0:00:25 > 0:00:32.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48JJ Abrams is a man in demand.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51The ultimate fanboy, Abrams is the creative force
0:00:51 > 0:00:54behind Lost, Mission Impossible III and Super 8.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57He's been heralded as the new Steven Spielberg
0:00:57 > 0:01:00and now finds himself at the helm of the next Star Wars film.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03I hope he never grows up. Let's put it that way.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06He is wonderfully juvenile.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10He still looks at the world through the eyes of a 14-year-old,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14and that's very infectious because, if you're 14,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16everything that you see is the greatest thing ever.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20'Enormously energetic and smart. Very smart.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25'And he's been at it for a long time, learning how to do the job.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27'He does it extremely well.'
0:01:27 > 0:01:32He has this great kind of grown-up professionalism and ambition.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34He is able to operate on so many levels simultaneously.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38His mind is going "ping ping ping". Really special.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45It was JJ Abrams' second turn in the directing chair
0:01:45 > 0:01:48with 2009's Star Trek which cemented his reputation
0:01:48 > 0:01:51as one of Hollywood's rising stars.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53What you had in Abrams' Star Trek movie
0:01:53 > 0:01:56was effectively a rewriting of both the past
0:01:56 > 0:01:58and the future.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00As a result, the slate was wiped clean,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04and the Enterprise was relaunched in a new direction,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06taking it out of the exclusive domain of Trekkies
0:02:06 > 0:02:08to become a box-office hit.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12It was a much-needed boost to the franchise,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15and JJ has once again climbed onboard the Starship Enterprise
0:02:15 > 0:02:17for Star Trek: Into Darkness.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22But both Abrams and the Star Trek franchise
0:02:22 > 0:02:24remain something of an enigma.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28How could a lo-fi '60s sci-fi TV show,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32which originally only ran for three series, have endured this long?
0:02:32 > 0:02:35And how is it that the man who reinvented Star Trek
0:02:35 > 0:02:37grew up preferring magic tricks
0:02:37 > 0:02:41and the films of Steven Spielberg to the adventures of Kirk and Spock?
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Space. The final frontier.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Its five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds...
0:03:00 > 0:03:03..to seek out new life and new civilisations...
0:03:04 > 0:03:06..to boldly go where no man has gone before.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12No book or TV series has influenced the way people think about
0:03:12 > 0:03:16space travel and exploration quite like Star Trek.
0:03:16 > 0:03:17Like most people of my age,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20it was a regular appointment to view when I was a child.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I remember struggling to get my homework finished in time
0:03:23 > 0:03:24to watch Star Trek.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And when Gene Roddenberry first created the series in the 1960s,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31he envisaged it as Wagon Train To The Stars,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35a weekly Western adventure set in space.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44This new intergalactic series took up President Kennedy's challenge
0:03:44 > 0:03:46of space as the last great opportunity
0:03:46 > 0:03:48for American exploration.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Star Trek became a fictional way to grasp the mind-bending science
0:03:52 > 0:03:57taking place behind the closed doors of NASA's 1960s space race.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59The final episode of the original series was
0:03:59 > 0:04:04broadcast in the USA in 1969, just before Neil Armstrong
0:04:04 > 0:04:07took those famous first steps for mankind.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12It felt to many of us to be just like an episode of Star Trek.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15You're in our field of view now.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18You do have to be rather careful
0:04:18 > 0:04:21to keep track of where your centre of mass is.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Sometimes it takes about two or three paces...
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Star Trek was a vision of the future that suddenly seemed
0:04:29 > 0:04:33strangely possible and incredibly appealing.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43But the world of JJ Abrams, the mastermind behind the reinvention
0:04:43 > 0:04:46of the franchise, doesn't belong in the Star Trek universe.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51His production company Bad Robot
0:04:51 > 0:04:53is based in Santa Monica in Los Angeles.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57It's the top-secret hub of his growing film and television empire.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01I met him there to talk all things intergalactic.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10When you were young,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14you would have been the right age to be somebody who was caught up by
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Star Trek, but you weren't a great Trek fan
0:05:17 > 0:05:20when it was first out, were you?
0:05:20 > 0:05:24No. Star Trek came out the year I was born...
