We all know Star Trek director JJ Abrams is a man who likes to keep his projects under wraps, almost until they are yanked from his paws by the studio. Now, after premiering a few frames of sequel outing Star Trek Into Darkness on Conan O’Brien’s show, he’s released the teaser poster, which you can see below.

We think that's Benedict Cumberbatch in the shiny jacket with the dark hair, overlooking a devastated city through a hole echoing the Starfleet logo. Poster fans among you will instantly see echoes of The Dark Knight Rises teaser poster, but there are worse models to take.

Judging by a few familiar buildings on this skyline, that's 23rd century London that's been devastated by... something or someone. If you look closely you'll see the Gherkin and what looks like the London Eye, as well as Lloyds, the Shard and Tower 42. Given that G.I. Joe 2 already promises to devastate the capital next year, it looks like 2013 is a bad year to be a Londoner. On the bright side, British architects can feel pretty smug that Hollywood expects their buildings to last another 400 years.

The poster follows on the heels (nacelles?) of the recently released synopsis, which – skip ahead if you’re in any way worried about spoilers, though it’s pretty basic – reads thusly: “When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

“With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.”

So, yes… lots of action promised, perhaps some deep emotion and likely enough Benedict Cumberbatch to keep his fans happy, whoever he turns out to be playing.

We’re also promised that the poster will count down to the first trailer arriving. Excitement levels growing… We cannae take much more o’ this waitin’!

Still, we’ll all have to be patient until May 17 to see Star Trek Into Darkness on the big screen, although those who go to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey can sample about nine minutes from December 13.