By Larry Carroll
Are you ready for a sneak peek at tomorrow's blockbusters today?Check out our new series "Behind the Screen" Sunday night at 11 p.m. onMTV for the broadcast premiere of the "Brüno" trailer, an exclusiveclip of Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," thevery first visit to the set of Russell Brand's "Get Him to the Greek"and much more!
In the weeks since J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot opened to huge numbers,Trekkies all over the world have engaged in a time-honored tradition:Obsessing over minutiae that may or may not have a deeper, off-screencontext. Some are brilliant, some are silly, but they're all fun tolisten to, aren't they?
With this in mind, we brought four of the more fascinatingtheories straight to the "Trek" director himself, and he was eager toseparate fact, fiction and fantasy:
The "Abrams Sabotaged Shatner" Theory: Some Trekkies havepostulated that the new movie's inclusion of the Beastie Boys classic"Sabotage" is a subtle dig at the original Captain Kirk, who has beenknown to mispronounce the word as "sabotaage."
"Yes, I have heard that theory," laughed Abrams. "It was sofunny when I heard it. I wish I could say it was done on purpose, butit was not. I just dig the song."
The "Throw the Old 'Trek' Off a Cliff" Theory: In the samescene as the "Sabotage" song, a young James T. Kirk drives a '60s-eraCorvette over a cliff, leaping out at the last minute. Some fansbelieve that the car is from 1966 — the year "Trek" came on the air —and that it represents a statement about the new film throwing away thetrappings of the classic show.
"I'm not sure if it was a '66," Abrams said of the Corvette."But that was also the year that I was born, so I wouldn't want to dothat to the year, for personal reasons. No, the idea was to show therenegade, young Kirk and have a wildly anachronistic scene where youhad an earthbound, almost back-looking scene combined with aforward-looking futuristic scene technologically. It had nothing to dowith that kind of metaphor."
The "Kelvin Crew Knows Who Romulans Are" Theory: In the classic"Trek" series, humans didn't know what Romulans looked like prior toCaptain Kirk's time; in the new film, a Romulan craft kills the humansaboard the U.S.S. Kelvin. According to one fan theory, the attack onthe Kelvin leads to a slip-up by Abrams, because the human crewrecognize their attackers as Romulans.
"It's not mentioned in the scene on the Kelvin, but they areaware of it," Abrams confirmed, agreeing with the sharp-sighted fans."Because later in the movie, Kirk mentions that they were Romulan. Andwe very purposely begin the film with a moment that, for fans of 'StarTrek,' is a left turn from the timeline they are familiar with." Foranyone who thinks they "caught" Abrams, however, the director is quickto point out the opposite. "For fans of 'Trek,' yes, the Romulansappearing breaks with what is known to be 'Trek' canon. But that is onpurpose."
The "Sleeker, Faster Response" Theory: If the new "Trek" givesus the Enterprise equivalent of a Blu-Ray disk, then the ship on theoriginal "Trek" looks like a Betamax tape. One fan theory is that theattack on the Kelvin forced the Federation to build sleeker, fasterspacecraft in the movie's new reality.
"Right," agreed Abrams. "The idea of the story is that at thebeginning of the film something happens that changes the course ofhistory. They cross paths with this futuristic ship, and it changeseverything that would've been the classic series 'Trek' fans arefamiliar with. ... One could argue that, based on the readings they gotfrom the [Romulan] ship that showed up, it inspired ideas andtechnology that wouldn't have advanced otherwise." Hence, the hugedifference between the old Enterprise and his version. "On the onehand, you could answer the question by saying that history got a boost,an adjustment, from this moment at the beginning of the film," hegrinned. "And if you don't want to answer the question, you could sayit's just a movie."
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