Sci-Fi Storm

Also from Issue #19 of Star Trek Magazine is an interview with Star Trek producers/screenwriters and frequent J.J. Abrams collaborators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Here is a brief excerpt.

Where did you come up with the idea of making this film a genesis story for
the original crew, or was that a no-brainer as far as you were concerned?

Alex Kurtzman: When we were first asked in the broadest sense if we would
ever consider doing Star Trek, it was like someone had just punched us in
the solar plexus ? just the idea that we would be able to inherit something
like that. Before we even had any specific conversations, the idea of
joining the legacy was so intense ? and frightening, frankly, because it
meant so much to us as kids. The fear of messing it up was the first feeling
that we had. But talking about it, that’s when we realized that’s exactly
why we had to do it. When something is that important to you, you have to
protect it.
The immediate answer for all of us was that the only way we were interested
in this was to do Kirk and Spock, going back to the genesis of the ship. We
weren’t interested in The Next Generation. This is where we wanted to live
in it.
But we faced an immediate problem: we knew the fate of all the characters.

Roberto Orci: It occurred to us very early on that the show began on the
five-year mission, and we realized that we hadn’t actually seen all these
characters meet and go on their first adventure. That became an obvious
place to explore because the goal was to make sure that we had a Star Trek
that made new audiences learn why fans like Star Trek. It couldn’t rely on a
previous knowledge of Star Trek. The fact that the origin story had not been
covered, and that’s what you’d naturally want to do to get new fans, just
made it seem like a perfect thing to do.