Orci And Kurtzman Discuss Star Trek 2 Setting And Villain

Interesting stuff. As someone who's never been a Star Trek fan, I was suprised at how much I enjoyed last years movie! I cant wait to see where they go next with the franchise..! :)

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I'm with Soul - a 'mirror-universe' plot would be interesting to see...

As for Orci re-doing 'Star Wars', why not let him have a crack at the first threee (Episodes I-III)? Aside from the lightsaber duels, they pretty much blew! Plus, I don't think Orci would be stupid enough to bring back the annoying Jar-Jar Binks, no matter how hard Lucas wants to pimp the Star Wars merchandise!

As long as there's no humping dogs or farting robots I think it'll be fine.

Its kinda EARLY for Khan....

They should save him for for Star Trek 3.

Use a Different for 2 and roll with KHAN for part 3.

Khan was a random character from a random episode of the original series until The Wrath of Khan (which ruled). We don't really need to see another Khan. I'll come back to this point.

We need to explore the changes in timeline. The Klingons lost a lot of warships in the last movie, during their battle with Nero. The Federation also lost a lot of ships. The events of the previous film should have lasting effects on the balance of power in the Federation. Who would come forward to take advantage of such an upheaval?

Other changes - Pike isn't marooned on a planet of illusions. Kirk probably doesn't have a son. Spock doesn't have as many Vulcans to influence him... would this lead to a larger acceptance of his human side? What kind of issues could this raise between he and Uhura once the Pon-Farr hits? For those of you who don't know, Pon-Farr is a sort of violent Vulcan puberty/mating thing that happens every seven years (or something).

Back to Khan - the point I was trying to make before is that, like Khan, ANY ancillary character from The Original Series can be made more interesting. I'm sure only the die-hard Trek fans knew the character Khan when Star Trek II hit theatres. And just because Khan was given a superb treatment on film in the 80's doesn't make him any more or less viable than any other potential antagonist for a new movie.

When we talk about Khan returning, we're talking about the desire to recapture our feelings of that particular movie (arguably the best Original Series film).

We shouldn't beg for reiteration of the classics. JJ Abrams did very well with his Star Trek movie and we should encourage him to stick to his own creativity instead of depending on old standards. Khan isn't Kirk's Joker, or Lex Luthor, or Magneto. When we talk about a sequel to The Dark Knight, we often talk about how tired we are of the same antagonists being seen in every Batman movie.

Let's see more Romulan activity. Let's see how the balance of power changes in the universe with Vulcan destroyed. And let's not forget that both the Federation and Klingon Empire lost a bunch of starships in battles with Nero.

Between The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise, there has to be something from which Abrams can find material (I left out Voyager because of the far-flung setting).

Or maybe we can simply count on JJ Abrams to do what he does best... create something exciting and new.

@ROR

Great article!!!

@sethasa

Great comment!!!


I really could care less, on one hand i'm routing for Khan for the nostalgia, and on the other gimme something new! Either way, with how great the first film turned out, they'd have a tough time dropping the ball.

Just please, make it sooner rather than later =)

Hey, if all else fails they could 'jump the shark' (throw the 'S'?) early and re-reintroduce the Borg - they DID try that in 'Enterprise', remember?

Legendary:

Thanks for the question.

I wouldn't say Kirk has any over-reaching nemesis. The Star Trek franchise is driven by it's episodic nature. By virtue of that method, you cannot have such a character. If Kirk has any constant enemy through the entirety of the canon, it's the Klingons. He begins as a wartime Captain, regularly fighting Klingons. His son is later killed by Klingons. Toward the end of his life journey he helps to foster the peace treaty between the Klingons and the Federation and learns trust for them. I see the Klingon/Federation war as Kirk's story arc.

And I didn't intend to diminish Khan's impact or significance in THOSE stories. I intended to make the point that, with good creative writing, directing, and acting, ANY character can be every bit as 'loveable' or relevant as Khan, but for THESE stories. Khan certainly began a significant chain of events. But Khan was not tied to anything but the beginning of that chain, motivated by circumstances that have, now, never taken place. In the original series, Khan's ship was adrift - exiled after the Eugenics war. He rallied his genetically-enhanced crew and failed an attempt to take over the Enterprise. Kirk and the Enterprise crew left Khan on Ceti Alpha Five under a passable truce. Had Star Trek II not been made as it was, Khan would've been just another episode.

I agree with the remainder of your post. I think you anticipate the same kind of universal power war that I do. But I still don't want to see Khan, or the Borg, or Q.