Orci and Burk on 'Star Trek'

Star Trek seeks to seeks to offer a love letter to Star Trek fans, as well as reeling in both the casual fan and those who are unfamiliar with Star Trek.

As reported at SciFi.com, those involved in Star Trek are mindful of the need to please current fans while enticing new fans into the Star Trek fold. "It's not a new fantasy movie," said screenwriter Roberto Orci. "And one of the ways we have always internally referred to these characters is that they are Shakespearean charcters. They are such a part of our culture now that it's less important that we cast someone who looked exactly like they did or who would imitate a performance. It was more important for someone to understand that the characters are in some ways archetypical now. They are so ingrained and elemental to this culture's drama...we needed these people to understand the reverence of that." Executive producer Bryan Burk concurs. "...they understand the shoes they are filling. No one can begin to understand the world of Star Trek until you are in it. You have to be respectful of it...and you don't want people to screw it up."

Leonard Nimoy's presence was a "giant gamble". "It was essential that we had Nimoy," said Orci. "I can't even believe that J.J. supported that kind of a gamble, but I think he understood it was the way to do it and a way to get the blessing for Star Trek, to show there is continuity for the spirit of what was done before."

But what of William Shatner? Rumors and denials regarding his involvement in the movie continue to swirl around the Internet. In spite of the apparent difficulty in believability bringing the deceased character of Captain Kirk, could the Shatner appearance rumors be true after all? "Unfortunately, Shatner's Captain Kirk was killed in Star Trek 7," said Orci, "So the difficulty there is not just ignoring that or explaining it away in an unsatisfactory way merely to get him back in. That is the struggle, the rigors of canon and not phoning it in just to have a cameo. From my point of view, it's a very long shoot, and things can change. It's just whether we can figure it out."

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