Sci-Fi Summit Report: More on ‘Star Trek’ and a Tale of Two Spocks
[EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re about to read our special ComicMix report on the Star Trek panel and Q&A at this year’s Grand Slam: Sci-Fi Summit in Burbank, CA. If you’d like to know more about the convention, we also have a general roundup of the Sci-Fi Summit and a special report on the James Marsters panel and Q&A session with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor. -RM]
Last Sunday, Sci-Fi Summit attendees were treated to one half of the writing team behind the upcoming Star Trek film and the recent live-action Transformers movie, as writer Roberto Orci kicked off the grand finale of the show. After the writer apologized for the absence of Alex Kurtzman, his associate of 17 years, the fans were treated to a screening of the Star Trek trailer and some photos that Orci took on set.
Orci’s slideshow also failed to reveal any spoilers, with the possible exception of a photo of an inedible-looking craft service table marked “Romulan’s Only,” confirming the appearance of the alien race in the film
Orci also hinted that there are Star Trek references in both of his previous films, The Island and Transformers, and there will be more references in Transformers 2. He also confirmed that the writing team did a polish on the script for Watchmen.
The writer then explained why having actor Leonard Nimoy involved with the film was such a pivotal part of pitching their idea to
“Story wise, we only new one way to solve the continuity issues between what’s canon and what we were doing and to have an appropriate transfer of the soul of Star Trek," said Orci. "The only way we could imagine doing it was to make sure that Leonard Nimoy was a big part of whatever we did, but he had already retired from being Spock. He spoke publicly about the fact that he never thought he’d go back."
"We went to the studio with a pitch that relied very heavily on his involvement," continued Orci. "We had a preliminary meeting with him before we went off to write, where in general we pitched him what we thought his involvement would be and what the story would be. We did the hard sell. We wouldn’t let him leave the room. We would say, ’You’re a key to this, please consider it.’ He told us, ‘I thought I was done but clearly you are all very passionate about this, so write the script and we’ll see what happens.’ God bless him, he read the script and he said yes."
When asked how large Nimoy’s role is in the film, the writer confirmed that it is not just a cameo.
“I was fortunate to find out that they were making this movie, right as my episodes of Heroes were about to start airing," said Quinto. "I was doing a lot of press for the show and people would ask me if there was anything else I was interested in working on. So I started talking about [Star Trek] in interviews. I tried to learn as much about the project as I could and get my interest out there. When the casting directors started to investigate whom to cast, they heard that I was interested already. They called me in and that was the genesis of how I got the part. I was fortunate for the timing and how it all worked out.”
Quinto gave away the following information while fielding Heroes questions from the audience: The actor stated that he has no clue what’s going to happen in Season Three and has seen no scripts, but has had a few conversations with the writers. He also said that he is excited to go back, and shooting starts in two weeks.
When asked if Sylar’s powers actually come from the eating of his victims’ brains, the actor could not confirm.
“It’s never been committed to that I ingest the brains to derive the power from the people," the actor clarified.
A fan asked how Sylar got from
And with that, the original Mr. Spock took to the stage. After an embrace and a large round of applause, the young actor left the stage to allow Leonard Nimoy to take questions from his fans.
Nimoy told a funny anecdote about an encounter he recently had with a fan at a presidential fund-raiser: One of the three current candidates approached Nimoy with his fingers in the famous Vulcan pose and said, “I’m a big fan." Nimoy revealed that the candidate in question was none other than Senator Barack Obama.
"It’s a great script, wonderful director, a great cast and you have every reason to be excited about it," Nimoy assured the fans. “They’ve done some wonderful work in developing the origins of Spock, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and the whole group. I’m excited about being in this movie.”
"I didn’t want to see it happen and I’m very sad that it happened," continued Nimoy. "Now having said that, while the Spock character was still out there as an ambassador, the Kirk character is gone. Sadly gone. It would have been very difficult and damaging to this new film to try and inject Bill Shatner into this movie. I feel bad about it and think it’s a loss. It would have been wonderful to have Bill Shatner in the movie as Captain Kirk, but it just wouldn’t work. It’s painful for me to say that I have come to accept that and I believe that Bill Shatner has come to accept that, too.”
Finally, a familiar face came to the microphone to ask a question. It was Zachary Quinto. In his best impression of a shy fan, he asked, “Do you… um… could you… um… describe Spock in one word?”
To that, the audience laughed and the two actors took to the stage together for the first time since last year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
“He’s a smart, talented young man and a good Spock for the future”, Nimoy said of Quinto.
For more on the convention, see our Grand Slam: Sci-Fi Summit XVI Report here on ComicMix.