0:05:24 > 0:05:26- So you were born in...?- '66.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31And I think the movie that we did in 2009 was an experience that
0:05:31 > 0:05:33let me fall in love with it.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37But the TV show, for some reason, I remember my friends
0:05:37 > 0:05:39who loved it when I was in elementary school,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43so I would watch it and I'd just be like... I was trying to get into it.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45I just couldn't find my way in.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47And part of it was that I was not Spock,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49I was not that smart or logical.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51I was not Kirk, because I was not that cocky
0:05:51 > 0:05:52or confident or good-looking.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55I was not really Chekov or Bones or Uhura or Sulu.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00Any of them. I didn't have a way in, and yet I knew it was a thing that
0:06:00 > 0:06:03people who were smarter than I was really enjoyed, so I kind of just
0:06:03 > 0:06:08felt like, all right, it's one of those things that I won't ever get.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12- But did you have a predisposition to sci-fi?- I did.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14There are two types of science fiction I loved.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19One was spectacle, those kind of '50s monster movies, Godzilla films.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Or I loved The Twilight Zone, which was
0:06:22 > 0:06:24typically not about spectacle at all,
0:06:24 > 0:06:30rarely about visuals or pyrotechnics, but almost always about tension
0:06:30 > 0:06:34and character and emotion and psychological twists.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36So to me, those were the things I loved.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40There's a signpost up ahead. Your next stop, The Twilight Zone.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46JJ Abrams sold his first screenplay at the tender age of 24,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48but his big break came as a script doctor
0:06:48 > 0:06:51on the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54That same year saw Abrams make his mark on the small screen,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58with the teen series Felicity, which he followed up with Alias.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01The CIA spy drama gave him his first international success.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05His next project Lost would become one of the most popular
0:07:05 > 0:07:07television programmes of all time.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Abrams created Lost with Jeffrey Lieber
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and the up-and-coming writer Damon Lindelof.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15There was a guy I'd heard about named Damon Lindelof who was
0:07:15 > 0:07:18working on another show called Nash Bridges.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Heather Kadin knew that I had been stalking JJ. I had been
0:07:21 > 0:07:24writing on another couple of TV shows, but I said,
0:07:24 > 0:07:30"I will get coffee for him, I will wash his car, just get me in the door."
0:07:30 > 0:07:33And she's like, "OK, you're a little creepy."
0:07:33 > 0:07:36I was working on a script for a pilot.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39I got a phone call from Lloyd Braun, who at the time was head of ABC,
0:07:39 > 0:07:44and he said, "We need to do a show about people who survive a plane crash."
0:07:44 > 0:07:46And I said, "OK. Sounds all right."
0:07:46 > 0:07:52"Please go, think of something, and call me back,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54"because we have a week to green-light it."
0:07:54 > 0:07:58And she said, we've developed a little bit of a story,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00but we want to go in a different direction
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and we're trying to get JJ, we're trying to rope JJ into this thing.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06So a few hours later I called back and said, "I have a couple of
0:08:06 > 0:08:09"thoughts, but you're not going to like it, because it's weird."
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I started to pitch this idea that was more a Michael Crichton thing
0:08:12 > 0:08:16than it was Castaway, which is what I thought he wanted.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19And he said, "I love it!"
0:08:19 > 0:08:23So he said, "I need you to write..." What are you talking about?!
0:08:23 > 0:08:25He said that if we could give him
0:08:25 > 0:08:27another writer that he could supervise,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29that maybe he'd be open to it.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32So that Monday, Damon came in, and he was wearing a Star Wars shirt.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37I have this T-shirt from when I was a kid that is a Star Wars
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Fan Club Bantha Tracks T-shirt.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42I fell in love with him instantly. I thought, "I love this guy."
0:08:42 > 0:08:44He was immediately someone I felt like I knew all my life.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47I just hear this guy go, "Bantha Tracks!"
0:08:47 > 0:08:48And I looked up, and it was JJ.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51And we started talking about what this idea could be,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and he was pitching these ideas which were spectacular,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56so I started to get excited.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01And we just had this immediate sort of excitement about what this show,
0:09:01 > 0:09:02Lost, could be.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04And two hours later,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07we walked out of the room with the beginnings of what would be Lost.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10And he said, "Do you want to come back tomorrow?"
