Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on Designing Star Trek XII and Trek XIII Rumors

IGN caught up with the omnipresent Star Trek writers Roberto Orci andAlex Kurtzman last night at the Television Critics Association Fringe panel (they're executive producers on the show, don't ya know?), and of course the topic of the future adventures of Kirk and Spock were discussed. Wanna hear what they said? Then let's make it so…

"We had about a 15-minute to half-hour discussion with the whole gang and went off on our separate ways," says Orci. "We're still in the re-reading and taking it all in phase before we actually sit down and start designing [the film]."

O.K., so not surprisingly things are still in the very early stages on Star Trek 2, but the writers do acknowledge that "everything's on the table" -- even the possibility of utilizing classic Trek missions.

"We have to comb through everything and make sure that we leave no stone unturned because that was the approach that I think we were looking for on the first movie," says Kurtzman.

"And when you pitch [an idea], sometimes someone will be like, 'Well, that's like that one episode,'" adds Orci. "Even in trying to stay away from it, you can crash back into it."

Kurtzman points out the obvious -- that there's a lot of expectations for the sequel. "We take nothing for granted at this point," he says. "We're only going to do it when it's really right."

The pair also addressed rumors that the second film might directly bridge into a third film.

"It was more the fact that we talked about the minute you start seeing how much Star Trek there is and how many ideas everyone is having, you realize you could have enough material for… Well, you know, there's been 43 years of material!" says Orci. "That's all that we meant by that. So, it happens to cross your mind, but we're not leaning one way or the other yet."

"It's a balance," adds Kurtzman. "The approach for us on the first movie was how do we please fans and how do we please people who have no relationship to Trek. It's a question we have to keep asking ourselves constantly. It's a very tricky formula because it's hard… A lot of what makes diehard Trekkers really focused on Trek are those details that can sometimes be alienating to people that are not on the inside. So that leads us back to things of what are the big themes? Emotional ideas? That's a language that everybody speaks."

Other items of note that arose from our chat:

• The phrase "He's dead, Jim" will likely show up in part two.
  
  
• Frequent J.J. Abrams guest star Greg Grunberg has started a campaign to play classic Trek comedic villain Harry Mudd.
  
  
• As previously reported, fellow Abrams collaborator (and producer on the first film) Damon Lindelof will join the writing team for the sequel. Of the writing method, Orci explains, "We're going to come up with a story together, obviously in consultation with J.J. and [executive producer] Bryan [Burk]. And then we're going to write it up together, the story, us and Damon. And then Alex and I will write the script."
  
  
• Whether or not the pair will still be around for a third film is too early to tell.
  
  
• And no, Khan did not even come up during the conversation!

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