The Young Kirks: Actors Cast To Play Young Jim and George Kirk January 29, 2008
by Charles Trotter , Filed under: ST09 Cast , trackback
It has already been reported that the new Star Trek movie will feature a young/adolescent Spock in addition to the two adult Spocks (Quinto and Nimoy). But it appears the movie will also feature a young James T. Kirk, as well as a young version of his older brother. TrekMovie.com has learned that George Samuel Kirk, Jr. will be played by 15-year-old actor Spencer Daniels, while ComingSoon.net is reporting that the younger James T. Kirk will be played by (almost) 12 year-old actor Jimmy Bennett.
Daniels (George Kirk) recently completed filming on another Paramount film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which he plays a young version of the title character. He has also appeared on such shows as Cold Case, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office. Bennett (Young Jim Kirk) is known for voicing the character of Roo in various Winnie the Pooh productions. He has appeared in such films as Daddy Day Care, Hostage, The Amityville Horror (with his Star Trek co-star Rachel Nichols), Poseidon, and Evan Almighty.
Jimmy Bennett (young James Kirk) and Spencer Daniels (young George Kirk, Jr.)
MINOR SPOILERS:
“Kirk Begins” (and “Spock Begins” too)
TrekMovie.com has learned that the adolescent Kirk boys have a scene together but apparently not with their parents (George Kirk, Sr. played by Chris Hemsworth and Winona Kirk played by Jennifer Morrison). We already know that Winona Kirk appears pregnant during the film and that we will also see Kirk at Starfleet Academy and points beyond (played by Chris Pine), so the film will show various points in the life of Kirk (as well as Spock).
TrekMovie.com has been reporting for a while that the film will “jump” from one time period to another, and this latest report is further evidence of that. This is somewhat the same approach as seen in another franchise re-invigoration, Batman Begins. And of course Abrams and his team from Lost and Alias are big fans of non-linear storytelling with lots of flash-backs and forwards. Abrams even started off his first feature film, Mission Impossible III (also written by Orci & Kurtzman), with a ‘flash forward.’
George Kirk (whom only Jim called Sam) was first referenced in the TOS episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and his corpse (”played” by William Shatner) later appeared in “Operation — Annihilate!”. See Memory Alpha for more on George Kirk.
Shatner as dead George Kirk Jr. — nice stache!
More on Daniels:
Official site | IMDb
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Comments»
First!
First! Anyway, interesting, I hope it does not get confusing for casual watchers.
Nice, but where’s Mugatu??? :)
First. Plus, the pic is busted. But interesting to see that both boys will be in the story…
All this jumping around from one time period to another and showing characters at different parts of their life sounds very icky.
Keeps Conventions alive :)
5
I agree it’s not something we’re used to seeing in Trek, and especially the Trek movies. But it IS one of Abrams’ trademark moves, and usually it’s been pretty effective.
Personally I think jumping back to Kirk and Spock as teenagers would be good enough though. I don’t know that I’ve EVER been curious to see the two of them as little kids. LOL
I wonder if we will see Finnigan from STTOS episode shore leave, he was always playing practical jokes on kirk at the academy?
Any guesses, but the way characters keep popping up, I wouldnt be suprised.
I hope he makes an appearance. :-) in the new movie.
I’m sorry, but since we never saw Jim Kirk at a younger age in the series, he could never have existed. Canon, remember. If we didn’t see it in the aired show, it never existed before.
According to some, that is….
#5 - Stanky
If you’ve ever watched “Lost,” you’ll know that Abrams & Co. know how to do flashbacks and do them well. No worries here. Actually looking forward to seeing them mix it up a bit, given the mind-numbing, playing-it-safe sameness of the Berman years.
7 I imagine it starting off with sequences of them as kids, then to teenage Kirk’s life.
It may be that the older Spock has to go to multiple times and meet with a younger Kirk to stop him from being killed.
As Kirk gets older, he runs into this mysterious older Vulcan (Spock), and eventually this leads to the Original Series timeframe.
It may also be that Spock’s younger self is targetted by Nero.
At that point, the mystery could be solved with a final confrontation with Nero in some way.
In the process, we may see the origins of what defines Kirk and Spock, and eventually the “birth” of the Original Series and crew on the Enterprise.
This film very much looks like an Origin story to me, and the scenario above illustrate a mere inkling of the story possibilities.
I love you guys. Our bickering is amazing but out contribution to the world is even better. Thanks for giving me a place to hang out trekmovie.com
I hope this isn’t turning into a Star Wars Episode 1 c’mon
we dont need to see baby kirk comin out of his mother who cares what he was like as a kid??
re#5
“All this jumping around from one time period to another and showing characters at different parts of their life sounds very icky”
WHAT? It sounds AWESOME to me!
C’mon, Stankster, get with it and don’t always look on the “icky” side of life! This movie [and this site] are a wonderful reason to wake up every day!
TREK LIVES! …and we should all be glad that so much care, thought, and respect is going into this production!
…and btw, I thought you were above the “1st” thing.. ; )
The more that I hear the more excited about this movie I get…it’s about time that we saw Kirk and Spock’s early days before their adventures aboard the Enterprise. It appears that the filmmakers are staying relatively close to cannon but somewhat blurring the edges. Still as long as the charaterizations and story is great, IMHO it will be a success…
Funny as heck if George at 15 talks about growing a mustache…
OK, so now we know the entire cast except for the key role of blurry starfleet cadet #43.
