Trek Stars Speak About New Film's Challenges

Where so many big-blockbuster takes on our old favourites boldly go and fall flat on their faces, the makers of this prequel to the world's best-loved sci-fi show have steered the Starship Enterprise, presumably at warp speed, right into 2009.

The real brains behind the rebirth of Spock and Kirk is director and producer JJ Abrams. Previously known as the man who gave birth to Lost, Alias, Cloverfield and Mission Impossible 3, he's now being labelled as the next Steven Spielberg.

"I didn't even know what Star Trek was any more," he told us when the Trek promotional rollercoaster rolled into London.

"When you say Star Trek, was it Voyager, Deep Space Nine or Next Generation? I just thought Kirk and Spock. That always felt like Star Trek to me."

So are we right in assuming Abrams wasn't an ardent Trekkie?

"I was somewhere in the middle, maybe more in the non-fan contingent," he smiled diplomatically.

"I didn't really get it, and growing up (my) friends did. I knew it was popular but I was just never among them.

"But I found myself falling in love with this world, and when I read the script, I felt I would be so jealous if anyone else directed this film. So I had to do it."

Which led him back to the original source material - more specifically the characters of Spock and Kirk.

This new film is a prequel to the original series, showing how those two characters met. Kind of like Star Trek: The College Years. Which begged the question, how on earth would they find actors to fill those iconic roles?

"It was made very clear that we weren't expected in any way to try to recreate what had come before," explained Zachary Quinto, who until now has been known as Sylar from Heroes, but from this point on will be forever thought of as the new Spock.

"We used it rather as a point of entry for our own interpretations and understandings of who these characters are. They exsist in a very different environment."

Chris Pine, whose most high-profile role to date was in Princess Diaries 2, nods his head.

"I hoped, well I tried, to at least make this character as much as my own and do as good as a job as Mr Shatner had done in the past," he smiles.

So no dodgy cover versions of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds on the cards then.

Mainly, this is a cast of lesser-known stars.

There, is of course, the already much-discussed return of one key original cast member (here's a clue, he's a Vulcan) and then there is Simon Pegg. Cast, albeit fairly briefly, as the younger Scotty. And yes, he is already bored of people asking him to beam them up.

"I know, I know," he laughs. "People always want you to say the iconic lines like 'The engines cannae take it' and stuff, but that's because he's an iconic character, he's cemented in our minds as popular culture.

"In this film, the characters are bigger than the actors. You don't want anyone to eclipse the characters."