Abrams: Star Trek For A Non-Fan
2 min readFor Star Trek XI to appeal to an audience, moviegoers must identify with the characters.
As reported by The Vine, Star Trek XI‘s J.J. Abrams used to feel left out when he watched the original series.
Watching the original series was enjoyable to Abrams, who liked the idea of different species working together, but he didn’t feel that he was part of that universe. “I always felt like I missed the way in,” he explained. “I enjoyed the idea of [Star Trek]. I thought the notion of this group collaborating, various cultures and races and species working together, not conquering but exploring and discovering, there was something inherently, obviously interesting. but… I felt like, well, you missed me.”
Unlike the experience of some Star Trek fans, Abrams couldn’t identify personally with the characters. “…I’m none of those guys,” he said. “I’m not Kirk for sure. I’m not Spock. I’m not Bones. I wasn’t really Chekhov. I’m not Uhura. Sulu’s not me. I didn’t have me in there, so it was a very objectified experience watching that show.”
In making Star Trek XI, Abrams opted to make decisions that were good for a movie, not just for a Star Trek movie. “I think the key was not having insane reverence for the original material,” he said. “I felt free to make choices that were right for a movie, not for Trek. But we had a writer [Roberto Orci] who was an avowed Trekkie. Bob’s awareness of what we needed to adhere to was sort of the safety valve for the movie, but it wasn’t the master we were serving. And to me that’s the thing.”
Now that the movie is completed and has premiered, how does Abrams feel? “I was so overwhelmed about the fact that it was finally over and that people were clapping,” he said. “It was amazing. It was very touching, it really was amazing. And I had a drink or two. But it was really sweet and incredibly cool moment.”
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