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Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on Star Trek Canon, Novels and Chris Pine

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By GustavoLeao / 20:05, 16 October 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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UGO posted a new interview with Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurztman and here are excerpts

UGO: Fair enough. And that sort of brings up a good point. In this film you talk about origin stories, and have the whole Universe - hell, the whole Multiverse - of Trek to deal with. Are you using as your source material only canon from TOS? Or things that entered the world in the later films, or perhaps Next Generation if they were to have been around back then? Was that part of your process when you were creating the story? I'm not asking, ya know, do Cardassians or Nausicans or Breen show up, but would you have considered that part of your world?


A:
To us "canon" is considered the original series onward, including the novels.


UGO: Even including the novels! Wow.


A: To some degree. There are actually some things that's very interesting including the novels and even to some degree in the shows vs the movies is that there are different interpretation of events. And some blank sports that are open to interpretation. So, I think and certainly in approaching it we saturated ourselves in everything, including the novels, Best Destiny, and Spock's World.


B: And that might mean that a lot of the continuity we take from the novels might be the character continuity. I forgot the names of them, a couple I love, and I get their names confused, but they take place between Star Trek II and III. Another between IV and V when the probe shows up and you know, Voyage Home. Those, there's a lot that could slot right inbetween those two movies.


UGO: Oh yeah. There were also great comic books done right around that time by Peter David that were phenomenal. With the trial and all that stuff.


B & A mumble affirmatively.


UGO: Well that's great, because, like I said, I try to consider it one big thing. And you know....when I look at all my toys on my desk when I don't feel like doing work, I understand that there will be contradictions but, ya know... well, another topic. Chris Pine is a guy that is a little bit of an unknown. Can you tell me a little bit about what he brings to Captain Kirk?


A:
Pine is just the greatest. And the thing that's tricky obviously, as is the case with any of the actors who stepped into the shoes of these characters who were created by legendary actors, that the thing you wanna avoid in a way is somehow becoming a caricature of William Shatner, or an imitation of his performance. So, I think the way that we all went into this thinking was,"What is the spirit of Kirk? How do we embody the spirit of Kirk?" And, what does that mean? And how can we as fans know that our Kirk is being honored and protected, just speaks to the fact that we have cast a new Kirk. And that was a tricky thing. And I think what you'll find is that there is a lot of Kirk you will recognize in the performance, but Chris Pine is his own brilliant actor. And it's all about what he brings to the part. I would say that the spirit of Kirk is very much alive and well in Chris Pine.


UGO: Well you have got lucky with so much of the cast with regard to physical likeness. Not Pine so much, but some of the others really do have a physical resemblance. Obviously Zack Quinto is just perfect. And looking at the images that came out today of Karl Urban as McCoy, I was like, "Yeah! That's McCoy! That's crab-assy McCoy right there!"


B:
Karl really is doing that in his performance, it's amazing. He really turned into this character.

The full interview is here.



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Looking Forward To Seeing The Whole Bridge | Report this post to moderator
By: Jean-Luc (Odo's file, contact) @ 06:03:33 on Oct 17, 2008

UGO: Um, the bridge, I'm sure you're gonna catch a little bit of hell because there are some psychopaths that feel that everything has to look exactly how it looks on the TV show. But there's not as much color. When I saw it, it reminded me a little bit of the bridge in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with a little bit of Tron. Because there was some blue in there.

B: You'll have to see the floor, I guess. Wait til you see the floors, they're gorgeous.

A: It's funny actually. Because in the pictures you are getting such a limited view of the bridge. I think what you'll find when you see the movie is that there is more original series design in the movie than in any of the movies that have come so far.

I thought that was interesting.

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"Outer Space: The Last Frontier.
These are the trips of the Star Trek Enterprise. Its five year plan calls for us to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly fly where no man has gone in space. Live long, and be happy."


Patrick Stewart--SNL, Stardate 9402.05


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Awesome Novels | Report this post to moderator
By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 05:35:18 on Oct 17, 2008

If those 2 guys considered novels like Spock's World and Best Destiny to be canon, then I am a lot more optimistic (if thats even possible) about their script for this movie.

Gustavo

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gl2000@uol.com.br


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  • RE: Awesome Novels | Report this post to moderator
    By: sb2004 (Odo's file, contact) @ 12:16:10 on Oct 17, 2008

    Quote:
    If those 2 guys considered novels like Spock's World and Best Destiny to be canon, then I am a lot more optimistic (if thats even possible) about their script for this movie.

    Gustavo


    It'll be interesting to see what, if any, long-term effect that will have on Paramount's overall edict about the novels not being considered canon. Problem is we'd once again be playing with "selected canon". If they're accepting the novels as canon, then by rights this film would need to be an adaptation of Vonda McIntire's book about the first mission. And so on.

    If they're changing the studio-imposed rules of canon, that offers more indication that this is a reimagining, which is perfectly fine once again.

    Al


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    • RE: Awesome Novels | Report this post to moderator
      By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 17:47:10 on Oct 18, 2008

      Thats makes sense. I would love to see Paramount says the Shatnerverse, New Frontier and Destiny novels to be considered canon from now on. If Abrams movie is indeed a re-imagining, who knows ?

      Gustavo

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      gl2000@uol.com.br


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Spock's World? | Report this post to moderator
By: Sam Cogley (Odo's file, contact) @ 05:18:25 on Oct 17, 2008

I really hope they use some of the concepts about Vulcan introduced there - it was one of the truly classic Trek novels.

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And dying to me dont sound like all that much fun...
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Political tags-such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth-are never basic criteria.
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  • And Best Destiny | Report this post to moderator
    By: Jean-Luc (Odo's file, contact) @ 05:43:31 on Oct 17, 2008

    BD and 'Final Frontier' are my favorite novels, FF even more so.

    --------

    "Outer Space: The Last Frontier.
    These are the trips of the Star Trek Enterprise. Its five year plan calls for us to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly fly where no man has gone in space. Live long, and be happy."


    Patrick Stewart--SNL, Stardate 9402.05


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    • Yeah | Report this post to moderator
      By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 05:52:57 on Oct 17, 2008

      I loved those Robert April novels by Diane Carey too. Captain April and Commander George Samuel Kirk are two of my favorites (canon or not) Star Trek characters and I am glad that George Kirk appears in the movie as first officer of the Kelvin. Sounds really great.

      Gustavo

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      gl2000@uol.com.br


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