Shatner out, Takei in?

[Mr. Fergy]

Number_6 said:
Takei's been out for awhile now.

Well, Yeah obviously.

 

[23skidoo]

Tristan said:
The only other Original Series actor I can seriously see participating in the movie alongside Nimoy is Shatner. If Shatner's not worked into it (which seems doubtful at this stage), I believe Nimoy will be the only one representing the old guard.

Agreed. What a lot of people forget is that Nimoy's sequences, presumably, will take place in the TNG era. It has been established that Spock is alive and active at this time because of Vulcans' long life-spans. The only other TOS characters alive at the time of TNG (according to on-screen canon, anyway) are McCoy and Scotty and sadly neither actor is around anymore to play them.

McCoy was depicted - 20 years ago! - as a very very old man. And Scotty was shown to have ended up in the TNG era due to a transporter malfunction. If Sulu were to appear he'd either have to be portrayed as a very very old man -- which was already done with McCoy -- or once again the story would have to be derailed in order to take time to explain why Sulu is around in the TNG era. This is the reason why Shatner can't appear, either. With Spock, his longevity is a given, and can probably be covered by a single line of dialogue about his lifespan with no need to derail the story.

All this of course assumes that Nimoy's sequences are supposed to take place post-Unification. He actually looks pretty much the same now as he did back when he made Trek VI (the same can't be said for Shatner), so there's nothing saying Nimoy's sequences couldn't take place in the movie era. That opens up the door for other TOS characters to appear played by their original actors, maybe attending a memorial for Kirk following the incident on board the 1701-B?

Cheers!

Alex

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Since I still believe that this film does not take place in just one timeframe, or even just TWO timeframes (I fully expect to see a series of significant events told in a number of settings, including Pre-Cage, Post-Cage, Post-WNMHGB, TOS, post-TOS, and (though it won't be part of the storytelling, it will be the setting from which the story is being TOLD) the post-TNG era.

Technically, there's no reason that Sulu, as captain of Excelsior, couldn't appear, in the appropriate timeframe.

But from a STORYTELLING standpoint... this movie is from Spock's perspective and is ABOUT Kirk. Sulu is a minor tangential character at best. The movie will be better off without him, except as a background feature in the short TOS-era vignette.