To your parents and grandparents, the thought of Spock and Uhura getting it on is, well, icky. To the generation whose sole “Star Trek” knowledge is from J.J. Abrams’ massively successful 2009 franchise reboot, their relationship is not only realistic, but also sexy.

With Abrams currently developing a sequel, there are a lot of unanswered questions about where the Spock/Uhura relationship will go from here. When we spoke with Zoe Saldana recently, she raised some important questions that will shape the next film’s script.

“There was a huge acceptance and excitement with what J.J. and the writers — Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci — did with that twist,” said Saldana, who played the new Uhura in the film that surprised “Trek” loyalists by shifting the characters’ romantic intentions from the original series’ Captain Kirk to Zachary Quinto’s Spock. “What they did was a huge gamble — and when it worked, it worked really, really well.”

When last we checked in with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Kirk had learned of the relationship, and the alternate-reality events of the first film seemed to place their love in jeopardy. So where will Kurtzman and Orci go from here?

“It would be interesting to see what they are going to do with it,” agreed Saldana, who expects to begin work on the film toward the end of this year. “I really hope they keep [the relationship] and continue to explore it.

“But at the same time too — this is coming from my mother, who is a Trekkie — I could be wrong, but I thought that Vulcans only mate every seven years,” Saldana said, referring to Pon farr, which causes both Vulcan men and women to go into heat and forces them to essentially reproduce with their lover or die. “So now that the planet [Vulcan] has been extinguished, it’s kind of interesting. Can Spock mate with a non-Vulcan?”

At this point, the theories really became interesting. Saldana was interviewed alongside her “Death at a Funeral” and “The Losers” co-star Columbus Short, an avowed Trekkie who could no longer hold his tongue.

“His dad did,” Short said of Spock’s half-Vulcan/ half-human ancestry. “He mated with a non-Vulcan.”

“That’s true,” Saldana agreed. “But there were tons of Vulcans back then. Now, there are no Vulcans.”

“But if he mates with you [that would make more Vulcans],” Short shot back.

“Yeah, but I’m not a Vulcan,” Saldana countered. “Now there’s no Vulcan planet.”

Their discussion raised an important issue that Kurtzman, Orci and Abrams are likely grappling with at this very moment: Won’t Spock’s desire to continue the Vulcan race make him determined to find a same-species mate from the handful of scattered planet inhabitants who escaped before his home planet was destroyed? It’s hard to imagine the theme won’t be a central issue in the Spock/Uhura drama of the “Star Trek” sequel.

“His mom wasn’t a Vulcan,” Short reasoned, “But he can still mate [with a survivor and help the Vulcan population].”

“It’s OK [to consider such issues],” Saldana said to her co-star, agreeing to disagree on such geekiness until “Trek 2″ comes together. “I love it.”

From MTV