While it is still possible that fans may yet get to see William Shatner as the older Captain James T. Kirk for the new J.J. Abrams “reintroduction” of Star Trek, the gap in the door appears to be getting smaller.
Roberto Orci, co-writer for the project has told SCI FI Wire that they (he, Kurtzman and Abrams) still are holding out hope, but with the movie currently one full month into production, hope is fading day by day.
“There are two things,” Orci said. “One, from our point of view, we are still hoping to find a way. Secondly, one of the difficulties that was brought up and discussed with Shatner when we all met him and pitched him ideas is that Trek fans are sticklers for their canon. [And,] unfortunately, Shatner’s Capt. Kirk was killed in Star Trek VII [Generations].”
“The difficulty there is not just ignoring that or explaining it in an unsatisfactory way merely to get him back in,” Orci said. “So that is the struggle: the rigors of canon and not phoning it in just to have a cameo.” Still, it could happen, he said. “From my point of view, it’s a very long shoot, and things change. It’s just whether we can figure it out.”
I kind of have to agree. How do you bring back the Dead Captain Kirk, and make it credible? Yes, i know some of you will say, “Well it IS Science Fiction!” I realize that. But, if you ask me, to do that so William Shatner can have a Cameo, just blows any credibility out of the water. I realize this will probably draw the ire of many Trek fans, but maybe it is time to let the old James T. Kirk rest in peace.
Video.
“We found an old archived message…”
Something along that line could allow him to make a cameo without disrupting the canon. It wouldn’t allow for interaction with the current crew, but it would provide a way to have him show up without breaking what is already in place.
Perhaps Jim did not really die in “Generations”. Perhaps shortly after his “death” his body was drawn back into the Nexus and rejuvinated. Spock could have found out about Kirk thru Picard and found a way to investigate the Nexus then found and rescued Jim. There you go!!! A way to bring back the one and only James T Kirk!!! I leave it to the writers to flesh out the details.
Shatner also dealt with this dilemna in one of his Trek novels. He had Kirk’s body being resurrected by the Borg, taken to the hive’s machine planet where he was rescued by Picard, Spock, a 130 year old McCoy and equally as old Scotty (“Relics”) on the order of Admiral Janeway. The story really fit in nicely with canon, brought Kirk back, gave the origination backstory for the Borg (turns out their machine planet gave V’ger life) and tied up all those little loose threads.
Sam,
Which book was that? I must have missed that one.
It was in his second trilogy novel “The Return.” The first was “The Ashes of Eden,” telling of events prior to the film “Generations,” then came “The Return,” which takes up where “Generations” closed and finally, the lesser of the three “Avenger.”
All three were co-written by his friends and long-time writing partners Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
I don’t see what the problem is. Once a person goes into the Nexus, they are still present there to talk to whether they leave or not. This is proved by Guinan still being there when Picard arrived. Guinan told Picard to think of her as an “echo.” Kirk should still be in the Nexus no break of canon required.
After thinking on it, in spite of the fact that I’m a non-fan of Shatner/Kirk, I agree with an earlier comment on a similar news story where someone said Shatner could play Kirk’s Grandfather or something. I could see that as a nod to the fans and could be a nice effect if done right. Enough makeup to make him look older a little different but little enough to recognize him. Like Heston in the Planet of the apes Remake. If I were making the film I’d be too tempted to cast shatner as an aging klingon warrior.
While the WGA remains on strike, no updates or changes can be made to the script. So if Old-Kirk is not part of the shooting script *right now*, it doesn’t matter if someone thinks up a credible way to include him before filming concludes, unless the strike is resolved first.