Most intriguing to fans are the characters that Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve will play. Amie discussed Cumberbatch’s villain in our previous post; Eve may play either Yeoman Rand or Nurse Chapel, or someone new.

The film’s premiere date remains May 17, 2013.

In case you missed it last week on Conan, J.J. Abrams dropped by to show a three-frame clip of the film. Check it out! Here’s hoping that we get a teaser trailer by Christmas.

We still don’t know the name of the villain being played by Benedict Cumberbatch. At Comic-Con, Karl Urban said he would be playing Gary Mitchell, but they’ve killed off Gary in the ongoing IDW comic book series taking place within this universe in their adaptation of Where No Man Has Gone Before, issue #2. Some people still seem to think he may be playing Khan, even though Simon Pegg said no. That would be a huge disappointment as we’ve seen that story and the setup just isn’t present in this universe. My theory is that he is playing Gary Seven. On a similar note, there’s an actress by the name of Alice Eve listed on IMDb without a character name; she’s blonde, so could she be our new Christine Chapel? I guess we will have to wait and see!

In the meantime, don’t forget to watch Zachary Quinto as psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson in season two of American Horror Story, which begins airing on Wednesday, October 17 on FX!

In television news, Zachary Quinto will be returning to American Horror Story in season two as a series regular, though he will be playing a different character than in season one. Season two begins filming this summer and will air on FX in October. It seems that Leonard Nimoy is also returning to television, as a cameo on an upcoming episode of The Big Bang Theory, airing March 29 on CBS. He will be voicing Spock in a dream sequence. Series star Kaley Cuoco tweeted this photo of herself and Nimoy on the set.

While some news articles covering the story mention the onscreen romance between Quinto’s Spock and Zoe Saldana’s Uhura in the 2009 Star Trek film, none have touched on the venerable Star Trek fan culture/subtext that pairs Spock with James T. Kirk. To read about the phenomenon, check out our article on Slash in the Fandom section.

Of course, Nimoy is also being rumoured to to be the voice of the dragon Smaug in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. I, for one, would love to hear him voice Smaug and I hope something comes of this particular rumour!

Also, five new tunes appear in the Jukebox, including two from William Shatner. Like Leonard Nimoy, the Shat is also 80 years old this year, and still kicking. Celebrate with a hearty round of Mr. Tambourine Maaaaaan~ !

Two notable Star Trek actors were invited as celebrity guests: Walter Koenig and Denise Crosby. Koenig, of course, plays Pavel Chekov in The Original Series and the six films to follow. Crosby plays Tasha Yar in The Next Generation, as well as the evil Romulan Sela. (There is a Spock connection in that Sela is the villain in the two-part TNG episode Unification – the only TNG episode to feature Leonard Nimoy’s Spock.) Both stars appeared down-to-Earth and in good spirits, working well with the convention volunteers.