According to several sources, insiders have confirmed that Benedict Cumberbatch's character in J.J. Abrams' next Star Trek movie will be who everyone expected (but hoped it wouldn't) be: Khan Noonien Singh.

So it looks like we'll be seeing a pretty by-the-numbers space action movie with a singular villain.

This is disappointing for several reasons.

There's two ways to reboot something:

1. Retell same stories with modernized style, effects. i.e. Casino Royale.
2. Completely throw everything prior out and start from scratch. i.e. Batman Begins.

Star Trek under Abrams is trying to walk a fine line between the two. They tried retaining the original history by setting the reboot in a time-travel-induced alternate timeline (which was actually alternate before the time travel happened anyway). But they also wanted to separate themselves from the original canon as much as possible, to the extent that they fundamentally altered the development of the primary characters. Kirk grew up as an angsty delinquent without a role model father, and Spock had his home planet blown up and his species put on the verge of extinction. So they're not really the same characters, but they are shoe-horned into becoming the same characters because apparently Abrams favors “nature” almost exclusively over “nurture”. Oh, and Spock Prime told them how things are supposed to happen. So much for the Temporal Prime Directive. Or is it the regular Prime Directive since it's a parallel universe that is already developing independently?

Today celebrates the 24th anniversary of the premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

To commemorate the occasion, CBS/Paramount today released the following teaser video:

When Star Trek was rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009 and brought the franchise into mainstream popularity, it was a bitter-sweet moment for many long-time fans. On the one hand, Abrams had made Star Trek "cool" for the first time in the franchise's history and ensured that Star Trek would continue to live on since it's future following the cancelation of Star Trek: Enterprise and the bombing of Star Trek: Nemesis was uncertain. On the other hand, the movie was a reset that took place in a new Star Trek continuity that essentially erased the more than 40 years of Star Trek history. Long-time fans suddenly had to deal with the possibility that the timeline (as it originally existed) was over. There would likely never be any further development of the original Star Trek continuity, since all future projects would probably be based on Abrams' reboot.

Star Trek, as it originally existed, seemed dead.

This meant that the only likely outlets for extension of the original continuity would come from novels, comic books, and the craptacular Star Trek Online MMORPG computer game. And since Star Trek canon generally only includes official, on-screen material, none of those sources would be considered truly canonical.

This would mean that many Trek fans might have some very serious questions about the future of their beloved series go unanswered...

When I saw the movie on opening night, I loved it. It was fun. It was fast. The opening scene was gripping and intense. The visuals were flashy. It had plenty of humor. And Karl Urban as Leonard McCoy ROCKED!

Over time, though, my nitpicky cynicism started to kick in, and started to seem more and more like a Hollywood bastardization. It started with the observation (on opening night) that the crew of the Kelvin had the Enterprise "delta shield" flight patches on their tunics, instead of the ship-specific flight patches that were in use during the original series and before.

Really, who are these people?

Eventually, I started to be bothered by the insistence that all the characters have to turn out exactly like their original series counterparts, despite having their origins and life histories significantly changed. Apparently, in the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek universe, a person's "destiny" is a complete matter of "nature" rather than "nurture".

Today marks the anniversary of quite a few historical events of significance.

Today, the American Civil War turns 150 years old, as we observe the anniversary of the April 12, 1861 attack by Confederate troops of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. Although a grim occasion on its own right, this attack does have some silver lining, as it began the conflict that would eventually set in motion this nation's steps towards racial equality.

50 years ago today, on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space and orbit the Earth.

Today is also the 30th anniversary of the 1981 maiden voyage of the space shuttle Columbia, the world's first reusable spacecraft. It was a momentous and cheerful day for space exploration. The shuttle itself met a tragic end, when it disintegrated on re-entry during a mission, killing its seven crew and passengers over 20 years later. I'd like to take this moment to thank the brave men and women of NASA for the heroic work they do expanding the horizons of human knowledge and experience, and to offer my sincerest condolences to the friends and family of all such heroes who did not return.