Who's who in JJ Abrams's Star Trek

Welcome aboard the all-new USS Enterprise, revamped by JJ Abrams to chronicle the tearaway James T Kirk's rise to captaincy of the Starfleet ship. Played by Chris Pine (left), he has an asteroid-sized chip on his shoulder, explained by the vast shadow of his heroic father. Thankfully, what he hasn't got is William Shatner's weird cadences from the original series Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features

The Vulcan Spock, played by Zachary Quinto and not to be confused with the murderous Sylar from Heroes, makes an early bid for the helm of the Enterprise. He has an even bigger, planet-sized chip on his shoulder from a childhood spent enduring incessant bullying for being mixed-race. Quinto has imbibed from the Leonard Nimoy book of interpretation and has perfected the stillness and hauteur Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar

And here's Old Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy and, er, Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy. A time-travelling twist allows seasoned Trekkers to savour a glimpse of the original Vulcan and his amazing powers of exposition Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar

Here's chief engineer Montgomery Scott, played by Simon Pegg, who continues the time-honoured Star Trek tradition of a non-Scot attempting a Linlithgow accent. Canadian James Doohan decided to give his character a Scottish accent as a tribute to Scotland's achievements in the field of engineering. Pegg gamely takes on the brogue, and a comedy cornflake-faced alien sidekick as well Photograph: Paramount/Everett/Rex Features

Hailing communications officer Nyota Uhura, played by Zoe Saldana. Saldana is a trained dancer and got her acting break as a headstrong ballerina in Centre Stage. Interestingly, her predecessor Nichelle Nichols started out as a singer and was discovered by Duke Ellington. Could this be the cue for a time-travelling song-and-dance sequence in a future sequel? Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Dr Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, played by Karl Urban. Lord of the Rings fans may recognise him as Eomer in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Urban doesn't get to ride horses in Star Trek, but he does get to sport designer stubble and shout a lot, as DeForest Kelley once did with relish Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Now here's helmsman Hikaru Sulu, sort of the designated driver of the USS Enterprise and swordsman extraordinaire, played by John Cho. Cho, who is Korean-American, had qualms about stepping into the shoes of George Takei, who is Japanese-American. But Takei assured him that the character represented all Asia Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Russian navigator Pavel Chekov is now played by Anton Yelchin who, in one giant step for authenticity, was actually born in St Petersburg. Yelchin's accent can't be faulted, although it's not something you can say about his disastrous space perm. Walter Koenig, who joined the original TV series only in the second series, was born in Chicago Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features