0:09:10 > 0:09:12And I said, "Yes, I do,"
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and I've been coming back tomorrow ever since.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16'As far as I can tell,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21'Bad Robot is one of the coolest places to work in movie land.'
0:09:21 > 0:09:23See, this is like every boy's wet dream.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27The idea was not to have any magazines or newspapers here,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29but to have a space where when you came in here,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32the first thing you were encouraged to do is create,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35so we collect the waiting room art
0:09:35 > 0:09:38and then we put it up on the walls in the back,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40and then we do a book at the end of the year
0:09:40 > 0:09:41of the best waiting room art.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44And we have some typewriters. When we designed the building,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47they said that we could put a sign outside,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49and I thought, I don't say Bad Robot,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52so we put outside "National Typewriter Company".
0:09:52 > 0:09:54How often do you see a new typewriter company?
0:09:54 > 0:09:56The best thing about that was we've had three different
0:09:56 > 0:10:00people come in here with typewriters to get repaired. Which is fantastic.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03- Did you repair them?- I didn't know about it until after they came in.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Because the cool thing would have been...
0:10:05 > 0:10:08100%. Next time someone comes in, the directive is, we repair it for free
0:10:08 > 0:10:10- and give it back to them, no questions asked.- Fantastic.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13- What is this machine here? - Is called a Mold-A-Rama.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17It is a machine that was used in the States a lot.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21When I was a kid, you'd find it in zoos or amusement parks,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24and basically, you put 25 cents in and you get this little wax
0:10:24 > 0:10:28sculpture that is moulded in front of you. The thing closes.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33It extruded wax, and then it opens up and the thing falls out.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Magic was my first love, I think.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38My grandfather took me to this magic store in New York
0:10:38 > 0:10:39called Lou Tannen's Magic.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42I remember illusions that my grandfather bought for me
0:10:42 > 0:10:44that I got to perform for my relatives.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49And that feeling of doing a magic trick for someone and having them
0:10:49 > 0:10:54react in a way that you could see they were surprised was like a drug.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59I could impress people, not because I knew how to play anything.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02I was no good at football, but I could make a card disappear.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Or I could do a cool flourish and a cool reveal,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07and then when I realised that movies were sort of magic tricks
0:11:07 > 0:11:12on celluloid, I sort of found another way to channel that energy.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Lost went on to become one of the biggest TV hits of the decade,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21and it demonstrated something important to JJ Abrams -
0:11:21 > 0:11:23the power of mystery in storytelling.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25- CRACKLY RECORDING:- Il les a tue.
0:11:25 > 0:11:26It killed them.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Il les a tue tous.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31It killed them all.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34This passion for the enigmatic is encapsulated
0:11:34 > 0:11:36in Abrams' now-famous mystery box.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39I bought it when I was a kid with my grandfather,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42and it was a magic box that basically said
0:11:42 > 0:11:44there was 50 worth of magic in it for 15.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46So it was a big kind of gamble,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49- because you didn't know what you were going to get.- Yeah.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53I remember getting home and having this box and having this
0:11:53 > 0:11:58epiphany that if I opened the box, no matter what's inside of it,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03it's not as good as what MIGHT be inside of it.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07There is a connection between the idea of the power of mystery
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and what might be that connects not just to that box
0:12:10 > 0:12:13and the idea of magic, but to what we do at Bad Robot,
0:12:13 > 0:12:18and the idea of storytelling, the possibilities of where a story
0:12:18 > 0:12:21may go. It just started to make sense to me that there was a theme
0:12:21 > 0:12:27that connected magic, movies, storytelling, mystery,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30a sense of innate human natural curiosity
0:12:30 > 0:12:35and that ridiculous magic box that I bought with my grandfather.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38And crucially, talismanic that you haven't opened it,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41- you still have it as unopened box. - It is indeed unopened.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43You said it's like the mystery is the point.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Explain to me what that means.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50I think there are some stories that benefit enormously from the unknown.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Now, I'm not saying, and this can be misconstrued,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57that a story shouldn't have a point, but there are some stories,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00obvious ones that come to mind are things like Pulp Fiction,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03where you have this case with the light in it.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05I promise you no matter what Quentin Tarantino,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07if he would ever show us what was inside that case,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10nothing would be as powerful as just that light
0:13:10 > 0:13:12- and the reaction the characters have to it.- Yeah.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16But with Lost, we had a lot of big ideas as to where it could go.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19But on that pilot, if you had said to us, "What is the end of this series?"
