Screenwriter Mark L Smith talks working with Quentin Tarantino on Star Trek: "We had so much fun with Kirk"

Following his work on The Revenant, screenwriter Mark L Smith was in high demand. So much so, that Quentin Tarantino brought the writer on board to help work on the director's already infamous Star Trek movie.

We so-far know very little about Tarantino's vision for the sci-fi franchise, but Smith has given us some indication as to its scale, comparing the script to his latest movie, The Midnight Sky. “I wrote a Star Trek with Tarantino, and that was a sci-fi script on which I could have fun and lean into some bigger, broader things," the writer tells SFX magazine in the latest issue.

"We wanted [The Midnight Sky] to be in the future, but not so far in the future that anyone would feel that it couldn’t be happening. I went through a lot of different TED talks as far as the planets that would be chosen, and the way the ship would have to operate. As they’re going through space, I kept it where they go into blackout zones: they lose communication for a few weeks, so all the messages they were getting from home were at least a couple of weeks behind. Sure, I cheated in a few areas, but nothing major. It wasn’t like anyone was being beamed up!”

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Tarantino and Smith's Star Trek script was rumoured to have been inspired by the classic episode “A Piece Of The Action”, which sees Captain Kirk and his crew visit a planet ridden with 1920s-style gangsters. Tarantino said earlier this year that: “I think they might make that movie, but I just don’t think I’m going to direct it.“

Smith confesses to SFX to not quite being a hardcore Trekkie ("more a casual fan”) but someone who was drawn to the "deep" characters in the series. "The relationships all felt real, and something I could relate to,” he says.

The big question, then: is Smith a Picard man, or a Kirk guy? “I love Picard. And Kirk is always just so fun. Tarantino and I had so much fun with him, because Kirk is just William Shatner, y’know? It’s like: you’re not sure who is who, so you can kinda lean into that! Because you watch Chris Pine and he’s playing Kirk, but he’s also playing William Shatner a touch.”

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Smith talks further about Star Trek and The Midnight Sky in the new issue of SFX – available now. The Midnight Sky reaches select UK cinemas from 11 December and on Netflix from 23 December.

Ian Berriman has been working for SFX – the world's leading sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – since March 2002. He's also a regular writer for Electronic Sound. Other publications he's contributed to include Total Film, When Saturday Comes, Retro Pop, Horrorville, and What DVD. A life-long Doctor Who fan, he's also a supporter of Hull City, and live-tweets along to BBC Four's Top Of The Pops repeats from his @TOTPFacts account.