Securing any details about the new Star Trek film, Star Trek XI, or Star Trek Zero depending on who you listen to, is like getting blood out of a stone, with J.J. Abrams, the case and the crew all playing their cards very close to their chests. So when anything is actually revealed by anyone in the know, however small it is, I’m still ecstatically pleased.
While plot and character development may be off the table as discussion topics, one of the few things that is being discussed at least slightly is the plethora of gadgets likely to be seen on board the Starship Enterprise come May 2009. Producer Bryan Burk told MTV Movies:
“We intentionally don’t talk too much about the story, but there’s all the gadgets you could want. No replicators, since they originated in ‘Next Generation’, but there’s warp speed and transporter beams and tricorders and communicators and everything you could want. All the gadgets.”
Abrams himself then added:
“It’s one thing in ‘Star Trek’ to get all excited and freak out about communicators, but to them, it’s like it’s the new iPhone. These are just the tool they’re using.”
“If you do the bridge of the Enterprise, what does it look like? Does Uhura has the piece in her, or does she not? And if she does, what does it look like? If they have tricorders, what do they look like? Phasers, how do you go from stun to kill, and does anything happen? What does the whole fleet look like? I’m telling you, every day, we were figuring this out, how do we take what we know and love and ‘Star Trek’ and apply it to a modern audience.”
I know it isn’t much, but for a Star Trek fan who also loves J.J. Abrams, this is all the information I need to make my day a little better. Abrams is notoriously tight-lipped about his projects and so even the slightest mutterings about something we’re likely to see in the new Star Trek is music to my ears.
Now all I have to do is wait for another 9 months before the movie finally sees the light of day. In the meantime, I think I’ll occupy myself watching the 10 movies and all the countless old episodes in a bid to improve my own knowledge on the gadgets. Yes, I’m serious, and yes, I’m a geek.
