Quinto Ready For Spock – Learning Trek Mythology

In a series of interviews conducted during his visit to New York City as part of the Heroes World Tour this past week, Zachary Quinto talked about getting the role as the new Spock and his preparations to don the ears for the new Star Trek film. "It’s something I gunned for. I mean, I really wanted to play this role," he tells the London Free Press, but noted to the National post “I don’t think I would have gone after it if I didn’t feel ready for it.” Quinto told SciFi Wire that he is "becoming more familiar with the mythology" of Trek, but also still charting his own course:

I am going to go about it in my own way, which I am starting to do now. And that is really exciting. I am learning a lot about Vulcans and a lot about Romulans and a lot about really interesting stuff so I am looking forward to more of it

In his interview with the Post, Quinto again stressed that the film will be respectful to past Treks while also creating a new perspective.

[The movie] will find its way, it will find its tone… it will find its style, and I’m sure that that style will include the people that have been hard-core Star Trek fans for as long as it’s been around, and I also feel like it will inspire people that don’t necessarily have a connection to the franchise to learn more about it and immerse themselves in it.

Connected to this Spock
Quinto told he told the National Post “I feel incredibly connected to this character and especially where we find him in the course of this journey.” In addition, Quinto told The London Free Press that he will be approaching the role of Spock in his own way.

People are going to have opinions, but I’m not in the business of trying to please everybody. I’m in the business of doing my job and I feel really gratified that these creative and imaginative and exciting people have decided to include me in this journey.

 

For more:

Interview with National Post

Interview with The London Free Press

Video interview with Sci Fi Wire

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The guy is really up for this, isn’t he! Its going to change his life forever. I hope he’s ready for that!

He’s learning a lot about Romulans? Possibly adds weight to yesterdays story theories??

Re:2
I also found it interesting that he mentioned the Romulans. However, given the connected between Vulcans and Romulans, it isn’t that odd that they were mentioned in context with Spock. (Balance of Terror anyone?)

I can’t think of any big and famous hole bigger and more famous than the romulan wars. If they are going to “fill a hole” and romulans are involved, my gess is that that is it.

I honestly can’t believe that everybody who knows the script says that it is great if it is Terminator 4 with romulans. I bet romulan wars and not romulan time traveling assasins.

Well the Romulans comment could just be alluding to the history between the two races. Who knows how deeply he’ll dig himself into the role…

Vic

I’m glad he’s focused about not pleasing everyone. I take that to mean they’re not going to sacrifice a creative addition just to keep everything familiar to hard core fans. I know this will not be Trek ’66. I can’t wait to see what it WILL be.

Oh, if it is Romulans, can we PLEASE lose the rubber foreheads?

#3 yes, thats true. But Romulans aren’t the first thing that I think of when I hear Vulcan. I’m going to stick my neck out and say young ZQ just dropped a BIG clue! Or was it a red herring!
arghhhhhh. I can’t wait till Dec ’08 LOL

“…creative and imaginative and exciting people have decided to include me in this journey.”

“…connected to this character and especially where we find him in the course of this journey”

“…connection to the franchise to learn more about it and immerse themselves in it.”

Holy Frijole, WHO talks like this in real life? Hey, I’m all for the guy as Spock, don’t get me wrong, but he needs to get real. Dude, give me something tangible that I can digest and then pass through my bowels. Give me something human, man. Let’s get real here.

BEST!!

=h=

If they’re Romulans from the future, THEY better have the rubber heads!

10- Noleuser –If they’re Romulans from the future, THEY better have the rubber heads!

Romulans are supposed to look like Vulcans. They’re supposed to be related (though how that’s supposed to work across un-named lightyears going back un-named millenia I have un-named idea.) Mostly, the brow-ridges look goofy, as do the Joan Crawford shoulder pads. Just make em pointy-eared and green and we’ll figure it out.

Hitch, I love your stuff, but tell me, are we going to start criticizing someone for being eloquent? I find Mr. Quinto’s comments to be a refreshing change from the “room temperature I.Q.” actor morons kicking around Hollywood these days….besides, who would you prefer portraying our favourite Vulcan? Someone intelligent and well spoken, or a slack-jawed actor who’s lips move when they read a Stop sign?

Harry Ballz, you make an excellent point. I rescind (somewhat) my previous remarks. I was just saying that the dude seems a little… I don’t know. I know that personally I tend to kick up the bullshismo when I don’t know what I am doing and am floundering. I can do it with the best of them and it is a great distraction to my incompetence. But lest I sound harsh in my comment, I hereby retract the context of what I have said previous on the subject. I see your point of view and respect in kind.

CONNECTED IN OUR JOURNEY!!

