A Quick Word on Star Trek: Unification
To boldly go where all men must, when the time comes.
Despite being a Star Trek fan, I was never enamored of Star Trek: Generations. Anything that had Picard in it would, perhaps, be a tolerable way to kill time but it wouldn’t be Star Trek to me. The fact that Generations ignominiously disposed of Captain James T. Kirk, the last word in heroic military starship captains to my mind, made me particularly prejudiced against the film when I first saw it and ensured that I never watched it again. If I had known we were coming up on the 30th anniversary of that movie, I would have scoffed and rolled my eyes.
As matters stand, though, I remained unaware the anniversary was here until a friend sent me a link to the Star Trek fanfilm 765874: Unification. When this friend said that William Shatner had returned in person to play his most famous character once more, I decided to give it a try. I reasoned that if Shatner was in this fanfilm, it would not be something cheap that would abuse Kirk. Given he co-produced the film, it seems I was correct, something confirmed when I watched the video.
From what I was told, Shatner didn’t like his death scene in his last Star Trek film. I don’t blame him. In my estimation it was a bad scene in a bad movie. I can respect him for working around it in the Star Trek novels which he co-wrote, the ones that saw Kirk come back in spite of Generations’ ending, but few of those books are my cup of tea. Even Captain Kirk can only cheat death so many times before it becomes too cheap a currency.
To return to the topic, I watched Unification...and had to grab some tissues. Shatner and the rest deliver a fond, final farewell to Kirk in this film and I am very glad to have seen it.
A mixture of “deep fake” CGI and live acting, the video is ten minutes long if one includes the credits. It appears to follow a Kirk resurrected in the Nexus, or traveling through it and being resurrected in the Kelvin (J. J. Abrams) Timeline. At the very least, by the finale, he meets Spock (portrayed in live action by Lawrence Selleck, with “deep fake CGI” making him look like Leonard Nimoy) on the latter’s deathbed.
Sharp-eyed fans will recognize Saavik, Spock’s protege in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, early in the film as well. Robin Curtis returns to the role but the most interesting thing to fans is the bashful Vulcan standing behind her. While there is some debate over his identity, at least some fans seem to think – as I do – that he is the son of Saavik and Spock. The two got married in the novels and early scripts for Star Trek IV mentioned that saving Spock’s life in Star Trek III, when he went into pon-farr on the Genesis planet, resulted in Saavik becoming pregnant.
As one might imagine, that idea didn’t get too much traction among some of the cast and the franchise’s owners, so it’s never really been completely canonized. The closest we get is Vulcan’s Heart, the novel where Saavik and Spock are betrothed. But the way that Saavik and Sorak (if that is his name) behave, and the way that Kirk reacts to them, speaks volumes. There would be a great deal of awkwardness even on Vulcan and in the Star Trek universe surrounding the events that led to Saavik and Spock marrying, let alone having a child. But in a world that takes “getting rid of” such “mistakes” or “discomforts” for granted, Star Trek never took that out with Saavik and Spock.
The way that the actors behave in this scene, I cannot think that the man behind Saavik would be the founder of Vulcan’s cult of logic, Surak. The reactions of Saavik, Sorak, and especially Kirk are just wrong for that. But time will tell, eventually, whether the fan theories are correct or not.
I do diverge with fans on their general interpretation of the film, and possibly with the creators’ intention for it, when they say that Gary Mitchell and/or the Nexus resurrected Kirk. Particularly since he reunites with Spock on the latter’s deathbed, I think that the film is a poignant goodbye by Shatner to both Kirk...and to the fanbase.
Star Trek’s initial tagline, besides “Wagon Train to the Stars,” was that it would “boldly go where no man has gone before.” But the fact is that there is one last journey all men must take, and Generations muffed that exit for the franchise’s preeminent captain. Unification corrects the error, starting Kirk on his last journey and essentially sending him to pick up his best friend to take him home as well.
Many actors and actresses do not get to give a final goodbye to their fans. To make a touching farewell to the fans and the franchise he gave so much to shows not only good sense on Shatner’s part, but also humility and magnanimity. Hollywood is the “dream factory,” after all, and Joss Whedon has noted that many people there like to pretend the dream will go on forever.
That it may – but not in this life. Unification follows Tolkien’s idea of finding a new realm “under a swift sunrise” as both Kirk and Spock embark on the ultimate adventure while watching the dawn on New Vulcan. They go where men have gone boldly before them, but they go together, for they are brothers.
As closing chapters go for a franchise, Unification is a good one. Star Trek may yet have more series and more permutations, but the final frontier beckons the remnants of the original Enterprise Seven onward. Knowing this, I think, Shatner made sure to pen a letter of departure to his fans – and to all fans of Star Trek.
May we remember to do the same, when it is our turn to cross the Nexus and see what lies beyond. When it is our turn to go, preferably boldly, into the final frontier.
I am not what you'd call a Star Trek fan, but your writing here was compelling enough that I had to check it out. And I do not regret it. This fan movie is a great reminder of what we have lost, and an assurance that it's not beyond our power to gain it back.