

The preview trailers shown so far have a clip of Cumberbatch's villain looking smug in what seems to be a command chair. What if, at some point, the villain (being a Starfleet officer) hijacks a starship as Khan did with the Reliant and goes after Kirk and the Enterprise? Hard to believe there wouldn't be a space battle in a Star Trek film — and it's not an alien threat but a human one — and such a situation could easily lead to the foreshadowed Heroic Sacrifice.

• There's no particular need for the villain to be Gary Mitchell, but his A God Am I personality and antagonistic attitude do fit the (apparent) bill. It doesn't make sense to create a total Expy in "John Harrison" when they have the freedom to use the real character in the rebooted/alternate timeline.
• Jossed, especially since Gary Mitchell was killed in one of the comics leading up to the film.

"Is there anything you would do for your family" refers to Khan's fellow genetically engineered supermen

In the theatrical trailer, the above line comes from a moment where Khan (assuming Mr. Harrison is/will become Khan) explains his actions to Kirk...he's committing all his acts of terror so as to save his fellow genetically engineered humans from being killed/put away forever. To him, they are the future of the human race, and, in a sense, his family, and he's not going to give them up without a fight.

• Harrison is already Khan. Although how and why Khan became Harrison are still up in the air.

• Confirmed. He's on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to rescue or else avenge his cryogenic crew.

The Enterprise crew are going to have to fight in The Thunderdome.

If they have to get John Harrison from a "war-zone world", you know that there's going to be one of these moments happening. And for extra awesome, the fight music that has played in many a Star Trek: The Original Series episode will be heard.

Garth of Izar is the threat within Starfleet,Mitchell is the Person of Mass destruction...and is on Kirk's side.

Garth takes over(using his weird powers), does crazy stuff, Kirk and crew go to where-ever they stashed Gary Mitchell to get him to help against Garth.Names may be changed for licensing reasons etc.

• Jossed. Harrison is both the threat and the One-Man Army, and is most definitely not on Kirk's side.
• No Gary Mitchell either, since he was killed in one of the comics leading up to the film.

Kirk's memory has been tampered with.

Thus explaining why he doesn't recongnize Gary Mitchell, and comments about stuff being "an illusion."And Kirk isn't the only one:Everyone in the Federation has had their memories of Vulcan and what happened to it erased!"John Harrison" is Gary Mitchell, has returned to free the Feddies from this Mind Control, and is actually the good guy.

• Jossed, Kirk's memory is just fine, it's his attitude that needs an adjustment.
• No Gary Mitchell either, since he was killed in one of the comics leading up to the film.

Khan will appear in this movie

As a sequel hook, setting him up as the Villain of #3

• Jossed. Khan is Harrison, making him the Big Bad of this film.

John Harrison is an agent of Section 31 and they screwed him over

It's been already established in their various appearances (DS9 Seasons 6 and 7, ENT Season 4 and the Section 31 novels, to name a few) that Section 31 is willing to cross whatever moral and ethical boundaries it needs to in order to achieve their goals. Since Harrison is portrayed as being superhuman (and we've already seen that the organization has no problem with genetically-engineered operatives), he'd fit right in, especially since it's been revealed he's Starfleet's "top agent".And what would happen if they finally crossed a line he couldn't? What if he snapped and vowed revenge not just on the Federation, but on the organization that carries out their dirtiest work? An organization officially condemned and unofficially condoned? Push aside what kind of physical damage and casualties Harrison could do. If the public knew about Section 31's activities, even in this alternate reality the public outrage would be enormous.

• Harrison's line from the first trailer can be viewed as supporting this: "You think your world is safe? It is an illusion. A comforting lie told to protect you."' Meaning that the world is only safe because men like Harrison are out at night doing bad things to bad people. He's justifying his actions by basically saying "You need me on that wall!"
• Confirmed. Section 31 actually has a sizable presence in the film with Peter Weller's Admiral Marcus being a high-ranking member of the organization, Khan (aka John Harrison) is employed as a field agent with the crew of the Botany Bay seemingly being held as incentive to cooperate and they have their own Dreadnought-class warship under development. Hell, Section 31's actions end up driving a decent amount of the plot of Into Darkness.

The large starship shown in the 3rd Trailer is a Sovereign Class Starship from the "future" timeline.

May or may not even be the Enterprise E.

