Although JJ Abrams reached out to all the living Star Trek The Original Series stars, only Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols (in addition to Nimoy of course) ended up visiting the new Star Trek set. In a pair of new interviews Nichols and Koenig talk about their visits with Abrams and the young actors playing their original roles.
Koenig praises Abrams and Yelchin
Walter Koenig has an extensive video interview at Roddenberry.com where he talks about his collecting, fans, the internet and much more. He also talks about the upcoming JJ Abrams film
Koenig on Abrams and the Star Trek movie:
I think the movie is a great idea and I hope they really do a terrific job – I have no reason to believe they won’t. I know JJ Abrams is a very sharp guy and he is obviously extremely successful – and the cast I got to visit on the set all seemed to be very confident, very good performers and very interesting personalities. So I’m sure that they will have a good film.
Koenig on new Chekov, Anton Yelchin:
I talked to Anton. He came by and actually spent a couple of hours talking. He is a very ingenious pleasant young man. He already has a career, I mean he is quite well established and seems to be building quite a career for himself as an actor.
Nichols on Abrams, Saldana and Quinto
Nichelle Nichols is appearing at the Trek Expo in Tulsa Oklahoma this weekend and gave an interview to NewsOK.com, where she talks about what she is up to these days and also about her experience with the new Trek team.
Nichols on meeting Abrams:
He did me the courtesy and respect of asking me to come and have lunch with him, and come on set, and could he pick my brain, and he wanted me to meet the young woman (Zoe Saldana) who was to play (Uhura). … And I thought that was so classy. And then I think he got together with the other people (original "Star Trek” cast). Because everybody wanted to be in it, you know. And I think he was probably thinking about it. But he really wanted to make his statement, his movie. And this is his movie. And I just can’t wait for it to come out to see how well it will be. I think it’s going to be wonderful; I hope so anyway.
Nichols on her Heroes co-star Zachary Quinto as Spock:
I had seen his character, and I thought, "My God, he’s such a handsome young man, how is he going to play (Spock)?” He’s such a macho-looking guy on the screen, and then I saw him at a convention and I guess he had cut his hair, and I said, "My God, he is Spock.”
Nichols on the new Uhura, Zoe Saldana:
She is so beautiful. She didn’t know I was going to be there, and she was not supposed to be working that day, as I recall. And J.J. had her come in … and she walked in and looked around and said hi, then stopped dead, turned back and looked at me and said, "No way!” It was just beautiful. And she came over, and she was like, "Are you you? Are you you?” And we sat and talked, and J.J. came over beaming with red cheeks. And we talked for about 40 minutes more, just she and I, and it was lovely. It really was kind of like deja vu all over again.
Full interviews: Koenig at Roddenberry.com / Nichols at NewsOK.com
Nichols and Koenig along with Grace Lee Whitney
from "Of Gods and Men Part 3" (photo: Albert L. Ortega)
Park talks Abrams too
Linda Park (Hoshi Sato on Enterprise) is also appearing at the Tulsa Trek Expo this weekend and spoke to TulsaWorld.com about her life after Trek. She also talking about the new Star Trek:
Abrams seems like the perfect person. It seems that he would pay homage to what ‘Star Trek’ is and completely revitalize it for a new world.
It gives me much confidence in the new film when I hear such high praise from the original actors.
I can’t wait to see this film!
Very classy moves. JJ is bringing great karma to this film. Fingers crossed; hope it pays off on screen.
wonder if michael biehn will visit Anton on the set of T4?
god that cheap movie uniform on Konig looks awful…couldnt they have just got his old uniform from one of the movies?
Very classy. It would have been great to be a fly on the wall at these meetings. Sounds like so much fun!!
well it looks lioke this is going to be one hell of a movie. All of the orignal actors are loving it and thats a great sign. Now if i can just time warp my self to next year so i can see it already.
Ok i tried to time warp but that pesky tempreal prime directive wont let me.
yes,, its going to be a Trek to look forward too,,
by the way,, is anyone else wondering why Mr Shatner hasnt touched his “Shatner Vision” web site since May 6th.
maybe his busy,,,,, filming ,,,,,,,, something
:o )
Lots of typos in the post guys, just a heads up. Give it a quick read through! :)
7. SirMartman, Shatner has been touring to promote his new autobiography.
#6 – C’mon, it’s just a jump to the left!
