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J.J. Abrams Reveals the Spirit of Star Trek XI

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By TRexx / 13:50, 19 July 2006 / General Star Trek

Whether by coincidence, omen, or temporal tampering, Star Trek writer and director Nicholas Meyer had been in attendance at J.J. Abrams' bar mitzvah. "It was my first step in preparation for working on Star Trek," jokes Abrams in an interview for Variety.

Trekkies may be glad to know that Abrams et al have been doing plenty of research. "We've been provided with every published Star Trek work," he notes, "whether it's original novels or analysis or companions to the series."

The impossible mission team is also immersing itself in episodes of The Original Series, though perhaps not plunging into the deep end of the franchise pool. "We don't want to become oversaturated with the pre-existing material," says Abrams. "We're reading as much as we can, and as much as we need to, but we're also going to limit it. You want to remain fresh and be inspired."

Alas, Abrams remains mum on details of the Star Trek XI script he's penning with Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, insisting it's "infinitely too early to be talking about" the plot. Neither does he tip whether or not he'll sit in the director's chair for the film.

Abrams does tell us what he has liked about Trek, and what he's aiming to have at the heart of his story.

"Star Trek to me was always about infinite possibility and the incredible imagination that Gene Roddenberry brought to that core of characters," he says. "It was a show about purpose, about faith vs. logic, about science vs. emotion, about us vs. them. It was its own world, and yet it was our world.

"[Trek] was always my favorite when it was a little bit scary, when they would deal with beaming something on the ship that was an incredible mystery or there was a clear threat.

"All of these things I loved about the series is what we're working to incorporate into the story for the movie."

Though Abrams was a regular viewer of TOS, he admits, "I don't think I would qualify as a 'Trekker.' I fall in the 'big fan' category." Writer Robert Orci claims "immediate recall" of all things Trek, while producer Bryan Burke is "relatively fresh" to The Great Bird's galaxy. "The beauty of that is we have all points of view," says Abrams.

So, will ST:XI be dressed for the hardcore Trekkie, or the fairweather populace?

"We absolutely feel beholden to the fans, but at the same time, we have to recognize that you can't only go out and make a movie or TV shows for a group of people that live and breathe a show," Abrams says.

Abrams goal is a tale that "simultaneously speaks to the people who hold Star Trek close to their heart, and at the same time tell a story that resonates" with new fans.

After the failed Nemesis movie and Enterprise series, this project presents Abrams with the nontrivial pressures of resuscitating Paramount's high-profile franchise.

"Maybe if I looked at it from the point of view of a TV analyst or an entertainment analyst, I'd be thinking it's too risky or scary," said Abrams. "My reaction is always a gut reaction, which is, if there were a great telling of a Star Trek movie, it could be as thrilling and as fun as anything I could imagine.

"Listening to that voice has been very helpful."

Read the original article by Josef Adalian at Daily Variety.


Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon DVD is on sale in the U.S.A. and Canada.

 



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RE: My advice to J.J. is | Report this post to moderator
By: Hbasm (Odo's file, contact) @ 09:14:46 on Jul 20, 2006 | Edit History (1)

No, if anything managed to capture the spirit of Star Trek, its Enterprise in the first two years. I still haven't seen Nemesis. But the reported problems with ENT has nothing to do with the spirit of the show:

1) ENT was a bit superficial in the way it handled the characters, and this got worse as the show progressed.

2) There was no overal arc. Not for the missions, not for the characters. This means, the show didn't develop much. This worked fine for previous Trek, but the regular audience got spoiled with DS9. We found out that serialized storytelling is more compelling.

3) ENT tried to break new ground, but in many cases it felt like "more of the same" so it became too predictable and not exciting. Add to this, some of the missions were quite unbelievable (miraculous escapes from prison, beating time-travellers that tried to screw up history)

4) People say ENT didn't follow Star Trek canon, as they perceive it.

5) Technology on ENT should have been more primitive, considering the time period in which it took place.

Anyway. Let's not forget that ENT declined in terms of ratings just like ALL Star Trek has suffered in recent years. Ever since TNG peaked in 1991, the ratings have been dropping. ENT is just no different. It didn't perferm better or worse than DS9 or VOY, and that's why it finally got cancelled. Surely, a lot of people came back to see the pilot of ENT, but quickly dropped out again. In my opinion this points to a problem of oversaturation, more than anything else.

The spirit of Star Trek is one of dreams coming true, of working together as a united family of humans. Star Trek turns our attention to the "best" in all of us, and shows us how to use those qualities to overcome some of the obstacles in our world. Star Trek is about diplomacy, about goodness and light. This will carry humanity into a better world and out in space as well.

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RE: My advice to J.J. is | Report this post to moderator
By: sirNemanjapro (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 14:07:12 on Jul 20, 2006

NEMESIS was NOT a bad movie. Sure I hate Data dieing and crew falling apart but what can you do. They have decided to make it that way. In general the NEMESIS is not true StarTrek film. The true StarTrek film is ST5 or ST6. Nemesis has simply a bad way of having a The Next Gneration die (not literaly).

I was expecting an StarTrek Deep Space Nine or Voyager movie, but going in the past is too...


I think this JJ guy will fuck everything up. I sad it once, Ill say it again he will bring StarTrek to the end.
No more, no less.

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- plumts.com -

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RE: My advice to J.J. is | Report this post to moderator
By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 10:23:23 on Jul 20, 2006

My advice to Mr Abrams : please NO reboot ! Nuff said.

Gustavo

--------

TrekWeb.com Supervising Editor

gl2000@uol.com.br

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RE: My advice to J.J. is | Report this post to moderator
By: CaptainStorm (Odo's file, contact) @ 16:55:43 on Jul 19, 2006

yea pray they don't make a prequil and they stick to the time line after voyager or some thing

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Have you seen my forcelance?

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RE: My advice to J.J. is by cnathanw @ 07:39:55 on Jul 20
A troll by any other name... by Schpock @ 19:51:23 on Jul 19
    RE: A troll by any other name... by sb2004 @ 06:51:48 on Jul 20
       RE: A troll by any other name... by Terry212 @ 10:03:55 on Jul 20
       RE: A troll by any other name... by dphizler @ 08:05:06 on Jul 20
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