• If you look at the profile, it's too tall, and even the Enterprise-E wasn't that dark on the hull. It could just as easily be the alternate-reality edition of an Excelsior-class starship, or something entirely new or custom-built.
• Jossed. It's a prototype Dreadnought-class warship made by section 31.
• It couldn't be a Sovereign-class. The Alternate Reality's Constitution-class, alone, is the size of the Sovereign from the Prime timeline due to the immense shift in priority for Starfleet after the destruction of the Kelvin.

The starship mentioned above is from the evil universe from "Mirror, Mirror".

• After all, it's big, black, and kind of intimidating. Not to mention the title of the movie is "Into Darkness". Which implies that at least one of the heroes will probably go Into the Dark dimension.
  • Jossed. The ship belongs to section 31, of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame.

Harrison isn't the real villain. Robert April is.

We know Admiral April, the canonical first captain of the Enterprise, is going to be in the movie, and the tie-in comic Countdown Into Darkness has him get into some very morally shady actions to promote Federation interests over those of the Klingon Empire. Harrison was one of April's "best agents" until he failed or got burned in some way, and a boatload of his crew died in the same way that Pike warns Kirk could happen to him if he doesn't learn humility. Now Harrison wants revenge on the admiralty. April, meanwhile, wants to use Kirk as his pawn to kill Harrison and cover up Starfleet's crimes before the public learns the truth.

• Wait — where is it "known" that Robert April is in the movie? I mean, speculation is all well and good, but what source says that? (Not that I would put such things past Abrams and his posse, but still.)

This film will effectively flip the entire structure of Wrath of Khan.

Instead of Khan obsessively pursuing Kirk, it's Kirk seeking out Harrison (Khan), despite repeated warnings. Instead of Khan imprisoning Kirk before Kirk comes howling back for a rematch, Kirk will imprison Harrison before Harrison gets a hold of the super-ship we see him using. Harrison will use Kirk's arrogance against him instead of the other way around, and last but not least, Kirk will be the one trapped in a room about to die while Spock stands in safety.

• Confirmed. Kirk pursues Khan for causing Pike's death, Khan allows himself to be imprisoned to manipulate Kirk into getting him to the Vengeance, and then Kirk sacrifices himself to repair the reactor with Spock watching on. Though of course, Kirk gets better.
  • KHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN! Sorry, I had to. :)

Admiral Marcus is the grandson of John Fredrick Paxton.

Both are played by Peter Weller, and both seem to share the same Well-Intentioned Extremist attitude and methods.

• While actors have played multiple roles through the Trek franchise (due to it being such a Long Runner), doing so has usually involved large amounts of facial prosthetics. The franchise is also very fond of the Identical Grandson trope, i.e. the Soong family and Colonel Worf.

By the end of the Film Khan will be exiled to Ceti Alpha V.

If the Universe demands Khan and Kirk be forever foes, then it could also demand Khan and the Botany Bay always live on Ceti Alpha V. Hopefully, if the Genesis Project still gets developed, they remember the damn star system this time around.

• You'd think Spock Prime would remind someone not to do that after he reminds someone not to let Romulus blow up this time.
  • Jossed. At the end of the movie he is put back into cryogenic suspension, along with the other 72 members of his crew.

Harrison will return for another film.

Not to say that he'll return straight away, but they've left the option open.

• It's already being talked about.

"Khan" in this movie is NOT Khan Noonien Singh

• Think about it. When "Khan" reveals his name to Kirk he literally says "My name is Khan". He never gives any other names, just his first name. The ONLY character to refer to him as "Khan Noonien Singh" is Spock Prime, and this is only when Quinto!Spock asks him if he ever met a man named Khan. This would explain a couple of things, most importantly why Khan is white in this movie, and not Indian, and possibly why he is more willing to work with Starfleet than the Khan Prime ever would have been. My personal theory is that Cumberbatch Khan is in fact one of Khan Prime's followers, with John Harrison perhaps being his "real" name. He worshipped Khan Prime as a God, and became his most devout follower, the change of name from John Harrison to Khan being indicative of this. Cumberbatch Khan describes his Harrison persona as "an illusion" because he sees his Khan persona to be his "true" self, only discovered through worship of the original Khan Noonien Singh. Quite what happened to Khan Noonien Singh is anybody's guess.... possibly he will be the Big Bad of the third movie?
• Alternatively, John is another dictator from the Eugenics wars, his empire was conquered by Khan and he was humiliated.
• Or the real Khan died or was ill, and told John, one of the augments on the Botany Bay (which have a number of passengers missing if you watch Space Seed), to carry on his legacy.
• This could explain the differences between the Prime version and this movie's version of the character. There's also the chance that Khan is an honorific, meant to designate whoever is woken up first. Maybe the guy McCoy thawed out was the real Noonien Singh?
• I thought the corpsicle in the torpedo opened by Carol and Bones looked a lot like Space Seed Khan (I only got a quick peek though, I'm probably wrong). And from the fact that Harrisononly ever refers to himself as Khan, not Khan Noonien Singh - maybe 'Khan' is a surname taken by the members of Khan's superpowered family, so technically all of them are Khan. Makes sense that a super-powered individual, who considers himself superior in every sense in comparison to the unworthy humans he interacts with, would not give away his first name, the personal name he uses with his family.
  • On a related note, I actually assumed that Khan was as fake a name as John Harrison. Since Khan is in this incarnation effectively a space Nazi (there's a line about him specifically committing genocide against "inferior beings") he probably pulled a Hitler and appropriated some warlike Indian name (note that "Khan" and "Singh" are in real life both surnames.)
  • Jossed by Word of God. It's really Khan Noonien Singh.

