Will Darkness allow for Romance? Star Trek film review from West Coast Midnight Run

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time again the story is about sacrifices and survival as the clock ticks down to Doomsday.

With ILM onboard, the Lucasfilm FX division, a great deal of Star Wars design and sounds have shown up in this production, most obvious is when Bones opens a torpedo and Scotty is scouring a moon of Jupiter.

Bones has less of his usual one liners this time they are not as humorous as we have grown accustomed to. Uhura has a more prominent role and there is

an office romance on the bridge with lots of sparks for the fans. And for a good deal of the action the wizard of the Enterprise is not along for the ride, so Kirk and crew are a little more than handicapped when faced with a most formidable and lethal foe.

Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent and in top notch form as both friend and adversary to Kirk. Peter Weller and Bruce Greenwood round up the principal cast as senior officers and lend solid performances. Anton Yelchin (Chekov) does a bit of Captain Kirk Jr.

An overlooked storyline sinkhole is how come only Kirk can travel to Kronos without setting off the Klingons? That was Archer in the TV series Enterprise.

All told, for viewers unfamiliar with the earlier film franchise or the recent TV series, Star Trek Into Darkness is a solid and entertaining science fiction adventure film that somehow falters in delivering a comparable level of excitement, intrigue and suspense as did the 2009 debut installment.