=h=

Aw Hitch, you’re a sweety…ya know that, dontcha??

Hitch, I just have to comment because I can understand why people who haven’t consumed every Zachary interview out there (not that I have… *blinks innocently*) would consider his speech to sound a little… stilted, as it were. That’s just him. He is very intelligent (I mean, compared to most actors today), and has a vocabulary that usually has me LOLing because I’m sure there are prolly people out there who have no idea what the man is saying! If you want an example of how extreme he can get, he did a bunch of restaurant reviews for CitySearch back when he first showed up on Heroes here: http://national.citysearch.com/roundup/41999.

He’s just… like that.

You never know. As was said in #3, it could be as simple as the fact that barely 100 years after the Earth-Romulan War, there was still something of a stigma attached to races that look at all like a Romulan. Cultural biases always exist. For all we know, they may even deliberately call Spock a “Vulcanian” at least once in the new film.

Of course, it could all also tie in with the Aint It Cool rumor. Only time (wocka wocka) will tell. I guessed time travel a month ago ( check post #55 here: https://trekmovie.com/2007/08/02/abrams-new-star-trek-revolves-around-spock/ )

I’m thinking a “Yesteryear” type of scenario. Old Spock has contact with yong Spock in an important way unbeknownst to the younger version. Probably involves the Guardian as well. Very similar.

oh noooo – starfleet first saw a romulan in balance of terror. never before! so there can’t be any stigma for spock because he looks like them.
and how can you fill a hole that is 100 yrs ago?

So the thrust of the movie seems to be development of the Spock character. When we last saw him on TNG, we left him with the Romulans to pursue Reunification with the Vulcans. That episode was a promotional tie-in to ST6 which solidified Spock’s development as the elderstatesman slash embassador. Where do you take the character from there? Why wouldn’t you just leave it at that?

This gets me thinking bigger picture. That Quinto dude, with his wordiness and abstact expressionism. It begs several different questions, some of which cannot be asked within this forum. Then I thought, but what is this site? What is the interweb? I think that we can all agree that on some level that it is simply an exchange of informations, then you add in some eye candy and dress up with windows and whatnot. Ok, thats a given. So as I pondered, I started feeling like VYGR, you know, searching for the creator. Not the creator of the interweb, but I am talking about my friend BIG DAWG AP, the numero uno and main geezah who be runnin dis joint.

In examination of any aesthetic, critical thought will lead to interpretation and analysis, always and usually differing in perspective. You look at the site and say, “it’s a place for information about the new Star Trek movie”, whereas someone else who frequents may say, “Its a place where I know people and I interact with them about a shared interest” and then the occasional oddball in the bunch might say, “It’s a place where I do what I do best…. show off” like the Bandit used to say in Smokey and The Bandit. No one person being more right or wrong than the other, given the nature of art and things artistic. WHICH this site is, with informations being exchanged in the process.

My point is this – Quinto is ready for Spock. He is learning the Trek mythology. That much is the base of informations which we agree upon. Now.. comments? Suppose we comment on this? Suppose we ask a question. IS there a such a thing as the stupid question? If so, who is it to say that it is a stupid question? Lastly, comments can and will be differing in nature and perplexity. Also in perpetuity and continuity.

I’ve been talking around a real question here but I dare not ask with all due respect. And I think it’s a valid question. Like when little kids see something and make some sort of innocent but inappropriate comment. They’re just kids, you know? They don’t know better. In all it’s purity and innocent honesty. And we learn from them, don’t we? They make us think, and they make us better people because they make us address the things that we are afraid to because of the groupthink happening in society at the adult level. ALL the things we learned not to do, don’t touch yourself in public, don’t stare at the handicapped, don’t laugh at the retarded, all those good little rules we pick up in life. Children are not restricted by these things in their pure little thinking brains. They’re like sponges, soaking it all up, learning all that is learnable.

Tying this back into what I was saying about the interwebs and this site – the exchanges of informations. VYGR and whatnot. The purpose of existence. Facing the issues and asking the hard questions. REPORTING the TrekMovie.com news, the best site on the interweb for such a thing. But maintain the decorum, Matt Sorum™. Society GOTS RULES, ya dig? You got to go along to get along. There’s a way to ask something and a way not to. Hopefully, I found the correct way. When I post here it is with all due respect for the creator.

BEST!!

=h=

Anyone think maybe, just maybe this Zach thing and other castings of TOS characters is just misdirection? Maybe, just maybe the story is of the Romulan son Spock fostered? And is set beyond TNG?