The fuel for the torpedoes wasn't the only thing that was classified. The torpedoes were Genesis Devices.

• It would explain why Dr Marcus has such an unhealthy interest in them. Spock, in the heat of the moment of the battle with the USS Vengeance, just emptied the torpedoes and put in conventional antimatter warheads. Which means there are 72 Weapons of Mass Destruction stuffed into a storage locker somewhere on the Enterprise. It's a good thing it didn't finish crashing into Earth.
  • By the end of the film, Khan ends up frozen in with them, bringing the total of WMD's in the site up to 73.
• This also explains how Admiral Marcus would get his war. A sneak attack on Qo'nos with a torpedo, being a conventional weapon, could conceivably be passed off as the actions of a rogue agent in the eyes of the cleverer men on the Klingon High Council who see it as a provocation for war they're not yet ready for. There's absolutely NO WAY they can do that if the torpedo annihilated the Klingon homeworld and terraformed it into a planet perfect for humans.
• Finally, this perfectly explains why Khan put his crew members into the torpedoes in the first place. A genesis device isn't a warhead, it causes many complex biochemical reactions that terraform a planet... and has the interesting side effect of bringing recently dead matter back to life. It suits Mr Harrison's plans perfectly too... imagine a verdant, unpopulated world for you and your 72 superhumans to colonise while your two biggest enemies engage in a genocidal war because of the forced terraforming of a planet they assume is now completely devoid of life. It would have been one of the most epic Gambit Pileups in history, which was perfectly planned in advance by Mr Harrison... and would have occurred if James Tiberius Kirk didn't have a conscience.

Section 31 did a surgical Race Lift on Khan so that nobody (like history experts, for example) would suspect he was anyone but "John Harrison"

• Seems like a logical way to avoid a Series Continuity Error.
  • In other words, he had plastic surgery?
    • ayup.
    • Nobody like history experts? Try Spock Prime.
    • He's probably the reason they gave him plastic surgery.
    • Would plastic surgery even ''work'' on a regenerating Augment?
  • The comic mini-series Star Trek: Khan confirms this.

The reason most Klingons wear helmets, and the ones that don't wear them look rather different from their appearance in the main Trek universe, is because the ones we see are still suffering from the Augment disease (from Enterprise).

• The Klingons look different because they've had cranial reconstructive surgery done on them. The ones who haven't had the surgery wear helmets to conceal their human-like faces.
  • Jossed, sorta. The one Klingon whose face we see, when he removes his helmet to talk with Uhura, has a classically Klingon-looking countenance, complete with piercings in his head ridge.
  • Shrugged, maybe? The Klingon's face looks (to me) suitably ambiguous so that it could easily be either natural, or ritualistic scarification, thus ignoring the annoying issue altogether.

Scotty is involved with Section 31 and/or Khan

• A minor thing, but throughout the film, he is prominently wearing a Starfleet Academy ring, of the same design that Khan had Mickey use to blow up the Kelvin Center in the beginning of the film. And he would have been well-placed to sabotage the engines, prior to forcing an incident with Kirk which forced him to resign his post.
  • Probably not, he doesn't recognize Khan when they meet on the Vengeance, and that he called the Officer who tried to arrest him "private security" instead of Section 31 indicates he's not even aware of it's existence. The ring is probably just a standard Starfleet insignia, and Scotty is wearing one to show that they're fairly common (which is why Khan turned Mickey's into a bomb, because the security personnel in the Section 31 building wouldn't think to check it).