I hope this movie does not get lost in the detail of exposition.
Still looking forward to it either way….
Capes
i dont wanna see kirk as a kid. i wanna seeing kirk drop-kicking a klingon’s ass!!
Now why did they cast another boy for George Kirk? Jimmy Bennett could have played him, too … with a moustache!
Settle down: this is just about who is going to play a teenage Kirk, not about bringing him back to life.
Sounds like this film is going to explore in depths what made these two iconic men who they were during the Five-Year Mission.
Cute kids. Who’s playing the kid Spock tho?
9. diabolk - January 29, 2008
I’m sorry, but since we never saw Jim Kirk at a younger age in the series, he could never have existed.
That really made me shake my head. You mean Kirk must have come out of the womb as a grown man? Man, that would have really hurt his mom. Ouch! Just because we have not seen it on screen, does not mean it violates cannon. Cannon violation is anything that contradicts what we have seen on screen.
It would be a nice touch is they used a little bit of ominous foreshadowing to let the audience know that Little George isn’t gonna live long enough to see his retirement.
Smacked in the back by flying, plastic vomit…
I’d also like to see Little Jimmy give Little Georgie a patented flying Shatner kick in the Kirk family backyard…
I like the flash back idea, and the possibly seeing what made Kirk and Spock what they were later on. Groovy!
I’d also am curios to see the young Spock actor.
#23 -
I think Diabolk was kidding…
Wonder if it’s going to be Riverside, Iowa….. because if that isn’t shown as Kirk’s birthplace, Abrams will have to deal with something far worse then TOS canon nazis (yee gods, the viewscreen is .004 meters too long in diameter! Blasphemy!), who would be pissed even though nothing was ever said on screen about Kirk’s birthplace beyond “Iowa”…
he’d have to deal with the residents of Riverside, Iowa… who’s economy essentially consists of two things: farming, and selling “Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk” t-shirts.
Are they going to be able to fit all this in a two long movie????
#28 -
If Abrams, Orci & Kurtzman are going out of their way to canonize certain elements of the Animated Series and the TREK novels, there’s no reason to think they WON’T pin down Riverside in TREK XI. I think it’s a safe bet!
I wonder if JJ is going to show a flashback scene of Taurus IV where Kirk was only 1 of 9 survivors who saw Kodos?
re: 10 SPB
I have seen a couple episodes of Lost and that was way too many.
re: 14 C Redshirt
Nothing to be ‘above’ with the “First.” I like when people write “first.” I don’t like when people spend a bunch of time complaining about people writing “first” when it is such a trivial thing.
and I stand by the “icky”
#14. Commodore Redshirt - January 29, 2008
“we should all be glad that so much care, thought, and respect is going into this production”
Well. At least it looks like care, thought and respect are going into the script. I personally can’t say the same for the designers…
#5 Stanky
Posting w/o reading ahead:
Sounds very “Lost”-y to me, which I don’t mind so much now that I’m used to the technique as JJ uses it . It bugged me when I first started watching it, but it became pretty obvious when there’s a flashback on “Lost,” everybody’s back in civilization. The flashbacks are also critical to what’s going on on the Island (it’s a character too.)
And given the popularity of “Lost,” (which, given its delayed premiere, may be in doubt) I really don’t think the average viewer is going to find Trek XI a terribly difficult moviegoing experience.
Peace. Live long and prosper.
#9
Damn right! Kirk sprang to life fully formed from the forehead of Gene Roddenberry! ;-)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
@29 I agree. I have no problem with nonlinear storytelling but with the cast size - a two hour movie just doesn’t seem long enough to contain all these folks.
Many of them are going to end up being nothing more than cameos the way things seem to be panning out so far.
Tarsus IV?
Spencer Daniels looks a little like Hemsworth if you ask me :)
#34 edited to read
(it’s a character too, just like Big E.)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#37 Yes from “Conscience of a king” season 2 Kirk meets up with Kodos who poses as an actor and Kodo’s daughter?
I’m sensing thread-drift here.
Anthony has very kindly provided us with a chat thread for just such thread drifts/off-topic discussions. If we happen to get “Lost” in this thread, the discussion can move there. It’s the last folder at the top of the page. :)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
Spencer Daniels kinda reminds me of Kurt Russell when he was a kid.
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#13
Totally. Beware the Phantom Menace.
#23.. yes, my phrase “according to some” should have been the tipoff. Some here bicker about anything new that wasn’t seen or mentioned in the show, that it can’t be canon. I was riffing on that silly attitude.
Well I think it will be cool if JJ at least broach the subject when Kirk was 13 yrs old and he witnessed the massacre on Tarsus IV. I think that event in his life might have had a huge influence on Kirk to join star fleet.
I’m trying to picture the lad in one of Shatner’s toupes. :D
#16 - Hahahahahaha! That’ll be awesome if he talks about it. A true nod to the fans. ;)
Hmmm…
We have Jimmy Bennett playing a young Kirk…
We have Chris Pine playing story aged Kirk…
We have James Cawley, who played Kirk in another production…
… but we don’t have William Shatner playing Kirk at any time.
Fascnating.
George looks more like Jim to me. Sure they are the right way round?
Some of you seem concerned that with so many different characters being introduced on screen, there will hardly be time to squeeze it all in to a two hour movie.
