The past two weeks have brought us a veritable bonanza of Star Trek Into Darkness promotional material since Paramount Pictures officially set the film’s marketing campaign to warp 9, starting off with the release of a killer teaser poster. A few days later a minute-long announcement trailer hit the web. This past weekend a 9-minute preview begin showing in front of IMAX 3D screenings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey while standard 2D and 3D screenings of Peter Jackson’s latest fantasy epic got a snazzy new trailer that features even more footage from one of 2013’s most anticipated tentpole blockbusters. Today that trailer has surfaced online courtesy of iTunes.

You can watch the trailer here below.

Yesterday we reported that Benedict Cumberbatch‘s role in Star Trek Into Darkness had been revealed as John Harrison by Paramount Pictures via the release of a new official still, a revelation that revealed next to nothing about his actual character. Thus the fan speculation continued: he’s really playing Khan….or Gary Mitchell….or Spock’s brother Sybok….and so on and and so on….

Early reports from screenings of the 9-minute preview of the film that will begin playing this weekend before select IMAX 3D screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (full list of IMAX theaters here) have claimed that a selection of Michael Giacchino‘s score for Into Darkness quotes from music composed by James Horner for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, particularly the theme for the movie’s titular villain (played in the 1982 movie and the original series episode “Space Seed” by the late Ricardo Montalban). Today comes the news, courtesy of Silas Lesnick at Coming Soon, that the new character being played by Alice Eve has been confirmed, and it is a name fans of the Star Trek franchise will be very familiar with.

Spock may not think the merging of Shatner and Metal to be a logical one — but at this point in 2011, William Shatner is becoming more metal than ever. And even at his age of 80, there seems to be no stopping the once Captain of the USS Enterprise, for this year he will be releasing a metal album, as we reported on several weeks ago. To acknowledge his efforts not only towards his current album project, entitled Seeking Major Tom, but also for his entire epic career, William Shatner will next month be awarded the Honorary Headbanger Award at the annual Revolver Awards.

The Revolver Golden Gods is an awards ceremony to recognize all metal, held every year. The Honorary Headbanger Award is handed out to someone who is not necessarily seen as being in the metal community, but embodies the spirit of metal. With his upcoming album featuring collaborative efforts with numerous metal artists, and his long career in Star Trek and acting in other roles over the years, Shatner is an artist of determination who continually breaks down the doors of what people think he should do (or if people just think it to be… odd).

Kevin David Anderson, author of Night Of The Living Trekkies, sent us a fun greeting for St. Patrick’s Day which mashes up the evil Leprechaun from the Leprechaun horror movies, with Star Trek‘s beloved Captain James T. Kirk in “Leprekhhhaaaaaan!!!”

If you don’t get this reference, I implore you to immediately watch one of the greatest movies ever, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Happy St. Patty’s Day, everyone!

Space Shuttle Discovery is finishing up its final mission, a 13-day visit to the International Space Station. The ship will make its final landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday after which it will be retired. For those of us who have grown up with Discovery, it’s a little sad to see it retire.

Each morning, a special song usually picked by their families awakens the astronauts on board. For this last mission NASA decided to hold an online contest to allow fans to pick the songs. Nearly 2.5 million votes were cast between August 20, 2010 and November 1, 2010 Alexander Courage‘s theme song to the original Star Trek television series was the second most popular song of the ones available getting 671,133 votes or 27.2% of the total votes.