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Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman Talks Star Trek Canon in New Video Interview

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By GustavoLeao / 16:44, 27 August 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman recently sat down with Fox Movie Channel's "Life After Film School" series and spoke about being the co-writers of the upcoming Star Trek movie.


They discuss how challenging it can be to deal with the weight of the Star Trek canon which is over 40 years of continuity of television history and why they decided to set the movie storyline at the beginning of The Original Series era and why they decided to tell the story of the original crew first meeting. Here is an excerpt.

"Our version of Star Trek is not exactly a prequel." said Orci "It is in some ways and you will have to see it to label it exactly. Canon, that is a word that was invented for Star Trek, meaning, does it fall within the continuity of this forty-year puzzle. But it was amazing when we went back to look at Star Trek,  no one had ever done the story about how the original crew came together."

"[...] there's five thousand hours of Star Trek and no one ever covered how they all met [laughs]." Orci continued "So in a way that was liberating in that no one had stated how that happened exactly. And because we had been fans truly-who knew all those years sitting in front of the TV watching Transformers and Star Trek that we weren't wasting our time. It was all tax deductible. It was daunting, but we thought, if we can't do it, the no one can! No, not exactly. But it was like we had been called to duty and it woudl have felt cowardly to back away just because ‘it has been forty years, what can we do?'" 

"We, at first, we were scared -- not because we didn't think it was worthy, it was we didn't think we were worthy of it." said Kurtzman "So, it became kind of about thinking, "Alright, well, god, if we're going to do this, what did we really love about it?" What inspired us when we were kids, and how do we get back to that feeling, and what was that feeling about for us? Ultimately, I think it was very much about Kirk and Spock and that bridge crew, that was a big part of it. So, what got us through the fear was the excitement of that opportunity, which really comes probably once in a lifetime."

You can see the interview here.

Thanks to TrekMovie.com and 'TRexx' for the transcript.



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RE: | Report this post to moderator
By: rassmguy (Odo's file, contact) @ 20:10:23 on Aug 27, 2008

"And so ends all the B.S. about how the movie's timeframe was some artistic decision, getting back to Trek's roots and what made it good, etc. In reality, it's just lazy writing, not wanting to do the research to make something that fits into established continuity. How disappointing. Hope they can at least do it well."

I'll be honest--I have no idea how you took that from their comments.

"Oh, and the word canon existed long before Star Trek."

Well, yes--they weren't literally saying the word didn't exist before that. They were speaking figuratively--that the notion of sci-fi franchise fans being obsessed over the concept of canonicity began with Trek. Before that, it was much less of an issue with other fandoms. That's all they meant.

--------

Rich Handley
Author, Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology
Available now from Hasslein Books
www.hassleinbooks.com


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Toe Jam by TRexx @ 21:51:03 on Aug 27

Irony... | Report this post to moderator
By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 10:01:44 on Aug 28, 2008

What really gets me is all of these armchair producers that make up this forum and the Star Trek fan base having the audacity to call the writers idiots, liars and lazy. Lazy? This coming from people who look like this:

Image

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-- Steve
"If a sixth Star Trek television series is ever realized, it will be set in the new universe." -- cdydatzigs, June 15, 2009.

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RE: Irony... by Rorschach @ 12:25:14 on Aug 29
    RE: Irony... by cdydatzigs @ 20:59:13 on Sep 02
       RE: Irony... by Rorschach @ 00:51:28 on Sep 03
RE: Irony... by TRexx @ 10:52:30 on Aug 28

RE: And so it ends... | Report this post to moderator
By: Gothampunk (Odo's file, contact) @ 08:24:00 on Aug 28, 2008

"Lazy writing" is a silly thing to say, but whatever.

A TOS reboot with a young, hip, sexy cast. An origins story. And with Leonard Nimoy as a lagniappe. I can't think of a Trek movie I'd rather see. I'm stoked, and I see nothing lazy about it. The concept is exactly right. We'll have to wait and see about the execution.

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A New Beginning... | Report this post to moderator
By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 17:49:09 on Aug 27, 2008

Quote from Keoki:
In reality, it's just lazy writing, not wanting to do the research to make something that fits into established continuity.


Roberto Orci rarely fails to put his foot in his mouth during interviews, and the belligerent idiot called cdydatzigs here thrives on trying to make others look even less competent than he is.

In this video interview, Alex Kurtzman does a better job of articulating their goal...

We, at first, we were scared -- not because we didn't think it was worthy, it was we didn't think we were worthy of it. So, it became kind of about thinking, "Alright, well, god, if we're going to do this, what did we really love about it?" What inspired us when we were kids, and how do we get back to that feeling, and what was that feeling about for us? Ultimately, I think it was very much about Kirk and Spock and that bridge crew, that was a big part of it. So, what got us through the fear was the excitement of that opportunity, which really comes probably once in a lifetime.

So, the ST:XI story utilizes Kirk and Spock at their most vital, in order to recapture that "feeling" about the original Star Trek, as experienced during mainstream viewer childhood. The plot includes how those characters came together.


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Image

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RE: A New Beginning... by Keoki @ 17:55:56 on Aug 27
    RE: A New Beginning... by TRexx @ 18:25:07 on Aug 27

RE: And so it ends... | Report this post to moderator
By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 17:34:01 on Aug 27, 2008

Lazy writing? Tell me, have you ever been a Hollywood writer before? No, you haven't. In fact you have no clue what you are talking about. Writing for a feature film is difficult enough, especially for a franchise as big and important as Star Trek. When you combine the fact that there are 10 films and 700+ episodes worth of canon and history that they aren't even responsible for? It would be too confining and frsutrating not to pick a timeframe that hasn't really been fleshed out yet -- in this case, the years before season one of TOS. They chose a good time period.

--------

-- Steve
"If a sixth Star Trek television series is ever realized, it will be set in the new universe." -- cdydatzigs, June 15, 2009.

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RE: And so it ends... by Keoki @ 17:50:08 on Aug 27
    RE: And so it ends... by cnathanw @ 18:21:16 on Aug 27
       RE: And so it ends... by Keoki @ 19:06:05 on Aug 27
          OMFG by prometheus 59650 @ 19:22:04 on Aug 27
             RE: OMFG by Keoki @ 19:26:14 on Aug 27
                RE: OMFG by Bean @ 23:12:52 on Aug 27
                   RE: OMFG by jimbtnp @ 02:24:57 on Sep 01
                   RE: OMFG by Keoki @ 05:49:49 on Aug 28
                      RE: OMFG by Bean @ 07:56:19 on Aug 28
                         RE: OMFG by Keoki @ 12:30:16 on Aug 28
                            RE: OMFG by Bean @ 14:11:04 on Aug 30
                RE: OMFG by prometheus 59650 @ 23:00:31 on Aug 27
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