Our friends at CreationTV had a chance to talk to Star Trek’s new Spock at the Star Trek con in Vegas. Zachary Quinto focused on how he is keeping the secrets and what it was like working with JJ Abrams and Leonard Nimoy, but also may have revealed something important about the film itself. He also talked about the upcoming season of Heroes, see below for video.
VIDEO
Revealing quote?
Possibly the most revealing comment from Quinto was this:
This story happens irrespective of where the Spock we’ve come to know ends up.
Someone needs to get him drunk and get some information out of him. :-)
He is very good at saying a lot without saying anything.
he still has the star trek side burns
I like when he does that thing with his finger, says “Show me that!”, and cuts the top half of the cranium off.
Then eats the brain to get the power.
THE WOMEN!!
=h=
He was such a nice guy to interview. Very thoughtful and engaging. I hope that never changes with more success. I believe there was a piece of the interview cut for time where I asked him how the new posters reflect the tone and look of the movie. I have to see if that clip is available, but he’s really good at keeping quiet about details.
“This story happens irrespective of where the Spock we’ve come to know ends up.”
Alternate timeline/reboot.
Irrespective means heedless or without regard to something. So, maybe I’m being paranoid, but that quote seems to me to indicate that this movie doesn’t pay attention to things that have happened to Spock throughout Trek (and by extension the rest of the crew and Enterprise), we’re doing our own story.
All-Star Star Trek or Ultimate Star Trek.
I would consider meself a bit o’ an educated man… sure I know tha’ classics, and yes, I can wade through many o’ sciences and art and quote a few mathematical theorums of dynamical systems…
But I canna make anything oot o’ what from he said… he may as well said somethin’ akin ta’
“Brooms hi-jack monkey blue ass-caffiene Jupiter marrrrrooned in butter.”
or even
“Our current economic crisis is merely psychological.”
Arrrrrr…
I don’t think we should all panic about this quote…. he’s basically saying that his Spock will not be the same as the Spock that Nimoy created, makes sense as Quinto’s Spock is before Nimoy’s…
6 – Actually, that tells me that what Spock was doing in the 24th century, and his ultimate fate (death) are not dealt with in the movie.
In other words, he comes back, does what he does in the film, then goes back to the 24th century, without revealing anything.
This makes sense, since Spock would not want to offer any information that would affect the way things must be.
Do you think his own mama knows anything about the new trek?
5-I think you might be right. At least to me, a reboot would be a huge slap in the face to everyone who’s loved Trek over the years. It has the potential to invalidate everything from TOS to VOY.
An alternate timeline that branches off into its own little universe I can live with. It’s cheezy, and to me seems like saying that they couldn’t come up with a compelling story within the confines of the original TOS universe, but it works.
I tend to think that Nimoy has too much respect for the fans and the character of Spock for the former scenario.
Now we’re getting into all that temporal monkey business that makes my head hurt……
I, for one, don’t mind a reboot. It makes this new movie series less restricted. Besides, it’s not like it’s real….
#14
… or IS IT?!
#15
No… No it’s not.
9. I agree with you. It just means we see a younger Spock, one of the pre-orginal series and movie Spock of Nimoy.
Is Quinto pronounced KWIN-toe, KIN-toe or is it Throat-Warbler Mangrove?
18. Quinto himself said KWIN-toe so that’s what I’m going with.
14 and/or 15: Freakin hilarious!
I’m sorry that should have read:
15 and/or 16: Freakin hilarious!
#18
That’s not even his proper ears. They’re polystyrene. And no, this isn’t anti-semitism.
-Commander Luxury Yacht
PS I go with KWIN-toe, myself
18 – LOL. You mean Raymond Luxury-Yacht?
He sounds like he has a cold. His voice is deeper than i have previously heard it to be. And that’s a good thing. I’ve always felt that he had the look…but i’ve been a little concerned about the weight/depth of his voice. Here’s hoping he drops it down a little when he’s in character. But he sounds good here…like i said….possibly with a head cold?
He did have a cold or something.