Don’t worry….it ends up that the reason none of us can guess the storyline to the movie is because there ISN’T ONE! It’s going to be a one hour and forty-three minute extravaganza with the characters skating around, like Chimps On Ice, each taking a turn swooshing up to the camera, smiling, and introducing themselves….e.g. “hi, I’m Finnegan!”
Come early December J.J. will start marketing the hell out of the flick, with a last minute title change to TREKSCAPADES!!
Hell, why did you think they were filming in Iceland all these months? Duh! :)
Non-liner story-telling (a.k.a) LOST meets Star Trek (zero)
I can deal with it, I love LOST
- W -
* Waiting for the new season of LOST to start to pass the time waiting for Sta Trek (zero) *
Star Chimps on Ice!
Love it, Harry. That’s Paramount thinking.
I just think you’re gonna get a ton of 00:45 scenes. The Kirk boys will be lucky if they get “Gee, whizzickers, Sam, them stars sure is far away.” “I’m gonna get there some day, Jimmy, you just wait.” “Me, too!”
@53 Birds of a feather….
;)
What’s the point in writing a whole movie about preventing the death of Kirk for an audience that knows He’s dead (generations)? I smell a rat.
I’m against bringing back old Kirk ,but part of me thinks we may see Shatner at the very end of the movie riding off into the sunset after they symbolically reboot the franchise.
54 We keep suggesting this, hoping Roberto will take the hint. And Shatner too.
SPOILERY PREDICTIONS
the movie will be spock jumping around in time stopping romulans from killing kirk at a bunch of different points in his life.
wait–why isn’t shatner playing kirk’s father?
#56 - Heck, why don’t we get Shatner to reprise his role as a teenage George Kirk! Sure, it might require a bit more of a suspension of belief…
#44. diabolk But you didn’t put a smiley face or a Ha Ha at the end of your post #9! :-)
Some people have posted some rediculous stuff regarding cannon. Hard to tell who’s joking, who’s overly anal, or who’s off their rocker.
I have not been able to figure out how to insert a emoticon in these message windows. :-(
The further away this movie is from what Nemesis was, the happier I’ll be.
I still say Shat will be in it- somehow.
#50 Harry - Wish I’d thought of that!! Haaa!
ok, just figured it out.
55.Understand Ali ,I’m really not for Shatner in the movie ,but all this gratuitous,convoluted time-line jumping around to prevent Kirk’s death to preserve TOS/movie timeline/canon while precluding the death on Veridian 3 leaves some business undone on Spocks
’s part.Especially in light of their spoken commitment to each other’s welfare in ‘the Final Frontier’ .the writers of this movie will have to delineate why they save young Kirk and not old Kirk.
Like I said,I wouldn’t be suprised if the last frame of the movie was a tearful riding off into the sunset shot of two old heroes on horses(ala Shatner style).I
tend to wonder if Shatner is part of an elaborate ruse.Keep in mind I’m a anti resurrect Kirk guy.
61–I would love for your theory to be true. Fix the error that was at the end of Generations, then onward with the new cast.
HMMMM. YOU KNOW…
I just thought of something… I’m probably not the first, but I don’t recall reading anyone else bringing this up yet:
Why exactly does Spock have to PREVENT Kirk’s death? Couldn’t Spock somehow track down the Nexus at the end of TREK XI and ride into it HIMSELF, therefore finding Kirk, or at the very least, calling him up/creating him from memory? And they can cook eggs and chop wood together for all eternity?
Or is my knowledge of the Nexus just as fuzzy as everyone else’s?
#63 SPB “they can cook eggs and chop wood together for all eternity”
What the……..why don’t we just call the movie It’s A Wonderful Trekback Mountain?
Just received a warning to young Kirk from the Future Spock, Vulcan encryption:
http://tinyurl.com/yuwg8k
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
5 and 7
I’m thinking that the jumping back and forth to different time frames is because the Romulans are attempting multiple incursions in the timeline to kill Kirk and are continually being prevented by Nimoy from the future who is working with TOS characters, together with Star Fleet and assisted by Chris Pike’s crew.
Just wild speculation.
I’ve always assumed that George Kirk was significantly older than Jim (about 10 to 15 years or so). The screencap from “Operation: Annihilate” seems to bear this out. Lots of grey in his hair and the wrinkles around his eyes. The young actors above, though, are only three years apart in age.
Of course, there isn’t any specific information on how old George was, so it’s academic really. Perhaps George just spent a lot more time out in the sun (or maybe suns?) than Jim did.
61
I’ve said this before, and will do so again. It has been suggested that a time corp exist in TREKDOM, with rules and regulations. Spock can not just decide to break those rules to bring back Kirk, just because he is his friend.
If the Romulans are attempting to kill Kirk, Spock’s altering of the timeline to prevent Kirk’s death is justified. However, he has no legal reason, to enter the Nexxus and play with time to save a friend–a personal matter. That would be illogical as well as against Federation and Star Fleet rules.
The writers of the film, don’t have to delineate why they save young Kirk and not old Kirk because it is not the same thing. One death occurred because of a personal choice–Kirk decided to leave the bridge and save the day in GENERATIONS and therefore ended up in the Nexxus. In the new STAR TREK film, an attempt will be made to save a young Kirk to prevent a murder.
NOT the same thing.
So any idea on who is playing young Spock yet?
Kigs :)
This is very quickly beginning to feel likes shades of All Good Things. Is so much background being covered in some desperate attempt to completely own what was Gene’s by filling EVERY SINGLE GAP? What next… Jim Kirk’s conception?
