New Star Trek Movie Relies on Long-Time Series Convention

More updates on the upcoming Star Trek movie: Turns out all those obvious differences—as featured through teasers and trailers—aren’t due to an attempt to update the whole Star Trek “look” for the unwashed 2009 masses. (Before we continue however… SPOILER ALERT!!!).

…Rather, it’s all based on long-established Trek science, that things change thanks to the miracle of time travel. Continue reading to see what trekmovie.com learned through an interview with Star Trek co-writer Bob Orci.

Anthony: OK, now let’s get really into it. From the trailer, and certainly from the four scene preview, there is no doubt that things are different. Pike and Kirk are hanging out in a bar. The ship looks different. Kirk is on the Enterprise and not headed to the Farragut. People are seeing Romulans…things are different. Now it has been revealed in the Entertainment Weekly article that Nero goes back in time and attacks the Kelvin, and JJ also talked about this during his previews. So the big question is: Is the destruction of the Kelvin, the canon reason why everything is different?

Bob: It is the reason why some things are different, but not everything is different. Not everything is inconsistent with what might have actually happened, in canon. Some of the things that seem that they are totally different, I will argue, once the film comes out, fall well within what could have been the non-time travel version of this move.

Anthony: So, for example, Kirk is different, because his back story has totally changed, in that his parents…and all that. But you are saying that maybe Scotty or Spock’s back story would not be affected by that change?

Bob: Right.

Anthony: Does the time travel explain why the Enterprise looks different and why it is being built in Riverside Iowa?

Bob: Yes, and yes.

As a long-time Trekkie, consider me shuddering from the throes of yet another geekasm. Full interview available here.

(Image from trekmovie.com)