By Chris Snellgrove | Published
As a franchise, Star Trek is in a certain place, with Paramount canceling shows like it Adoption again Lower Decks and it seems he’s going all in on an upcoming origin movie that threatens to end one of the franchise’s most important projects. I was worried that I might lose my decades-long love of Gene Roddenberry’s beautiful universe, but then something amazing happened: I found out. 765874 Consolidationis the latest fan film from OTOY. Designed to celebrate 30 years of Star Trek: Generationsand as it made me cry, I realized that this was the best Trek content I had ever seen years.
As avid OTOY fans already know, calling this a “fan film” is putting it down a lot. After all, sci-fi fan films are usually a bunch of empty computer graphics and explorations of alien planets that look like someone’s backyard. Fortunately, 765874 Consolidation it has very high production quality, and was co-produced by both William Shatner and the estate of Leonard Nimoy. Thanks to that cooperation and digital intelligence, the film is able to show the meeting of the elderly Captain Kirk (Sam Witer) and Spock (Lawrence Selleck) before the famous Vulcan dies in the Kelvinverse.
The anti-aging process isn’t as aging as you’d see in a Marvel movie, but it’s still nearly perfect; therefore, it is surprising to see the digital production of a small company that can almost keep up with the corporate monolith that constantly releases multi-billion dollar films. What impressed me most about the older Kirk, is that the computer effects did nothing to dampen the essential personality of Shatner’s classic performances. The actors don’t speak in this film (although we do get a short sound from it Wrath of Khan), but the captain’s words help fully sell the emotional impact of his final meeting with Spock.
If you’re someone who really sticks to canon, you should know that the premise doesn’t make a lot of sense. There would be no logical way for the late Captain Kirk to visit Spock on his deathbed, let alone a deathbed in a different place. Of course, this a Star Trek: Generations tribute, so my headcanon is that we see a version of Kirk that still lives in the Nexus long after his actual death. And, as Spock himself reminds us The Undiscovered Worldcommon sense is only the beginning of wisdom, not its end.
With any luck, Paramount will have the foresight to realize that this free fan film is everything viewers really want in a Star Trek movie. It’s an imperfect love letter to a franchise that focuses on the relationships between characters whose friendship transcends time and space. The perfect fulfillment of Spock’s dying declaration to Kirk when he first died in Wrath of Khan: “I have always been your friend and I will always be your friend.”
Sadly, it doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting much of this kind of content from Paramount anytime soon. While Strange New Worlds it’s all kinds of good, the next Trek the movie from Paramount will reportedly be an original film focusing on the birth of the Federation and humans’ early contact with aliens. For those keeping track at home, we’ve already seen humanity’s first contact with aliens (in the appropriate article). Star Trek: First Contact) and we have already seen the birth of the Federation (at the end of Business). In other words, the new film will be a frighteningly repetitive art in recycling popular items.
Star Trek May Never Be This Good Again
The inevitable failure of that original film makes me almost unbearably sad for a franchise I love, but OTOY’s 765874 Consolidation it gives me hope. With or without Paramount, there will always be passionate fans willing to carry the torch through even the franchise’s darkest hours. And if the franchise can die completely, well, Spock himself is proof that death is not the end and that there are always opportunities, both for Star Trek and its most devoted fans.
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