0:13:19 > 0:13:21It's impossible! We couldn't possibly tell you.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Lost cemented Abrams' reputation in the television world,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29but he was about to get a foot in Hollywood's door with Mission Impossible III,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33the most expensive film ever made by a rookie director.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38And that was Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41potentially writing the remake of War Of The Worlds
0:13:41 > 0:13:44that Steven and Tom did. And we had this two-hour meeting.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50I'd never met Tom before, and it was a really fun meeting,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53and when they were leaving, my assistant gave Tom the first
0:13:53 > 0:13:56two seasons of Alias, the spy show that I had done with
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Jennifer Garner, and I went to do the pilot for lost,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01and I'm shooting the pilot, the last scene,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05the sun was going down, and from across the hill,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08my assistant says, "I've got Tom Cruise on the phone for you."
0:14:08 > 0:14:11I'm like, "We have to shoot this." And she's like...
0:14:11 > 0:14:16So I ran back over to the phone, picked up the phone and said,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19"Hello?" "JJ!"
0:14:19 > 0:14:21"Tom, how's it going?"
0:14:21 > 0:14:26He said, "I just watched the first two seasons of Alias. Unbelievable!"
0:14:26 > 0:14:29He was incredibly sweet about it.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34I was like, "Thank you, Tom Cruise. I'm in the middle of shooting this thing."
0:14:34 > 0:14:37He's like, "Yeah, let's hang out when you get back." I'm like, "Great."
0:14:37 > 0:14:41So that filled me up for a month. I got a call from Tom Cruise.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44So one day I get a phone call from my agent,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47who says, are you aware of the conversations?
0:14:47 > 0:14:50I thought that was the greatest thing. I don't know what you're talking about!
0:14:50 > 0:14:52He said, "Tom wants you to direct Mission Impossible III."
0:14:52 > 0:14:54In a franchise which had been directed
0:14:54 > 0:14:56by people like Brian De Palma and John Woo,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00you don't go to a TV guy. It made no sense.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02But it was a dream, the chance of a lifetime.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Hollywood is fond of the tried and tested,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11with a steady supply of sequels on offer,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15but what do you do when you've wrung an idea out completely?
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Rebooting is a term borrowed from the world of computing,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21which basically means fixing something through the time-honoured
0:15:21 > 0:15:24tradition of turning it off and then turning it back on again.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27It's become a buzzword in recent years in the movie industry
0:15:27 > 0:15:29where it serves to breathe new life into a series
0:15:29 > 0:15:31which has run out of sequels
0:15:31 > 0:15:34by simply clearing the decks and starting again.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38And considering the huge success, both financial and artistic,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41of Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot, it's no surprise that
0:15:41 > 0:15:44JJ Abrams wanted to apply the formula to Star Trek.
0:15:50 > 0:15:56All stop...in three, two, one.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59We were mixing Mission Impossible III
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and Gail Berman, who at the time was head of Paramount,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06asked me if I was interested in producing Star Trek.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11And because I'd never been a fan of it, my brain was saying, "No, thanks."
0:16:11 > 0:16:15But I immediately said yes.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18It was a weird instinct that
0:16:18 > 0:16:24if Star Trek were done in a certain way...that I would love it...
0:16:24 > 0:16:25Hello, ladies.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29..that there was a way to present Star Trek that would make me laugh,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31that would pick me feel,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34that would make me sympathise with the characters,
0:16:34 > 0:16:35not by reinventing them,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38but by introducing them, or reintroducing them,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and basically providing an unwrap to that series.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Actually, the great triumph of that film was
0:16:43 > 0:16:45it introduced Star Trek to a whole generation of people
0:16:45 > 0:16:48who had never seen the original.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50How hard was it to keep that balance?
