New Star Trek Guys Talk Old Star Trek, Sequel

The L.A. Times recently caught up with “Star Trek” wunderkinds J.J. Abrams (director) and Roberto Orci (writer) on the Vancouver set of their TV show Fringe, and of course, the topic of “Star Trek 12″ came up. Here’s what the duo had to say about where they plan to take the sequel.

Abrams:

“The ambition for a sequel to ‘Star Trek’ is to make a movie that’s worthy of the audience and not just another movie, you know, just a second movie that feels tacked on. The first movie was so concerned with just setting up the characters — their meeting each and galvanizing that family — that in many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. it needs to do what [the late 'Trek' creator Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory. It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn’t mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths — truths connected to what we live — that elevates any story — that’s true with any story.”

Orci:

“We’ve literally had two meetings now. We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas. We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.’ We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.

The studio has added Lost guy Damon Lindelof to the writing staff, and the sequel is currently scheduled for a Summer 2011 release date, which means things will start picking up by 2010 at the latest.

Whoa, whoa, who put Shatner in the corner? No one puts Shatner in the corner.