This is getting messy me thinks.
I’ve read some really corney devices to eliminate the ‘Generations’ fiasco (Kirk’s death),but given the writers willingness to jump time lines and introduce plot twists about character mortality… I don’t get it.they’re gonna save Kirk ,but they’re not gonna save Kirk.That’s why I say I smell a rat.
I mean can you read the reviews Dec 26th.You know that if they don’t save Kirk (young and old)the critics will be like “why?”.The film wouldn’t be logical.
I say don’t be suprised if Spock pulls a really big suprise out of His hat for His grand finale ala ‘The Menagerie’.He’s (Spock)a crafty one.
I think that the age of young Kirk being cast proves that he will vist the Enterprise being constructed in the Trailor. Probably in some flashback.
His dad is probably part of the Engineers or designers.
Nice touch if they introduce him to Captain Robert April around the dockyards.
71 By ‘the Menagerie’ I mean the two part episode where He’s on trial and Pike is left on Talos 4. Look at the guy’s devotion to his captain (Pike) in that episode.
I think Start Trek (2008) will be similar in it’s Spock-centrism.
#71 : “they are going to save kirk, but they are not going to save kirk.”
Right.
wow…that is a new one…comparing the new movie to “all good things’….one of the best Trek episodes (and certainly best finale)…and then using that to say the movie is bad.
All Good Things would have made a better feature than Generations…in fact I am pretty sure that Moore and Braga (who wrote both) said something to that effect.
#64 -
The subtext was always there, Harry B.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
FOR ALL ITS TECHNO-BABBLE…
…”All Good Things” is head-and-shoulders above any of the TNG feature films.
#75
I *loved* “All Good Things.” I always wondered why that wasn’t a feature film, while “Generations” and “Nemesis” were. Those two just seemed like bad TNG episodes to me.
Wonder if B&B ever expounded on that decision publicly.
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
I doubt we’ll see many scenes with baby Kirk and baby Spock. If all these actors has substantial roles, the movie would be six hours long.
I’d forgotten Shatner played his own dead brother. It just may be his best work ever.
I’M KIDDING! Don’t go all bashy on me. Have a sense of humor. Shat does.
Yeah Tony, All Good Things WAS a great episode. Thought we were to get something fresh with this? Rehashing previous Trek series is what drove it into a corner among other things.
#56 - So it’s like The Terminator?
#68 I’ve said this before, and will do so again. It has been suggested that a time corp exist in TREKDOM, with rules and regulations
Didn’t a DS9 episode confirm that? I remember a scene somewhere the Time Cops are talking to Sisco about temporal violations (can’t remember context), and they referred to Kirk as one of the worst violators in the history of the Federation.
Anyone?
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
jumping around in time is not rehashing ALL GOOD THINGS unless they throw Q in and have some anti-time bubble. Non-linear stories with flasbacks and forwards is what these guys do. Just watch Lost and Alias. Even MI3 did it. It is a style of storytellign that works for them and since they are trying to tell a ‘big’ story that ties today all the way to Kirk on the Enterprise in an epic way then I dont see the issue.
Personally, I think the first TNG feature film SHOULD have been Yesterday’s Enterprise, but cest la vie! They had a classic story and it was wasted on a mere television episode.
Can you, for a moment, imagine that story told on a big budget scale with it being Kirk, Spock and crew as the ones going back into the temporal rift, to face certain death in order to restore the timeline? Picture it being Kirk who talks to Picard and, after hearing how history had been altered, him saying, “Mr. Spock, inform the crew….we’re going back…”
What a sendoff! And need I say it? There wouldn’t have been a dry eye in the theatre………….
GAWD, I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE WASTE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES!!!
Ah, what could have been………………….and wasn’t.
All that reliance on technobabble and Q is so Next gen.Good for Next Gen,not a TOS thing.
Rehashing stories from previous Trek series I meant to say… it’s late, I’m tired. But I’d also like to point out that whomever owns the label, Star Trek will always be Roddenberry’s. Tool around with the premise, the players, and the technology, but anyone posing at the reins can only be but a pale shadow.
You can’t take Shakespear and slightly alter Hamlet and claim it’s yours. Anyone who would side with you that it is is ignorant. No Star Trek isn’t Hamlet, but I bet there are more people living who have seen Star Trek than have read Shakespear.
I understand your point Tony, but in what you said worries me even more. This is what these guys know and do? Will each succeeding movie then from this one (if successful) always be a hop-scotch through time? A lot of the very best stores have been immediate and in the here and now.
Sorry, I just can’t sing praises on this one. I do hope I’m wrong. A lot of crafts people are most certainly doing their best and deserving of continuing lively hood. But as a whole this industries mainstream product is more than lacking to say the least, and this feels no different.
YUBnit. I read your post 14 times and I still can’t figure out what you’re trying to say. Roddenberry is dead. New people are in control and they love Trek as much as you do. Shakespeare is universal and Mugatu was a pimp.
re86: “You can’t take Shakespear and slightly alter Hamlet and claim it’s yours.”
I’d like to point out that Shakespeare wrote “Romeo & Juliette” and “West Side Story” was written by Arthur Laurents (book), Leonard Bernstein (music), and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) …so yes you can! :)
Instead of “All Good Things”, Star Trek Zero (as called by Mr. Orci) sounds more like the ‘temporal cold war’ in Enterprise.