I’ll take a “multiverse” story if that’s all they got, but it feels like a cheat (even though I accept multiverse theory). In a multiverse, there would be no need to worry about changing the present, because changes would merely spawn another “world”. The concern would seem to me to be not so much of “altering the present” but of being able return to one’s home timestream (don’t cross the streams!).
The problem with a “multiverse” story is that it “cheapens” the characters and their collective experience and the world the audience is drawn into (the “C” thing that everyone seems to have a conniption about). It’s kind of like the Superman and Batman stories of the early 60’s which infuriated readers because at the end, they turned out to have never occurred – they were dreams or happened in (you guessed it) another universe. The multiverse works well for, say, Phillip Pullman’s “Dark Matter” stories because his characters never existed anywhere else except a world that was strangely like ours but wasn’t ours. When characters crossed from one world to another, it was through a means that was well- explained and logical in the context of the story, not simply because the author had written himself into a corner or wanted to throw off existing constraints by “re-booting” things.
Ironically, the more I hear about the new movie, the less excited I become, because it keeps sounding like when the thing finally does come out, there’s going to be about as much connection between this movie and TOS as there was between the Mission:Impossible series and the tv show. While MI series were in their own right nice action movies, they sure as hell didn’t need to be called “MIssion:Impossible” for any other reason than to capitalize on the name of much-beloved tv show to try and pump up the size of the audience.
#25 – “they sure as hell didn’t need to be called “MIssion:Impossible” for any other reason than to capitalize on the name of much-beloved tv show to try and pump up the size of the audience…”
I certainly agree with that comment.
#25: I concur.
25 26
you’re right in principle about mission impossible, but remember that was nothing to do with jj as the first two movies clearly established that world and set of characters – he actually provided a better instalment than what had come before while operating within the confines of that particular world
as far as quinto’s comment – to me the use of the word ‘irrespective’ in this case means that regardless of his actions, events in the original series etc. will not be altered, rebooted or any of these other ridiculous terms people are getting so worked up about.
I actually think he was sneakily trying to reassure fans that their blessed and sacred canon will be preserved intact – trust the rabid canonistas to take that one comment and go ape.
Lots of folk seem to forget that regular poster and co-writer of the film, bob orci is a proper fan who, if he wasn’t involved in making the bloody thing, would probably be visiting this site with the same concerns we seem(ed) to be expressing.
For fooks sake people, chill out and just enjoy the thing when it (finally) arrives.
I was as worried as the next trekkie when this all was first talked about – now seeing who’s involved both in front of and behind the camera and reading the news we get here about the movie – I am extremely optimistic
roll on next year
Well, that’s cryptic. But I’m just glad he used “irrespective,” not “irregardless.”
I’m guessing at least six or seven hard-core fans just jumped off a bridge and committed suicide when they read Quinto’s comment.
I think that’s the plan. Keep saying just enough to get the over-the-top hardcore canonites to off themselves in a moment of despair, leaving the rest of the everyday level-headed people to just go and enjoy the movie.
I think that’s why they pushed the movie back to May . . . it gives more time to thin the heard of the more obsessive fans.
It’s a far-fetched plan, but . . . It . . . just . . . might . . . work.
There’s no crying in baseball and there’s no suicide in Star Trek, unless it involves piloting a shuttlecraft down the maw of a doomsday machine.
Man, I bet that hat is starting to smell, he wears it so much
I have always suspected that Nimoy is playing an older “quinto”, meaning no disrespect to Nimoy/TOS/ etc. but that we are being presented with a young Spock character and Nimoy is the older version of that character, not Nimoy as Spock in the 11th Trek movie. Which of course leaves open the idea that Shatner could play an older “Pine”, and not the “Kirk” that died on Veridian III. This quote reinforces that idea.
The closest parallel I can think of is Richard Roundtree playing “Uncle John” Shaft in the Samuel Jackson Shaft remake.
