A new interview with Nerdist came out last night – conducted while the production team was still on set – which brings a whole new set of insights into STAR TREK BEYOND from actor and co-writer Simon Pegg, from the role Dubai’s expensive outing plays in the upcoming film, as well as more Memory Alpha connections to which he hinted previously.

First, however, Pegg took the time to make himself clear on that oft-quoted “less Star Trek-y” line that’s being bandied about the Internet, saying that the reporter to whom he spoke was not portraying his comments correctly.

Something I’d like to clear up — I got misquoted recently, saying that I was brought on to make it ‘less Star Trekky,’ which is not what I’d told that journalist. What I meant was there has to be a degree of universality when you’re dealing with something like that. Which means you can’t alienate the people for whom it’s their very first Star Trek. If they come into it and it’s indecipherable because there’s a lot of stuff that you have to have prior knowledge to understand, then you’re left with something which is a little bit exclusive. It’s always the trick with these properties. Making it at once something that the fans can enjoy and take a lot from, but also knew people can come in and see it as a one-off and go, “Hey, I’ve got fifty years of this I can go and watch now!” Which is a great thing for kids. I love the idea when you used to discover a band and then discover they’d had six albums out before. So that was what I meant by that. The idea of it not being Star Trek is anathema to me. This has to be in every way and every fiber of its being Star Trek.

NOTE: The original quote, published by Radio Times in May, was this, referring to the Orci/Payne/McKay script:

[Paramount] had a script for Star Trek that wasn’t really working for them. I think the studio was worried that it might have been a little bit too Star Trek-y.

On the other constant rumor, that he and Doug Jung were brought on board to revamp the old Roberto Orci / JD Payne / Patrick McKay script:

I never read Bob [Orci]’s script and neither did Doug [Jung]. We started out in a room at Bad Robot that’s just got white boards around the room, just blank white boards. Which is a terrifying thing to see. Then we just filled them and kind of went through so many iterations and so many story ideas. […] It’s not easy. So yeah, and then we finally go to begin shooting with a full script.

Earlier this summer, Pegg revealed that he made good use of the Memory Alpha website, and he revealed that two of the site’s founders we more contributive to the script than we previously thought:

We actually went out to the Memory Alpha guys, the two founders of the Memory Alpha Wiki and asked them to name something for us. There’s a specific thing in the screenplay that we wanted to get a name for. So I just wrote an email saying, “Hey guys. There’s this thing. I can’t tell you what it’s for, but there’s this item…” Three hours later I got a full etymological breakdown of the word and the history of the thing. So they’re gonna be in the credits for that.

While we’re on the subject of Trek research, his pocket guide to classic Trek redshirt deaths sounds pretty handy:

It’s always good to get names from the Original Series, like dead redshirts. I have a list of dead redshirts on my phone somewhere. Just to know that the same people exist in the universe. But this is our universe. It belongs to us now. J.J. — very cleverly — was able to establish the story again without damaging or affecting what went before. And it’s ours now. Anything can happen. Anyone can die. It’s not the same events. There will be things in there for every Star Trek fan. It is the same world, and so some of the points of reference will be the same. But they are off in a part of the galaxy that they’ve never been before. They’re far away from the usual suspects I think. As such it’s not like they’re meeting up with an old adversary or someone they’ve met before.

Lots of stuff may be blowing up in BEYOND, but Pegg assures us that there’s meaning behind the mayhem.

What you have to maintain with Star Trek is that it’s rooted somewhere in our universe. In humanity, [compared to Star Wars, which] is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The thing that makes that Star Wars more science fantasy is there’s a lot of special effects, a lot of fighting. Star Trek never could afford that, in a way. Which is why it had to concentrate on other aspects of production. We can do both now now. So I think it’s kind of finding a way of having that really fun, spectacular event cinema, but grounding it. Because explosions don’t mean a damn thing if you don’t care about who’s involved in the explosions. You can see that most incredible fireworks on a cinema screen. But if you don’t fundamentally care about the people that are in jeopardy then they’re so unimpressive. You see that time and time again these days.

He also covered the new ways in which our characters interact…

I felt like now it was time to move away from the [Kirk-Spock] bromance thing and concentrate on the idea of the crew as a family living in a small space together, and what it means to all of them. I really love the dynamic between Bones and Spock, so that’s something we’ve kind of concentrated on a little bit with this one. Kirk’s older than his dad was when he died. All that sort of psychological stuff is playing on him. Scotty’s just still Scotty.

…and what it means that the crew is already two years into their Five Year Mission.

[The crew knows] that they’ve still got time to go. It’s more that they’re dealing with what would inevitably be the psychological impact of doing it. It’s not they’re, “Oh, I don’t want to do this anymore.” No one’s over it. It’s just that they’re doing their job. They’re going from adventure to adventure and it’s kind of tiring, and wondering what the end game of it all is. The idea of the movie, the story in the film, is that what they encounter helps to clarify what their job is.

Finally, Pegg revealed the first details on Dubai’s role in BEYOND, standing in as Starbase Yorktown:

Part of the story at least begins with [the Enterprise] docking up at a new Starbase which is at the very edge of space. It’s a new kind of diplomatic hub. It’s called Yorktown, and it’s right on the edge of Federation space. It’s where all the most recent Federation inductees can come and mingle with each other and sort of learn about each other. [It’s] basically a place where they can understand what being part of the Federation means, and it’s an important kind of tactical establishment for the Federation. They’re very, very far out, but it’s been built locally, so it’s very interesting to look at. It’s where the Enterprise docks up. For the first time in ten months [the Starbase has] proper contact with other people — that’s where the story begins.

At least now we know what Paramount spent $32 Million on in Abu Dhabi!