I hope I am wrong. >:>{
#88 elmachocombo “Mugatu was a pimp”
Wow, remind me to never mess with one of his girls!!! :)
Folks,
Um…hello? I think we should all look toward the first 40 minutes of SUPERMAN THE MOVIE, in the sense of establishing who the characters were, who and what influenced them and what they’ll eventually become.
This actually interests me, because if done correctly, with the same sense of feeling as, say, SUPERMAN, such sequences could really add something to the TREK canon.
Color me stoked about this, especially with the budget they’ve got to work with. It’s this kind of material with which JJ and company has always excelled.
Of course, this all could wind up like the ridiculous opening of LAST CRUSADE, which asks audiences to believe Indiana Jones became Indiana Jones in ONE AFTERNOON.
I’m guardedly optimistic about this news.
BTW…since I’ve been asked about this…I think the ONLY WAY Shatner should appear in this film, which would appease just about everyone, would be to re-record the “SPACE…THE FINAL FRONTIER” opening somewhere in the film (personally, I’d do it over the very beginning of the film, just after the Paramount logo, but hey, that’s just me…)
One last thought…why the HECK wouldn’t you put a trailer for the film in front of KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL?
#92 Robert Meyer Burnett
I like your comparison to the first 40 minutes of SUPERMAN………but remember what happened then in THAT movie…..they took it into Otis territory which was far too buffoon/cartoonish for my taste. Let’s hope JJ resists that notion…
Robert
by the way, may I take this opportunity to tell you that I am a HUGE fan of Free Enterprise. I bought the first DVD released, watched it many times, and then bought the remastered newer version. I promote it to anyone who will listen to me.
I have watched that movie probably 11-12 times.
It’s a pleasure to interact with you on this board in ANY regard. Thank you!
To me, there has been only two excellent Star Trek movies - Wrath of Khan and First Contact, with Wrath taking the title. The rest have been fair to middling, to downright vomitus. I think it’s important to remember that when this new movie comes out.
Not that I’m saying we should lower our expectations. I want to be, and expect to be, wowed. But I personally don’t view the body of Trek films as jewels. It’s a real smattering of quality. I want this new one to be near the top of the list. I’d even like it to be number one in my book.
It’s too bad the original cast couldn’t have gone out with a better movie.
Oh, yeah, I enjoy Free Enterprise as well. I think that’s when William Shatner changed as an actor, and stopped taking himself so seriously. It’s like he discovered humility.
If you watch earlier interviews with him, you can clearly see the other Shat. He was more ego-driven, and more insecure at the same time. I really like who Shatner has become. He’s cooler than ever.
But alas, he ain’t Kirk no more.
#96 -
I disagree about him not being Kirk anymore.
You can see it in that Star Trek tour video where he’s on the bridge, when he’s talking about the pros of something or other. For a second there, he goes from being a salesman pitching a product to being Kirk optimistically espousing his passion for one thing or another.
For me, it seems morality, hope and optimism were always Kirk’s trademarks. It’s good to see them peak out from Mr. Shatner from time to time. ;)
I can’t really decide which one of the kids I dislike more. They both look somewhat… 80s-ish. They remind me of my retarded schoolmates. :)
Different timelines, a lot of jumping around from one time period to another, babies Kirk and Spock, young Kirk chats with old Spock, meet the parents and the siblings, Orion slave girls, Pike - the Captain no one remembers except the fanboys and girls…
Well, Abrams is pursuing a rather unusual strategy to make sure that his film is not getting too fanboyish.
I know Jimmy Bennett from “Hostage”, very good actor, but I guess he has not so much scenes in the new movie.
#58 come on, jbs
I’m german, so you can imagine how handicapped I am concerning.
But even I got that diabolk was joking. And I found that a very good joke, whatever that means from someone, whose race was born without a sense of irony.
…I’am concerning the humor part…
I actually think that idea of this being an epic story-telling, with some backstory of iconic TOS characters, rather than a two-hour episode shown on a large screen, is making this more appealling with each passing day.
If I want to engage in mental (ahem) “self-gratification”, only, and “watch the thought-records left by our ancestors”
(gratuitous “Cage” reference deliberately inserted)
i.e. an episode of Trek, I can turn on the DVD jukeboxes, and watch an episode of one the six (incl. TAS) series — or one of the ten two-hour Trek episodes released to theaters.
It’s obviously risky, but, WTF. The franchise is essentially dead, from a “production by the franchise-owner” standpoint, so,why not try something different that might do really well outside the circle of Trek-fans.
#49 Ali
“George looks more like Jim to me. Sure they are the right way round?”
Hmmm, that was my immediate thought too unfortunately. Sure hope this isn’t a mis-casting, but this Spencer Daniels lad looks FAR more likely to have resembled a young Chris Pine in my estimation, while this young Jimmy Bennett looks more like some poor unfortunate scrawny lad who would be most likely bullied in many a school… I hope these photos are not very representative, as Spencer at this point seems far more like the one most likely to grow into a ‘Kirk’-esque type commanding Starship Captain…
That sure settles the eye color question (which in retrospective is probably pretty stupid, but hey, I’m so adjusted to the current TOS color distribution ;)
This will get confusing amusing in future fanfic.
(Ooops, wanted to strike “confusing” but the HTML didn’t work out.)
