I've returned to Gaia and... Wow do I have strong feelings on this film.

First of all, Star Trek Into Darkness was one of the most overtly sexist films I've seen since "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". The film fails the Bechdel test, without a single scene with two female characters with names being in the same scene together. Uhura's entire story arc revolves around Spock, and Marcus revolves around Kirk. They do not have character arcs outside of how they relate to the male characters.

Uhura spends most of the time moping about how her boyfriend won't share his feelings, to the point where she brings this up in the middle of a mission. In other words, her 'girl troubles" get in the way of her duty.

Meanwhile, Marcus disrobes for no purpose other than to titilate fanboys.... Which, you know what? Sex appeal is fine. Sex sells. Trouble is that's the only purpose the scene serves. And, to the best of my knowledge, the only purpose the character serves.

Compare to last years "Pacific Rim" that gave us a female lead (though is also failed the Bechdel test) who was sexy, but they didn't shoot scenes with the purpose of being exploitative. She also had her own character arc that wasn't dependent on male protagonists.

And oh, boy, the white washing. Yes, I understand, Ricardo Montalban wasn't Indian either. But here's the deal- Star Trek was filmed in the sixties. Yes, the 1960s, when it was common for Mexican actors to play just about any nonwhite ethnicity. Yes, it wrong, but that was the standard. It's 2013 now. You'd think we'd progressed some.

Especially when you know a good Indian actor is being denied a part for a white flavor of the month actor.

Of course, Roberto Orci said that he made Khan white because he didn't want to encourage stereotypes by having a "Brown skinned terrorist." And that's the problem with the film- He doesn't get who Khan is. He uses the name to excite fans, but the character has nothing in common with the original character.

Yet even Spock from the Prime Universe knows the revised Khan and not the original.

Khan was never a terrorist. He wasn't trying to eliminate those who he found weaker. No, Khan was Charlemegne or Ivan the Terrible- a conquerer who could be both admired and feared. He was brought into a world where his manner of conquest and leadership didn't fit in. That was his tragedy, and that's why Kirk decided he did not belong in a prison but alive to build his own empire on Ceti Alpha 5.

But Orci didn't want that Khan. Orci wanted whatever character he could use to turn Star Trek into a 9-11 truth metaphor.