Lordy I hope so. :)

I just think Quinto was showing his gratitude at being cast by using the phrasings that are handed to him by studio wonks. I wouldn’t read too much into it. If I were JJ, I’d be sure to keep feeding the studio wonks disinformation and laugh my wunderkind balls off when it came back around.

Excellent….I’m hyped for this movie!

Or perhaps the story is one of those “I am my own grandfather” things? There’s gotta be some cheap gimmick in there somewhere. Nothing anymore is fresh and original. :(

IF they stick to canon, they will have a tough time making the Romulan war scenario work based on the dialogue from Balance of Terror–especially the bit where Spock says no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other. How dull that would be.

Maybe Quinto threw us a red herring, or maybe he just wants to take it all in. I find his enthusiasm encouraging.

#19 hitch “thinking bigger picture”
That impassioned speech you just gave is the best Zachary Quinto impersonation I’ve ever seen! I hope our fellow posters appreciated it for what it was meant to convey…..

Jeez, more time travel in Star trek? It just seems like a very convenient plot device, and Star Trek writers have not been slack in employing it to keep the shows going as long as they could. I would hope that if there is time travel in this flick, it’s done with some taste and aplomb. I’m sick of seeing “alternate timelines” and “parallel temporal occurrences” or whatever the hell. YUBinit, I agree with the sentiment.

BRING BACK MUGATU!!

Great that Quinto is reading up on Trek history. As for the Romulans, many have tried, but few have ever made much of an exciting story about them or the Vulcans. Manny Coto’s season 4 of Enterprise I think was doing a great job in exploring the Vulcans and Romulans, similar to the great stories about the Klingons on TNG and DS9.

#19 — Hah! However, as amusing as the parody of Quinto’s syntax was, you jumped from topic to topic in a way that Quinto did not. It is this that differentiates “kicking up the bullshismo” from simply speaking in an intelligent but somewhat stilted manner.

Hopefully they’ll start a new series featuring him and the young Kirk in their earlier years…that would be quite interesting, seeing as two to three hours really doesn’t cut it for life stories.

#18 …how do you fill a hole thats a 100 years old?………lil dinner, lil dancing, and ALOT of TEQUILA lmao

To Zach Quinto…Regarding the origin of Vulcan mythology ;Spock states that before logic Vulcans were driven by their passions and that their society was lawless.I don’t think it’s any coincidence that both Rodenberry and Nimoy may have unconsciously drawn inspiration from their jewish heritage.Because according to the old testament the world was chaotic ,lawless, pagan etc. before moses stood up gave the law (logic) to keep the people.Spock knows the law(logic)keeps him reigned in but he’s always looking for more.To be relieved from the burden of logic and reconcile his passions or put them in place(grace?-Star Trek TMP)

Jon, Roddenberry was Southern Baptist, although he was not a religious man, and was opposed to organized religions and other such ideologies and their impact on human history. Nimoy is certainly Jewish, and perhaps he applied that to Spock, although I don’t recall him saying that in the past. His view on Spock was always about his internal struggle. Shatner was known to bring his personal experiences and beliefs into his writing, but I think Nimoy was much more concerned about the dignity of the character. He was very much worried that his work on Star Trek would be viewed as a joke, because of the space adventure nature of the series. Nimoy has written books about Star Trek (I am/not Spock) but I haven’t read them.

Wow.I thought Roddenberry was Jewish.Thanks Greg.I think logic may be a good metaphor for the law that was introduced by Moses to establish a people that emerged out of pharoic slavery and tyranny.Sort of like Vulcans who didn’t have an identity before they adopted logic.

#18 – What you said!
I hope there is no time travel in this: it just makes for lazy, stupid, incoherent writing, and would just be a rehash of Star Trek, not Star Trek itself. Oh, I’m sorry, the politically correct (and sickening) term is “reimagine”. Disappointing.

Maybe has something to do with Unification?

Nimoy has made comment in various venews that he drew upon Jewish ritual to help build the spock character (particularly in the intro of the vulcan salute)

#2 – He’s learning about Romulans? Possibly adds weight to yesterday’s story theories??

Romulans are only an integral part of the background information Quinto must learn in order to portray the character of Spock. A familiarity with naval jargon is probably essential information as well since it is in keeping with being an officer aboard a starship. Thus said, it’s probably unlikely that neither of these subjects has anything to do with the plot of this movie. You’re out of your Vulcan minds if you believe that Moriarity guy knows anything about the true plot. If the writers a) use time travel, b) blow up the Enterprise, or c) use some sort of 20th/21st century story tie-in as their main plot, then they aren’t worthy of penning a Star Trek film & I daresay this venture wouldn’t even get off the ground much less be in pre-production.

The mentioning of Romulans adds credibility to the fact that this is a time travel movie……yawn!