CAUTION: Some possible serious spoilers for the upcoming Star Trek feature. Proceed at your own risk.
Since the release of its trailer, many longtime Star Trek fans have pointed out what appears to be inconsistencies with what has been previously established about the early days of Captain James T. Kirk and the take that director JJ Abrams is taking on the story. Understandably, it understandably caused some controversy among Trek fans and has led some to feel that Abrams is disrespecting the material. (Spoilers after the jump.)
But now Roberto Orci, one of the co-writers the upcoming film, has talked with TrekMovie’s Anthony Pascale, addressing how the time travel element involved in the film’s plot has affected what Trek fans think they know about the early days of the original Enterprise crew.
Personally, I gave up on trying to follow Star Trek’s continuity years ago for a pair of reasons.
First of all, as with any franchise that has gone on for years, there are bound to be contradictory things spring up every know and then. Details of characters’ backgrounds, such as conflicting information about Kirk’s family, show up either because writer’s didn’t know what had been established before or choose to ignore those details for the sake of the story they were writing.
Secondly, I grew tired with the franchise’s increasing tendancy to rely on that continuity for its storytelling. In Gene Roddenberry’s original series, he used the trappings of science-fiction to tell morality plays, the type of storytelling the various Trek television series continually moved further away from as time went on.
But interestingly, Orci makes an interesting arguement using some cutting edge scientific theory to both justify the changes on a story-telling level and to placate fans who have raised some concerns about Abrams’ intentions. I think he is right in the fact that any of the changes made for the new film will not cause the stories that the fans already know and love disappear. As any comic book collector can tell you, if you don’t like any particular interpretation of a character just hang tight, someone else will come along to tell their own stories which may more to your liking.
