Abrams Describes Trailer Scenes

TrekToday · November 19 2008, 09:59 PM

In the past few days, the new trailer for Star Trek XI has been discussed and questions have been raised by fans, but some of these questions may have been answered recently by comments from Star Trek XI Director J.J. Abrams on some of the scenes in the trailer.

As reported by Empire, since the release of the Star Trek XI trailer, fans have discussed, picked over, argued about and questioned various elements from the new trailer but fans have been given some explanations with the comments included with thirty-one different photos from the trailer.

Abrams began with the initial scenes of a young Kirk riding in the Corvette and on the motorbike. "The idea with the trailer was to start with something unexpected and Earth-bound and then thrust you into the world of Trek. The scenes on Earth were important to feel a sense of future but also a real sense of now as well. Star Wars is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but Star Trek is our future, so it's important that we not feel disconnected from that. There are a couple of sequences that take place in Iowa and some in San Francisco and it was just important that the movie feel connected to familiar terrain before it became about things that you more might expect."

The fate of both the USS Kelvin and James T. Kirk's parents was explained. "The USS Kelvin, the ship upon which Kirk's parents serve. It (and they) meet a sticky end at the beginning of the film at the hands of Nero." The fate of the USS Kelvin is not surprising when Abrams reveals that "We know from the preview footage that [Nero's shadowy vessel] manages to take down forty-seven Klingon Warbirds single-handedly."

And Nero's background is explained too. "Nero in rags being manhandled by Klingon guards (yes, they're Klingons under the masks). "Part of Nero's back story is that he was being held in a Klingon prison, so that's what you're seeing here."

Several comments were about crew members. "Hikaru Sulu lays into Romulan soldiers with his extendable pocket katana," says Abrams. He goes on to praise Anton Yelchin as Chekov and explains the "w" for "v" usage. "He's from Russia originally and one of our early discussions was that they don't transpose 'w' and 'v'; that's not a Russian thing. In fact it's more a Polish thing. But I was like 'I think we have to do it anyway'. It's so what you know with Chekov so we kept what had come before." Finally, the Uhura dressing scene is explained. "This is a very funny scene where Kirk is in Uhura's room, watching her undress, and she very quickly realizes he's there."

To read more comments and to see the pictures, head to the article located here.

Python Trek · November 20 2008, 01:05 AM

Kirk's a peeping tom? Kinda sad.................

Broccoli · November 20 2008, 02:20 AM

Do I detect a 47 reference?

Peter the Younger · November 20 2008, 02:31 AM

Well that answers a few questions.

tomalak301 · November 20 2008, 08:05 AM

I think one thing that struck me watching the trailer a few times was Kirk and Spock's relationship. It seems they don't like each other in this movie. Could this be kind of in the same vain as Trip and T'Pol or Archer and T'Pol. I know Enterprise isn't a popular series, but anything to tie Enterprise into the trek franchise somehow is good.

Hardin · November 20 2008, 10:55 AM

uh... an extendable pocket katana? I don't get it, was he kidding around? Because it sounds like a joke, but...

DeafPoet · November 20 2008, 01:36 PM

^

Not a joke, but really, is it more ridiculous than anything else in Trek?

Hardin · November 20 2008, 02:35 PM

the joystick in Insurrection was more ridiculous. And possibly a couple of other things I can't remember now. But not much else. I don't think so.

Ptrope · November 20 2008, 03:40 PM

tomalak301 wrote:

I know Enterprise isn't a popular series, but anything to tie Enterprise into the trek franchise somehow is good.

Awww, can't we just forget it ever happened? I mean, B&B tried to forget that TOS ever happened while making it ...

Lindley · November 20 2008, 05:08 PM

TrekToday wrote:

The fate of both the USS Kelvin and James T. Kirk's parents was explained. "The USS Kelvin, the ship upon which Kirk's parents serve. It (and they) meet a sticky end at the beginning of the film at the hands of Nero."

You know, I don't recall if we'd ever gotten a notion of when George Sr. and Winona died before.

Python Trek · November 20 2008, 05:20 PM

DeafPoet wrote:

^

Not a joke, but really, is it more ridiculous than anything else in Trek?

You mean like VOY's Threshold or TOS's Spock's Brain or TOS's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield or TNG's Genesis or DS9's Profit and Lace or ENT's...uh...entire first season, or The Final Frontier or Nemesis or.....holy crap! That's a lotta ridicu-ocity!

<Conehead voice> Astronauts to the moon! Eh! Eh! Eh!

TJinPgh · November 20 2008, 05:23 PM

Hardin wrote:

uh... an extendable pocket katana? I don't get it, was he kidding around? Because it sounds like a joke, but...

Ahhhh, but, you see... this Sulu is a badass!!

He must be a badass with a really short memory, though, since he (along with everybody else on the ship, apparently) forgets all of this by the time Balance of Terror comes around.

Lindley wrote:

You know, I don't recall if we'd ever gotten a notion of when George Sr. and Winona died before.

They really don't talk about Kirk's parents through the series. I suppose that their deaths could be related to the pain that Sybok wanted to reveal in TFF, but Kirk never really indicated a great hatred for Romulans over the course of the series. If they were killed, it would seem more likely that it would have been by Klingons, not Romulans.

Of course, in discussing the trailer, I notice Abrams conveniently left out the fight between Spock and Kirk.

controlfreak · November 20 2008, 05:45 PM

TJinPgh wrote:

Hardin wrote:

uh... an extendable pocket katana? I don't get it, was he kidding around? Because it sounds like a joke, but...

Ahhhh, but, you see... this Sulu is a badass!!

He must be a badass with a really short memory, though, since he (along with everybody else on the ship, apparently) forgets all of this by the time Balance of Terror comes around.

Lindley wrote:

You know, I don't recall if we'd ever gotten a notion of when George Sr. and Winona died before.

They really don't talk about Kirk's parents through the series. I suppose that their deaths could be related to the pain that Sybok wanted to reveal in TFF, but Kirk never really indicated a great hatred for Romulans over the course of the series. If they were killed, it would seem more likely that it would have been by Klingons, not Romulans.

Of course, in discussing the trailer, I notice Abrams conveniently left out the fight between Spock and Kirk.

No. He discusses it here:
http://www.empireonline.com/features...trailer/17.asp

and here:
http://www.empireonline.com/features...trailer/27.asp

Admiral_Jinky · November 21 2008, 12:57 AM

Hardin wrote:

the joystick in Insurrection was more ridiculous.

Oh God, THAT was painful!

Captain Fine · November 21 2008, 03:12 AM

TrekToday wrote:

Anton Yelchin</font> as Chekov and explains the "w" for "v" usage. "He's from Russia originally and one of our early discussions was that they don't transpose 'w' and 'v'; that's not a Russian thing. In fact it's more a Polish thing. But I was like 'I think we have to do it anyway'. It's so what you know with Chekov so we kept what had come before."

Not to nitpick too much, but that's not really entirely correct.

Polish people might make a "v" sound for a "w" sound, but not vice versa, as there is no "v" in Polish, but the "w" is pronounced like a "v" (as in German).

E.g. in Polish, "Witamy" (Welcome) is pronounced "Veetamyh"
in German, "Wien" (Vienna) is pronounced "Vien".