Orci & Kurtzman Q&A On Star Trek, DVD/Blu-ray, Writing Process & Sequel

Last week we put up a partial transcript of the Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman Q&A from the Paramount Home Video press event promoting the upcoming Star Trek DVD & Blu-ray releases. That focused on the sequel and other projects. Today we have the rest of the Q&A, with discussions of the Star Trek movie, the DVD & Blu-ray, their writing process, and a bit more on the sequel as well.


 

Q&A WITH ROBERT ORCI AND ALEX KURTZMAN, Part 2
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More from Bob and Alex on Star Trek sequel

Question: Now that you have Spock Prime who has actually boldly gone everywhere, is that going to be a problem with the exploration of the next film because you have a character that can say "if you go that way you will hit the Denobulans, and if you go that way…"?

Alex: No, because Spock came back into a different timeline where everything is….the circumstances on those planets could be entirely different than what Spock is aware of.

Bob: Spock may decide it is wrong to tell them everything.

Alex: Even going back in time is a violation of the prime directive for him.

Question:  Does the success of the first movie sort of embolden you guys to take more liberties as you’re coming up with ideas for the next one? Or does it put more pressure on you to go further to explore canon?

Bob: I think it is the exact same pressure as the first one. It’s like, “Great, I’m glad we had a nice victory, but now we’ve gotta do it again.” There’s the same amount of trepidation and reverence for Trek.

Alex: But, the excitement is knowing that we have everything in place. Going into the first movie, we had no idea what the actors were even going to look like. Now, knowing what the feeling was and who’s playing the parts, will definitely be helpful.

Question: In Star Trek, you hear Greg Grunberg as the stepfather, but you don’t see him. Will you see him on the DVD?

Alex: You will see the stepfather on the DVD, but not Greg. You’ll see a scene there that we ended up losing.

Bob: Greg wasn’t originally cast as that, and then he came in as the voice. There is a scene that was shot with another actor.

Question: s there room for Greg Grunberg to fit into the Star Trek sequel?

Alex: There is always room for more Grunberg. It’s whether or not he can find the time. He’s one of TV’s heroes. We’ll see how that goes. If he has the time, we’d love it.

Question: Grunberg wants to play Harry Mudd, what about that?

Bob: Maybe, he can fight it out with Jack Black.


Bob and Alex at Paramount press event
 

Bob and Alex on Star Trek movie

Question: JJ [Abrams] spoke earlier about the importance of Leonard Nimoy’s involvement in Star Trek, so I was wondering, from a writer’s point of view, how important was his involvement.

Alex: We couldn’t have made the movie without Leonard. We knew early on that so much of what was going to be required in re-imagining Star Trek, and also in staying true to everything that came before it, was going to hinge on Leonard, in a way, blessing us moving forward. And telling the audience that it is OK, you can make this transition now, I am here to help you. And we knew without him, we were never going to be able to have a movie.

Bob: We didn’t agree to do the movie until we had the idea that if we could get Leonard to agree to be in the story, that is a way to do both pleasing old fans and having him him, the soul of Star Trek, be the plot reason for the changes. So we we needed his blessing…it wasn’t until we hit upon that, that we said "now we know how to do it." So, it was pivotal for us.

Alex: Pitching the fate of Spock, to Spock, was a bit unnerving. [Bob interjects "and then your planet blows up, you like that?"] But, it was great and actually gave us the confidence. He didn’t commit right away, but he gave us the confidence to move forward, knowing that he liked the direction we were going in. So I think both creatively and in our hearts where we wanted the movie to be could not have happened without his ‘OK’

Bob: We took a big risk. We spent five months writing it, with him in it, without knowing if he would say ‘yes.’

Question: Someone sent me a letter saying that the fact that Spock had to stop the movie to explain to Kirk was some sort of break point script-wise. Do you agree with that? That you had to stop and explain to the audience, everything that has happened?