John isn't actually who he says he is.

John Harrison isn't Khan, but rather one of his followers. He claimed to be him either to protect his leader, or he had ambitions to take over.

• Given that description, he could've really been Joaquim. Remember him from II?
  • I doubt it; Joaquim always seemed totally loyal to Khan - he was supposed to be the Starbuck to Khan's Captain Ahab.
    • If that's the case, then he's doing the former (adopting his identity to protect him and the others), rather than the latter (take over).
  • Seeing as the pods weren't destroyed and possibly saved as a Sequel Hook, here's what might happen: In Star Trek III, Benecio Del Toro will be revealed as Khan Noonien Singh, who will possibly be furious at the news that Harrison lied and adopted his first name. Knowing how powerful Harrison was, the tension will be ramped up even higher for the sequel...this may be a way to end the furor over the Race Lift from this film.
• It's actually remarkable how much Joachim from Wrath of Khan looks like Cumberbatch, although they sound nothing alike. That said, Harrison comes across more like Khan himself than a follower, given his lines and behavior.
• Jossed. Word of God has confirmed Harrison's identity as Khan.

John Harrison/Khan let Kirk smack him around on Qo'noS.

I saw Bullying a Dragon on the page, but I don't think Harrison was too offended by Kirk punching on him after his capture. He knew a normal Human couldn't hurt him, and had probably already planned to kill them regardless. So I suspect he just allowed Kirk to vent on him.

• I think this one is implied, especially with Khan's bored "Do you want to keep punching me over and over until your arm tires?" line in the brig.

The next movie will involve Spock's pon farr.

Since we seem to be heading a year into the future with each new movie, the next movie will be in 2261 - 7 years before "Amok Time" (pon farr occurs every seven years). I'm not sure if it will be enough to carry an entire movie, but it'll probably be at least the secondary plot.

• Interesting thought. Since Spock is Uhura's boyfriend, how would that effect his betrothal with T'Pring? I'd love to see instead of Spock having to fight Stonn, Uhura now has to fight T'pring.
• It's likely that Spock will be criticized by other Vulcans for loving a human rather than working to preserve his now endangered species. That would be interesting to see.
• Jossed. Spock's Pon Farr was dealt with in the After Darkness comics set after the movie.

Earth is more multi-cultural because Vulcan was destroyed.

As seen in Star Trek: Enterprise, Vulcan was putting enormous cultural pressure on Earth. In order to compete; a more "blended" political/cultural identity was adopted in the original timeline. (Other cultures weren't fully suppressed; rather, they were encouraged to be "social only.") However, with the planet being destroyed, their culture no longer has the same influence. With this; Earth society is entering into Star Fleet at its own pace; and there's more of a balance between "Federal" powers of the Federation/Star Fleet Earth; and State Powers (individual countries.)

Khan will be freed in a future film by the Augment who was removed from his pod to save Kirk.

• An Augment was pulled out of his cryo-pod so that Kirk could be placed in it till Khan was captured. When he was captured, Kirk was pulled out of the pod and revived, and presumably Khan was placed into that now empty pod. If the Augment that originally slept in that pod wasn't re-frozen anywhere, then I suspect he will wake up at some point and be the one to free Khan and the rest of his brothers and sisters.
  • I'd be surprised if this wasn't used.

Admiral Markus wasn't just part of section 31, he created it.

From what we've seen in DS9, Section 31 deals with threats to the entire federation. So far in this timeline, there haven't been any that we know of—the Klingons haven't been a problem (yet) and the Vulcans were friendly. But this one Admiral was worried that war with the Klingons would happen soon, and he also happened to find Khan, so he put the two together and created Section 31 to prepare for imminent war. Then he used Khan's escape to send Kirk to provoke the Klingons. After his defeat, Section 31 figured out that all agents needed to not appear in Starfleet uniforms, even if they are part of official Starfleet, hence their outfits in DS9.

• According to Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Section 31 has existed since the founding of the Federation, and we know for a fact that they were at least around during Enterprise. Marcus isn't old enough to have been involved in their creation.

Spock and Khan's minds were switched in their fist fight.

While I don't know if there's evidence the Vulcan Mind Meld can switch minds, it can move the Vulcan's mind into another body, at least sort of. If it's possible it would make Spock winning the fist fight make more sense. Spock would have switched to beat Khan using his super-strength against him then switch back, but Uhura showed up and Khan-in-Spock's-body took advantage of the confusion and has been posing as Spock since. Now Spock-in-Khan's-body is frozen somewhere and Khan-in-Spock's-body is just waiting for an opportunity to take revenge against Kirk and Starfleet.

