On Friday January 25, 2008 Star Trek director JJ Abrams, along with executive producer Bryan Burk, executive producer/co-writer Roberto Orci, VFX supervisor Roger Guyett, executive producer Jeffrey Chernov and Unit Production Manager David Witz all dropped in to TrekMovie.com, the new online voice of Star Trek, to field questions from the fans for a LIVE chat session.

Also joining were castmembers were John Cho (Sulu), Karl Urban (McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Chris Pine (Kirk), and Zachary Quinto (Spock). They posted online in between takes while shooting on the Enterprise sets! See the full transcript (in easy to read Q&A format) and a couple of photos below (including the very first picture from the Bridge) HERE.

Here is just one sampling of what I think was one of the most important questions asked of Abrams:

Josh: What was the greatest challenge you faced when you first decided to take on Star Trek?

JJ Abrams: This may not be a fair answer, but there were two greatest challenges: the first was getting a handle on the vision of the future. The fact that most of the tech that we use in our everyday lives seems modelled after — and actually more advanced than — TOS, made it tricky to find a way to make our movie’s world far more advanced than where we currently are, and yet also consistent with the original show.

The other challenge was, obviously, casting. How in the world were we ever going to find actors who can fill the shoes of that remarkable original cast? It was tough in theory and harder in practice. We couldn’t — and wouldn’t have — gone into production with a cast that simply didn’t WORK.

With the amazing efforts of April Webster and Alyssa Weisberg (our casting directors), we somehow did it. This cast is massively talented and smart as hell and funny and dedicated and completely inhabiting these roles. You will see. Kirk f’n LIVES. Spock is HERE, right now. I can see him. Uhura and Bones and Chekov and Sulu and Scotty are ON THE BRIDGE and they are wonderful.

In short, WHEW.