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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: On canon and 'lazy writing' | Report this post to moderator
By: Gothampunk (Odo's file, contact) @ 13:03:41 on Aug 28, 2008

Quote:

The comment accusing the prequel writers of "lazy writing, not wanting to do the research" is quite offensive. First off, the canon of Star Trek has become so damn top-heavy and convoluted that in my opinion it is no longer possible to write an original storyline that doesn't in some way violate "canon" -- at least not a storyline that the general public will give a damn about enough to pay their $13 to buy a movie ticket.


You might have added "contradictory" to your description of canon. And you might also make the point that there are a statistically insignificant number of ticket sales that hinge upon STXI's fundamentalist devotion to any random definition of "canon." Is there anyone who can believe for a moment that there's anyone at Paramount that asked the writers or Abrams "...but is that canon?" Absurd.

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RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' | Report this post to moderator
By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 13:07:41 on Aug 28, 2008 | Edit History (2)

Quote from sb2004:
The comment accusing the prequel writers of "lazy writing, not wanting to do the research" is quite offensive.


That might be "offensive" if it were entirely unfounded. Orci's dialog is laced with the message that canon is universally problematic. To the contrary, it's essential for everything except pure fantasy. Continuity creates a common frame of reference ("reality") for the author and his/her audience. This is hardly unique to Star Trek.

Just how much of your history or genealogy do you need to account for when you wax poetic about your summer vacation? A list of fictional entities is neither too large nor too small, unless you believe that name-dropping amounts to creative validation -- in which case you're talking about gratuitous "continuity porn", not legitimate storytelling.

Unforgettable and dramatic narratives about the human condition don't need to fill or utilize a cluttered universe. And let's not blame fans who invest in what the writers sell as "fact" in a fictional universe.


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Star Trek: Corps Of Engineers - Wounds

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Roddenberry created April | Report this post to moderator
By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 09:49:46 on Aug 28, 2008

Quote:
And then of course there's the Robert April issue, but that's a whole other kettle of fish...

That brings up an interesting point. It is widely accepted that Star Trek canon is anything that has been seen on-screen on television or the big screen. But there is another way for something to be considered "official" -- if the person who declares it so is someone who would have been responsible for putting it on screen anyway: Michael Okuda, Rick Sternbach, Michael Piller and especially Gene Roddenberry. His word has counted as canon on two major occasions:

First, he was responsible for Robert April and the Star Trek: Encyclopedia says this after the short bio: April is, of course, totally conjectural, but is being included at Gene Roddenberry's suggestion. Gene had used the character name for the ship's commander in his first proposal for Star Trek, written in 1964.

Roddenberry also speculated the origins of the Enterprise-A. This entry is also from the Encyclopedia: Roddenberry reportedly suggested that the second Starship Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, launched at the end of Star Trek IV, had previously been named Yorktown, since it seems unlikely that Starfleet could have built an all-new ship so quickly. If this was the case, the Yorktown may have made it safely back to Earth and been repaired and renamed.

So here we have two instances of Star Trek history that did not occur on screen, yet are considered canon because of who said it (and there is nothing out there to contradict these). All we know about April officially is that he was the first captain of the Enterprise when it was launched in 2245. This means the new film can flesh out more of his story without any limitation.

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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: Roddenberry created April by Kevin Jones @ 10:57:05 on Aug 28
    RE: Roddenberry created April by cdydatzigs @ 11:04:59 on Aug 28

RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' | Report this post to moderator
By: Bean (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 07:59:13 on Aug 28, 2008

Quote:
And then of course there's the Robert April issue, but that's a whole other kettle of fish...

Oh god... don't even start. LOL

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"The idea of doing an impression of William Shatner… it would have no shot at succeeding. The character is Jim Kirk, not William Shatner." - Chris Pine

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RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' | Report this post to moderator
By: Keoki (Odo's file, contact) @ 05:44:18 on Aug 28, 2008

Quote:
Another piece of fanon that keeps kicking around is the issue of whether Uhura has a first name. Roddenberry said she didn't, because her name alone was supposed to mean Freedom. A few years later the fanzine Trek suggested Penda as her first name. And then some of the novels started calling her Nyota which got picked up by some of the fansites. Will Trek XI address this? Who knows.

Nichelle Nichols has also said that Uhura's first name was Nyota. I don't know whether she got this from the fanzines or vice-versa. Chicken or the egg? But since this was never in an episode or film, this would not technically be "canonical" by most fans' standards.

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Jesus Saves... no one dares charge him full price

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RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' by Writer4GoodTrek @ 08:59:32 on Aug 28
    RE: by rassmguy @ 19:27:57 on Aug 28
    RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' by OV-101 @ 09:46:26 on Aug 28
       Canonical first name for Uhura - Star Trek IV by rabelais @ 21:31:10 on Aug 31
          RE: Canonical first name for Uhura - Star Trek IV by cdydatzigs @ 22:00:54 on Aug 31
       RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' by cdydatzigs @ 11:11:57 on Aug 28
RE: On canon and 'lazy writing' by Writer4GoodTrek @ 08:59:22 on Aug 28
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