• This would be kinda awesome for a plot of the next Star Trek movie.
• Jossed.

Bones injecting the Tribble with Khan's blood is what makes them super-breeders

OK, scarcely Earth shattering, but Bones injects a Tribble with Khan's blood as part of the reveal that Khan's blood can raise the dead. What if it has the effect of making them "Born pregnant"? It would explain why Bones has one lying around without regarding them as a menace when this movie happens prior to when Trouble with Tribbles was supposed to happen (admittedly, in the Prime Timeline).

• Well, it's not going to be a menace/breed explosively while it's dead, but I do like your theory.

The next movie in the franchise will feature a Genesis device

Engineered by Dr. Marcus, no less.

• Jossed.

Adm. Marcus Is John Fredrick Paxton

Deciding that trying to destroy Starfleet was futile, Paxton goes underground. After a few generations, he reemerges from his hiding hole, and enters Starfleet under an assumed identity.

Dr. Carol Marcus was one of Khan's crew

1) It's very odd how Dr. Marcus has a radically different accent from Admiral Marcus. There is another person with an English accent in this movie, however - Khan.2) Khan breaks her leg, but after a short time, it stops being a problem, and she is able to help McCoy get Kirk into a cryotube.3) When attempting to talk Admiral Marcus down, she specifically refers to him as the man who raised her.The theory: When Starfleet finds Botany Bay, Admiral Marcus's first plan is to unfreeze a child and raise her as his own, reasoning she'll be easier to control. He pushes her towards weapons research, but she's not as brilliant (or perhaps as brutal) as he had hoped, so believing war with the Klingons imminent, he makes a much bigger gamble to unfreeze Khan. Khan didn't recognize Dr. Marcus because of how she's aged in the intervening years.

• Except Marcus didn't find the Botany Bay until after the destruction of Vulcan, so only a few years would have actually passed since then.
  • Jossed. In the novelization, it's revealed that Carol's parents divorced when she was young, and she grew up with her mother in England (explaining her accent). It's also explained in a comic that there's technology around which heals broken bones quickly (in the comic, McCoy broke his arm, and it was good as new later in the day).

Q, or some other near-omnipotent being, needs Kirk to be Captain of the Enterprise for something in the near future

First there were all the suspicious coincidences in the previous film that led to Kirk getting the captain's chair a year early despite all the timeline changes. Now, only a day or two after he gets demoted down to first officer, his captain is killed, effectively promoting him back to Captain (and giving cause for it to be done formally). It seems like a deus ex machina - but, again, we know several beings in-universe who are effectively dei. At first, it seemed like just wanting history on course, but with the probability that Pike would have helped promote Kirk back to Captain eventually, probably in time for the original timeline age, it would seem that whatever it is that's forcing Q (or some other omnipotent being) to ensure Kirk is captain, its going to happen soon, not in the long term.

• Yes, because then maybe Q will reveal himself sooner in the timeline instead of waiting until TNG-era, and we can have Kirk and his crew versus Q. That would be fascinating.

Khan is actually Hitler, and his 'crew' are high-ranking Nazi officials.

It's revealed that Khan and his crew are around 300 years old, which puts them in the right area time-wise. Considering the Nazi's apparent obsession with weird science - Dr Josef Mengele, anyone? - it wouldn't be past them to somehow cryogenically freeze themselves. The Khan story was made up by Starfleet officials to stop people from getting too interested. I'm perfectly aware that this is completely, utterly insane, but isn't that what this page is for?

• Jossed, if only because Hitler was *never* that brilliant.

Khan Noonien Singh is Sherlock Holmes.

This was briefly mentioned in the WMGs on the villain's identity above, but bear with me: Khan was genetically engineered to be superintelligent - now, if the Eugenics Wars occurred in the 1990s, perhaps Khan, upon being deposed (in this timeline), had plastic surgery and fled to London, changing his name to Sherlock Holmes. There, he became bored with life and passed the time solving crimes with his augmented mind. This would explain how (Sherlock Spoiler) he was able to survive falling off a roof: his healing factor. Eventually, upon tiring of detective work, Khan rounded up his old crew and they piled into a Sleeper Ship, hoping to awaken in a more interesting time. Now, here's the Fridge Horror of my WMG: Mr. Spock, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, quotes Holmes and attributes it to "an ancestor." Now, this could mean Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but if Holmes actually existed, then Khan Noonien Singh is Spock's ancestor, and our favorite Vulcan has no idea! This also means that, in the alternate timeline, while Lieutenant Commander Data enjoyed playing Sherlock Holmes on the Holodeck (presumably transposed to the Victorian Era by the shaky historical records after World War III, and perhaps mistakenly credited to Doyle), he had no idea he was actually playing the part of the Enterprise's greatest nemesis!

