By Chris Snellgrove | Published
As a franchise, Star Trek is at a crossroads, with Paramount canceling shows like discovery And Lower decks And apparently getting involved in an upcoming original film threatens to erase some of the franchise’s most important lore from existence. I worried that I might lose my decades-long passion for Gene Roddenberry’s fantastical universe, but then something amazing happened: I made a discovery. 765874 AllianceOTOY’s latest fan film. It is designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary. Star Trek: Generationsand as it moved me to tears, I realized it was the best track material I had ever seen. The year.
As the most ardent OTOY fans already know, calling this a “fan film” is a serious understatement. After all, sci-fi fan films usually devolve into a bunch of crappy computer graphics and alien planet discoveries that always look like someone’s backyard. fortunately, 765874 Alliance It has the highest possible production quality, and was produced with the cooperation of both William Shatner and the estate of Leonard Nimoy. Thanks to this collaboration and some digital wizardry, the film is able to feature a young Captain Kirk (Sam Waiter) meeting Spock (Lawrence Selleck) before the iconic Vulcan dies in Calvary.
The de-aging process isn’t as smooth as you’d see in a Marvel movie, but it’s still nearly perfect. In this case, it’s amazing to see how a small company’s digital production can almost keep pace with a corporate monolith that regularly produces multibillion-dollar films. What struck me most about De-Aged Kirk, however, is that the computer effects did nothing to diminish the essential humanity of Shatner’s classic performance. The characters do not speak in this film (although we do get brief audio from it). Khan’s anger), but the captain’s expressions help fully sell the emotional impact of his final meeting with Spock.
If you’re a real stickler for canon, you should know that premise doesn’t really make much sense. There would be no logical way for a very dead Captain Kirk to meet Spock on his deathbed, much less a deathbed in a different universe. Sure, it’s one Star Trek: Generations Tribute, so my headcanon is that we’re seeing a version of Kirk that’s still in the nexus after his actual death. Besides, as Spock himself reminded us The unexplored countryLogic is only the beginning of wisdom, not its end.
With any luck, Paramount will have the wisdom to realize that this free fan film is everything audiences really want from a Star Trek movie. It’s a flawless love letter to the franchise that focuses on the relationships between characters whose friendships transcend time and space. This is the final realization of Spock’s passing declaration to Kirk when he first died. Khan’s anger: “I have been and always will be your friend.”
Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting much of this kind of content from Paramount in the near future. While Strange New Worlds. All kinds of awesome, next track The movie There will reportedly be an original film from Paramount that will focus on the birth of the Federation and humanity’s initial contact with aliens. For those watching at home, we already saw humanity’s first contact with aliens (in the aptly titled Star Trek: First Contact) and we have already seen the birth of the Federation (at the end of Enterprise). In other words, the new film will be a creative rip-off that threatens to blow its beloved Louvre out of existence.
Star Trek may never be this good again.
The inevitable failure of this original film makes me almost unbearably sad for my favorite franchise, but OTOY’s 765874 Alliance gives me hope. With or without Paramount, there will always be passionate fans willing to carry the torch even through the franchise’s darkest hours. And should the franchise die altogether, well, Spock himself is proof that death is not the end and that there is always hope for Star Trek and its most devoted fans.
