Officially, the short has the title “765874 – Unification.” Most likely people just refer to it as “Unification,” a 9-minute short that brings William Shatner back to the Star Trek franchise. Sort of. The details have been hazy. Shatner definitely participated. Actor Sam Witwer stepped in as his body double, and through a mixture of prosthetics and CG, makes a credible Captain Kirk, Admiral Kirk, and late James T. Kirk.
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Generations, the short allows Trekkies to celebrate Kirk one last time. For those who need it, “Unification” also ties everything together. As he walks down a dark passage of memory, Kirk encounters Yor (Gordon Tarpley), an alien who jumped from Enterprise to Discovery to the Kelvin timeline. For indeed, this is Kirk’s opportunity to say a final farewell to Spock as they both pass into history.
In the excitement of the release, many may have missed that this short also serves as an ad for the Apple Vision Pro. Created by cloud-based special effects company OTOY, the short has been optimized for that platform. There you can also find virtual sets, props, and the like. It’s truly an experience for the die-hard Star Trek fan.
Admittedly, it’s also a little weird. Fans will be arguing about Shatner’s send-off in Generations long after the man himself is gone. Obviously, Leonard Nimoy did not participate in this; actor Lawrence Selleck stands in for him, again a mixture of prosthetics and CG.
“Unification” also hearkens back to the beginning of Star Trek with Gary Lockwood appearing as Gary Mitchell from “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Presumably, Lockwood had some participation, but that could have easily been plucked from the original episode and cleaned up digitally.
As the industry wrestles with what to do about AI, it does seem heartening that OTOY claims it wasn’t involved in this. The effects are impressive. The story itself unintentionally speaks to how poorly our culture handles aging and death. Thus my own ambivalence about it. Kudos to Shatner for returning. Since his actual trip to space, he’s been even more concerned about mortality. Now it’s not just his own; it’s all of ours. So today I’ll take this as an odd message of hope from him.
No doubt we’ll be talking about this on the Star Trek panel at Loscon 50 over Thanksgiving weekend. Better connected heads than I will weight in. For now, I’m cautious about boldly going where no one has gone before.