• Watson refers to Holmes as "Spock" in one episode, although does not mention Star Trek as a fictional show; now, since Spock has been to the past on multiple occasions, perhaps the brilliant Sherlock Noonien Holmes learned of the eccentric fellow who swam in a whale tank and built a computer during World War II. Doing his best to deduce who he really was, Khan/Holmes told Watson his theories about "Spock" without ever actually knowing that the mysterious Vulcan from the past was actually his descendant.
  • You didn't work in Mycroft Holmes.
  • Presumably another Augment, one who didn't quite give up his power when the Eugenics Wars ended. He's probably in one of those pods, and when Sherlock/Khan refers to them as his "family" he means it literally.
  • In fanfic form.

The kid Kahn saves at the beginning is Julian Bashir

• Of British-South Asian decent.
• Sick to the point of hospitalization.
• Injected with the blood of an augment.
• Timeline matches up to the original.
  • Bashir was actually born about a century later (early/mid-24th instead of mid-23rd).
• Only major flaw: The child here is a girl (perhaps a side effect of the alternate universe).
  • And Bashir is an augment in the original timeline, so this wouldn't explain it.
• Also, the father's last name is given, and it's not Bashir, it's Harewood. But other than the kid being the wrong gender, in wrong century, with the wrong name, this makes perfect sense.
• Plus the reason why Bashir got augmented was a kid was not because he was "sick to the point of hospitalization", but because his parents felt he wasn't intelligent enough. And we actually meet Bashir's parents in Deep Space 9, and they appear to be Middle Eastern, not South Asian... As you would expect, since Bashir is an Arabic name and Julian himself has Middle Eastern features. So pretty much everything about this WMG is wrong.

The previous few movies have been part of a complex plan to create a Terran Empire.

So far, we've seen the destruction of Vulcan and the impending destruction of Romulus. That means that of the classical superpowers, only half (Humanity and the Klingons) are still in existence. What's more, it means that the Federation has essentially become dominated wholly by Humanity. While Admiral Marcus may be dead, his cause has already received a major boon, and it's likely his ideology is not alone in him. Coupled with the deaths of several moderates like Pike, this allows openings for the radicals. Over the course of the two movies and two timelines, we have seen all major obstacles to the emergence of a radical Terran Empire be addressed and at least heavily damaged, and the risk of hardliners seizing power is very real.

• And the Abramsverse becomes the Mirror Universe! (even though we saw the Mirror Universe in Enterprise because, er, time travel or something.)
  • Not nearly so likely. More like the Enterprise crew of the Abramsverse have to head off an attempt to create an Empire from within. Conveniently in time for a third movie.....

The next movie will be called "To bring light.

• Named after the motto of the USS Stargazer's dedication'To bring light into darkness.'
  • Jossed.

The next movie will feature Q, the Enterprise D crew, and the Borg.

• The movie opens with the Enterprise D encountering the Borg for the first time in this new timeline, and being completely destroyed, then it cuts to the opening credits. After the credits, Kirk and his crew encounter Q, who says the Q Continuum have told him to stop the events at the beginning of the movie, to prevent the Borg from taking over the whole galaxy. So, he takes them to the future, and together Kirk and Picard and their respective crews take on this new threat. Also, this movie would confirm that the Narada was in fact built from the remains of a Borg ship, taken by the Romulans after the Borg are completely destroyed in the original timeline, and what gets the Borg's attention in the new timeline is Starfleet secretly experimenting with their technology. As for the cast:
• Jean-Luc Picard: James McAvoy
• William Riker: Henry Cavill
• Data: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
  • Or perhaps this timeline's Data will be female. Juliana Tainer, Data's "mother", said that she'd wanted to make Data a girl.
• Beverly Crusher: Bryce Dallas Howard
• Deanna Troi: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
• Worf: Omar Sy
• Geordi LaForge: Craig Lamar Traylor
• Tasha Yar: Jennifer Lawrence
• Miles O'Brien: Danny McBride
• Ro Laren: Isabelle Fuhrman
• And, as Q: James Franco
  • Maybe not the next film. Give it a few more years.

