CS: You've said that you didn't start out as an uber-fan of "Star Trek," but you quickly became a fan. Can you talk in general terms about what you fell in love with about the whole franchise?
Abrams: I fell in love with the relationships between the characters. I fell in love with the characters. The idea of – it's so funny because you hear something so often and it loses it's meaning. But "space, the final frontier" – if you actually consider space as uncharted territory there's something about the idea of these people, because any ship flying by isn't going to get you excited. It's who's on the ship that matters. I feel like these characters actually going out into that nothingness and finding something is great. Having lived with it now and gotten to know the characters and worked with amazing actors who portrayed them, it made me fall in love with that notion, that idea that for some reason never struck me the way that "Twilight Zone" did.

CS: Are you ready to talk about the Jennifer Morrison character? There's been a lot of speculation and confusion as to exactly who she's playing.
Abrams: She is so great. I'll just say that she plays Kirk's mother. She's awesome. Great.

CS: Does the film feature many flashback sequences? We also know that Winona Ryder is playing Spock's mother.
Abrams: Yeah, most of the movie is not - I wouldn't call them flashbacks, but she's in a great sequence and is so good. I love her.

CS: What can you say about about working with Leonard Nimoy?
Abrams: It was really just a dream experience, working with him. He is everything you want him to be. He's funny and incredibly thoughtful and was surprisingly open and receptive to direction. He's just got an amazing wife and family and working with him was literally... Like the other day we were doing some ADR and he was there and because we weren't shooting anymore I was standing there and I just looked at him while he was doing his thing. I wanted to burn it into my head. It was so great to get to work with that guy. He's just an amazing man and is terrific in the movie.

CS: Is he a major presence in the film?
Abrams: Yeah. I think he's a major presence in any scene he's in. He's terrific.

July 26th, 4:45-5:45 Fringe Q&A and Trailer Screening— J. J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman—the team behind Mission: Impossible 3, Alias, and the upcoming Star Trek feature—join fellow Fringe executive producers Bryan Burk (Cloverfield) and Jeff Pinkner (Lost), as well as stars Anna Torv (The Pacific), Josh Jackson (Shutter), and John Noble (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), for an exclusive Q&A about one of the most anticipated new television series of the fall season, a drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality. The session will kick off with the screening of a trailer for the series. Television Week deputy editor and columnist Joe Adalian moderates. From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe premieres September 9 and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on FOX. Ballroom 20

July 26th, 2:00-3:00 Spotlight on Bryan Hitch— Superstar penciller Bryan Hitch, the artist with the wide-screen movie style, talks about his work on titles such as The Ultimates and Fantastic Four, plus his design work on Doctor Who and Star Trek 2009. Room 7AB

July 25th, 12:00-1:00 Costume Illustrators, Production Illustrators, and Concept and Storyboard Artists— The making of a film or television show is a collaborative process. Costume illustrators and concept and storyboard artists, brought onto productions to develop images under the guidance of the designers, serve a key position in the web of communication that is essential to filmmaking. This panel offers a glimpse into the fundamental importance of illustration as well as the seamless creativity between the key conceptual departments on favorite feature films and television productions. Moderator William David Hogan, director and storyboard artist (Into the Blue 2, Whiteout) will host costume illustrators from CDG, Local 892, including Oksana Nedavniaya (Narnia: Prince Caspian, Twilight), Phillip Boutte, Jr. (Star Trek 2009, Terminator Salvation), Felipe Sanchez (Speed Racer, Wolverine), and Christian Cordella (G.I. Joe, The Mummy 3), alongside illustrators and artists from Local 790: Ricardo Delgado (Age of Reptiles comics, Eagle Eye), Jeff Errico (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Crank), Tim Burgard (The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine), Mark Moretti (Valkyrie, The Day the Earth Stood Still), and Trevor Goring (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Watchmen). Room 32AB

Why not the next Next Generation?
Roberto Orci: We all had to agree that area would interest us, and we’re all fans to varying degrees. Everyone could agree that the original series was something that we all loved dearly. Also there seemed to be the fact that Roddenberry had done exactly as you described, so it would have been doing it again. Thirdly, there seemed to be a genuine gap in what we knew about these characters’ origins. It wasn’t just remaking an origin story, it was telling it for the first time. There seemed to be unexplored territory. We couldn’t believe it when we sat down to think about it.
Alex Kurtzman: It was shocking that after 40 years that there was still a story to tell about the characters that started it all. That alone was a reason to do it.
RO: Creatively that was a reason to do it and on the other side of it, we wanted to introduce Star Trek again to a new generation and the people who had been around who felt that they were never able to jump onto the bandwagon because they felt they’d missed too much. The idea of making an introduction that anyone can come into, and find out what it is that all of us love about Star Trek, without having to know anything about Star Trek, was something we just couldn’t pass up. The two of those together made it inescapable.