Alex: I think that we tend to be drawn towards structures that are very mysterious, for at least and hour, or hour and fifteen minutes. As an audience member, I always really like to be wondering, “What’s happening here? I don’t understand it. It’s really intriguing. Where is the punch line going to go?” But, when you incur that debt, then you owe the pay off, and the pay off is always the moment where someone comes in and says, “Okay, here’s some of the answers to the questions you’ve been asking for the last hour and fifteen minutes.” The trick with those kinds of scenes, is to make them really interesting and to make them very character driven, because what you don’t want is a scene where someone is just telling you plot. That’s really boring, and the audience tends to just check out. The ace that we had in the hole there was that we knew that it was a very emotional story for Spock to tell, because he was telling the loss of his planet and he was talking about his
responsibility in that.

Bob: And it is a mind-meld. It is not just an information dump. It is an artistic element from Star Trek.

Alex: That’s right And It’s literally a new Kirk, who doesn’t like Spock, realizing, “Oh, wait, Spock is a much broader character than I ever knew.” So we were very lucky in that case, to have so much character stuff infused in that scene

Bob: We wouldn’t change it.

Question: Can you talk about, with Star Trek, what was the first moment, whether in the writing or once you start to see it come together in the editing room or on set, where you began to feel you had it?

Bob: You get it twice. You get it once when you know you have the right story, and I think we did feel that that,  very strongly, as we were writing it. The “Ah-ha!” of having Leonard Nimoy in it was big for us. But then, you have to actually shoot it, and cast it. Can you really replace icons? What’s that going to be? Even in the middle of shooting, when you go onto a set, you’re hoping it’s looking cool and not like Saturday Night Live, or something. I think it was after we saw the first cut, probably. So, once when we wrote and once when we saw the first cut and realized, “Oh, man, these actors are great, and the production design actually looks great.” We saw it come together then.

Alex: I think that writing   was probably the most emotional experience we’ve had, in the actual writing part of it, because you are dealing with, not only these iconic characters, but the responsibility that you are suddenly bearing, of bringing them back to the world in a new way and then telling a story that is deeply deeply emotional.

Question: You are fans right?

Alex: Exactly. It’s like, take this thing from your childhood and make it someone else’s childhood. It is very daunting. That is the kind of thing where you have to tune everything out. We literally locked ourselves in a hotel room for weeks and weeks and just scene for scene, line for line. You don’t always get the luxury at the pace that we work at, to luxuriate in every dot and comma, and in the Star Trek it really was that and we really loved that.

Question: When you’re writing characters that are that well-established and on the other hand, but with Star Trek the Original Series, some of that dialog is a little iffy. How do you capture the sound of it, without having dialogue that is 60’s clunky?

Bob: We were lucky in this one when we came up with the idea, because we we knew it was going to be them young and them turning into who they are, so it prescribed a very natural arc that they don’t arrive at the people you see in the series, until the end of the movie, so it freed us up to not have to mimic them exactly, and be able to tell a growing up story.

Alex: Also, because these characters were so ingrained in our minds from childhood, they are already a live in your head, in some way. So, once you are sitting down to actually write them, you’re listening to your childhood voice, coming back up for you and that  becomes your best compass when you are writing dialogue because we all knew that there were certain key traits about all the characters that had to be represented, but the question became, “How are you going to do it in a new way?” We hadn’t cast any of the actors that we had in the movie, when we were writing the first draft, so it was very much about knowing their personalities, but then finding a way to make it fresh.

Bob: And, reading the novels helped, a lot of Star Trek novels.

Question: The opening sequence of Star Trek was very surprising. How did that evolve, and how did you approach that?

Alex: Interestingly enough, that was not the first scene of the movie that we wrote. That was the second scene of the movie, and the first scene of the movie is actually on the DVD. The first scene of the movie was the birth of Spock. We knew that the way these characters were born was going to define everything about who they would become. Knowing that Kirk was going to be a renegade, knowing that he was going to have father issues, knowing that he was going to be lost, knowing that he was going to have to come into his own as captain, prescribed a series of things that allowed us to think about, “What would create a man like that?” Rising to the challenge of, “Are you going to be as good as your father, who literally died in the service of keeping you alive? Are you going to rise to that challenge?,” was a very emotional place to begin.