0:16:50 > 0:16:54We did not want in any way to throw away or disregard the Trek
0:16:54 > 0:16:56that came before. There's no sense in that.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59And if you're going to do Star Trek, don't not do Star Trek.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03If you're going to do Star Trek, embrace what it is. Love it.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07But to me, the genius of what Alex and Bob wrote
0:17:07 > 0:17:08in the first film was,
0:17:08 > 0:17:13it acknowledged and embraced the existing timeline for fans,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15and then it said, "And we're going this way."
0:17:15 > 0:17:18It doesn't say that what happened there didn't happen.
0:17:18 > 0:17:19It's not saying it didn't continue.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22It actually allows for everything the fans love.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25We're just branching off and saying, "And there's this."
0:17:25 > 0:17:29So our timeline co-exists, and in no way does it negate the stuff
0:17:29 > 0:17:31that people who do love the show love.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Star Trek was conceived in the 1960s by Gene Roddenberry,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38an ex-Air Force pilot and Los Angeles police officer.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40In each futuristic episode, Roddenberry's Federation
0:17:40 > 0:17:44of space Cowboys explored a galaxy of alien nations.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47In truth, the show was less about intergalactic travel than it was
0:17:47 > 0:17:50about life on earth in the turbulent '60s.
0:17:50 > 0:17:51- ALIEN VOICE:- We have analysed you
0:17:51 > 0:17:54and learned that your violent tendencies are inherent.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56We certainly realised that here was the chance to do
0:17:56 > 0:17:58the kind of drama I'd always dreamed of doing.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Perhaps I could use this as an excuse to go to those
0:18:01 > 0:18:05far-off planets and be able to talk about love, war and nature,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08God and sex, and maybe the TV censors would let it pass
0:18:08 > 0:18:10because it all seemed so make-believe.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13- COMPUTER:- Programme is classified and voice index log.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15He was a very, very bright man,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18and he was in touch with what Star Trek should be about.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21He understood what the vision of Star Trek should be,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23what it should say about mankind.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26If we can keep them in the dark as to our strength,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29they will never dare move against us.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33'He expressed a great respect for what humanity could accomplish.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35'I would like to think that Star Trek
0:18:35 > 0:18:38'is still a place where useful ideas can be expressed.'
0:18:38 > 0:18:43I am not sure how effective we can be in changing the world,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46but we might be able to change a mind here and there.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51The 1960s was the era of the civil rights movement,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55the Vietnam War, the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Gene Roddenberry embraced the challenge of breaking
0:18:58 > 0:19:01the social and political taboos of the day.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04His boldest move was to cast the black actress
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13I was the guest star at a big dinner, and somebody came up
0:19:13 > 0:19:17and said, "Miss Nichols, there's someone who wants to meet you.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22"He says he's your biggest fan," and then I looked over his shoulder,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and there's Dr Martin Luther King with this big smile on his face.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31And he walks up to me and he says, "I'm your greatest fan."
0:19:31 > 0:19:36He came to tell me how important it was, because I didn't realise
0:19:36 > 0:19:39I was the first African-American woman
0:19:39 > 0:19:42on a successful television series.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46He did say "What Gene Roddenberry has done
0:19:46 > 0:19:50"is change face of television for ever."
0:19:51 > 0:19:52Hey, Pres.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57Yeah. Great guy.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05The third season episode Plato's Stepchildren
0:20:05 > 0:20:09made history by featuring one of the first ever interracial screen kisses
0:20:09 > 0:20:11screened on American television.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Many television stations in the South refused to air the episode.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26He said, "I've been waiting to get you in my arms for a long time."
0:20:31 > 0:20:35'I've often been asked if I'm surprised that Star Trek is
0:20:35 > 0:20:41'still vital, if I'd had any sense it would have that kind of a future,'
0:20:41 > 0:20:44and the fact is it needs somebody like JJ to come along
0:20:44 > 0:20:46and give it this fresh energy.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Your obsession with fireworks,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51and I'm saying this as a friend, concerns me...
0:20:51 > 0:20:54After resuscitating the ailing Star Trek franchise,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Abrams turned his lens onto a much more personal story.
0:20:58 > 0:21:012011's Super 8 gave him the opportunity to collaborate
0:21:01 > 0:21:05with his hero and long-time supporter Steven Spielberg.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08The film told the story of a boy not unlike Abrams who gets
0:21:08 > 0:21:12more than he planned for when shooting a home-made zombie movie.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Mrs Hathaway doesn't want her husband to keep investigating...
