Stephen Collins from Star Trek TMP talks Star Trek and The Hurt Locker

Hard core Star Trek fans like this blogger will certainly remember the first Star Trek Movie. Called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Produced by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, it was released in 1979 and directed by the legendary Robert Wise. It starred Stephen Collins who played Star Fleet Officer Captain Willard Decker, who was set to command the new U.S.S. Enterprise, until Captain James T. Kirk, who was raised to the rank of Admiral, decided he wanted more than his five year mission.

Here's a clip from Star Trek TMP:



31 years later (!) I met Stephen Collins at The Night of 100 Stars Oscar Gala and he was tickled that of all his roles and work, someone remembered that he played Willard Decker. I asked him what he thought of J.J. Abrams' version of Star Trek, which was released 30 years later. "I loved it. This is weird, but I'm not really a Star Trek afficianado, and so I haven't seen a lot of the movies. But the new one, I think is just a terrific movie in every way. It's just a good movie on its own right. You don't have to have ever seen Star Trek to love (this one). I think Chris Pine is a huge find. J.J. Abrams just did an incredible job.

Stephen Collins is an Acedemy Member and shared with me that the email writing micro-campaign that The Hurt Locker Producer Nicolas Chartier launched didn't make a difference to him as a voter and doubted that it made a difference to many of the Academy voters. He was right. The Hurt Locker scored The Best Picture Oscar at the 2010 Academy Awards.