John Cho , who returns as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek Beyond, has compared the new installment in the Star Trek reboot series to Star Trek: The Original Series.
In a preview for an upcoming interview with Cho for Famous Monsters of Filmland, the Star Trek Beyond cast member said, “ When I read the script, my emotional impression was that it felt very much like the best of the original series. It felt like the series felt to me. And the first [film] that we made didn’t entirely feel like that to me.”
It’s that last bit that elevates this quote from a Star Trek cast member above the standard press junket PR fluff. Cho contrasts Star Trek Beyond favorably with J.J. Abram’s Star Trek, a movie more successful with general audiences than with Star Trek fans unhappy with the new canon of the Abramsverse.
Cho attributed the old-school tone of the new Star Trek movie to Beyond’s co-writers, Doug Jung and Simon Pegg (who will also appear in Star Trek Beyond as Scotty). “What you’re going to get when you ask Simon Pegg to pen a script is a very human touch. And a warm touch. And that can come out in comedy, but doesn’t necessarily have to,” Cho said. “But I think he and [co-writer Doug Jung], from what I could tell, were constantly looking for connections between the characters. And that, from the cast perspective, was what was spectacular about asking Simon and Doug to do it. It just felt like they were looking for human moments.”
This sounds like good news for a series lost in a political and plot muddle after the bizarre, 9/11 Truther disaster Star Trek Into Darkness.
Star Trek Beyond will be in theaters July 7.
