William Shatner’s legendary Captain Kirk returns in ‘Unification’ short film

Review: 765874 – Unification — William Shatner’s Captain Kirk returns

Dropping on the 30^th anniversary of Star Trek: Generations – the last Star Trek movie to feature William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk – the fine folks at OTOY, Inc., in association with William Shatner, the Nimoy Estate, and Paramount, have produced a fascinating short film featuring the captain himself, along with a few other surprises that are sure to delight Star Trek fans.

The eight-minute video focuses on Captain Kirk, who died 30 years ago on screen under a pile of rubble in the presence of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Appropriately, Unification sets the tone with this famous Kirk quote: “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.” What follows is an eight-minute art piece that sees Kirk, recreated thanks to well-known sci-fi actor Sam Witwer in physical and digital prosthetics, witness characters and places from his life.

After a beautiful shot of Gary Mitchell, the Enterprise-crewman-turned-God played by Gary Lockwood in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” suspended in space and basking in the glow of a sun, we next see a wide shot of who is presumably Spock standing over Kirk’s burial site on Veridian III. We also see glimpses of a futuristic Earth, a shot of a silhouetted Yeoman J.M. Colt (played by Laurel Goodwin in The Original Series but played by Mahe Thaissa here) on a desert planet, the Enterprise-D’s crashed saucer section on Veridian III, and more.

Then the real meat and potatoes of the short film begins, as we see a Generations-era Kirk reborn on a beautiful lush world and met by familiar faces. In this scene, the virtual Kirk’s wonderful production values are realized. While a keen eye will notice small irregularities in the recreated Kirk – an awkward, not-quite-true-to-life facial animation here and there, for example – we have to say OTOY has done a wonderful job recreating a 1994-era William Shatner. But wait, it isn’t just 1994 Shatner on display here.

After exiting the reborn garden, an alien that Star Trek: Discovery fans will recognize as Yor, the Betelgeusian Starfleet time soldier seen in “Terra Firma, Part I,” whisks Kirk to a seemingly endless chasm where the older man faces two versions of his younger self: one from The Original Series, and one from The Wrath of Khan. Choosing these two versions of Kirk is smart; the young man in the gold uniform is the “classic” Kirk, a young go-getter who took on the galaxy, and the other represents a time in Kirk’s life when he started thinking about growing old. The older Kirk faces his two younger counterparts, until slowly the two younger Kirks disappear, leaving the older Kirk to ruminate on the passage of time.

The last scene of this short film sees the older Kirk entering a spacious room, where there’s a powerful sunset lighting the scene. At the far end of the room is a bed; as Kirk sits down on the edge of it, we see it’s Leonard Nimoy’s Spock (circa the J.J. Abrams films) lying there, probably dying, seemingly waiting for his friend to see him one last time. The two old friends enjoy a look at the sunset as a touching score plays. The last moments of the film, where Kirk and Spock hold hands in solidarity in the face of death, show what’s perhaps a proper conclusion to the Kirk/Spock relationship, something the legendary pair never got on screen.

We think it was a great production decision not to have any dialogue in this short film. The lack of dialogue works great, in our opinion, as emotional and character beats rely solely on reaction shots, thoughtful framing, and a touching score provided by Star Trek veteran composer Michael Giacchino. One great example of this is at the end of the film when the dying Spock issues one of his famous eyebrow raises and ever-so-slightly smiles at Kirk, which elicits a surprised reaction from the captain.

Taken together, Unification is quite a surprise. It’s a heartfelt tribute to the legacy of Captain James T. Kirk and the enduring spirit of Star Trek. The short film blends nostalgia with cutting-edge technology to offer fans a poignant and visually stunning experience. We can only imagine what else OTOY might have in the works for future Star Trek anniversaries.

My eternal gratitude to @WilliamShatner for, well, giving us the word.

The word is given.
Warp Speed.#LLAPhttps://t.co/BSsKZmMQFI

— Sam Witwer (@SamWitwer) November 18, 2024

The cast includes William Shatner (who is also the executive producer and reportedly helped OTOY “fine-tune the technical and creative direction required to bring his interpretation of Kirk back to live action”), Sam Witwer, Lawrence Selleck (who, like Witwer, used physical and digital prosthetics to bring Spock to life), Robin Curtis – who did indeed show up in the reborn garden scene as her Star Trek III and IV character, Savik – and Gary Lockwood, who brought his TOS character back to life for Unification. Notably, Dave Blass of Star Trek: Picard fame served as a production designer. This film was directed by filmmaker Carlos Baena, from a story by Jules Urbach.

Accompanying this short film are updates to The Roddenberry Archive, the multi-decade project that aims to memorialize Star Trek. One such update is a 20-minute interview with William Shatner about his life and portrayal of Captain Kirk.

You can read more about Unification on OTOY’s website.

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