So now you know, and honestly after hearing his reasoning and his admission that maybe he got a little carried away in some scenes — like the above Spock meets Scottie moment — I can see what he's saying, especially about keeping it from looking too greenscreen or fake.

Also, Abrams touched on what he had to cut from the movie and will be appearing on the Trek DVD:

What's going to be on the DVD and BluRay, we heard something about the character Uncle Frank?

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[Kirk's] Stepfather and young Kirk have a scene, there is a Nero prison scene, young Spock as a baby, and more... there are a couple scenes that were brought out of the movie. Some things, like that prison sequence, just confound the audience. Every time we screened the movie for a group, that sequence threw them, even though it had some of my favorite design in the entire movie. The wardrobe, the location, some of the visual effects were really fun. But you know it was better without it, when we cut it.