Also, one of the things that we heard a lot was that women do not like sci-fi because there is no emotion. We were like totally offended by that and thought, “Well, okay, that’s bullshit. Let’s show them how wrong that is, from the word go, and then everyone will be equalized. Then, we can all go forward from there.”

Bob: I think the first kernel we had of that was that we thought, “Kirk should be born in space. He’s on his dad’s ship, and he’s in battle.” It started that he should be born in space…and not Iowa.

Question: You spoke about your childhoods. Do you have any specific memory of the first time you encountered Star Trek, as a child?

Bob: For me, it was being with my uncle and he did the kid’s version of relativity, why going faster than warp was a crazy cool concept. I just remember, that was the first time I heard the name Einstein, and I just realized there was a larger physical, scientific, magical world, and it was through family, my uncle.

Alex: The Original Series was what I knew, it already in re-runs on KTLA, when I was growing up. Then the big bang–I liked that, but I didn’t lock in, in the same way that I did when I saw Wrath of Kahn. Watching that, in the theater, and watching that Ceit Eel go in Chekov’s ear and going, "Oh my god, what is this?" And the friendship between Kirk and Spock, that was so beautifully drawn in that movie, it just touched me then and it was a huge compass in terms of what we wanted to get out of the movie.

 

Bob and Alex on Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray

Question: JJ talked about taking the opportunity [on the DVD] to sort of explore or examine some of the logical questions that even fans of Star Trek had. Was that important to you, or was there even a possibility, with Star Trek, of sort of making some of the logical leaps or logical explanations for the story on the DVD?

Bob: Yeah. As we said earlier, we tried to be open about what we’re aware of at the moment. Certainly, some of the decisions that we made, scientifically, in terms of canon, and all that are there, yeah. That’s what the whole movie is about. Is it canon or isn’t it?  And where do you fall on it, if you’re a fan? You can’t avoid that conversation.

Question: There’s a lot of deleted scenes on the Star Trek DVD, and there were even scenes deleted from the script before it was shot. What was the hardest scene for you guys to lose?

Bob: There wasn’t anything because our original script didn’t include the scenes that ended up getting cut.

Question: What about the whole Klingon thing?

Bob: We added that later. We knew it might be long, but we just went for it. So ,we were fine with exactly how it ended up.

Question: Can you talk about some of the the differences in your approach  to the Star Trek DVD and the special features on the Transformers DVD? Is there a difference in overall approach?

Alex: No, we tend to sit down and talk very loosely about the experience of making the movie. I think the differences are in the way that the movies were made, but not necessarily in the approach of the DVD extras. What’s really cool about the DVD extras is that, in both cases, they documented everything we were all doing together, from the minute that it started, to the minute the movie was released. So, tt’s pretty extensive.

Bob: We tend to try to just be as open in how we came to things as possible. It’s not just, “I remember that day.” It’s more of an interpreting of what we did.

Alex: We grew up having nothing like this at all. For example, there was one screenwriting book when we grew up. Only one! Now, there are DVDs, you can go online, and you can see everything. There is so much there. I think we feel like, “How cool is it for people to actually have the thing that we didn’t have?” So, we try and give as much to the DVD extras as we can.

 

Bob and Alex on their writing process

Question: What was the screenwriting book you grew up on?

Alex: Well, there was actually one screenwriting book that was interviews with screenwriters, and one that was just format.

Question: How did you learn your craft?

Alex: A lot of writing badly for a long time.

Bob: We met in high school in senior year and we just just wrote in every year in college. And by studying movies. We would watch a movie and write down every scene and stare at it and outline it to see what are the structure looked like on paper and you reverse-engineer from that.

Question: JJ has this great working relationship with Michael Giacchino, and I was wondering if music was a critical part of your writing process and at what stage?

Alex: It is almost the first thing, actually. I don’t have anything in my car or my iPod that isn’t a soundtrack, which is very sad, actually. It is how the ideas get dreamt up. All of Michael’s stuff is on there, along with a million other composers.

