I haven't heard anyone mention the evil twin theory yet?!? The line from the synopsis< "unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization" immediately reminded me of the enemy within. And that shot of kirk and Cumberbatch staring at each other thru the glass was kind of eery. And evil twins, come on, there were evil twins in every other episode. And one last thing, in one shot Cumberbatch is wearing a jacket with little ribs on the shoulder somewhat reminiscent of Lore's jacket. Just another theory.
Mentioned here. Problems with the theory is 1, British accent and 2, why not have Quinto play the other, evil twin?
OK good points, valid problems, but that doesn't entirely discount the theory. There are always holes in the plots but the actors and director pull us over those hole with action, acting and effects. Abrams might have decided he wanted cumby before he even had a script or a villain. And while twins have historically been played by the same actor, they have been significantly divergent from their counterparts. Consider spocks beard or kirks sweaty mascara, lore's cod piece. I think cumberbatch would work as an evil twin for either kirk or spock. The scenario for the twinning event would just have to be written to explain the differences.
Hey! I called the twin thing first (even made a nice pic) LOL. Crazy, and probably not true, but hey I will play the who is Cumby lottery. Cumby and Quinto have the same body type and Cumby dies his hair darker for the role, so it just seemed he was closely connected with Spock. Maybe Amanda had twins, one looked Vulcan and one looked human (entirely possible). The human twin was secretly given away and assumed the name John Harrison. As far as the accent goes, Spock's 'Twin' was raised by adoptive British parents (the Harrison's) . Anyways, wild theory, but that's all part of the fun!
I hadn't even remembered its existence, to be honest. Had to go back and check screencaps. But reception and picture quality on the UPN channels were not infrequently pretty crap in those days, so I missed a lot of details.