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Star Trek Into Darkness: A cracking crew, brilliant baddie, storming script and virtuoso visuals prove that Star Trek knows how... to boldly grow

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Star Trek Into DarknessCert: 12A,    Time: 2hrs 15mins                                                           5/5

It was way back in 1966, some two-thirds of a perfectly decent lifetime ago, that the first series of Star Trek aired, with Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise setting off on what was only ever supposed to be a five-year mission.

So for the franchise still to be capable of producing films as good as Star Trek Into Darkness is hugely impressive.

For this turns out to be the picture when the latest Enterprise line-up – Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr McCoy and Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura – come properly of age.

Chris Pine goes a long way to laying the lingering ghost of William Shatner - the original Kirk, of course - for good here, with a charismatic and energetic performance of real presence

They were good in the first JJ Abrams-directed reboot of the franchise in 2009, but they’re even better here. Heck, even Simon Pegg as Scotty is better – and far less annoying – than he was first time around.

This is a film of two eternal opposites and one exquisite balancing act.

The former are pretty familiar – it’s good versus evil, as these sorts of epic adventure always are, and also, as any Trekkie will tell you, the instinctive emotion of Kirk versus the cold logic of Spock.

From the early moment when Kirk saves Spock’s life and the latter can’t even bring himself to say thank you because Kirk’s actions were so illogical, this battle of wills is particularly cleverly explored here. But it is the balancing act that is even more impressive.

Faced with juggling the normally conflicting demands of visual effects and script, Abrams, best known as the creator of Lost and the director of Super 8, gets the balance between them almost perfectly – and expertly – spot on.

From the spectacular moment the Enterprise rises from an alien seabed (‘Have you any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a starship at the bottom of an ocean?’ rages Scotty) we know the visual effects team are at the top of their game.

Star Trek Into Darkness finally gives the talented Benedict Cumberbatch the chance to show Hollywood what he can do on the big screen, and, boy, does he seize it with both hands

And over the next couple of hours we discover that the three-man writing team are at the top of theirs, too. Their screenplay is beautifully structured, very clever, and funny too.

It has pace, excitement and a genuine freshness, which is remarkable given how long the franchise has been around.

True, it’s not always easy keeping up with what, at times, is a challenging story, but the pieces do eventually all fall into place, ensuring that Into Darkness not only works as a stand-alone film but also fits very satisfyingly into the entire Star Trek canon.

To say much more would be to spoil the surprises, so let me just say that old friends return .  .  . and old enemies too.

After an opening that feels like a colour-drenched homage to the original television series but is much cleverer than it looks, the story proper gets under way.

The headstrong young Kirk has been demoted (‘You were supposed to survey the planet, not alter its destiny,’ roars his Starfleet mentor, Admiral Pike), but he gets the chance for quick redemption when Starfleet itself comes under attack.

Over the next couple of hours we discover that the three-man writing team are at the top of their game. Their screenplay is beautifully structured, very clever, and funny too

First, a top-secret data archive in 23rd Century London is blown up, then it’s the turn of Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, where both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz are still present.

No sooner has the man behind the deadly terrorist attacks been identified – former Starfleet officer John Harrison, played by Benedict Cumberbatch – than he’s transported himself to an uninhabited part of the Klingons’ home planet, Kronos.

But should Kirk and the Enterprise go after him and blow him to pieces, as both Kirk’s thirst for revenge and immediate Starfleet orders require, or should he capture Harrison and bring him back for trial, as Spock’s calm logic and respect for the rule of law strongly prefer?

Now there’s a dilemma that 21st Century politicians will be able to identify with.

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Pine goes a long way to laying the lingering ghost of William Shatner – the original Kirk, of course – for good here, with a charismatic and energetic performance of real presence.

Quinto too moves out of the long shadow cast by Leonard Nimoy as Spock, thanks to an interpretation that more readily acknowledges Spock’s human half, the half that Uhuru has grown so fond of.

I continue to have a soft spot too for Urban’s Dr McCoy, who’s been every bit as good as DeForest Kelley as the Doc Holliday of Starfleet Command from the outset and is even better here.

Alice Eve, playing a science officer with a secret, obligingly – and very briefly – strips off to her 23rd Century undies in a scene that good-humouredly acknowledges the casual sexism of the original series.

But the real winner here is Benedict Cumberbatch. Having been garlanded with praise for his performance as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes on British television, it must have been galling to see Robert Downey Jr making the 19th Century version his own in the billion-dollar world of films.

Star Trek Into Darkness finally gives the talented Cumberbatch the chance to show Hollywood what he can do on the big screen, and, boy, does he seize it with both hands.

He’s instantly one of the great British baddies: not just reliant on steely-eyed menace – something that Cumberbatch can probably do in his sleep – but a genuinely intimidating physical presence too.

Now that’s seriously clever acting, in what turns out to be an outstandingly good Star Trek film.

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