I must reluctantly concur with snake #3’s assessment of Walter’s uniform. Poor fit, and it just looks…. off. I know nothing of clothes–fit, etc.(my better half could confirm this), but something doesn’t look right to me with that uniform…. :)
That jacket would look fine if it just fit better. Tailor!
Lots of trying to pull in the old school for a positive PR campaign. Leaves me very suspicious as to why they are trying so hard to convince us this is going to be ok. Doesn’t Abrams have any faith in his product?
Walter doesn’t look well
#10
and then a step to the right…
Yah, I agree about the uniform – they looked so sharp in the movies, but that one just looks like you begged mom to make you a halloween costume…
I am glad the actors are excited though, but it’s still 333 god-dang days away!
I think that jacket was meant for a 44 inch chest, and Walter’s only a 38……
Who can honestly say that ANY of the three
main characters in the photo above look good?
One is blatantly too old – the other too skinny for
his uniform and the last looks she escaped from
the old folks home.
The people at Star Trek Phase II should forget
the primary characters of the past and should
concentrate on new YOUNGER actors.
But…George (or is that by George?) did a very
convincing job reprising his role as Sulu in the
prior installment.
#18
I have to agree. Leave the icons alone and do some new Trek.
Quinto is Spock 2.0 :)
#13
“Lots of trying to pull in the old school for a positive PR campaign. Leaves me very suspicious as to why they are trying so hard to convince us this is going to be ok. Doesn’t Abrams have any faith in his product?”
Oh for the love of god…..This doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Abrams faith in his project so much as it is about assuaging the fears of older fans. If he wasn’t doing this kind of thing, people would be constantly bitching and moaning about how he had no regard for the originals. Complaining that he was ignoring the original cast. About how he wasn’t asking them for their input, shutting them out like a Rick Berman.
But he isn’t. He’s showing people that he IS interested in the opinions of the originals. That he is respectful and even reverential in regards to them and you can’t even see that.
I wish the movie was coming out in December, because I’m not looking forward to a year where every little inconsequential thing is looked at as some kind of flaw or attempt at damage control of a movie that no one has seen yet.
Re # 9. AJ – June 8, 2008
Well I looked up IMDB.com and Mr Shatner is filming his part in
“Horrorween”
I find it interesting because his part in the movie is listed as ,,,
“a Cameo”
thats funny I thought,,after all the talk of the ,,
Im not in the next Trek because “I dont do Cameos”
hmmmm,,, I thought,,, as I rememberd the other story that hit the net about how he had a operation and he almost lost his life,,
a story that Mr Shatner debunked, and said that he was” fine” and in “perfect health”.
funny how he ended up on talk shows later,,with,,,,a new hip and walking with a cane.
Im just saying,I wouldnt count him out of the next Trek,, thats 2 big white lies so far,,is Trek number 3 ??
I wont count him out until I see the movie from start to finish !
dang it i should have gone to Tulsa this weekend! oh well this is my Trek fix for now
Linda Park even says something positive about the new movie! YAY! One of my hopes was the someone from ENTERPRISE would make like a cameo in the new movie, like T’Pol or Dr. Phlox. That’d be awesome! :-)
That would be awesome if an Enterprise cast member could have a cameo. I think it would have to be T’Pol, and it would make sense to as she would only need minimal age makeup, and she’d have something in common with the young spock. Talking to him about how illogical humans are or something.
BTW- Why one earth do people get facelifts (Grace Lee Whitney, Carrie Fisher) Do they not realize how unattractive it makes them?
Empress Sato
:::sigh:::
:)
18. That Guy
For the record the photo shown is from “Of Gods and Men”, NOT “Phase II.”
Yeah, this is (maybe) a step into an alternate-TOS universe… so maybe a little Empress Sato cameo….
Probably not…. but it was one of Enterprise’s more fun eps.
27: Perhaps….since it was only this year that
Star Trek (New Voyages) has been retitled to
their current name of Phase II
In the long run it doesn’t matter now does it?
