The Star Trek short film 765874 – Unification takes William Shatner’s Kirk on a journey through space, time, and the afterlife to see Spock
The 1994 film Star Trek: Generations showed us the final moments in the life of Captain James T. Kirk, as played by William Shatner. In the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond, we learned that Kirk’s great friend Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy, had passed away, acknowledging the fact that Nimoy himself passed away in 2014. The newly released Star Trek short film 765874 – Unification, which was created by the VFX studio OTOY, catches up with Kirk in the afterlife in the moments after his Star Trek: Generations death and takes him on a trip through space and time so he can be reunited with Spock in the last moments of his life. It’s a sweet idea, and you can check it out in the embed above.
I am a fan of the Star Trek movies, but I have barely seen any of the TV shows, so I’m not well-versed enough in this subject to dig into all of the Easter eggs packed into 765874 – Unification‘s ten minutes. For information on all of that, I turned to the folks at Inverse.
Shatner plays Kirk in this short with the help of digital trickery that places his face on the body of double Sam Witwer. As he makes his way through the afterlife, he crosses paths with an elderly Saavik (an aged-up Robin Curtis from the third and fourth Star Trek movies) and a Vulcan named Sorak (Mark Cinnery), the son of Saavik and Spock. Then he meets the alien Yor (Gordon Tarpley), a character who entered the main Star Trek timeline from the Kelvin timeline of the J.J. Abrams films and was featured on Star Trek: Discovery. Since Yor is from the Kelvin timeline, he helps Kirk pass into that timeline to meet up with Spock – since the Abrams series showed us that Spock crossed into a parallel universe (and went into the past), spending the last years of his life in a timeline inhabited by a younger version of himself (played by Zachary Quinto). There are also nods to the characters Gary Mitchell and J.M Colt.
It will be interesting to see how fans react to 765874 – Unification. Some will probably find the short to be quite heartwarming, while others will cringe at the idea – and at the sight – of visual effects versions of Kirk and Spock being brought together for an afterlife journey.
What did you think of 765874 – Unification? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.