Question: How do guys work with each other? Who comes up with the ideas? Do you have roles between the two of your?

Alex: Our writing is a dialogue. It is a process of debate back and forth. I’ll be like "what if we did this, or did that?"

Bob: We sit across table from each other, both at computers, and we decide what is the right line.

Alex: We started writing pre-Internet, with both of us on the phone, and that is how we developed our voice. That back and forth became how we write.

Question: With the relationship between Spock and Kirk, does it resemble your relationship?

Alex: We were in the middle of writing the fight scene on the bridge, after the destruction of Vulcan, and realized that we were writing about ourselves.

Bob: I realized that a lot earlier.

Alex: Yeah, but Bob didn’t say anything.

Question: Which one of you is Spock and which one of you is Kirk?

Bob: I think Alex is Kirk and I’m Spock.

 

More to come
Look for more coverage on the Star Trek home video releases coming November 17th. You can pre-order your copy or copies below.

Title Blu-ray DVD
Star Trek 2009 3-disk set

3-disk set w/ replica

3-disk set w/ badges

2-disk

1-disk

 

 

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“Also, one of the things that we heard a lot was that women do not like sci-fi because there is no emotion.”

Makes perfect sense since there are hardly any women at all in this movie.

Wow. What a great interview. I loved that they had Nimoy in mind and that they were praying that they could get him to be in the Movie and the way they are fans of Trek. Great job guys and heres to the next Trek.

@1: You’re right, next movie they should balance things out by adding in the planet of the bimbos from “Spock’s Brain” That would even things out…

Right?

Right?

*chirping crickets*

Awesome interview. Many thanks for that!

I can see what you say about scriptwriting. I am trying to get into radio drama writing (in Germany that’s a market that thankfully still exists) and reading interviews like this, along with commentaries (Ron More, you are a god) really helps getting the “feel” for the thing you are trying to pull off.

No real insights into what’s in the sequel. Can we assume that it’ll be action first, character second, science/social commentary… on the cutting room floor?

Thanks Bob and Alex. Thanks Anthony.

Good, fun read.

@3: @1: “next movie they should balance things out by adding in the planet of the bimbos from “Spock’s Brain” That would even things out…”

It’s possible. I’m just waiting till someone brings up the tiny little fact that women can’t become Captains in the Federation.

Nice interview, Anthony.

Some great answers and feedback from this pair of writers. Great stuff. Now make the next one that much better !

Great interview, looking forward to the blu ray and Star Trek 2011.

More emotional scenes please; Kirk holding onto Pikes dying body as Pike whispers into Kirks ears his final words with his last breath…make us proud.

Same music from Star Trek 2009 where Pike Lectured Kirk.

Bones: He’s dead Jim.

Tears fall from Kirks face and Spock comforts his friend.

Chekov: Incoming vissles

Dramatic Music hits, exit space: 5 Warbirds decloaking and powering up weapons.

Red Alert Klaxxon sounding.

Those guys get it.

The Scene where george Kirk makes the ultimate sacrefice and saves the lives of his crew and wife and newborn. That was a very powerfull and very emotional scene and brought tears to my eyes and my G.F who had never seen any Trek. These guys do get it and in getting the blessing of mr Nimoy himself who was with Star Trek from the very begening tells me that they have great reverence for all things Trek. Also that they read a lot of Novels also says that. The fact they feel like the next movie will be equaliy challenging is great as they will come up with the best script and story. Way to go guys. As TD says. You truly get it.

#11. Thank you Anthony for Transscriing this interview. We know you hated doing it. Thank you!!!!

9: somethoughts

I’ll go with it:

“More emotional scenes please; Kirk holding onto Pikes dying body as Pike whispers into Kirks ears his final words with his last breath…”I thought I told you to get off the damn bridge!” Throws up.

Same music from Star Trek 2009 where Pike Lectured Kirk.

Bones: “He just threw up on you, Jim.”

Tears fall from Kirks face and Spock comforts his friend.

Chekov: Incoming vissles

Dramatic Music hits, exit space: 5 Warbirds decloaking and powering up weapons.

