Q&A from Orci & Kurtzman @ Trekmovie.com (SPOILERS)

[Praetor]

Hope this hasn't been posted yet; please merge if it has.

Found here, this might clear up some speculation or lead to more:

• Open to TNG character in sequel (if done ‘organically’)
• 10,000 surviving Vulcans does NOT count off-worlders
• Vulcan’s red sky (was) seasonal
• SpockPrime will adhere to a ‘Temporal Prime Directive’ to minimize introducing future tech into new timeline
• Enterprise being built at Riverside Iowa Shipyard to ‘commemorate the sacrifice’ of George Kirk
• New timeline still bound to canon events that took place in the prime timeline (like Botany Bay, V’Ger, etc)
• Spock Prime’s viewing of the destruction of Vulcan was cinematic license and ‘impressionistic’ and could have involved a telescope or other device
• No ‘canon’ explanation for what Nero and crew were doing for 25 years between Kirk’s birth and arrival of Spock Prime, open to ‘fan fiction’
• The Admiral Archer mentioned by Scotty is the same Jonathan Archer from Enterprise (and Enterprise is part of new timeline)
• The attack on the Narada put Winona Kirk into labor preventing Kirk from being born in Iowa (as in the Prime timeline)
• Inconsistencies between film and "Countdown" can be explained that the comic is not canon
• Keenser was in Starfleet while on Delta Vega, just like Scotty
• Paramount expected to make the script available (checking on this)
• Kid on road (’Johnny’) was "originally meant to be" Kirk’s brother George Jr. and "still could be"
• There’s money, or some kind of credit system in this universe
• The second ‘lightning storm’ referred to in the film was created when SpockPrime’s jellyfish arrived back in time
• Bridge viewscreen changed to window/HUD to justify the bridge’s placement atop the ship instead of in a more secure location
• Damon Lindelof contributed ‘a lot’ to the story of Star Trek
• Lindelof will be ‘breaking the story’ with Bob and Alex on sequel, Bob and Alex will write final screenplay
• Survivors and telemetry from Narada attack on Kelvin exposed Federation to Romulans (explaining why Kirk knows about Romulans and so film does not violate canon of "Balance of Terror")
• Although ‘Prime’ is used to distinguigh Nimoy’s Spock, the team have no name for the new timeline
• Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha was an ‘invaluable resource’
• New Stardates work by taking the year (as in 2233), with the month and day expressed as a decimal point from .1 to .365 (as in the 365 days of the year)

Some interesting tidbits there. It's followed by some more questions and answers from the guys, including their take that what is referred to the core and ejected by Scotty are matter/antimatter bottles, a "maybe" on whether Pike will be seen again or will walk again, as well as "we'll see" on the Enterprise size, other Vulcan "name" survivors (T'Pol, Saavik, Sybok, etc.), and a few others.

...Well, just read it.

Kudos to them for doing this, and for reinforcing my suspicion that we are being watched.

Discuss!

 

[Michael]

Thanks for posting that, Praetor. I'm glad they finally cleared up that particular tidbit ...

• Spock Prime’s viewing of the destruction of Vulcan was cinematic license and ‘impressionistic’ and could have involved a telescope or other device

And I think it's great that Damon Lindelof will be responsible for coming up with the story of the next installment. As far as I'm concerned the guy does wonderful things on Lost.

 

[Kpnuts]

Great tidbits. Good on them for answering questions

 

[Peter the Younger]

Thanks for posting that, Praetor. I'm glad they finally cleared up that particular tidbit ...

• Spock Prime’s viewing of the destruction of Vulcan was cinematic license and ‘impressionistic’ and could have involved a telescope or other device

And I think it's great that Damon Lindelof will be responsible for coming up with the story of the next installment. As far as I'm concerned the guy does wonderful things on Lost.

Yeah that's excellent news.

 

[MvRojo]

Hmmm...I think the .1 to .365 for stardates is a little lame, but I guess I can live with it.

 

[Captain Fine]

Nice Q&A. Their answers satisfy me. Don't like the stardates going from .1 to .365. Doesn't sound very mathematical.

 

[Praetor]

Hmmm...I think the .1 to .365 for stardates is a little lame, but I guess I can live with it.

Yeah - and if PrimeKirk was born on March 22nd (like Shat) as has been traditionally accepted, that makes nuKirk about two and a half months early.

 

[roguephoenix]

Thanks for posting that, Praetor. I'm glad they finally cleared up that particular tidbit ...

• Spock Prime’s viewing of the destruction of Vulcan was cinematic license and ‘impressionistic’ and could have involved a telescope or other device

And I think it's great that Damon Lindelof will be responsible for coming up with the story of the next installment. As far as I'm concerned the guy does wonderful things on Lost.

what if on the next movie the crew finds itself... on a planet that's uncharted. they can't seem to contact anyone from the outside. the ship is heavily damaged. only shuttles are able to work, but for some odd reason they can't gain escape velocity from the planet. they find a device that apparently moves the planet through time... and space! also, the planet is apparently not uninhabited. there are... "others" on that planet that are human-looking. they capture james, uhura, and spock. they keep spock separated while they locked up uhura and kirk next to each other. juliet then comes to try and convince spock to join them. drama and action ensue where spock ends up saving ben's life. neat!

