The Hour

Director JJ Abrams has declared his Star Trek interview for STV his favourite, that the movie never would have been made but for Scotland - and that he made the film for a far wider audience than Trekkies.

“The goal, obviously, was to make a film that would please both the fans of Star Trek, but more importantly the audience. 

He admitted that he was aiming wider than the core Trekkie fanbase with the new release. “The goal was to make a movie for the non-Trek fans, that really was the priority, because I wasn’t one of them.

“So starting this process, I appreciated that Star Trek had a huge fanbase, I appreciated the series, but I never had that love that those fans have. I couldn’t pretend to be one of them, so I made the movie for me, something that I would love and care about.”

Abrams also paid tribute to the movie's assistant Tommy Gormley, who hails from Scotland and worked on his previous movie Mission Impossible III.

"He's the general, he's the one who keeps the troops moving, it is an amazing job," Abrams said. "I have never worked with someone who is as wonderful and passionate and talented and born to do that job as Tommy Gormley.

"I will say that without Scotland, Star Trek never would have happened."

After receiving almost unanimous rave reviews Star Trek has grossed £70.9m worldwide in its opening weekend, currently ranking at number one in 23 markets  and already dwarfing the entire intake of the last movie in the series.

Directed by Lost and Fringe guru JJ Abrams, who is now being hailed as the new Steven Spielberg, the rebooted Star Trek chronicles the early days of Captain James T Kirk and his crew on the starship Enterprise.

With all this positive buzz, the film's new cast is already signed on for two sequels, and Abrams has said that screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are starting to plan the second film.