The Nibirans have already been visited by other groups of Ancient Astronauts before.

• Their tribal body markings has very clean-cut polygons which resembles circuitry and mechanical devices, suggesting some kind of space suit. Also, their written language is VERY sophisticated comparing to other aspects of their civilization.
  • Which is a common enough occurence IRL. Many, many primitive cultures have languages far, far, more complex on a grammatical level than say, English. Native American languages and Australian Aboriginal languages are good examples. Advanced civilizations also tend to simplify their written language for the sake of efficiency.

Section 31's vendetta against the Klingons isn't just from going up against a competing super power, but from their betrayal during the Klingon Augment incident

• When the Klingons used and lied to S31 (but really, what were they expecting), that put Klingons on the top of S31's shit list, and for the last century has been building up their arsenal, political clout (in the prime time line they were illegal, but here they seem a legitimate part of Starfleet), and reasons to go after them.

Thomas Harewood, the guy who sacrifices himself at the beginning of the movie, is actually Mickey.

• Some time travel shenanigans with the Doctor have left him stranded in the 24th century. Since he isn't found on the databases of the era, he needs to assume the identity of a recently deceased guy named Thomas Harewood. His previous work experience with UNIT has given him a skill set that helps him land a job at Section 31. He falls in love and starts a family. Eventually the Doctor finds Mickey and offers to take him back to the 21st century, but since he now has a new life in the futures, he declines the offer.

The next film's Big Bad will be General Kor of the Klingon Empire.

• Since war with the Klingons was not averted in this film, and may in fact now be inevitable, the next film will be about preventing that war from occuring. The "face" for the Klingons and the film's main antagonist will be General Kor, the original Klingon villain from the TOS episode "Day of the Dove". In this era, Kor would still be at the height of his career as one of the Empire's premier warriors (and being essentially nobility doesn't hurt either) and if war with the Federation does come, it would be likely he'd be one of the people in charge of the invasion force. Plus it would just be a nice tip of the hat to the franchise's first-ever Klingon villain to get a chance as a movie antagonist. Kang and Koloth m.ay also have smaller roles as Kor's Co-Dragons.
• Jossed.

The next movie will be called Star Trek Into Boldness.

This movie ended with the phrase, "to boldly go where no man has gone before." Plus, bold letters are dark, so "boldness" is similar to "darkness"

• Jossed. The next movie will be titled Star Trek Beyond.

Picard (or old Spock) is behind the lack of standard-issue portable trans-warp beaming devices

Scotty "discovered" the transwarp equation in the last film. A standard-issue portable trans-warp beaming device would be VERY useful for a spacefaring civilization, so it makes no sense that section 31 would just confiscate it. However, if Picard somehow entered this timeline (which was hinted at... somewhere) he would to keep things similar to his timeline, so he could help avert any cataclysms. Thus, he would find a way to prevent the spread of standard-issue portable trans-warp beaming devices, which would cause the timelines to differ.

A young Ensign Data is serving aboard the Enterprise.

But not as we know him. In this timeline, Soong builds an android named Data much earlier, and instead of leaving him lifeless on a dead planet, Data is activated nearly a century earlier, and joins Starfleet as before, and becomes a crew member on a different Enterprise. Data is under Spock in the science department, and when Pike mentions that "Data says the volcano was active," or something like that. He does mean, literally, Data.

• This makes particular sense, as we can all but prove it with the magic of grammar; Data is plural. If Pike had meant that data had been collected indicating volcanic activity, he would have said "data say (or "a datum says") the volcano was active", not "data says". Say means that Data, in this context, is singular. As data is a plural word, the only way this works if if Data is someone's name. Data says the volcano was active.
  • In colloquial English, "Data" is treated as a collective noun, and increasingly "data" and "datum" are used interchangably.

If the Borg are the antagonist of a future movie, their queen will be Janeway-Prime. With spider legs.

It will never be explained how this is possible and no characters will recognize her, but as one of the franchise's greatest villains, she would put asses in seats.

• Or the main villain will be sort of a cross between the Borg Queen and Locutus of Borg; we will be introduced to a female captain who has a platonic friendship with Kirk, and whose ship is sent to investigate the disappearance of several bases along the edge of the neutral zone. They will be the first federation ship to encounter the Borg, and the captain will be assimilated by the collective, and lead them against the Federation in an assault mirroring Wolf 359.

The next film will be dedicated to Leonard Nimoy.

It has to be.

• Confirmed.

Nimoy's death will invoke the trope Real Life Writes the Plot.