As Shatner aged so did Kirk and referenced it in the movies. Hell we all change our outlooks as we hit our fifties. The realization of unrealized dreams, aspirations, and hitting the wall will do that to you. You may become less patient, cranky, irreverant or funnier. Kirk did the same. Hopefully those who love him make allowances for the variations in his attitudes, knowing that at the core he is the same. I personnaly loved that aspect of the Star Trek characters. Perfectly referrenced in ST6 when Kirk and Spock were talking about their aging and their immovable nature.
God, I love those guys!
Please JJ, stick Kirk in there….somewhere. Make it happen.
And woah, considering how young those kids are, they both have quite a long and good filmography /is impressed
I don’t mind seeing something about the younger Kirk family, this is a large, free-for-all playground so far and an interesting time frame to have in the movie.
If they are going to have these kids in there, they better have all the kids from “And the Children Shall Lead” and “Miri” in there somewhere, preferably at at least 3 different stages in their lives. And I want to see Harry Mudd’s first birthday party and the mother Horta as a child hatching from a silicon egg.
I liked Michael Welch as Artim in STIX… when I was that age, such a thing was my dream… being involved in the production. Same for the episode where Picard, Guinan and Ro are transformed into kids.
I was 13 when STIX came out, so I “connected” to Artim and wished I was him. Maybe these kids here will connect to a younger audience in the new film.
Canonistas, take heart. Jimmy’s eyes are hazel.
gee, i hope these kids are given stronger purpose than trek’s previous takes on youth. i still cringe when young jonathan archer gets whiny about the wind in the pilot for enterprise, could never stand nerdy young jake on DS9 and well, weasly wesley seemed written to inspire any young man to stay well away from starfleet.
although i would love a scene where young jimmy kirk talks his own laptop to death, “ultimate computer” style.
hmm…yeah if they do a lot of jumping around in the timeline, this will definately turn off a lot of the more casual viewers, and will definately annoy the Trek fans for which the movie already has 2 strikes against it.
If they;re gonna do time jumps I hope they at least do it in chronological order, and not like Pulp Fiction where you jump forward and backwards in the events of the film roughly every 10-15 minutes.
Oooh, or maybe it’ll run backwards, like Memento.
I’d go for anything. As far as I’m concerned, Abrams is the big cheese of non-linear narratives. (Master, master, where you lead me I will follow.)
Star Trek writers had problems with kiddies in the stories…yup.. either they’re annoying or they are trying to kill the crew…
Tough to make the wee ones work- and not make you shout out loud in tha cinema “He’s supposed to become Mr. Darth Vader! Now, I never be scared o’ him again.” Same with all heroes or villians- their childhood usuaslly not be part of their legend. Bold old Kirk used ta picked his little snotty nose? Dunna wanna see that!
But it be a brave new world and hopefully fresh blood find a way to make the wee folk this work well in ST.
arrrr….
#50
Aye sir. But me predication be that the film will individually follow each crew members’ early life, or at least early Starfleet life. It be a hodgepodge of timelines and a patchwork of stories just like LOST, but tied together with Krik as incompetant Romulans try numerous times to kill him in yon past.
(example: Young Sulu is on Castro Street in Starfleet hq on San Fran for…ummm… research… and future Rommys jump outta an alley with a Mugato on a leash yelling “Hey- He’s not Kirk! Bloody hell! Let’s try another time jump!”
Various posts-
All Good Things shoulda been tha first TNG film? Hmmm… I reckon so. Picard could have jumped on Kirk’s Enterprise and get thrown in the brig for being a raving loon!
Awww… I just funnin’. Too bad All Good Things didn’t really end TNG right there on such a high note. Though the beguiled Nemesis be not bad…
#65
Them kitties know things…
#115
-..either they’re annoying or they are trying to kill the crew… -
Maybe Jimmy and Spocky will kill each other and we’re done.
JUST A NOTE OF ERROR- JAMES T. KIRK’S BROTHER WAS NOT NAMED GEORGE, IT WAS SAM. SHEESH!
“What Are Little Girls Made Of” established that Kirk’s brother’s name is George. Only Kirk calls him “Sam.”
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#118.
I’ll be the geek who corrects you gently:
No, actually, in “What Are Little Girls Made Of,” the droid-Kirk refers to Kirk’s brother George Samuel, but “only you call him `Sam.’ “
#119
I see Vulcanista beat me to it — and even more gently.
Mr. Orci certainly reads some of the older fiction about the series. Elements of this seem to emerge. I like that.
#63–It is mere speculation about the plot of the film. There are several ways this could play out, and I’m hoping to be surprised.
Well, as long as he doesn’t go “Yippee!!!” like young Anakin, I’m okay with it. :)
James “Tank” Kirk
One of the Novels about Kirk’s youth made mention that a very young Jimmy asked what the T stood for and his father suggested “Tank”
122.
I agree, the writers are proving to be classy connoisseurs.
That said, it would be nice to include the phrase “First, best destiny” somewhere in the dialogue.
This may turn out to be like Sesame Street except Snuffleupagus will be REAL.
Shatner expounded on the “Sam” thing in his most recent novel, Star Trek Academy: Collision Course.
In the book, George Jr. himself goes by the name Sam since he is quite estranged from his father at the time. It’s possible that as Sam got older, he went back to his given name but Jimmy never got used to it.
Regarding flashbacks: It still seems to me that if you want to include formative events of Kirk’s childhood and early career (barring addition of “new” storyline), you have to at least reference the horrors of Tarsus IV (although represented in Collision Course) and the attack of the gaseous creature on the USS Farragut.
