What, no love for Chekov?

J.J. Abrams is no doubt at his desk right now with dozens and dozens of fresh face young T.V. actors who will fill his Star Trek film. The one benefit they have with going for a movie first over a television series is that when the film comes out it will have a bit of an epic feel about it. This is obviously the first cast that has gone to the big screen and those who are only a 3% Trek fan will probably be interested in seeing what a new cast and crew is like. Those geeks at AICN have got their hands on an actual casting breakdown which shows the guideline for what the actor they require for each role. It's not very exciting when they cast young is it because you can't guess who they are going to be.

STAR TREK Feature Film SAG PARAMOUNT PICTURES/BAD ROBOT 23-29 Handsome,cocky self assured and earnest. Great physical condition. 6 ft or less -28-32 Medic on the Enterprise. Smart, clever and a bit danger-loving. Dark hair, blue eyes. 25ish -African American. Brilliant, beautiful, heroic and FUN!, Uhura is almost tom-boyish - as if she grew up in a houseful of brothers. 25-32 -Asian American male (preferably Japanese). Helmsman on the Enterprise. Extremely fit, capable and dedicated. A bit of a wildcat -28-32 a brilliant ship's engineer. Must be able to do a flawless Scottish accent!

One thing that flags straight away if your a Trek fan is the absence of CHEKOV! Where's the love for the Russian ensign who always made mistakes early on but would always come out good in the end. Maybe Spock killed him off...

It could be of course they already cast Chekov because you may notice Spock isn't listed there either, and we already know Zachary Quinto got that part. Personally if I was Abrams, I would have cast a women as the young ensign of the ship, just to balance the male/female dichotomy. Uhura and then five guys is a bit lobbed sided and shows like Voyager had a couple more female characters.

It's a shame Gary Sinise is too old for Bones because he would have been perfect. Damon and Sinise would have been a great pairing in my eyes but I guess if Sinise is north of 50, then they will to be replace him sooner rather than later which would disrupt things.

I heard someone over at the AICN talkback suggest Beyonce Knowles as Uhura. ARGGHHH!

But back to our naive Russian. Would you prefer the role to be a carbon copy of the original series of would you like it to be played by a young and feisty but naive Blonde or Brunette?. Do we even need the role at all?