Shatner wanted larger part?
Orci: We went through the same process that we went through with Nimoy: We pitched him what we were thinking early on before we wrote it, and got his blessing as well, which was amazing. We talked in the meeting about the fact that Star Trek had killed Kirk and that was going to be a big stumbling block to an organic introduction of the character, but we would do our best. Subsequently he said he would require a slightly larger part than maybe this movie could sustain so we’ve kept him in the back of our minds, and now with another year to go, who knows? ... by the way, when I said that Mr. Shatner subsequently said he wanted a larger role, I was referring to his public statement that he did not do cameos. Nothing more

CS: I know you can't tell me too much about "Star Trek" but can you talk about the experience at all? What was it like to step into those iconic shoes – or boots as the case may be?
Saldana: It was amazing! It was a humbling experience. I met Nichelle Nichols, I worked with Leonard Nimoy. I was not a "Star Trek" fan before the film. Now I can honestly say that out of respect for the pioneers of this amazing conception, I am. They are amazing. They are the most graceful actors I have ever met. To work with J.J. [Abrams] I just hold him in the highest regard. Up there with James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, they are my idols and my everything. J.J. I hold in that regard and at that level. He's younger and those directors, Steven would go to the set constantly to visit him and lend his support to J.J. and Jim invited him to the ["Avatar"] set to go see it. I don't know who was more in awe. It's amazing to witness that and be in the middle going "Oh my God." I feel like the selfish one because I'm working with all of them. I feel very blessed and I think "Star Trek" is going to be amazing. Have you seen the trailer? It says "Under Construction"? I got goose bumps! I'm like "Dude! What are you doing?" It's amazing.

CS: Can you tease if you wear the mini-skirt? Did you get your legs in shape for this role?
Saldana: All I'm going to say is that for some reason every man on set noticed when I was working. It was like "God, I don't know - Was it my line? My deliverance? Oh. Okay." That's all I'm going to say.

CS: What did you learn from Nichelle Nichols? She was a genuine pioneer on television in the 1960s. She was almost about to leave the original show at one point because the part had become less prominent than had been planned, and Dr. Martin Luther King told her how important it was for her to stay for people of all colors to see black people in the future and know they had an equal role to play. Did she talk about that with you at all?
Saldana: Yes, she did. I think that the way she said it reminded me of a universal thing. When you become a role model, in sort of an accidental way, it's not your job to be conscious of the mission you have. It's your job just to do it. I have no right to judge whatever thoughts or whatever experiences she had while she was becoming this important role model that will forever exist, not only in Hollywood, but in America. What is beautiful about her now is that she does not understand it. That's what blew me away and I want to be just like her. I don't know how else to say it. She blew me away, not only because of her poise and how good she looks at her age, but how unaware she is of it. There is a part of her that understands it and a part of her that never will. It's not her job. The day that she understands it is the day that she will stop becoming the mission, the alchemist, and she's on her own journey. I get goose bumps just by talking about it. She's amazing. She was just this graceful thing. To know that she was such an essential tool in the conception of Uhura. She walked into the audition room with a book she was reading called Uhuru and they loved her. They said "Why not [call the character] Uhura?" So she was there with the writers, the creators, and she was at the top with everything. They had no idea that what they were going to do was going to be so important.

CS: Have you had your first fan encounters yet? Have you started to meet some of the die-hards?
Saldana: I have actually. I had a driver who picked me up at my house and ended up being a stand in for someone on one of the shows like "Star Trek: The Next Generation." For some reason he had his entire memorabilia in his trunk. It wasn't his car, it was the sedan that he was driving. I was pretty freaked out by it, but it didn't hit me until the end of the day, and I had him for the entire day because I had a series of appointments. It wasn't till I got back home that I was like "This could have been really freaky." But he was so respectful. He was so happy that I was doing "Star Trek," but to this day I'm wondering whether or not he knew he was picking me up and that I was doing "Star Trek" or that he happens to drive his town car filled with memorabilia.

CS: Any one else in the new cast that kind of blew you away?
Saldana: Everybody – from Eric Bana to primarily Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, they were amazing. I really hope that the fans embrace their interpretation of Kirk and Spock. It was so genuine and it came from the heart, with the most respect.

CS: Okay, you've got to give up one little thing: did you get to say "Hailing frequencies open?"
Saldana: [long pause, then grinning widely] F*ck, yeah!

"I haven't seen myself playing Captain Kirk in a long, long time," he says. "And I watched it now, from my perspective of 40 years later, and I thought, 'You know, that's rather good.' It's a starship captain trying to do the accent, the Noo Yawk accent, trying to play tough, trying to be one of the guys. It's not quite right, but it's what a starship captain would have done -- a decent imitation, enough to fool those guys but not the audience."

"That was a good hero," Shatner says. "He made decisions. He was forceful. He was compassionate. He was the instigator. He fought hard and long physically and emotionally. He carried the dilemma of whether to intrude or not to intrude. It was all the classic forms of good Greek playmaking: The hero has the dilemma and resolves the dilemma."

He was a chiseler who wanted a cut of outside money his cast earned, demanded to be called ‘master,’ and prohibited poor Nimoy from using a company pencil.

After the first thirteen episodes writer/producer Gene Coon was brought in and Roddenberry became the executive producer, meaning he was more of a supervisor than working on the show day -to-day. After that his primary job seemed to be exploiting Star Trek in every possible way.

I find it peculiar that I wasn’t asked. It was a great role that was written for me and as I aged, they aged the captain. I know that the director and producer JJ Abrams is a nice guy. I wasn’t hurt, but I was puzzled. I didn’t need the movie as a crutch professionally because I have so much to do but I’m amazed they didn’t solve the storytelling problems to incorporate me.