How Much Does JJ Abrams Know About Star Trek

[trekker670]

Clip: http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/05/05/how-much-does-jj-abrams-know-about-star-trek

IGN did an interview during the Sydney premiere, while most of the clip is rather irrelevent (quizzing Abrams on TOS facts, despite his obvious discomfort as it's tangential to his goal of promoting STID), the last question and several seconds covers the question of "Who invented the Warp drive?" The answer is baffling. Abrams states that Scotty invented it and Spock gave him the technology. In STXI it's clear that Warp drive (and first contact) occurred as seen in the Prime universe and that the technology Spock provides is from the trans-warp beaming.

My guess is that Abrams used the question just as a lead in to plug STID, but the interviewer stated that he answered correctly. Any idea what's going on here? Are they really trying to say that Scotty invented the warp drive hundreds of years after it happened in the prime universe?

 

[Tosk]

I'd say they're both thinking of traswarp beaming...which I now realize JJ just spoiled something for me. Fudge!

 

[Kruezerman]

Who cares? That stuff's for us to care about (and maybe the writers), not the guy who makes the movies.

 

[Maurice]

Screenwriters are the ones who should do that kind of research, where necessary. The director says if he likes the script and shoots it. He's not expected to be an expert in such minutia, especially if it's not germane to the story.

 

[Gojira]

I say JJ knows enough about Star Trek to have made 2 good Star Trek movies

 

[ALF]

I say JJ knows enough about Star Trek to have made 2 good movies

Oh, I know this. What is Armageddon and.... and.... oh I give up. What's the other one? It's either Super 8 or Gone Fishin'.

 

[Melakon]

Hey Cos, I loved your albums, but Armageddon was directed by Michael Bay. Though you got one right.

 

[R. Star]

My sig would seem to sum it up.

 

[Melakon]

All JJ knows about Star Trek is he's made a lot of money off it.

 

[Classic Fan]

JJ knows enough about Star Trek to make two summer shoot-em-up blockbusters with the Star Trek moniker and characters, just like the latter tng and tos movies to be fair.

He probably does his research as do the writers, but he's a director. I doubt most directors of previous Trek movies/TV or even Bond movies give a crap about the source or franchise, they just direct.

 

[F. King Daniel]

How Much Does JJ Abrams Know About
Star Trek?

Enough to have made one very enjoyable Trek movie. Maybe two, I'll find out in 71 hours and 30 minutes.

He saw all the original series episodes and classic movies prior to making Star Trek. IIRC he said in an interview four or five years ago that he'd never seen Nemesis. That Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto auditioned by reading lines from Prime Directive by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Spock's World by Diane Duane suggests he even read a couple of Trek novels. He may not be a fan of classic Trek, but he definitely did some research prior to taking it on.

He's got a die-hard Trekkie on his staff in writer/producer Bob Orci. He goes so far as to collect and read the novels. Any changes made to Trek in these films are at the very least, informed ones.

 

[Therin of Andor]

JJ has told the story that his first exposure to ST was when his Dad took him, as his +1, to the gala world premiere of ST:TMP at the Smithsonian Institute. JJ was just a kid and he was bored silly by the movie only a few years after loving "Star Wars".

I was 21 when TMP premiered, and I knew random episodes of TOS and TAS. I was at the right stage in my life to fall for the whole ST phenomenon. I met many TOS fans who hated TMP, and many SW fans who preferred SW to ST.

In recent interviews, JJ gushes about the TOS-related characters. He fell in love with them while making the 2009 film.

Does he need to know any more than that to direct a ST movie? Certainly he knows more than Stuart Baird did about TNG.

 

[Lt. Cheka Wey]

My sig would seem to sum it up.

As primarily a DS 9i fan i like J.J.

 

[BillJ]

How much did Nick Meyer or Harve Bennett know about Star Trek when they made The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock?

Face it, most people behind-the-scenes don't eat, drink, sleep Trek like we do.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

He knows enough.

 

[The Wormhole]

The next Trek director has to undergo an intense written exam, proving their Trek knowledge with answering questions involving the most obscure aspects of Trek lore and writing 100 word essays on a variety of topics. Like registry number set-up. That's an important one, given how Abrams flagrantly disregarded the standard registry practices. You would't see something like that done on Berman's watch.

Okay, in all seriousness, I'm more surprised that they gave him credit for the answer being correct (when it totally wasn't) than I am that he doesn't know who Zephram Cochrane is. But then, he also forgot who George Kirk is, and that's from his own movie. The man just has a piss-poor memory, I think.

 

[Ubik]

I think where his knowledge is lacking is in understanding what precisely makes Star Trek work. He hears the witty lines, and sees the comeraderie among the characters, and sees the ship firing torpedoes at some bad guys, and he thinks he knows what makes Star Trek tick. He seems to honestly think that Star Trek fans have loved the franchise simply because it was a light, fun action show with witty lines. There are plenty of light, fun action shows with witty lines that are nowhere near as good as Star Trek. Star Trek, when it was very good (much of TOS, TNG, and DS9, Wrath of Khan, Undiscovered Country, First Contact....) was certainly more than an entertaining shoot-em-up action movie. It was occasionally that, sure, but certainly not at its high points.

I wish he knew less about the look and "feel" of Star Trek, and more about the substance and the ambition and the purpose.

 

[throwback]

Deleted by poster.

 

[trevanian]

Screenwriters are the ones who should do that kind of research, where necessary. The director says if he likes the script and shoots it. He's not expected to be an expert in such minutia, especially if it's not germane to the story.

I don't usually disagree with you, but isn't this akin to the bit on NEMESIS where Baird thought Geordi was an alien?

If you as director don't understand even the basics, you might be inclined to accept stuff that is less than credible, to the detriment of the story (I use the Abrams09Thing as a reference, from use of black holes to building starships on the ground because the WRITERS think a ship has to have its warp drive set up WITHIN a gravity well!)

 

[Gov Kodos]

Since his version is the new continuity, he knows everything about it.