 

[cubbie]

Thank you for posting the summary, Praetor!

 

[Quest_techie]

Stardates exist because an earthcentric dating system is pretty stupid when you actually think about it.

orci should stick to making films to sell toys.

 

[Gepard]

Thanks for posting that, Praetor. I'm glad they finally cleared up that particular tidbit ...

• Spock Prime’s viewing of the destruction of Vulcan was cinematic license and ‘impressionistic’ and could have involved a telescope or other device

And I think it's great that Damon Lindelof will be responsible for coming up with the story of the next installment. As far as I'm concerned the guy does wonderful things on Lost.

PRAISE KAHLESS, THERE'S HOPE!!!!


*falls on knees with tears pouring down his face*

 

[Praetor]

^

 

[DarthPipes]

Enterprise being built at Riverside Iowa Shipyard to ‘commemorate the sacrifice’ of George Kirk

That was my thought all along.

Cool stuff. I certainly hope Pike returns in the next movie. Bruce Greenwood was too good in that role not to be brought back.

 

[Michael]

Yeah that's excellent news.

It most definitely is!

what if on the next movie the crew finds itself... on a planet that's uncharted. they can't seem to contact anyone from the outside. the ship is heavily damaged. only shuttles are able to work, but for some odd reason they can't gain escape velocity from the planet. they find a device that apparently moves the planet through time... and space! also, the planet is apparently not uninhabited. there are... "others" on that planet that are human-looking. they capture james, uhura, and spock. they keep spock separated while they locked up uhura and kirk next to each other. juliet then comes to try and convince spock to join them. drama and action ensue where spock ends up saving ben's life. neat!

Spoiler: Lost Season 5 Spoilers inside ...

Yeah, and it turns out the body of Spock's dead father is used as an instrument in an epic battle between black and white – good and evil. It'll be mind-blowing! Especially the scene where we learn that Pike really is dead after Ben strangled him. Oh, and here's hoping they don't reduce Scotty's role to someone who's merely sitting at a computer pushing a button every few minutes. How lame would that be!?

PRAISE KAHLESS, THERE'S HOPE!!!!

*falls on knees with tears pouring down his face*

Argh, I can never tell if you're being serious or just sarcastic. Drives me mad!

 

[Overgeeked]

Stardates: leap years are really gonna fuck things up.

 

[Gepard]

Argh, I can never tell if you're being serious or just sarcastic. Drives me mad!

Since I know nothing about Damon Lindelhof's work, I'm not really sure either. But since the story was (one) of the weak spots of Trek XI, any outside help can only be a good thing.

 

[startrekwatcher]

The more I hear them respond to certain questions the more I think they just aren't very good writers.

What happens in 25 years after the encounter with the Kelvin?
answer: fan fiction

Why was the Enterprise built in Iowa?
answer: as a tribute to George Kirk--well why didn't you share that with the rest of us

Nero seems not very fleshed out and the events in the 24th century are vague yet Countdown seems to provide some of this. Why not include them in the film?
answer: Well... we didn't bother to come up with any of this on our own and unfortunately the comic writers didn't write Countdown until after we had written the film WTF?!?

They need all the help they can get writing the next film. Too bad Lindeloff isn't an actual writer on the next film though because the work on LOST is fantastic as far as structure, plot, twists, creative storytelling and originality.

 

[Praetor]

Well, unless you wanted a 3-hour "Watchmen" style movie that still leaves crap out... fill in the blanks with their info.

 

[Cyke101]

The more I hear them respond to certain questions the more I think they just aren't very good writers.

What happens in 25 years after the encounter with the Kelvin?
answer: fan fiction

But y'know, they had an entire sequence already written and filmed explaining the 25 yr gap, but if it doesn't make the cut, it doesn't make the canon. (At least, that's their attitude)

Why was the Enterprise built in Iowa?
answer: as a tribute to George Kirk--well why didn't you share that with the rest of us

Weren't the Kelvin saltshakers enough of a clue? Or Capt. Pike's lecture to drunken Jim?

Nero seems not very fleshed out and the events in the 24th century are vague yet Countdown seems to provide some of this. Why not include them in the film?
answer: Well... we didn't bother to come up with any of this on our own and unfortunately the comic writers didn't write Countdown until after we had written the film WTF?!?

I can't comment on the creation of Nero, but print media adaptations (comics, novels, etc) tend to be written well after the movie's script. Heck, that's even true for TMP.

They need all the help they can get writing the next film.

I don't know, I already feel like this movie had more than enough crammed into it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The more I hear them respond to certain questions the more I think they just aren't very good writers.

What happens in 25 years after the encounter with the Kelvin?
answer: fan fiction

Why was the Enterprise built in Iowa?
answer: as a tribute to George Kirk--well why didn't you share that with the rest of us

Nero seems not very fleshed out and the events in the 24th century are vague yet Countdown seems to provide some of this. Why not include them in the film?
answer: Well... we didn't bother to come up with any of this on our own and unfortunately the comic writers didn't write Countdown until after we had written the film WTF?!?

They need all the help they can get writing the next film. Too bad Lindeloff isn't an actual writer on the next film though because the work on LOST is fantastic as far as structure, plot, twists, creative storytelling and originality.

Good writers know what to leave out. The stuff they left out would only make the film "better" for nitpickers.