Star Trek XII To Reflect Contemporary Issues
2 min readNow that the Star Trek characters have been established in the first film, J. J. Abrams would like to make a movie that deals with modern-day issues.
There have been several meetings regarding the sequel to Star Trek XI and co-writer Roberto Orci explained what the thought process was in deciding upon a story. “We’ve literally had two meetings now,” he said. “We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas.”
One of those ideas was something that came from fan feedback. “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,'” said Orci. “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.”
Could Star Trek XII deal with the ethics of torture, terrorism or a painful, politicized war? “Well yeah, those are the kind of issues we’re talking about,” said Orci. “…That’s the way we’re thinking, that’s an approach.”
J.J. Abrams wants to make a movie that is more than just an expected sequel. “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.”
To do that, Abrams wants to go back to that for which Star Trek was once known. “It needs to do what [Gene] Roddenberry did so well, which is allegory,” he said. “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.”
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