MASSIVE spoilers are ahead if I'm right. But that doesn't happen very often, so feel free to read on anyway. Spoiler: All is revealed! (Almost) Captain Robert April commanded the Starship Enterprise as the ship entered orbit around the planet Exo-- Really? You're still reading? You may have already gone too far and snapped to the same conclusions as I did. Go back. Enjoy the movie in May when you're supposed to figure all this out. Go hang out in the Doctor Who or Art forums, instead. Anyway, as I was saying, Robert April brought his ship into orbit around the planet Exo III on the second expedition to locate the missing "Pasteur of archeological medicine", Roger Corby. To the crew's amazement, they located the famous researcher and the Captain agreed to beam down to review Corby's discoveries and make a critical judgement about them. A few days later, April, Corby, and a contingent of associates beamed up to the ship. Captain April remained discrete about Corby's research and discoveries, and honored their wishes to isolate themselves from the crew. A couple of weeks later, the team transported down to a planet colony already among the starship's next scheduled stops. As things went, the odd event became a footnote in April's career. Some of the crew remembered it, but no one ever thought much about it after that. No one noticed the subtle little changes in Captain April's behavior, either. He was the same man, after all, in every detail. Yep, I'm thinking Benedict Cumberbatch is playing either a re-engineered Ruk, or another android from the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" Harrison? Harry's son? No, not Harry Mudd. Harry Basch, the man who played Doctor Brown, one of Corby's assistants. It's just a little Easter egg. Robert April, now an Admiral, is part of a conspiracy to replace people with android duplicates. What is it they said in one of the earlier trailers? "Is there anything you would not do for your family?" Noel Clarke's character apparently has a daughter who is cured by Harrison. As Doctor Corby himself said, "No one need ever die again. No disease. No deformities. Even fear can be programmed away." Harrison obviously turns against April. Ruk was always a bit of a rogue, maybe he still is in the movie. Or maybe April agreed to Corby's plan and was never replaced by an android. So by the time the full program begins going into operation, April is seen as a threat to Corby's plan and Ruk is out to "protect". I'm not sure why the Klingons are involved, did they learn about the androids on Corby's colony world and try to wipe them out? That little extra-vehicular leap through the debris field to land aboard what looks like the original Starship Enterprise might be part of a mission to retrieve Captain April's original logs, which might have evidence of his participation in the conspiracy. Alright, that was fun. I'm going to go back to that first season episode I was watching when all of this hit me.
Except that Enterprises' first mission was to Vulcan that was under attack by Nero. So no one else had command of Enterprise before Captain Pike.
No, you're thinking of the new one we saw in the 2009 movie. It's been proposed that April had command of a Constitution-class Enterprise from much earlier and that that is the vessel we see Kirk heading towards during an EVA jump in the trailer.
Is that your opinion or you got it from a website? While I think he could be an android, I see no reason they would have him be Ruk. Remember they are trying to start with a fresh new audience and it makes no sense to have him be this one off character from a TOS episode that would need some backstory. After Pegg's article from today I'm starting to think he is Osama Bin Laden reincarnated.