Red Alert Klaxxon sounding. Kirk is still crying, now sobbing uncontrollably. Spock is now REALLY comforting him….

Oh forget it…

#15 Anthony. I hear you on the Slaves. or Interns. Lol. I havt to be honest. I could not tell. I think you are a true professional when it comes to doing interviews and you are as good if not better then most of the so called main stream. But if I was to guess it would be the question about Mr Nimoys involement in Star Trek and how inportant it was for them as writers. That would be my guess.

Something I have been wondering is: could Kirk have gotten more out of that mind meld than just a history? Did he get any sense of the bond from the past? Any memories of Spock’s death? The man he was? It would have been pretty amazing to have gotten, if not as much as Picard got from Sarek, something more emotional and relevant to the characters.

Have the writers answered this question before?

Jack Black would be a sweet Harry Mudd!

I know it can’t be done, but I’d really like to pin Bob and Alex down on whether the next movie will aim towards the thinking part of Trek, or whether we’ll continue on with the movie tradition of, as I said, action and character. I have no problem with ST09. None. I just would like to see a nicely balanced ST11, with some thinkin’ mixed in.
Just sayin…

@7 WTF? Janeway?!?!

I really hope Harry Mudd isn’t in the sequel, no matter who plays him. I really am frustrated tho with the lack of information coming out about the movie. I know the DVD for the first one isn’t even out yet, but still…they’ve got to at least have some idea where they’re going by now.

If they can get Shatner into the movie without it being totally ridiculous, that would be good. If they could get some of the TNG actors/characters in there too…nah, too much to hope for. They might not even exist in this timeline, for all we know.

As much as I love ST (09) — it’s one the best films of the year and my personal outright favorite — I wouldn’t say it’s any where near as good as the original Star Wars (follow me here) which I consider one of the best films ever made, but I think what Mr. s Orci, Kurtzman, Lindelof and Abrams have on their hands in terms of the sequel is making their The Empire Strikes Back, a film that may lack the novelty and creative high-flying genius of the first one but a chance to make something richer in theme and more developed in terms of character thus raising the dramatic (or even comedic) stakes.

I say bring on elements from the original series and films and all the spin-offs, work them in as successfully as before in the present film but don’t make them the engine the drives the car. Make it about Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. as you’ve reimagined them. They’re great. But, as a favor, let’s see at least one confrontation and space battle with Abrams’ styled Klingons. I’d love to hear a Giacchino Klingon theme.

I think the next movie should bring in Commodore Decker. That story would be terrific!

#15

You can be like Letterman…oh wait nevermind ;)

#21

I have a feeling they will explore The Klingons and give fans some easter eggs like Khans Botany Bay floating in space, I have that Undiscovered Country intro music stuck in my head.

Would be funny to learn that young Kirk received more than we thought via the mind meld, perhaps this is part of the reason he is such a kick ass captain, he knows all the enemies/potential outcomes from spock primes alternate reality. He would know Kirk/Spock primes 5 year missions/encounters/v’ger/Khan/genesis/Klingons/whale probe/great barrier/peace with Klingons/Nexus. I think this will make for a boring story telling element, where the protagonist has access to such a god mode, boring. The alternate reality reboot is suppose to make it unpredictable so that in itself should cancel out the above notion.

To resolve the 2 spocks, there should just be a 1min explanation that after helping the Vulcans rebuild, he went back to his reality. Prime Spock is gone, he went back home, explains the younger Spock, there.

Alex Kurtzman said: “Even going back in time is a violation of the prime directive for him.”

What part of the Prime Directive is Spock violating?

#14

Ha, nice

#25

Interfering with another alien culture.

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral
obligation.

25. RD – October 14, 2009
Interfering with the natural development of less advanced cultures!

or what 27 said!

Hi Bob! /waves

Keep rocking!