0:21:15 > 0:21:18- I know, we read it, we get it. - God, I'm just directing.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22East Coast-born Abrams grew up in the media mecca
0:21:22 > 0:21:26of LA. Both parents were TV producers and his father Gerald
0:21:26 > 0:21:28had an office at Paramount.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32My father's camera was essentially a completely no-frills motor
0:21:32 > 0:21:35with a lens on it, and so I remember going home and saying,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38"Can I use your camera?" And then started to make movies.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41I was eight at the time, but I remember trying to do
0:21:41 > 0:21:43an animated movie without a tripod,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46and I was holding it and I would move the clay
0:21:46 > 0:21:50and then click it, and then later I realised there was a camera store
0:21:50 > 0:21:52and I would ride my bike to the camera store
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and they have things like cable releases for cameras.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59What a cable release would let you do is let you hit the button
0:21:59 > 0:22:03quickly and get one frame, and so years later,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05I convinced my grandfather to buy me
0:22:05 > 0:22:10a Super 8 camera that had sound and had a zoom lens.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12It was incredibly exciting,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15but it would take a week to get the film back.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19It never looked good, you couldn't do any visual effects stuff at all,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22so you have to be really, really desperately clever to get
0:22:22 > 0:22:26any sort of results at all, and they never looked the way you
0:22:26 > 0:22:28dreamed it would look for those ten days.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32All night, every night for ten days, I'd think, "It's going to look..."
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and I had this beautiful Cinemascope vision in my head,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37and I get back this little film
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and put it on my - brrrr! - little projector
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and my heart would always sink.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Next time!
0:22:46 > 0:22:49PROJECTOR WHIRRS
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Though it was the most personal movie,
0:22:58 > 0:23:04it was also a movie that was clearly a kind of love letter,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07rather than its own completely original idea.
0:23:07 > 0:23:13Super 8 was a nod to the Amblin movies that I grew up with,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18and it was an opportunity, and they don't really ever come along,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20to really go back to being that age again
0:23:20 > 0:23:24and explore what that felt like.
0:23:24 > 0:23:25The fact that I got to do it with Steven,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29which was, on the one hand, the greatest thrill ever,
0:23:29 > 0:23:30on the other hand, scary,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33because he was someone who I have admired for so long,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36that the idea of working with him and it not working out
0:23:36 > 0:23:38was a real spectre. I was nervous that it would somehow not go right.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43So I guess what I'm saying is I feel I still have yet to make,
0:23:43 > 0:23:49as a feature, something that is truly and deeply and uniquely mine.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56This is where we not only watch cuts of the stuff we work on,
0:23:56 > 0:23:58but also mix trailers and do rough mixes in here.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00We actually shoot here too.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03We use this as a mini stage and the chairs go away, and we shot
0:24:03 > 0:24:08a bunch of scenes that actually, even in the new movie, we did in here.
0:24:10 > 0:24:16- Oh, look.- Hi.- So here's our music room. Charles, Mark. Mark, Charles.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19- Good to meet you. - Sorry to barge in.- No, not at all.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21We use it for recording music, songs.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24You can pretty much do everything in-house.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27That was the goal, to be able to do as much as we could.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31She is one of our editors, Mary Jo Markey. Let's take a look.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37Look, Mary Jo Markey, editor. Look, Spock right there.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39The overall thing is that you are self-contained.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42- You can do everything in-house. - You can do a lot in-house.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45It's an amazing thing, when we've had ideas of things which we wish
0:24:45 > 0:24:48were in the movie, but weren't, we thought, "Let's just do it."
