I can’t help but love William Shatner. This is the man that brought us Captain James T Kirk, T J Hooker and Denny Crane, not to mention numerous sci-fi novels. What a brilliant CV – and that’s only a small part of it. However, it will always be Captain Kirk that Shatner is most famous for.
Apropos Captain Kirk, we now have the dubious situation of yet another movie franchise reboot, with J J Abrams remaking Star Trek. This will be the eleventh Star Trek movie, but it’s not a continuation from number ten. It’s a reworking of the original concept. According to imdb.com:
Paramount synopsis: From director J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III,” “Lost” and “Alias”) and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (“TRANSFORMERS,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before.
Explores the early Starfleet careers of future Enterprise officers Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Amanda Grayson (Winona Ryder), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin). A Romulan, Nero (Eric Bana), and a much older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are influences, as well as Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood), the first captain of the USS Enterprise.
So I’m not sure how exactly they plan to fit it together with it supposedly following the early years of the most famous Starfleet crew, yet featuring “a much older Spock”. Regardless, Leonard Nimoy gets to reprise the one thing that people really remember him for and he must be very pleased. (And, on a slight tangent, Simon Pegg as Scotty makes the nerd in me do a very gawky dance of joy).
However, notice anything missing? Spock gets a reprise, yet no mention of Bill Shatner. No future flash forward? No cheeky cameo to titillate the Trekkies as a surprise somewhere in the movie? Well, frankly, no. And Mr Shatner himself has even addressed a little video letter directly to J J Abrams to let him know what he thinks of that:
And you know what amuses me most about this whole thing? J J Abrams obviously wanted nothing to do with Shatner yet tries to sound all noble and apologetic, pretending to have the utmost repect for the original Kirk. And the original Kirk himself is all sweetness and light, talking about what a great writer/director Abrams is, yet is obviously deeply pissed that he didn’t get offered a part. Will these two crazy kids kiss and make up if there’s ever an Abrams headed Star Trek XII? We’ll have to wait and see.
(Hat tip to SF Signal for finding the video).
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Shatner is one of the funniest actors on the planet. I am sure that the uproar that his absence will create will create some problems for J J Abrams. Although, Bill is still shooting episodes of Boston Legal, so if he did get a few scenes, it might problems for the studio.
Oddly enough, although I watched a lot of classic Star Trek as a kid, the roles that really stick in my mind for Nimoy, are for both Transformers films. The first was animated and featured the death of Optimus Prime. Nimoy did the voice for the Megatron after he was transformed by Unicron. As soon as he got back he used his groovy new lasers to turn Starscream into dust particles. This contrasted his role as the autobot Ratchet in the newest film, where he got to saw the immortal lines, “It seems that he wants to mate with the female…”
Wow, Dianne – I bow to your far superior knowledge of all things Nimoy and Transformers!
To quote Wayne, “I was not aware of that!”
I love Shatner, but I do think he’s being a bit of a brat, and as much as many fans will miss him, doesn’t there come a point where someone can just be a bit to old for the role? I want to remember Kirk as the hero that believed he could always make a difference, not a fat guy on the verge of senility (ie. Denny Crane, not Shatner himself!).
The same could apply for Spock no doubt, except that Spock was more cerebral and character driven, rather than a handsome action hero type so I’m kinda glad he’s making an appearance. Anyway, let’s judge it when it hits the cinemas…
You’re dead right in your last comment – the real test will be seeing it at the cinema. I’m looking forward to it and will definitely be going to check it out.