Chris Pine Talks About Carol Marcus’ Role In Star Trek Into Darkness
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The reveal that Alice Eve will be playing Carol Marcus in the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness caught a lot of people — including me — by surprise. After someone pointed out her remarkable resemblance to Dr. Elizabeth Dehner from the Original Series episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” many assumed that was who she was playing, and figured that added weight to the argument that Benedict Cumberbatch was indeed playing Gary Mitchell. Some might similarly conclude that the appearance of Carol Marcus proves that Cumberbatch is playing Khan after all. A new interview with Chris Pine suggests that Alice Eve will playing an important role in the sequel, but we probably shouldn’t assume we can reference the original timeline to figure out what that role will be.
Here’s Pine talking to MTV, and we’ll talk more afterwards, for those of you who aren’t someplace where you can watch the clip.
In the original Trek timeline — and most notably in The Wrath of Khan — Carol Marcus was an ex flame of Kirk’s, and the mother of his son, David. Star Trek Into Darkness will be showing us the pair much earlier in their timeline, so don’t expect Eve to be strutting around the Enterprise with baby David on her hip. In fact, Pine says we shouldn’t expect her to be much of a Kirk love interest, simply because the film will be busy focusing on Cumberbatch’s villain and the chaos he causes. Kirk and Carol will do a bit of flirting, but Pine says, “so much happens, the action and plot is so fast, there really isn’t much time for Kirk to do anything but save the crew.” It’s likely that Eve’s Carol Marcus will be a long-term love interest for Kirk in the presumed future Trek films, but that foundation is just starting to be laid in Into Darkness.
Pine did drop one other interesting tidbit with regards to the Marcus character. He says that her “scientific knowledge” will play a key role in saving the day from “John Harrison”/The CumberBastard. In the original timeline, Marcus was one of the key scientists on the Genesis Project that eventually helped resurrect Spock, so it’s good to hear that they’re staying true to that aspect of her character. Carol Marcus was always a woman who could put Kirk in his place, so hopefully Alice Eve’s version of the character will be similarly strong.
Star Trek Into Darkness will open in theaters on May 17, 2013.
