Star Trek Sequel and Politics Theme

While on the set of Fringe (premiering this Thursday), Hero Complex spoke with Star Trek writers/producers JJ Abrams and Roberto Orci about the sequel for Star Trek and what themes they may explore in the movie.

JJ Abrams

"The ambition for a sequel to 'Star Trek' is to make a movie that's worthy of the audience and not just another movie, you know, just a second movie that feels tacked on. The first movie was so concerned with just setting up the characters -- their meeting each and galvanizing that family -- that in many ways a sequel will have a very different mission. it needs to do what [the late 'Trek' creator Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory. It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths -- truths connected to what we live -- that elevates any story -- that's true with any story."

Roberto Orci

"We’ve literally had two meetings now. We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas. We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.’ We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.

[Hero Complex] asked Orci somewhat flippantly if that meant we might see Starfleet grappling with the ethics of torture or dealing with a rising terrorist threat or perhaps a painful, politicized war with the Klingons. "Well yeah, those are the kind of issues we're talking about. Wow, you're good! But seriously that's the way we're thinking, that's an approach. So if you have any ideas ... "

Star Trek is at its best when it uses real world issues as fodder in the sci-fi universe. One of the better movies used the collapse of the USSR as fodder for the story in The Undiscovered Country with the Klingons experiencing an economic collapse and reaching out for peace with the Federation while factions on both side wanted to maintain the status quo of war. That is just one movie example but the various series also have continued the tradition. If they can pull it off, the result could be a deeper, more enjoyable story.

As always though, the script is still in the discussion stage so any thing being said right now by the cast and crew is still just the spitballing of ideas and nothing permanent has been decided.