Ya gotta keep in mind that there are two storylines in this movie. One is the “coming together of the crew” that we know and love. The second is the story with the villains that causes the older Spock to go back in time. “This story (the coming together of the crew) happens irrespective of where the Spock we’ve come to know (older Spock going back in time) ends up.” No matter what happens to old Spock, the beginning is still the beginning……
Another possibility is that the events of the story lead into TOS, but won’t conclusively point to a final fate/destiny/what-have-you for older Spock. That would dovetail with a comment by Mr. Nimoy a few weeks back to the effect that there’s nothing in the film that would preclude him from playing Spock again, that “I don’t have any reason to believe there is going to be more, and then again there is nothing that happens to me in this movie that would prevent me from doing more. It is not like the end of Spock necessarily” (as Nimoy said).
Adding this quote, also from Mr. Nimoy, regarding Spock meeting his younger self: “We meet coincidentally in a time crossover”, makes me wonder if what Mr. Quinto is saying is that older Spock’s part of this is happening alongside, but not entirely connected to, the rest of the story, that of the original crew coming together.
#34 – GMTA (as evidently we were typing almost simultaneously). ;)
Nice interview Televixen. I’d be interested in the cut Q and A, any furthur info would be much appreciated. BTW I think you look better with short hair.
Yeaaaa Star Trek!
Just remember Joe Schmoe — they need every $ they can get at the boxoffice whether we canonistas bitch before, during or afterward, money is money.
#25 “…they sure as hell didn’t need to be called “MIssion:Impossible” for any other reason than to capitalize on the name of much-beloved tv show to try and pump up the size of the audience.”
And the music. Don’t forget the music!
(Man, I *wish* I’d listened to Greg Morris and walked out before the “reveal”….)
#39 – What I fail to understand in any way is how maintaining basic continuity could be tied to losing money. The only way continuity is a problem is if you write the script in such a way that someone going to the film needs to have seen something else to understand what’s going on. And I trust the writers of this film not to have done *that*. :)
##33, #34, #35….
Honestly, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the elder Spock [Nimoy] when confronting his younger self [Quinto], introduces himself as cousin SELEK, just as he did in TAS episode “YESTERYEAR” — thus bringing an air of trust in the younger Spock.
That way, later in Spock’s life (during the events of “YESTERYEAR”), he would remember the incidents [as depicted in ST XI] and choose “the logical thing to do” (as Sarek might say in a similar, needful scenario), introducing himself AGAIN — to a far younger younger Spock, still a child on Vulcan during that TAS episode — as “Selek.” Then again, that’s pure speculation on my part for how this movie might pan out according to the story’s writers.
sweet! I think I am going to love this movie!!!
I love to see good interviews of the new cast. Great job as always Televixen and the DVD geeks!
Hardcore fans can’t support Star Trek. If they could, there would still be movies. Ratings for the show were dropping, and the movies were underperforming. There simply weren’t enough hardcore fans.
So I say throw away “canon”, it’s a ridiculous and nonexistent idea anyway. Give me a reboot that completely blows the cobwebs off a tired old franchise. Revive this corpse and give it new life. Forget the petty details that some people insist they adhere to and adhere instead to the spirit and characters of Star Trek.
Star Trek dogma is dead. Long live Star Trek!
Quinto’s comment is sort’ve unsettling.
I would like to hear what Bob Orci has to say about this.
It’s canon and not canon. The story is, our Spock talks to younger Spock from a different fork in the time line. I haven’t read a script but this has to be the way the story line folds out. It lets us preserve the 700 hours of Trek we know and lets us start a new vision of Trek at the same time. Of course it’s time travel, basically but a good twist on time travel. It’s like Back to the Future time lines, without crazy Doc Brown as a Klingon this time.
Will Quinto’s cool hat be in the movie?
Right about now I’m thinking: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.
#45- If they have to blow away the existing Trekverse, then Star Trek *is* dead, and they might as well just fold the tents now and save a whole lot of advertising money.
I don’t believe they have to do that, the sheer volume of fresh new storytelling *in* the existing Trekverse that’s coming from the licensees on a regular basis shows they don’t have to do that, and while there’s reason to believe TPTB don’t believe they have to do it, either, it would be nice for them to just explicitly say so and have done with it.