Is Chekov wearing Shat’s uniform jacket in that photo?
#15
…put your hands on your hips…
Sorry, couldn’t resist :)
Have any of the TNG actors said many positive things about Abrams’ Trek? If I recall, many were very critical of the “prequel” idea at the outset, particularly Levar and Marina… even Michael Dorn. They all argued that Gene’s vision was about “looking forward,” and if Trek 11 were to be a prequel that would violate Gene’s vision…. as much as I adore the TNG cast and applaud their work over the years, that sounded like a bit of whining on their parts since it was clear Paramount was ready to move away from the TNG cast on the big screen.
One week to go until OGaM-3.
Walter looks like the off-duty Santa at a Federation Department Stores mall.
According to the computer screen in “A Mirror Darkly” Jonathan Archer was at the ceremony of the NCC-1701 launch, and died the next day in New York. It would be nice to see, but I guess that would be a distraction, but I am looking forward to seeing any nods to any of the other series.
#21
Well said, I could not have said it better myself. No matter JJ & Co. Does, we will be hearing the same thing for the next 332 days, ugh. You can’t please everyone no matter what he does or did.
I hope some true fan catalogs all the various Easter Eggs, tip of the hats and tributes that supposedly will be a part of this new film.
How could these icons of the original shows imagine a prequel plot into which they themselves, 40+ yrs later, simply get sifted into the mix like extra added ingredients?
It makes no sense.
And these are the selfsame bunch who are never shown, even once, attempting to save Kirk from his ultimate narrative predicament — the temporal anomaly, which brought their former captain face-to-face with the obsessive Dr. Soren.
#31
…now you let your backbone slip…
:-D
kg
38. They assumed Kirk was dead. If you were in a portion of a starship that had been ripped away by an energy blast, do you think people would think you were possibly alive somewhere? Most likely not. You make it sound like this is one massive slight against Shatner.
#40
Agreed. It’s not like Kirk was even wearing a spacesuit so they’d have no reason to think he survived.
– And then I think he got together with the other people (original “Star Trek” cast). Because everybody wanted to be in it, you know. And I think he was probably thinking about it. –
And I think he probably thought from the start that thinking about having the original cast in “his” film would be something he would never have actually thought about, but I think that he thought a lot of people would think it would be great to have them in, so he maybe pretended for a while to think about incorporating them into the film – I think…
Really, I only skimmed through these, because I’m getting sick of the same old articles Nichols met Zoe , Walter met uh…Opee or whatever. It’s just more of the same. Ya Know? They had lunch. I think people will like JJ’s Version. If Nichelle or Koenig were in the Movie somehow, then I’d Probably enjoy this reading these kinda things.
43: Last Maquis.
I agree wholeheartedly. I am waiting for the next “Zach Quinto says the film is faithful to the Original Series.”
ZQ: “The film is faithful to the Original Series, and pays tribute to the fans. Working with Leonard was incredible.”
Drive-thru: “Sir, I’ll ask you one more time. D’ya want me to super-size your Big-Mac value meal?”
Headline: “Zach Quinto Interviewed by Breanna Szczymczyk, McDonald’s Drive-thru shift supervisor at the Brea McDonald’s in Orange County, CA.”
On the other hand, it’s Trek news, so Anthony and Co. should report it. Just wait until the good stuff starts coming.
We’re lucky to have the news we have, seeing as it’s easier to find Area 51 then it is to know ANYTHING about the new Star Trek movie ;D
It’s true, open up Google Earth, type in Area 51, there it is as big as life !
The new Star Trek movie ? Forgetaboutit !
They certainly could use this kind of stuff for the CIA / NSA / FBI as of late.
– W –
* smirking *
Walter’s costume fits terribly.
he’s swimming in it.
#44. AJ
Yeah It’s Not like I don’t Envy the Hell Out of those guys, Sure I do.
Who wouldn’t really? I guess at this point in time without any major Reveals
it just seems a little redundant.
I guess the uniform shows the difference between a $150 million dollar budget and a $150 dollar budget.
Grace Lee Zombie.