Star Trek XI Writers Explain Controversial Decisions

By T'Bonz

As reported by MTV, one of the scenes provoking much discussion by fans is the destruction of Vulcan, one of the founding members of the Federation. "The scariest thing about [destroying Vulcan] was us having to pitch that to Leonard Nimoy," explained Kurtzman. "'Hi, I know we just met, but let me tell you about what happens to your home planet.'"

The reasoning for destroying Vulcan and not bringing it back via some type of reset was to let people know that the future in Star Trek was going to be an unknown, and at times unsettling, thing. "We internally debated [the destruction] for a while, but ultimately decided that we wanted to announce that this was really going to be a different future for all of our cast and crew," said Kurtzman. "And destroying Vulcan was, in a way, a sacred cow to both honor and to remove."

The destruction of Vulcan wasn't the only controversial part of Star Trek XI. The relationship between Spock and Uhura has raised some eyebrows. ""Obviously, very tricky was the relationship between Spock and Uhura," explained Orci. "I think everybody knows that the first interracial kiss [on TV] was between Kirk and Uhura on the original series, but there was never a relationship between the two of them."

There was a very good reason for including the relationship, according to Orci. "It was a decision that was made largely because Spock had just suffered the death of his planet, and you felt for him so dramatically, and in a moment like that the person he would talk to, in his own Spock way, would have been Kirk, except him and Kirk weren't friends at that point. So, it felt like there was an organic way to make Uhura his secret confidante. What happens in that scene is that you are paying tribute to a variant of what happened in the original series, and want Spock to have a hug in that scene. And because he can't express emotion, we felt like [Uhura kissing Spock was] a really good way to allow the audience to do that for him."

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