0:24:48 > 0:24:51And every time we've done it in the building.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Bad Robot's all-inclusive approach has once again borne fruit
0:24:55 > 0:24:57with Star Trek: Into Darkness,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Abrams' second big-money turn aboard the Starship Enterprise.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03- I told you we'd fit! - I am not sure that qualifies.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07There's plenty to love about the new film,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09which once again combines the TV show's interest in
0:25:09 > 0:25:13contemporary issues - non-intervention, colonialism,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16terrorism - with the kind of hell-for-leather spectacle
0:25:16 > 0:25:18which only big-screen cinema can deliver.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22As heavy on action as it is on nostalgic lens flare,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26this second instalment pits Benedict Cumberbatch's intergalactic
0:25:26 > 0:25:30villain against Spock's cool logic and Kirk's hot-headed passion,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32always the true centre of the show,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and concludes that conversations about the politics
0:25:35 > 0:25:38of aggression versus pacifism are best held whilst
0:25:38 > 0:25:41jumping off exploding buildings or running down the corridors
0:25:41 > 0:25:45of burning starships, preferably at warp factor five.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58We wanted to do an old-school thing of just dropping you into action,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01as opposed to doing another origins story.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05We thought, "Let's just jump in and meet everyone in a colourful,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07"fun, exciting, thrilling way."
0:26:07 > 0:26:11But I also knew that we needed to make this thing weighty
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and have meaning, and hopefully some relevance as well.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20- Captain on the bridge!- Lieutenant? - We have an open channel.- Mr Spock?
0:26:20 > 0:26:23The heat's drying his comms, but we still have contact.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27- Spock!- I have activated the device, captain.
0:26:27 > 0:26:28When the countdown is complete,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30the reaction should render the volcano inert.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32That's going to render HIM inert.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34- Do we have use of the transporters?- Negative.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Because of the way technology has gone, you can
0:26:37 > 0:26:40pretty much put anything on screen if you want to.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45Has that in any way undone the idea of the mystery box?
0:26:45 > 0:26:47How do you keep the air of mystery in a world
0:26:47 > 0:26:50in which it is possible to show the monster?
0:26:50 > 0:26:54I think at the moment everyone knows you can do anything,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57so the question really is, what are you going to do?
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Our eyes are immediate truth-tellers which go, "Fake!"
0:27:00 > 0:27:04You could say, "No, it looks 100% real." Yeah, intellectually, that's true.
0:27:04 > 0:27:05But - "Fake!"
0:27:05 > 0:27:07You know somehow it's not real.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11To me, the idea that you can do anything doesn't mean that you
0:27:11 > 0:27:14should do anything. The question is, what does the story require?
0:27:14 > 0:27:17And I feel like nobody cares about a spaceship flying by
0:27:17 > 0:27:19unless you love the people on the spaceship.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23- Such action violates the prime directive.- Shut up, Spock! We're trying to save you!
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Doctor, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30- Spock, we're talking about your life! - The rule cannot be broken... - CRACKLING
0:27:30 > 0:27:31One of the interesting things
0:27:31 > 0:27:34about the Star Trek TV series is that it was non-interventionist.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Do you think that idea that was so relevant
0:27:37 > 0:27:41when the TV series was made is still at the heart of it,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43the idea of the Federation as benevolent?
0:27:43 > 0:27:45It's always a relevant message that we can
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and should respect other cultures. The irony, of course,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52is if you do look at the episodes of the show, this idea of
0:27:52 > 0:27:57not intervening is a great idea, but is almost never really adhered too.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00They do do a lot of intervening for non-interventionists.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Yes, the prime directive, as it is called, is broken, I think...
0:28:04 > 0:28:08- Every show.- ..100% of the time. But the concept is cool.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12And I do feel like there's something inherently optimistic
0:28:12 > 0:28:14about Star Trek, and that is something
0:28:14 > 0:28:17that I have really come to love.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Whether Star Trek: Into Darkness will find its own next generation
0:28:21 > 0:28:23of fans remains to be seen.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26As for JJ Abrams, he's going to face the same challenges again
0:28:26 > 0:28:31as he takes on that other sacred cow of science fiction, Star Wars -
0:28:31 > 0:28:34the challenge is giving the die-hard fans what they know and expect
0:28:34 > 0:28:37whilst creating a brave new world that is
0:28:37 > 0:28:41distinctly his own, of looking to the future without completely
0:28:41 > 0:28:42closing the door on the past.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Space, the final frontier.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Their ongoing mission, to explore strange new worlds,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01to seek out new life forms and new civilisations.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06To boldly go where no-one has gone before.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11# Where there's hope there is you
0:29:11 > 0:29:15# It's time to start to live
0:29:16 > 0:29:21# It's time to start to live again... #
0:29:21 > 0:29:28In T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30We've gone from main engine Starfleet...
0:29:30 > 0:29:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd