Roberto Orci has been an executive producer/writer on Alias, screenwriter on films including The Legend of Zorro and Transformers, and is now co-writer/producer of the upcoming Star Trek film, with his writing partner Alex Kurtzman and the film’s director/producer J.J. Abrams. Orci, Kurtzman, and Abrams together created the new Fox drama series Fringe, about three characters investigating alarming incidents that involve unusual or “fringe” science. Words: Abbie Bernstein

How did Fringe come about?

We [Orci, Kurtzman and Abrams] literally sat in a room and said, "Let’s come up with a show right now." We were working on Star Trek, we were sitting around on set so much, we thought, "Since we’re all sitting in here with this extra time, let’s use that time wisely." The three of us talked about the shows that we love and the ideas that we had and we really kind of crashed them all into each other. We’re all fans of stuff like The Fly and Altered States, so we’ve all been pursuing ideas that resemble this. This was just finally the venue for all three of us to get it out of our systems.

Fringe began with a sequence of people dying of a strange disease on an airplane. Are there going to be more sequences that are horror-oriented?

I think that would be one type of show that we can do. But there will be different types of shows that we can do. It won’t always be so horrifying. It might be more suspense, or it can be more outright criminal. So we have lots of different ways we can do that.

How did you as creators decide on what regular characters your story needed?

We wanted it to not be a standard cop show, where everyone who is your star is somehow merely an agent of whatever it is, the FBI or the CIA. We wanted to come at them a little sideways, so when we had the idea of, "Well, what if we meet a genius, like Albert Einstein, and what if this Einstein can only talk to you through his son?" we realised we had a new way to do it.

Where does Joshua Jackson’s character, who’s the son of the Einstein figure played by John Noble, fit into all this?

You’re hitting on a question the studio thought of, "Oh, what’s going to be his function?" And to us, that’s the exciting part of it. He’s choosing to be there and he may not stick around. That’s exactly the point. The show is not predictable for that very reason. He’s not just suddenly going to get a badge and be on Fringe Division. He’s going to be who he is, who we set up, and if he sticks around or not, it’s going to be because it’s earned by the character’s story, not because of some plot function.

It seems like a lot of Alias people are on the Fringe writing/production staff. Were you all looking for an opportunity to work together again?

The idea of being able to work with the people that we worked with before – it was so obviously attractive. You develop such an easy communication with these people that they become the first people you look at, so if they’re available and they’re willing to come work with you, by golly, you grab them.

Are there any newcomers to the group?

Absolutely. It’s one of the best staffs I’ve ever seen.

Did you have any movie ideas that became Fringe episodes, or ideas for Fringe episodes that became movies?

We wrote a bible [rules for how the series’ stories will work], so we’ve got many ideas that will be episodes. On Saturday night, Alex was pitching something to J.J. as a movie idea that we were thinking about, and he said, "No, do that as an episode of Fringe!"

In Cloverfield, which J.J. Abrams produced, it seemed like there were things that might lend themselves to Fringe. There also seemed to be little nods towards Lost in Fringe’s first episode. Might there be nods towards other things you’re all involved in?

You know, because we tend to delve into the same kind of territory, no matter what we’re doing, we don’t even have to try to put in nods. They just appear. So I think audiences will probably find more connections than we intend.

So there may be extraterrestrial robots disguised as cars?

If you notice, in our pilot, there’s already a robotic arm on Nina Sharp [laughs].

How are you and your fellow executive producers working on Fringe simultaneously with the Star Trek movie post-production schedule?

That’s why there are three of us, and now that we have the amazing Jeff Pinkner to actually run [Fringe], it’s mostly his problem. We are there to assist as best we can.

Can you talk about what’s going on in Star Trek post-production that’s caused the pushing back of the release date?

We’ve only got 50 per cent of the effects shots in, so, in a way, that’s a relief that we have more time. We also took the studio at their word that they were confident that the movie could open in the summer. If they had asked us to do all kinds of weird rewrites and re-shoots, we would have known that they were worried, but they believe in it.

Is Star Trek different for you than other writing projects?

For me – I can only speak for myself – yes. For me, Star Trek is something I’ve always loved in a way that I can’t describe. My uncle got me into it when I was little. For me, Star Trek is the dream come true.

If this goes well, would you guys all be back for the next Star Trek?

I think so. I see no reason why we shouldn’t.

What else are you working on?

Alex and I – our first movie under our production company came out in September [in the US, October in the UK]. It’s called Eagle Eye, with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. It is something somewhat ripped from the headlines – it’s very much like Fringe that way – and the idea of how paranoid we’ve become. And yet there are times when you’re not paranoid, someone’s really out to get you [laughs].

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about Fringe?

Just that you’ll be able to follow it. Don’t feel like if you miss episode one or two or three, you can’t tune in. If you’re curious to tune in at any point, you’ll be rewarded. You won’t have to know everything beforehand.

Fringe is currently airing on Tuesdays on FOX in the US and Sundays on Sky1 in the UK.