By the way, little Jimmy has green eyes, doesn’t he?
… me thought Jim Kirk had a half-brother named SyKirk who wanted them to go to a magical planet called RoGerMoore…
Can’t we just CGI children these days? Have Mr. Shatner in tha film that way- CGI extrapolating from his wee boyhood pictures…
“arrrr… that looks like Canada in thar background, not Iowa… Is that a dreidel he be playin’ with?… who knew?…”
#83. Anthony Pascale - January 29, 2008
“Jumping around in time is not rehashing ALL GOOD THINGS unless they throw Q in and have some anti-time bubble. Non-linear stories with flasbacks and forwards is what these guys do. Just watch Lost and Alias. Even MI3 did it. It is a style of storytellign that works for them and since they are trying to tell a ‘big’ story that ties today all the way to Kirk on the Enterprise in an epic way then I dont see the issue. ”
When I read THAT post, I just had to snap my fingers and point at the thread, saying “YES!” Anthony, I think you’ve nailed it with that notion. ‘LOST’ is one of the most amazing (and complex, to be sure) shows on TV now, and the way they “jump around” in time DOES make a tremendous difference in how the storylines progress. It will be interesting to see how such a story-telling method that becomes, if it is to be part of ST XI. (Excuse me, ST 0.)
- ST 0 ..yes….so this is the new begining….of a saga…:-D
I’m getting more and more intrigued by this story. As much as I want to live this year fully, I’m still thinking HURRY UP CHRISTMASTIME!
#113–There is, apparently, already an audience with a great deal of appreciation for their filmmaking style. Even if only that audience is added to the core base of Trek fans already out there, this film should have the kind of success they are looking for.
okay, all this time jumping leads me to the conclusion that Abrams is planning a new prequel series called “Star Trek: The Young Jimmy Kirk Chronicles.”
Let’s see: Kirk once accused Spock of pulling girls’ pigtails, and I’ll bet money that the adolescent Kirk found a way to avoid flunking a “no win scenario” test in his U.S. History test in high school.
-grin-
RE: #135. Doug - January 30, 2008
—okay, all this time jumping leads me to the conclusion that Abrams is planning a new prequel series called “Star Trek: The Young Jimmy Kirk Chronicles.”
Let’s see: Kirk once accused Spock of pulling girls’ pigtails, and I’ll bet money that the adolescent Kirk found a way to avoid flunking a “no win scenario” test in his U.S. History test in high school.
________________________________________________
I don’t know about all that, and actually it was Kirk who ASKED Spock, on the Enterprise bridge in one eipsode of TOS (much to Spock’s obvious Vulcan-subdued shock, if we can call it that), if SPOCK ever pulled little girls’ pigtails…. making it kind of obvious that JIMMY did that as a young boy. Wow, I took that remark that young Jimmy got a lot of spankings down on the farm after all the trouble he likely got into that far back into his childhood!
I have to wonder about that: it may be that “Sam” had acheived a balanced perspective even as a young teen, that HE was ‘the [young] man in charge’ of the family farm in Riverside while their dad was off “chasing galaxies” (as the saying goes) — as Starbase 2’s Chief of Security (another novel’s back-story). If so, with George Sr.’s continued absense while working his career in Starfleet (not the best way to raise two young boys), then little Jimmy’s pranks and antics would end up resulting in some “meaningful, if life-changing” event between the two boys, and perhaps THAT event (perhaps more than one?) in young Jimmy’s life would turn him on the path toward the man we all know as the great leader who commands a starship called Enterprise NCC-1701.
Hmm….. it may also be that, during their teens, SAM HIMSELF is the one who teaches Jimmy how to play (—and BEAT ALMOST ANYONE AT—) the game of poker. Among other things, one of those being GIRL-CHASING. (LOL!) Yeah, that could end up being a soap opera of the future, considering. But this story isn’t SOLEY about young Jim Kirk’s boyhood: it perhaps shows us WHY Jim is the man who he is. And THAT, people, is a drama worth telling—especially if it propels Alex & Roberto’s story forward as I suspect it does. We will know in December 2008…….
gee… that kid who’s playing the young Kirk looks really stubborn and quite capable of re-programming… stuff. GREAT choice, JJ et al :p
I hope they call “George Samuel Kirk, Jr” Sam!
Let me get this straight. We know the film depicts Kirk at two ages (young and younger), Spock at two ages (young and old), and Zachary Quinto has supposedly said that he plays a scene with Nimoy. And this is enough to have some of you folks, as near as I can tell, totally convinced that the plot of this movie revolves around Old Spock jumping through time to prevent Young and Younger Kirk from being whacked by the Romulans? Ummm… yeah. Seems to me that lots of movies manage to cover occasionally even vast expanses of time without ever resorting to time travel to do so. As a matter of fact, unless they purport to take place in real time (e.g. Hitchcock’s Rope, Nick of Time ), they all do. It also seems to me that if the plot of this movie had anything whatsoever to do with time travel it would have been a fairly simple matter to write Shatner into the film and appease all the fanboys, which they had every reason to do.
T.’.
Good point.
Now, to put this matter of William Shatner to rest;
Star Trek is, to me, more than a franchise; it is an important vision of our future that we ignore at our peril. It is a mirror of our own world, idealized, exagerrated, of course, but, ultimately a cultural touchstone connecting our past to our potential destiny. Engineers, doctors, astronauts, and uncountable millions of our planet’s citizens have embraced this ‘tv show’ to the point where it has motivated them to change their lives and the world around them. Let the cynical cast their stones… To paraphrase something ‘taking back Trek’ once told me, “Star Trek is bigger than baseball.”
