LeVar Burton Was Furious With J.J. Abrams About Star Trek
Geordi has words for J.J.
There has always been a friendly rivalry between the fans of the various Star Trek series. One fan will argue that Captain Kirk will always be the greatest of the captains, and another will talk your ear off about how Deep Space 9 is brilliant and underrated. But for some long-time Trekkies, the rivalry between Classic Star Trek and J.J. Abrams’ version isn’t friendly at all. Just as LeVar Burton.
Based on some comments made by LeVar Burton around the time of J.J. Abrams rebooting Star Trek, Abrams wasn’t exactly making things any easier for fans who had difficulty accepting his brand of the franchise.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton called out J.J. Abrams for comments the latter allegedly made about his version of Star Trek.
LeVar Burton said, “(Abrams’ Star Trek) was a great movie, and he brought a whole new generation to Trek. But I’m a little disquieted by things I hear coming out of his camp, things like he would like to be remembered as the only Trek—which would discount everything before he got there.”
He continued, “There’s ‘breaking the canon,’ which he did (by re-inventing Star Trek‘s timeline). But there’s also honouring the canon. And to pretend to be the only one is really egocentric and immature.”
And LeVar Burton finished with, “I just came from a conference in San Francisco with Advanced Micro Devices, and they’re working on technology towards building a holodeck. That was Next Generation. And that’s part of what Star Trek has brought to the culture. So when JJ Abrams says, ‘There should be no Star Trek except the one I make,’ I call bulls—, J.J.”
It was a bit unclear where or when J.J. Abrams was purported to have made those comments, but something has obviously rubbed LeVar Burton the wrong way where Star Trek was concerned.
Abrams has admitted he wasn’t a fan of Star Trek before accepting the reboot gig, but he’s never come across as quite so flippant or dismissive about the franchise’s long legacy. Regardless, it didn’t stop LeVar Burton from getting worked up about it.
This wasn’t the first time a Star Trek icon sounded off on Abrams. William Shatner once called the geek director a “pig” for hoarding both Star Trek and Star Wars, and said his movies are “great rides” but lack emotional heart. (To be fair, in context the “pig” comments were seemingly meant jokingly.)
There’s just something about J.J. Abrams that rubs the Star Trek old guard the wrong way.
