Plot details for J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK
In 1994, STAR TREK: GENERATIONS found Malcolm McDowell desperately trying to return to the Nexus by any means necessary, including the sacrifice of billions of innocent people as he wiped out a whole galaxy so he could cross paths with the gateway to eternity. Kirk and Picard saved the day, using time travel. In 1996, STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT found the Borg time traveling back in time to wipe out the whole of human race on Earth in the 23rd century. In 2009, J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK will find Eric Bana as the Romulan Nero, going back in time to kill Kirk in the Academy. But what are his motives? AICN have read the first issue of the IDW Publishing official in-canon comic prequel, whose story has been scribed by writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci which flesh out the plot for us...
In the comic Spock is something of a Jor-El figure, trying to avert a unprecedented natural disaster that threatens to obliterate Romulus and its entire star empire. Spock implores the Romulan senate to seek out the more technically advanced Vulcans; combining Romulan and Vulcan resources, Spock believes, can prevent horrifying cataclysm if they act quickly. But the old-guard Romulan leaders remain suspicious of Spock and the Vulcans, and stall a remedy. Having had a first-hand encounter with the deadly galaxy-gobbling anomaly, the Romulan Nero (long presumed to be the movies villain) is depicted in the comic as Spocks staunchest ally. He is not a soldier but a selfless and heroic spacefaring miner and guild leader, a caring family man who finds himself risking everything to save his home, wife and unborn son. He is not a Nero content to fiddle as Romulus burns, and his face does not yet bear frightening tattoos. It's not much of a leap to speculate that things go very badly with the galaxy-eater. Neros family and world, one imagines, will be wiped from existance and Nero will be compelled to travel back in time, to an era just before Jim Kirks birth, to set things right. And, of course, Nero's attack on a ship carrying Jim Kirk's pop sets off a mammoth butterfly effect. Which is why, in the trailers, Chris Pikes Earth-built Enterprise looks like the Enterprise-F and Chekhov now outranks Kirk.Other interesting points from the comic are that... The prequel (and we presume then the movie) is set decades after the events of STAR TREK: NEMESIS. The Remens, that interesting race of creature first used in the last movie also make an appearance in the comic. So all in all, it's pretty much the plot we expected but now that it's been fleshed out a little more, we can now expect what kind of beats the movie will have. It's the typical STAR TREK villain trait that "they aren't bad people really" and are just driven a little bit too obsessively by their own feelings and emotions. STAR TREK opens May 7th 2009.