Orci and Kurtzman speak

the writers of Star Trek recently took part of a show called Life After Film School and they talked to three real film graduates about the movie. It will air on the Fox Movie channel.


Student: You guys wrote the script for the upcoming Star Trek film, which takes place before The Original Series era. This means it is almost a prequel to the original Star Trek show. Were there any challenges laying the foundations to something with such a heavy structure to it already in place, with such a canon?

Orci: Our version of Star Trek is not exactly a prequel. It is in some ways and you will have to see it to label it exactly. Canon, that is a word that was invented for Star Trek, meaning, does it fall within the continuity of this forty-year puzzle. But it was amazing when we went back to look at Star Trek, no one had ever done the story about how the original crew came together.

Kurtzman: [laughs] how is this possible?

Orci: Yeah, there’s five thousand hours of Star Trek and no one ever covered how they all met [laughs]. So in a way that was liberating in that no one had stated how that happened exactly. And because we had been fans truly–who knew all those years sitting in front of the TV watching Transformers and Star Trek that we weren’t wasting our time. It was all tax deductible. It was daunting, but we thought, if we can’t do it, the no one can! No, not exactly. But it was like we had been called to duty and it woudl have felt cowardly to back away just because ‘it has been forty years, what can we do?’

Kurtzman: I think also, as daunting as it was, because it has such a die-hard fan base. And it has forty years of rules that you can’t re-write…

Orci: Or can you?

Kurtzman: [laughs]…the thing that compelled us to do it, it is very very rare to be handed a franchise that you love as a kid. Are you kidding me, you want to give us Star Trek, like are you insane? First we were scared, not because we didn’t think it was worthy, but because we didn’t think we were worthy of it. So it became about thinking if we were going to do this, what did we love about it, what inspired us when we were kids? And how do we get back to that feeling? And what was that feeling about for us? And ultimately it was very much about Kirk and Spock and that Bridge crew. So what got us through the fear–the excitement of that opportunity–was probably comes once in a lifetime.

Old News

yeah, because nobody replied when I first posted it!

He makes a good point - they'll in effect be writing canon. As long as they don't get too far-out, no one can really question what they do. I had never thought of it that way before and suddenly I'm much more optimistic!

I particularly love the fact they didn't think they were worthy.....that's such a good sign to me. Arrogant shmoes who think they've got the answer rarely do.....

Did Stuart Baird Think he was worthy?

I hope JJ somewhat thinks he's worthy. I can't believe it's still 6 months away, and yet I know it'll be here so soon.

I CANT WAIT!