City Times

Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: Arts

Media Credit: PARAMOUNT PICTURES Courtesy Photo

Boldly going where no Star Trek film has ever gone before, "Star Trek" opens in theaters May 8, and for the first time ever, James T. Kirk will not be played by William Shatner. Leonard Nimoy will still be donning the familiar eyebrows and pointy ears as Spock, but so will actor Zachary Quinto.

The iconic character, James T. Kirk, will be played by Chris Pine and this, along with the rebooted storyline, is what has a few Trekkies' spandex suits in a bunch.

During a phone conference to promote the "Star Trek" movie, Pine and Quinto talked about their approach to becoming Kirk and Spock, working with director J.J. Abrams and the pressures of dealing with a protective fan-base.

"[My] version of Spock is definitely a little bit more unsettled," Quinto explained. "He's less in control of the duality that exists within him … I think he's struggling with a lot of deeply felt emotions, passion, fear, anger and the struggle. The core struggle for me was containing all of that … and not really being able to express it so humanly was a really fascinating challenge."

Pine stressed the fact that his character is not Capt. Kirk, but the young James T. Kirk "before he becomes the confident commander of the later years." Pine adds that his version of Kirk is "a bit more brash and arrogant and young, essentially."

Their qualifications for playing the two icons, however, were called into question by fans who were bothered by the fact that neither actors, nor the director, were Star Trek fans to begin with.

A comment made on www.scifiwire.com rhetorically asked, "What fool at Paramount put people who were not fans in charge of this movie and in the lead roles?"

But long-time Star Trek fans should take into consideration the fact that the storyline was written by devoted Trekkies Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who by-the-way were also the writers behind last summer's blockbuster hit "Transformers." You non-Trekkies may want to take note of that part.

Orci and Kurtzman were looking to breathe new life into the Star Trek franchise, all the while sustaining continuity with the foundations of the original story lines. And with non-Trekkie director J.J. Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman felt they would get "100% translation from script to screen," according to Wired Magazine.

"J.J. [Abrams] has said openly and many times that he didn't necessarily make this movie for Star Trek fans," noted Quinto. "He made this movie for future Star Trek fans."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools