Nichols, Takei, Koenig Talk Trek at Scream Awards

Original Star Trek cast members Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) all attended the Spike TV Scream Awards, where they spoke to the IESB about their recent projects and the upcoming Star Trek movie.

"I think they outdid themselves. I think she is gorgeous," Nichols said of the casting of Zoe Saldana, who will play Uhura in the film. "I think she's a fine actress...I am so looking forward to meeting her."

Asked by The IESB if her Heroes character, Nana, has a super-power, Nichols joked, "Landing that role!" She said that the wonderful thing about acting on the NBC drama is that people don't know when they're cast whether they will have powers or what those powers might be, so "it's very challenging and exciting for me." With Heroes, she added, the writers are exploring what they can do with their minds, just as Gene Roddenberry explored what people could do with technology.

Takei laughed about the fact that his successor as Hikaru Sulu, John Cho, is older than Takei was when he got the role - Takei was 27, Cho is 35. "And he's supposed to be playing Sulu younger," noted Takei. "But he's a good actor...he can stretch." Takei is familiar with Cho's work in the theatre, and with the movie's Spock, Zachary Quinto, from Heroes, where he said he mentioned to Quinto the younger actor's uncanny resemblance to Leonard Nimoy.

Asked about his character's apparent death and departure from the series, Takei seemed unconcerned about potential unemployment. "Nothing is as it seems on Heroes," he told The IESB. "Stay tuned, and you will find out."

Koenig pointed out that future Chekov Anton Yelchin is at the other extreme in terms of age. "He's very young," Koenig said to The IESB. "I was thirteen years older than he is now when I started on the show." Asked if he knew how Chekov would meet Kirk in the film, since Chekov was not initially on the Enterprise crew when the series premiered, Koenig admitted that he knew "only what's in the media."

All three interviews are linked from here.

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