@ 1:

I am so sick of all the stereotypes about women not liking science fiction. There are many well-written science fiction, books, movies, and televison shows like Star Trek where there is a lot of emotion. I love the characters and their relationships as well. I am not a “Twilight “fan. I don’t care for the typical romantic crap peddled to women. I have been into science fiction for many, many years and way before Star Trek was ever “cool”. I was ridiculed by my peers because I read Issac Asimov and Stanislav Lem instead of Seventeen magazine. Women in general and Black women in particular aren’t supposed to be interested in science fiction. There are a lot of female fans of science fiction franchises like Firefly, BSG, Dr. Who, Torchwood, and Stargate. I am amongst them.

I am sure there will be more female characters in ST XII. I hope they are not stereotypical.

#31

Carol Marcus played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

To: Bob Orci
From: Supervisor 194, code name Gary Seven
Dear Sir:
I am glad you guys are going to make the next film a little deeper, in line with the Trek’s history of commenting on the human condition and our society. One other request, if I may be so bold:
Kirk was great, not because he was “the one” like Neo in the Matrix, but because he was exceptionally clever and had out-of-the-box solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Think of the bluff in “Corbomite Maneuver” or how he outwits every supercomputer (Nomad, Landru, etc.), for some examples. In the 09 movie, he mostly just seems to be “destined”” to be great. Let’s see more actual examples of how Kirk is great in the next one.
Best Wishes for your Continued Success,
Supervisor 194

“Bob: I think Alex is Kirk and I’m Spock.”

Yeah, you almost have the hair style matched perfectly.

“Also, one of the things that we heard a lot was that women do not like sci-fi because there is no emotion.”

And you heard this rubbish where, exactly, guys? Ever been anywhere near a Star Trek (or Sci Fi) convention? There are (gasp) lots of women there! Do you have the remotest idea how much fan mail all the original cast (esp Nimoy) received from women?

Oh, and please – please! – stop reading the blasted novels to gain “insights” into the characters. There are very, very few novels that actually come close to getting them right (Prime Directive is probably the best of them). GO AND WATCH SOME EPISODES!!!

Man, I wish Bob Orci commented on my comment!

(Seriously, I am very glad he’s here. I got the chance to speak briefly with him about Trek when he was in T.O. shooting the Fringe pilot and he’s a very good, talkative guy at least in my experience.)

But I actually do wish he commented on my comment… which I think is relevant.. #21.

I kid, I kid…

Bob, I appreciate very much what you and Alex did with Star Trek. The movie was very much in keeping with the spirit of the Original Series, and I feel confident that you two will continue in that spirit in the future.

Are you accepting ideas on the script for the next movie? How can fans share thoughts or ideas for future movies?

Live long and prosper!

QUESTION FOR BOB!!! During the writers strike JJ Abrams stated that he had a great idea for a scene in the movie but couldn’t film it because of the strike, any ideas what this scene was and if it in fact ended up being filmed anyway

Re: The Prime Directive

On the other hand, since Spock, Nero and co created this quantum universe just by being there, that kind of makes Spock the God of that universe! ;)

Besides, if he didn’t come forward willingly, Section 31 would probably have their wicked way with Spock! Either way, Starfleet will be well-informed!

Philip Seymour Hoffman for Harry Mudd !

@20. antodav

Janeway reflects a period of Star Trek that has changed over the decades where women’s roles were much stronger and more important. The original Star Trek rarely gave women roles of authority, like there being no female captains.

Remember how Majel Barrett’s role on Star Trek changed from being the highly experienced First Officer of the Enterprise to the ship’s assistant nurse? Remember in Turnabout Intruder where Janice Lester’s character remarks how women cant become Captains in Starfleet? Or most blatantly, how the standard issue uniforms for women were very short skirts (The nurses are even worse). This was an element of that Star Trek moved on from as the years went on, but now we’re back to it in full force. Uhura is the only female character currently in the Star Trek saga and her role isn’t any better. Seeing the men go off to save the galaxy while she stays behind and does nothing is not an improvement.

Not every TOS episode was golden, in fact some of them were damned awful, but on a good day it had the best dialogue of any Star Trek. “60’s clunky” is definitely a term I can’t appreciate.

