  The original 'Star Trek' cast.
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LOS ANGELES — J.J. Abrams was never a Trekker. He’s said it so often, he’s practically on autopilot.
But in that outsider status lies the hope that Star Trek can once again appeal to a fanbase beyond the now-narrow faithful that can conjugate verbs in Klingon.
When Paramount approached him with a plan to “reimagine” the origins of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Bones et al, “I thought, ‘It could be cool to work out a version of Star Trek that would appeal to me.
“I immediately called Alex (Kurtzman) and Bob (Orci),” he says, referring to his writing partners on TV’s Alias and Fringe, who happened to be huge Trekkers, “and they’d already been talking to Paramount about Star Trek and were figuring out how to do it.”
There were two obstacles — the first being that in the pop cultural tug-of-war between Star Wars and Star Trek, Trek was perceived to be what your dad watched. Christopher Pine, the new Kirk, agrees. “Growing up in the Star Wars generation, it was just more visceral and fun for reasons that had everything to do with FX. Meanwhile, the world (Trek creator Gene) Roddenberry created was this grand allegory that explored great social themes. And as a kid, I had no clue.”
The other is that, after five Trek TV series and 10 movies, we pretty much know everything that happens to everybody who “lives” from the late 21st to the 24th centuries — which is kind of a drama killer if we’re starting over with a bunch of twentysomethings on the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701, about to face an overwhelming threat from a Romulan villain named Nero (Eric Bana).
The latter is the biggest gamble of all. Dancing around the “spoiler” issue, all we’ll say is there is interference from the future, with the result that these young Starfleet officers’ destinies have been altered — some cataclysmically. And everything that’s ever happened in any other Star Trek series, movie or book is off the table forever. That’s good news for the writers, who are committed — along with the cast — to coming up with two more instalments of the new, improved Trek.
“We all know the fate of the characters (from earlier shows),” Abrams says. “We know some die, some live. How do you put characters in jeopardy under those circumstances?
“What we’ve done is recreate Kirk and Spock, tell their origin story, create an emotional way it can give people like myself a way to love these characters.
“Finally, I just read the script and literally said, ‘I’m going to be so envious of whoever directs this movie. I will go to the set and it will kill me.’ So my decision (to direct) was more emotional than intellectual.”
Capt. James T. Kirk
Iowa farmboy turned saviour of the galaxy. Can talk computers into destroying themselves and women of all species into disrobing.
Old Kirk: William Shatner, who famously ... talked ... as if ... every ... word ... was ... its ... own ... sentence.
Went on to: T.J. Hooker, Promise margarine commercials, Boston Legal, priceline.com
New Kirk: Christopher Pine, best known as a Lindsay Lohan leading man (Just My Luck). Played a hippie winemaker opposite Alan Richman in Bottle Shock.
New kid says: “I was not a Trek fan, but my grandmother was a huge William Shatner fan. She babysat me and inevitably we ended up watching reruns of T.J. Hooker. Heather Locklear was a revelation.”
Spock
Half-human, half-Vulcan first officer, capable of dry, logic-based humour. More emotional in his new incarnation and has a thing going with Uhura.
Old Spock: Leonard Nimoy (who also appears in the new Trek). Famously created the Vulcan salute, basing it on a Jewish blessing gesture.
Went on to: Mission Impossible, Unsolved Mysteries, directing (Trek movies, 3 Men And A Baby) and photography (has a website of Rubenesque nudes).
New Spock: Zachary Quinto, best known as Sylar, the superpower-stealing serial-killer on Heroes. The only actor chosen specifically for his resemblance to the original.
New kid says: “I spent time training my hands to do the (Vulcan salute), that didn’t come easy. So I would rubber band my pinky finger and ring finger together in the months leading up to the shooting.”
Dr. Leonard (Bones) McKoy
Kentucky-born “country doctor” and curmudgeon. “Dammit, Jim, I’m a DOC-tor, not a (non-doctor occupation here)!”
Old Bones: DeForest Kelley, character actor mainly known for Westerns (Gunfight At The O.K. Corral).
Went on to: Not much besides Star Trek movies and an episode of The Littlest Hobo.
New Bones: Karl Urban, New Zealand actor best known as Eomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings. A Trek nut who can cite episodes by name. Also the best soundalike. Close your eyes and you’d swear it’s DeForest Kelley in the film.
New kid says: “(The role) enveloped me like a jersey. McCoy is this cantankerous grumpy doctor with the most apalling bedside manner, but beneath that prickly surface you have the most compassionate, altruistic, dedicated, loyal friend you could possibly find.”
Montgomery Scott
Chief engineer considered the Enterprise engines his children (“me bairns”). Always on the verge of panic ( “I dinna noo how long the engines can hold, Cap’n!”)
Old Scotty: James Doohan, a Canadian and grad of the Lorne Greene School of Broadcasting.
Went on to: A featured role in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, dozens of episodic appearances in everything from Magnum P.I. to McGyver. Made his biggest headlines, posthumously, on April 28, 2007 when his ashes were shot into space.
New Scotty: Simon Pegg, comic actor of Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Run Fat Boy Run and How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.
New kid says: “It was genius on Roddenbery’s part to have the engineer be Scottish, because so much contemporary engineering — the televison, the radio, the telephone — all came out of Scotland,” says the half-Scottish Pegg, who made Scotty Glaswegian.
Uhura
Communications officer whose contribution to the series was to rub her thigh with one hand while holding a mike to her ear like one of the Bee Gees and say “Hailing frequencies open.”
Old Uhura: Nichelle Nichols, actress-singer and sometime muse for the likes of Ellington and Hampton.
Went on to: Episodics, character roles and one-woman musical shows. Most recently seen as Nana Dawson on NBC’s Heroes.
New Uhura: Zoe Saldana, best known as Anamaria in Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl.
New kid says: Uhura’s relationship with Spock “gives a new generation an opportunity to fall in love with these characters. She’s an apt pupil, she wants to be the best. And here’s this mentor. He’s witty, has pointy ears, he’s sexy. There’s privilege and friendship and a connection for him to allow Uhura to be the only person to see his human side.”
Sulu
Helmsman. The guy who pressed beeping buttons when Kirk said “Ahead Warp Factor 3.”
Old Sulu: George Takei, L.A.-born actor who spent part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp in the Second World War.
Went on to: A public life as a gay activist (he was one of the first to take advantage of California’s short-lived gay marriage law), frequent Simpsons voice and Howard Stern guest. Most recently played Kaito Nakamura (Hiro’s dad) on Heroes.
New Sulu: John Cho, Harold of the Harold And Kumar movies.
New kid says: “I didn’t grow up a Trekker, but I was very impressed with the multi-ethnic cast. And George in particular made a great impression on me as a young Asian kid growing up. It was really meaningful for me to see him on television.”
Chekov
Ensign who pressed beeping buttons alongside Sulu. Usually the guy who laid in courses and had to report things like ‘Ciptin! The Wulcan wessels ... they wanished!”
Old Chekhov: Non-Russian-speaking Walter Koenig.
Went on to: A short stint on the cheap Canadian sci-fi series The Starlost. Played the villainous Bester on Babylon 5.
New Chekhov: Russian-speaking Anton Yelchin, recently seen opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Charlie Bartlett.
New kid says: “(Koenig’s) accent wasn’t as much a Russian accent as a Cold War stereotype of a Russian accent.” Nonetheless, it was what Abrams wanted and he went with it.
jim.slotek@sunmedia.ca
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