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Consider if you will JJ Abrams. In the new issue of Star Trek Magazine, Abrams still won’t talk details on Star Trek XI, but did discuss how he thinks Trek relates to some of his favorite franchises.  I always loved it when stories that were somewhat outlandish and larger than life were told with the intensity of a real life drama – things like Planet Of The Apes had such an impact when I saw it as a kid. Most episodes of The Twilight Zone were dramatically told. Star Trek is a good example too – in many ways, that series shared some of the qualities (and in some cases, crewmembers or cast members) of The Twilight Zone. I loved how Star Trek and The Twilight Zone would take things incredibly seriously – but that’s not to say there wasn’t humour of humanity built into those stories. The humanity was the thing that made those shows resonate and matter. Overall, I feel that watching larger than life, extreme and often preposterous situations told with the same commitment, as a true –to – life drama, was always my favourite kind of storytelling. Science fiction and thriller genres, when done well, seem to do that consistently.

Star Trek fans eagerly await the time that JJ Abrams really begins to produce (and maybe direct) Star Trek XI, but it appears for now that Trek has to get in line behind all of Abrams TV projects. Abrams currently has 3 hour long shows running on ABC: ‘Lost’, ‘What About Brian’ and ‘Six Degrees’. As the headline in CTNow states: 3 shows keeps Abrams sprinting. It appears that the latter two shows are currently his focus. Abrams recently had to cancel plans to direct an episode of Lost so he can work on his other shows, telling TV critics in a conference call last week: "I’m depressed because I was supposed to leave today to direct an episode with a mind blowing story, but because of these other shows Iwas unable to do that." And it isn’t just Abrams. Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof are also slated as Trek XI producers, but both of their ‘day jobs’ are on Abrams TV shows. Lindelof  keeps quite busy as a showrunner for ‘Lost’ (along with Carlton Cuse) . Bryan Burk, like Abrams, is an exec producer on all three shows (Lost, Brian and Six Degrees).

Star Trek XI producer JJ Abrams greatest claim to fame is probably the creation of the hit show ‘Lost’ which premiered in 2004. He along with fellow Trek XI producer Damon Lindelof are credited as making genre TV cool again. Since then no one has been able to duplicate it, and each network did try and fail last season  (including CBS’s attempt with Brannon Braga’s ‘Threshold’). Many feel that Lost dropped a bit in quality in its second season (during which Abrams was busy making MI:3). Tonight Lindelof and Abams are back as co-writers, which is their first Lost script since the Pilot two years ago. The script titled ‘Tale of Two Cities’ was written around the same time Abrams was writing the story for Trek XI (and right before starting the script) so we will see if he has ‘still got it’.  Early reviews indicate that  season 3 is off to a bang, here is what the USA Today had to say about it…

Not only is JJ Abrams prepping a new Star Trek film, but he has three series on broadcast television; Lost, What About Brian and now Six Degrees which launched last night. Both Abrams and fellow Trek producer Bryan Burk are credited as executive producers of Six Degrees with former Voyager writer/producer Ken Biller in as show runner.  Having secured the plush post Grey’s Anatomy slot, the show failed to deliver on high expectations. According to fast national ratings, the premiere of Six Degrees was in third place for its timeslot, delivering with 13.34 million views. It lost a good chunk of the 25 million viewers who watched Grey’s Anatomy the previous hour.

Star Trek XI is certainly not the only iron in the fire for producer JJ Abrams, here are some of the latest news items for our new dear leader… ABC is launching its 4th Abrams produced show ‘Six Degress’ this Thursday. Vareity says of the show’s Pilot: "cleverly written giving the characters a heady, just-specific-enough mix of mystery, intrigue and charm — the key in each of producer J.J. Abrams’ hits." ‘Six Degrees’ will be one of three Abrams series on ABC this fall, joining ‘Lost’ and ‘What About Brian’.  Abrams has recently cut a multimillion dollar deal with Warner Bros. to develop even more TV shows…spreading yourself a bit thin there JJ…don’t forget about Kirk and Spock! Trek XI’s only semi-certain castmember Greg Grunberg told the NY Daily News that lifepartner Abrams is a big fan of his new show on NBC, ‘Heroes’. They quote Grunberg as saying "I talk to him (Abrams) every single day…and he said to me, ‘I’m telling you, "Heroes" is going to be a huge hit.’" As they point out, it is a good thing Abrams new show isn’t going up against his pal Grunbergs show.