Star Trek Team Say Next Movie Will Deal With "Issues"

The LA Times caught up with Director JJ Abrahms and Co-Writer Robert Orci on the set of their TV show Fringe and asked them about the plot of the next Star Trek movie. They said that the major difference between the first one and its sequel will be a much more socially conscious message..

"The first movie was so concerned with just setting up the characters — their meeting and galvanizing that family — that in many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. it needs to do what [the late 'Trek' creator Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory. It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths — truths connected to what we live — that elevates any story — that's true with any story."

Well, that doesn't mean we are going to be lambasted with allegory does it? But then there's this from Orci:

"We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.' We're trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what's going on today as possible. So that's one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today."

The LA times reporter then asked if that meant the movie will deal with
"terrorism, the ethics of torture, or a long-running, painful war with the Klingons." Apparently Orci acted as if the reported had just read his mind!

So, it would seem we might be seeing those pesky Klingons in the sequel after all. As well as yet another message about how war and torture and all that stuff is really bad! Ah well, if Abrahms is true to his word and avoids pretension, I'm sure it will be done well.