Star Trek XI screenwriter Roberto Orci this weekend gave an update on the development process of the new film, of which he recently finished writing a second draft of the script.

"It is better. It is tighter. The villain is much better; in a first draft you tend to focus on your heroes," Orci told the Trek Movie Report. He confirmed the film will feature the entire original crew of the Enterprise, with special attention being paid to the classic troika of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Orci also promised fans would also be seeing several minor characters that appeared in the Original Series, but seemed to deny the recent rumor that the "Federation Captain" appearing in the film will be Christopher Pike. "It was not necessarily Pike. One of the things we are trying to do in this movie is introduce a general audience to Starfleet. Captain Kirk was not the only captain in Starfleet."

Even though the film will be introducing a new audience to Star Trek, Orci suggested that current fans will find themselves at home as well. "The reason we aren’t starting over is because the people involved, both fans and behind the scenes, have worked so hard to specify what is canon - then to simply ignore it would be unnecessary. There is so much about The Original Series that is worth continuing. It is not like Batman where you can ignore everything. That being said there are some things that have never been specified fully in canon that we take liberties with."

Orci may be the perfect man to protect Star Trek canon. In an earlier interview posted several days ago at the Trek Movie report, he admitted he's been a fan of the show for almost his entire life. "[It started] when I was a child, with my uncle who could tell what Original Series episode it was just by one tiny moment in the show. He got me into Trek and I really got into it through watching The Next Generation. I had seen the movies, but the TV experience of Star Trek is the originator and Next Generation was going back to that. To this day I still feel that The Next Generation is the best television show from my lifetime."

For much more from Orci, check out the first and the second part of the interview at the Trek Movie Report.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!