Star Trek Writers Talk Trek, Career

In a new interview from IGN, Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk aobut their long writing careers that began back in the Xena and Hercules days all the way to their curent projects such as Fringe and the sequel to Star Trek. Below are the Trek relevant portions, click here to read the entire interview.

IGN: I have to throw in the requisite pulling teeth Trek sequel question. You mentioned that you ended up with more time to write it then you first expected. Has that allowed you to take a step back and not have to rush anything?
Orci: Yeah. We want it to come like the first one, which came organically.
Kurtzman: Because we weren't rushed.
Orci: We weren't rushed, so I think the time we got to spend on it is reflected in the work. We feel the pressure a little bit coming on, but we're easing into it slowly.

IGN: Kirk and Spock have always been the stars of the series. Is it a difficult to make sure all those characters get their time to shine?
Kurtzman: For sure. In a sequel, you have even more of that burden, because the first movie is about introducing characters, but the second movie is about digging deeper into them. So you've got to make sure your story is giving everyone a moment… More than a moment. An arc.
Orci: We've always thought of the bridge crew as a family, so it's not just, "What are we gonna find for them?" It's part of the DNA of doing Star Trek right, I think - to make sure all the characters represent a significant part of the family.

IGN: How did you decide to make Spock and Uhura a couple?
Kurtzman: It actually came from the original series…
Orci: There was a little flirtation in the original series. But we thought that since we were doing a harmony on some of the things that were happening before, well, what happened in the original series? The first interracial kiss was with Kirk. So we thought what can we do that's different, but that still pays homage to that? Spock!