The head of Denny Crane, in a jar! That would be perfect! 
How can Shatner be written into the film?
- Thread starter Eddie Roth
- Start date
No offence, but wouldn't that make you just as stubborn and narrow-minded as the fans that won't see this movie if Shatner isn't in it? J.J. Abrams has said he won't put Shatner's Kirk in his movie unless it works. If Shatner does end up appearing in the movie, that means Abrams found a way to make it work.
Credits roll and right before the final one, Bill appears and says "For all of you who wouldn't come unless I appeared in the movie.... Here I am. Now go the hell home, it's over!"
No offence taken. The reason I'd avoid it not out of some aloof boycotting, but that it would imply too low a quality to be worth watching. I want a Trek movie, not a collection of homages to things that are dead, gone and past. I'm not desperately impressed by Nimoy being in it, but at least his part seems to be being handled well. The kind of shoehorning-in of Shatner that people are talking about would be the biggest, suckiest thing ever. IMO, of course.
I suppose it boils down to this - Nimoy can just about get away with playing an aged Spock - The Shat, bless him, cannot. As for a cameo, can you image the new Kirk and Spock discussing whatever the threat of the movie is, with an overweight old guy who looks very much like an aged Kirk waddling past behind them? It would be a joke.
Edited for crap grammar
Smeg! Just cast Chris Barrie as HoloKirk's standin when Spock summons him.
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If you're in trouble he will save the day
He's brave and he's fearless come what may
Without him the mission would go astray
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
Without him life would be much grimmer
He's handsome, trim, and no-one slimmer
He will never need a zimmer
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
More reliable than a garden strimmer
He's never been mistaken for Yul Brynner
He's not bald, and his head doesn't glimmer
Master of the wit and the repartee
His command of space directives is uncanny
How come he's such a genius?
Don't ask me!
Ask Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
He's also a fantastic swimmer
And if you play your cards right
Then he just might come round for dinner
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
No rhymes left now apart from quimmer
We hope they fade us out before we get to schlimmer
Fade out you stupid plimmer
------------------------------------------------------
If you're in trouble he will save the day
He's brave and he's fearless come what may
Without him the mission would go astray
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
Without him life would be much grimmer
He's handsome, trim, and no-one slimmer
He will never need a zimmer
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
More reliable than a garden strimmer
He's never been mistaken for Yul Brynner
He's not bald, and his head doesn't glimmer
Master of the wit and the repartee
His command of space directives is uncanny
How come he's such a genius?
Don't ask me!
Ask Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
He's also a fantastic swimmer
And if you play your cards right
Then he just might come round for dinner
He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer
No rhymes left now apart from quimmer
We hope they fade us out before we get to schlimmer
Fade out you stupid plimmer
Since Abrams has said that Nimoy's involvement in the film is essential to the plot, and since Nimoy has said himself that, "The Spock character that I am playing, the original Spock character, is essential and important to the script," I don't see Nimoy as older-Spock merely bookending the rest of the film with flashbacks. Even if these flashbacks are on his deathbed, even if Spock is reminiscing on the first time he met Kirk, these kinds of reflections don't necessitate an older Spock in the film. You could just as well have Chekov reminiscing on his deathbed, or have no bookend at all.
Hence, I assume that older-Spock will be doing something in the film, confronting a conflict. The earlier-years parts of the film will serve to flesh out this conflict, or to explain Spock's feelings and decisions within this conflict in much the same way that Abrams uses flashbacks in "Lost" to explain why the characters feel or act they way they do on the island. Whatever Nimoy-Spock is going to be doing in the film, then, it will involve a conflict-driven plot, a plot that has already been written.
Therefore, I don't see how Shatner-Kirk can just be thrown into this plot alongside Nimoy, at least not without either (a) making his role as irrelevant as Nimoy's would have been in GEN or (b) largely rewriting the script itself.
So, if this is the case, the only way I can see Shatner being in the film is if another flashback sequence is written in that also contributes towards an understanding of Spock or his conflict, a flashback that addresses a time sometime after the events of TUC (or possibly after GEN, and ignore the whole dead Kirk thing) that involves Kirk and Spock. That is, to include Shatner-Kirk at this point without necessitating a rewrite of the script, a new scene that exists in a time outside of the two time periods we assume are being addressed already must be written, a scene that showcases Nimoy and Shatner together.
Hence, I assume that older-Spock will be doing something in the film, confronting a conflict. The earlier-years parts of the film will serve to flesh out this conflict, or to explain Spock's feelings and decisions within this conflict in much the same way that Abrams uses flashbacks in "Lost" to explain why the characters feel or act they way they do on the island. Whatever Nimoy-Spock is going to be doing in the film, then, it will involve a conflict-driven plot, a plot that has already been written.
Therefore, I don't see how Shatner-Kirk can just be thrown into this plot alongside Nimoy, at least not without either (a) making his role as irrelevant as Nimoy's would have been in GEN or (b) largely rewriting the script itself.
So, if this is the case, the only way I can see Shatner being in the film is if another flashback sequence is written in that also contributes towards an understanding of Spock or his conflict, a flashback that addresses a time sometime after the events of TUC (or possibly after GEN, and ignore the whole dead Kirk thing) that involves Kirk and Spock. That is, to include Shatner-Kirk at this point without necessitating a rewrite of the script, a new scene that exists in a time outside of the two time periods we assume are being addressed already must be written, a scene that showcases Nimoy and Shatner together.
I think a scenario like that with a third time period would take too much attention away from the younger time period, which must be the focus of the movie. Now, you and I wouldn't mind seeing older Kirk and Spock get more screentime, but I think if they want to draw in fresh fans, they're gonna have to put the emphasis on the younger days.
UWC Defiance said:
The head of Denny Crane, in a jar! That would be perfect!
one of his finest talents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVMLivHTXac
I wonder how spiffy Scott Bakula will be at 76.
Seriously, I think he doesn't look a day over 50.
