Writers explain Star Trek Into Darkness title

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman have revealed the thinking behind the upcoming Trek sequel’s awkward title, explaining that it is inspired by Benedict Cumberbatch’s bad guy John Harrison.

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"He understands Starfleet because he was enlisted in a similar way," Orci told Star Trek Magazine. "Some might see part of the title coming from the fact that he's kind of a dark shadow of members of our crew.

"He too has gone through the process... that some of our crew have gone though, and clearly for some reason it's failed to bring him over, so I think he represents that part of our heroes."

Kurtzman then revealed that along with Orci and co-writer Damon Lindelof, the three were keen to keep a sense of optimism in the film, regardless of the brooding title and its destructive theme: "Despite the fact that we are literally going into darkness, I think we all worked very hard to make sure the theme of hope, what hope costs, and what it's really about, was always alive in how we were designing our story.

"So we're pretty consistent with the last movie in terms of dark things happening,” he added, “but holding on to the light that Roddenberry set up as a basic tenet of the ‘Star Trek’ universe."

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, directed by JJ Abrams, is out in the UK 9 May.