“…women do not like Sci-fi because there is no emotion”

No, Bob and Alex, if women do not like sci-fi it is because women in sci-fi are treated as props, not as interesting, intelligent characters. I read in an interview that JJ Abrams wife and several other wives liked the Star Trek script because of the strong female characters. I must have missed those characters – perhaps I blinked.

If you want more female fans, try incorporating interesting female characters (like Captain Janeway or Ripley from Alien for instance).
I am really hoping you can accomplish this in the next film with Uhura. You had a good start with her character, but then she just seemed to become arm candy for Spock. Please do better.

Great stuff. I could listen to them all day…

Blu-Ray and Home Theatre buffs. The state of California is debating banning energy sucking big screen hi-def TV’s. TV manufacturers believe they can improve their products to meet California energy standards, but it may take a while. DON”T BE FOOLED! Once they have us all paying more for our low wattage electronic devices, guess what happens. Since we’re using less energy the utility companies revenue goes down. They must therefore RAISE THE RATES. Therefore, the public ends up paying more while utilities have to produce less. Progress? You be the judge.

@7

Turnabout Intruder was a pretty lame script written for, what was then, a lame duck series…at a time when women’s roles in society were ABOUT to change dramatically. The idea that there was a rule banning women from the captaincy was a throwaway line to easily drive the hatred/jealousy plot by a lazy writer.

It’s one of those CANON moments that has been ignored ever since. The captain of the NX-02 was a woman…was she not? Captain of Enterprise C? Rachel Garrett. Of course there’s Voyager. Lots of other female captains seen or referenced over the years. So I doubt you’ll see any reference to the “tiny little fact” that seems to have you so upset in future Trek films.

Maybe M’Ress could be in the next film to rebalance the gender issue!

@ Jeyl-

Wow, great point brining up Turnabout Intruder, I totally forgot about that episode and the comment made by Ms. Lester.

That’s one of the many social drawbacks that ‘Star Trek’ had to contend with in the sixites. I guess that’s just the result of the time in which the show was created. Thankfully today, those standards don’t dictate the types of stores that are on television (Saving Grace, The Closer, etc.).

Maybe they could introduce Carol Marcus and maybe even baby David in the sequel as a source of drama for Kirk (after all, in TOS it was stated that McCoy set him up with a girl at the academy who Kirk almost married).

I for one would be DELIGHTED to see Admiral Pike reuinted with a Commodre ‘Number One’ (from the John Byrne comic series) and those two would play an integral part of the sequal, helping our young heroes.

But then, who could play such a part and convey the late Majet Barret Roddenberry’s poise and intelligence?

My Top Three picks for New Number One:

1) Marg Helgenberger (anyone who watches CSI knows why)
2) Holly Hunter (again, from watching other performaces, this could work)
3) Mariska Hargitay (a little young, but her strength on SVU shines)

The sequel could not come soon enough.

One fan’s wishlist:

– Kirk’s shirt ripped in a fist fight and Kirk actually emerging victorious in hand-to-hand in the sequel

– Gary Mitchell Kirk’s best friend.

– Kirk using his personal terminology of “Landing party” as opposed to the 24th century “Away Team”

– Spock and Uhura relationship disintegrated. It’s still the one thing I couldn’t buy about the first film

– More McCoy and Scotty. I’d like Scotty to mellow in his humour a little. Let’s see the formidable side we saw in the original series whenever he was left in charge of the ship.

– If using Khan, let him stare at Chekov so that in 20 years time he can legitimately say “I never forget a face… Mr Chekoff”

– Bill.

– A battle scenario where Kirk is on the bridge and has to use his intelligence and an unorthodox tactical manouvre to save the day. (along the lines of what Gary Seven mentioned in post 33).

– Admiral Pike to return.

– Destroy the Enterprise (Don’t listen to Paramount) and then replace it with the 1701-A that we saw in the Motion Picture :D

Don’t know if I ever gave my review of the film, but I would have given Star Trek a solid 9 out of 10. Oh and the Shatner cameo that was leaked online in the script, was fantastic! Really well written and brought a tear to the eye!