So, to someone like William Shatner, who has gone from mocking the fans (”Get a life!) to de-constructing the ‘myth’ (”How William Shatner changed the world”) to his current shameless pandering to pester the current production into giving him a role, I say this:
You sir, are out of uniform.
You work for us, not the other way around. If it serves Starfleet for you to return, fine; if not, then enjoy your retirement and be thankful that you had the opportunity to wear the uniform in the first place. It represents more than James T. Kirk; more than Starfleet, and, believe it or not, it isn’t a costume. Not to us.
“Well, Captain, the… Klingons called you a… a tin-plated, overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood. ”
- Lt. Cmdr Montgomery Scott
#138
NICE!! :)
#138
Bravo!!
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
I have created these loltrekcats for my Shatner-in-the-movie friends. Please view in sequence. Hope you like them! :)
http://tinyurl.com/2do7tw
http://tinyurl.com/2xmse9
Peese. livs long and prospurr.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#127
Actually, Snuffleupagus ended up being real, remember? They thought Big Bird having hallucinations was too freaky for kids. So they wimped out and made other characters able to see him.
I can’t believe I wrote that.
#138
“Well, Captain, the… Klingons called you a… a tin-plated, overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood.”
The Klingons spoke about James T. Kirk, our Captain, who not only served in Starfleet, but also served Starfleet, and us, for decades and by doing so, risked his career and life more than once in order to save the universe, his crew and his friends. To him, the uniform never was a costume either, and during the years, he had to fight not only extraterrestrial enemies, but to cope with inner foes, with ageing, with some of his secret delusions turning into a more realistic and mature perception of himself and the universe.
And do you know why we know so much about this man and his development? Because Shatner delivered it all in his portrayal of Kirk, of our Captain even the Klingons respected although they would never have admitted it. But you know, the more polished the insult, the higher the esteem.
And we shouldn’t forget that there’s more to Kirk than meets the eye and we should see not only the pure hero, but also the self-doubting nature, the inner conflict, the concealed vulnerability, the artful dodger, the funny bone, the manipulative puppeteer, the corbomite maneuvring guy, the man who uses women to fulfil his Prime Directive, the smart-ass who’s able to talk computers into coma and self-destruct, the hard-nosed Admiral retrieving command, the ageing commander fighting his poor eyesight but never losing his vision, in fine to see and recognize all layers which combined were given to us by Shatner’s portrayal through the years, and which made Kirk the Captain who we came to know and embrace, yes, to the point where he has motivated us to change our lives and the world around us.
And that’s why we still care that much about Kirk - 40 years after his first appearance - and that’s why many people think he deserves a better ending and that’s why they want to see Spock and Kirk reunited, not only in their heydays, but also in their ripe and wise old age.
There are a lot of Lost watchers, who are not Star Trek fans in the slightest. And, I would like to put out a theory that what is intriging aabout lost is that any given episode tells a story on the island, but also tells a part of a characters back ground, back story. I think this would be an interesting aproach to Star Trek. How does Kirk’s past and Spock’s past effect the choices he is making now, and how does that effect the future. I think Lost does this jumping bit quite well. And so did BATMAN BEGINS in a tammer sense. If people aren’t getting confused with it in LOST then I don’t think they will get confused with it in star trek. I just hope that firmly established back story bits are adhered to.
Its a TREK movie. We’ll ALL watch and we’ll ALL LOVE IT! PERIOD
#143–Caring about the character of Kirk, and demanding that Bill Shatner be allowed to play him again are two very different things. I don’t think anyone here, who is a fan of TOS, has a lack of care for that character(or, for that matter, a lack of respect for some of the work Bill did in that role a long time ago). It is precisely for that reason(love and care for the character) that I, personally, don’t wish to see Shatner portray him again.
Did the character deserve a better ending? Heck, I didn’t think he needed to be killed in the first place. He should have died a very old man, and a dignified hero of the Federation. He did not have a death befitting him, and there are many you could point the finger at about it, but not a single one of them is named JJ Abrams.
#143
NICE!! :) Bravo!!
Just an FYI, Spencer Daniels is actually just barely 14 according to his official site, which lists his birth date as 12/23/93.
your wrong
take another look at his website buddy its 12/23/1992
i think spencer daniels has a blog at spencerblogsabouteverything.blogspot.com
Greg/PG/etc
please stop posting under multiple names. If you have information or are working for Spencer (or are Spencer) please contact us and we can talk about anything you want to promote.
maybe spoke and kirk were wank buddys as teens ;)
spoke and kirk met in the book william shatner -starfleet academy.
and they became friends and that was that. as it says on the hardbound and paperbound (out now).I remember Jimmy Bennett in Posiedon, he was a young little kid and i have the Posiedon movie on DVD. So much he grown, i didn’t know that was him in the beginning of the new trailer until i saw his name on the wikipedia.org/Jimmy_Bennett. it’s now nice to see him again only on a small scene he did in the beginning of the trailer, a cameo. different from bill shatner’s novel. That was where he well, (I won’t spoil it for you guys at trekmovie.com/
live long and prosper , Jim Bennett. and i love seeing Posiedon and i met him through the movie when i was watching it.