At the junket for the DVD release, Abrams told us that his friend Victor Garber is featured on the DVD in a deleted scene as a Klingon. In the scene, Garber is all costumed up as a Klingon on the prison planet Rura Penthe.

In the scene, which had some shots slip into the trailer, Nero is stranded on the prison planet and is chained to a table, about to be tortured by the Klingons. A Klingon threatens him with the very slug we later see Nero force upon Capt. Pike. Garber's voice rings out as the interrogator, demanding Nero tell them how he came from the future.

It seems like a scene merely meant to show some cool Klingons costume updates and tell us what the heck Nero was up to for all those missing years, as well as clue the audience into the passage of the 25 years before we get to see grown-up Kirk. But it does have Nero's most quotable line from the trailer: "The wait is over."

Sadly, Abrams said, the Klingon prison scene had to get cut for theaters.

It's one of those things I hated to cut for a number of reasons. One of them was I loved the design, I love the world, I love the story — in that moment it was really cool, and I'm excited for people to see this scene. But also, Victor Garber, who's one of my favorite actors, played a Klingon in the movie. [He] had a ton of makeup, a very heavy, hot costume [that] we shot with him. And I had to call and tell him that his scene wasn't in the film and a huge consolation for me was, it will live forever on the DVD and Blu-Ray. I'm psyched for people to see that.

BUT, he cautions, that doesn't mean we will or will not see some more of the Klingons in the future. He says that half the fun of essentially starting your own franchise is coming up with new experiences for your characters. And with Star Trek, there's already so much to gather from to cobble together new stories.

I don't want to do something that is so inside that ... only die-hard fans will appreciate [it]. But I guarantee you whatever the story - we're just now working on the script, we're just beginning the process of story breaking - whatever the final movie ends up being, I know it will be something that will at least be intense; it'll work on its own terms and be something that you don't need to know and study Star Trek to get. But if you are a fan, hopefully, it will sort of be gift after gift of connections, references, characters, things that you hopefully as a fan hold near and dear.

Me? I want the Borg.

Please?

At last, the Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country Blu-Ray set will include two Klingon Hamlet scenes, complete with Klingon skull. So you'll be able to judge for yourself whether Chancellor Gorkon was right about it coming across better in Klingon than English. (Now if only they could get David Tennant to do the Klingon version, I can die happy.) [SliceOfSciFi]

Abrams told Empire Magazine that there's a reason that he went for the Romulans as the movie's big bad aliens:

The Romulans were … what was interesting to me was that it wasn’t the Klingons. That’s what you expect and it was fun to use the Romulans the way we did. Part of the fact is that they hadn’t seen them for so many years, so that it immediately breaks, for anyone who knows, the rules of Trek to start the movie and have Romulans crossing paths with Starfleet. It jumps in breaking the rules, which I think is kind of fun. That’s not to say it’s not explained and it’s not consistent with canon, given our story... but it felt like we had seen so many iterations of Klingons done that this felt like a way to do something in the familiar vernacular but not so familiar that it felt overdone.

Which isn't to say that we'll be entirely devoid of Klingons in next year's much-anticipated reboot, he went on to explain. It's just that we may have to wait for the DVD to see more of them:

You will see Klingon Warbirds in the movie. Maybe not in the way you expect, but you will see them... There was a big Klingon subplot in this and we actually ended up having to pull it out because it confused the story in a way that I thought was very cool but unnecessary. So we have these beautiful designs that we’re going to have to wait and do elsewhere I guess.

Is that "elsewhere" as in "DVD extras," or "elsewhere" as in "Star Trek II"? Only time - and box office - will tell.

[Associated Press]

Explaining just why the movie is worth the wait, Abrams said,

It’s blessed with a wonderful optimism and an incredibly alive and invested cast. While the visual effects are gonna be unbelievable, the movie is working right now with only 50 of our 1,000-plus visual effects finished. It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s dramatic, emotional and entertaining–all without having the stuff you’d think a movie called "Star Trek" would require.

So, unless he's been misquoted, is he actually saying that the movie is good even though it doesn't have any of the traditional Star Trek trappings, or that it's good even before you get to those trappings? Because, if it's not the latter, then all of a sudden I'm very curious to see what he's come up with. But more importantly, what are "the stuff you'd think a movie called 'Star Trek' would require?" We know that the movie features the classic Enterprise crew, and also aliens who may or may not be Romulans. Spoilers promise scenes on Vulcan and in Starfleet Academy (involving the Kobyashi Maru test, apparently), and I'd bet my bottom dilithium crystal that there's going to be a space battle or two in there at some point. What classic Star Trek checkboxes haven't been ticked yet? Here're our suggestions:

A Technical Disaster Aboard The Enterprise: You have to give Scotty something to do, after all. Our suggestion would either involve a faulty photon torpedo tube or else shields failing at a critical moment. For any other chief engineering officer, it would take days to fix... but our heroes don't have days.

A Sultry Alien Woman Who Wants To Learn About This Thing Humans Call Love: Kirk wouldn't be Kirk if he wasn't romancing the alien ladies, after all. Bonus points if said romancing will (a) involve a moment where Kirk grabs the alien by the arms before planting one on her extra-terrestrial lips, and (b) solve some diplomatic problem without the need for violence. Also, if said sultry alien happens to be bright green? All the better.

(Extra bonus points if Kirk is also seen propositioning Starfleet Academy students and/or Enterprise crew members at some point. Keeping sexual harrassment lawyers busy even in the 24th century; good work, James Tiberius.)

Klingons: Look, Romulans and Vulcans are all well and good, but if there's one alien race that's really been a must for Star Trek, it's the Klingons. I don't care if they're just in the background of a lot of scenes, or if they just pop up in the middle of an important scene and demand Kirk's head on a platter for crimes against the Empire, but it's Star Trek; there really has to be some ribbed-head action at some point.

Doctor McCoy Dispenses Some Non-Medical Advice: Perhaps more a movie-staple than original TV Trek, we're still going to feel ripped off if Bones doesn't get to offer some calm advice about the human cost of some particular dilemma somewhere during the movie. Along similar lines, Spock Experiences A Human Emotion That Probably Involves Him Smiling, To Show That Even Stuffy Aliens Are Just Like Us, Really: If that one doesn't appear at the end of the movie, we're going to be asking for our money back.

Abrams: Star Trek Is Worth The Wait [TrekMovie]