JJ Abrams is quickly becoming one of my fav guys in Hollywood and TV. He does so much that you start to forget that all those things you like happen to be his fault. Sure he isn’t flawless, but he is hitting it better than most. So when I found out he was in charge of breathing life into the withering husk that is Star Trek, I had a lot of hope.
Hardcore Nerdity tipped me off to an interview with JJ Abrams at AMCtv that addresses his new TV Series Fringe as well as how he dealt with Shatner and the new Star Trek.
Q: How do you react to William Shatner’s ire at not having a role in the movie?
A: It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It’s funny — a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.
I honestly hope they take canon and bend it over without the benefit of lube and make it their bitch.
A staple of Star Trek is frequent annoyingly casual time travel (we just press this button.. what?) and NOTHING bad ever comes of it. They always fix it. I really want to see the intrepid crew of the Enterprise in their later days suddenly beig forced to chase some turd across time to stop him from altering the past and FAILING.
Then tell the story from the very beginning AGAIN. That way it strangely stays in Canon (since it was an event in canon that resulted in a change in history) and still manage to Reboot the series.
But I found it interesting that Abrams tried to accomodate Shatner and even found some way to include him, but finally had to admit it just didn’t work. Little spoiler for you people on the outside of Trek fandom. Shatner’s Kirk DIES in Generations. Sorry. No more green alien sex for him.
I like to hear that JJ Abrams is not willing to sacrifice quality of his work just to accomodate a cameo that even he thinks is well deserved. Shatner may have had his dark years, but lately I think he has really come around and impressed me more than once (watch Boston Legal) in his work and public appearances. I wouldn’t have a problem with him in this film provided it made sense.
Apparently it didn’t.