There will be a scene in which the main characters attend Spock Prime's funeral. Quintos' Spock may be emotional and pondering the fact that a version of himself has just died. Maybe it will be stated that, prior to Spock's death, he achieved the goals he had set out to accomplish concerning the Romulans and the Vulcans fairly quickly in this timeline. It would be a nice tribute and acknowledgement that he has accomplished very much.

• Semi-Confirmed. Star Trek Beyond does feature Spock Kelvin reacting to Spock Prime's death (and it is very much Real Life Writes the Plot), but we don't see Spock Prime's funeral or hear anything about Vulcan-Romulan reconciliation.

Pike joined Starfleet in the exact same way Kirk did.

To whit: Pike was also once a hot-headed, intelligent, directionless firebrand who would end up either dead or in jail, and Marcus befriended him and got him to join Starfleet (and thus get himself together). The strong relationship between Pike and Marcus is, to this Tropette, implied by Marcus's referral to Pike as "Chris" - a very informal moment in a formal meeting - as well as "His death is on me." and "Who d'you think talked him into it?"

It may have also been part of the reason Pike took on Kirk - he saw much of his younger self in him, and wanted to change that before it got too late.

Khan's resurrection blood will become Forgotten Phlebotinum.

It's a complete story-breaker of a technology. We will never hear of it again. Even if it does pop up in some capacity, we certainly won't see any of the repercussions such a discovery should logically have on life in the Federation.

For pity's sake, it's already Forgotten Phlebotinum. The cure for death was discovered 200 years ago and forgotten!

• Confirmed. There's no mention of it (or any of the events of Into Darkness for that matter) in Star Trek Beyond.

Marcus had nothing to do with Pike joining Starfleet

He brings up the possibility in a transparent attempt to manipulate Kirk, and never actually says the answer to the question of who brought Pike into Starfleet was him. Not a trustworthy source of info.

Khan looks like a European in the movie "Into Darkness" because he's had his appearance changed

It would help to conceal his identity, after all one of the worst dictators in the history of the world would be pretty recognisable. Changing his face and skin colour could have been an extra precaution in case somebody got hold of an image of him.

As of Into Darkness the Enterprise A has been retconned into the circular ship on Marcus' desk.

There's a collection of models on Marcus' desk representing the progression to and of spaceflight. We can recognise all the ships until a one with 2 circular portions around a central pillar. First Contact indirectly suggests that there was no significant space flight before first contact as spaceships (even at least one or two could have survived the war) are not dispatched to investigate the Enterprise and there are no mention of any habitats on the moon or anywhere outside of Earth. Also it would be way cooler than the Enterprise A we got and answer the question "why did the Federation go with the human design and abandon their own ship layout?". The Answer could be that the current Federation ships are different from everybody's ship designs.

• Jossed. There's a list of what the ships were here: http://io9.com/a-close-up-look-at-the-star-trek-easter-egg-you-might-h-509076595

Star Trek XII will suck.

• Some people have joked that Galaxy Quest was the best Star Trek movie ever made. If we accept this theory, then Galaxy Quest was really Star Trek X, Nemesis was the 11th movie, and the 2009 film was 12th. Ergo, the even/odd curse plaguing the movies was never broken and the twelfth film, which is really the thirteenth, will suck.
  • Well, it did...
    • Your Mileage May Greatly Vary on that one.

"Khan" isn't a name.

It's a title. In Into Darkness, John Harrison/Khan is never referred to as Khan Noonien Singh. He only identifies himself as Khan, the only person referring to him by the full name being Old!Spock. It's obvious John Harrison does not originate from northern India, like the OS Khan, and even the technology of 2259 would not allow for plastic surgery that good. The only reasonable explanation is that the Khan seen in Into Darkness is not the same Khan who battled the Enterprise in the OS and the second movie, and instead is an epithet applied to prominent people during the Eugenics War. Confusion has resulted in many believing it to be Noonien Singh's name, similar to how many believe Mahatma to be Gandhi's first name, which he encouraged due to the level of fear it carried. The Khan in Into Darkness likely took the same name out of either arrogance, or believed it to be an inherited title for whoever was in charge.

As for what happened to the OS Khan, it's possible he either died when awakened (when he was awoken in Space Seed, it must be noted he coded and had to be broken out, something which may not have been done by a group not led by the impulsive Kirk) or was deemed too dangerous and swiftly dealt with in the only way Marcus would have approved of.

Admiral Marcus is a big fan of the Beatles

Explaining how he chose Khan's alias.

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