Why not just bring back Kirk before Star Trek XI?

[Tai]

With some kind of tie-in anime film... the type of thing they did for The Matrix Reloaded, with "Final Flight of the Osirus". It seems like a popular thing with event movies lately, "The Dark Knight" is having a tie-in anime as well.

They could dedicate 90 minutes to a story to bring back Kirk, and also have ramifications that further explain some part of the plot in the main film.

Then when die-hard fans ask, "How's he alive?" people would point to the anime, and when they'd say "Well that's not canon!" they could point to Trek XI where he's alive and well and old.

 

[Therin of Andor]

JJ Abrams' ST has no need of an Old Kirk in the script.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I don't understand the obsession with Shatner's Kirk. I like Shatner as much as anyone and the Kirk he played was a cool character, but he's dead. Get over it. I don't see any reason to bend canon or make some weird story twist to enable Shatner-Kirk to come back to the screen in a post-Generations timeline.
If people want to see Shatner in Star Trek so badly, Abrams could just as well dress him up as a Vulcan or Andorian, etc., and let him play a different character, but please - not as James T. Kirk.

 

[RodneyMcKay]

Space Janitor said:
I don't understand the obsession with Shatner's Kirk. I like Shatner as much as anyone and the Kirk he played was a cool character, but he's dead. Get over it.

Amen :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[cultcross]

Space Janitor said:
I don't understand the obsession with Shatner's Kirk. I like Shatner as much as anyone and the Kirk he played was a cool character, but he's dead. Get over it.

I'm with the Janitor.
Kirk: NOT. NOT. DEAD.

 

[Lior .B.]

cultcross said:

Space Janitor said:
I don't understand the obsession with Shatner's Kirk. I like Shatner as much as anyone and the Kirk he played was a cool character, but he's dead. Get over it.

I'm with the Janitor.
Kirk: NOT. NOT. DEAD.

Me too. It's time to move on

 

[Knucles2]

JJ wont bring Kirk back because of a cost effectiveness x mass / speed of light thing.
If you caught the latest boston legal you'll understand...

 

[Thomas Riker]

I disagree, I have always been a major fan of shatner from watching star trek to tj hooker. Do not get me wrong, I do not think it would be a good idea for him to be in this movie, I don't even want nimoy for christ sakes, but I still think he should be involved. He is Kirk, there is no getting around that, and I believe that pine would benefit from any advice shatner could give.

Further it would have been nice if he could have been given some kind of minor role - like how they got Charlton Heston to play an ape in the remake. Something ironic like that. He could have played an ageing Romulan on his death bed, providing the reasons for why Nero wants to kill kirk in the first place.

 

[Thomas Riker]

Oops I have more to say on this sorry. This business of JJ Abrams saying there was no way to bring kirk into this story is complete nonsense. I could think of half a dozen ways varying directly from sensible into ridiculousness. My favorite being, if this film does concern itself with Time Travel, why does it have to originate from the 24th Century. It could just as easily been an Older Spock and Kirk from the 23rd Century, it is canon that the enterprise had many 5 year missions prior to kirk's death in generations.

I personally would have had no problem with this.

I also want to reiterate my preference for their roles being very small - a passing of the torch kind of thing.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

What the various suggestions and debate over Shatner's participation boil down to is this:

Yes, Abrams could have chosen to make a different "Star Trek" movie with a different emphasis on different characters. Orci and Kurzman could have written a movie featuring Shatner as Kirk, in a number of ways.

No one has yet advanced a proposal for that, though, that sounds better to me than the movie Abrams appears to be doing. I'm all for Abrams, who comes across as a really enthusiastic, talented man who despite having taken on a one-hundred-million-dollar-plus studio "tent pole" cares more about what he's doing than about commerce (and I'd imagine that commercial anxieties would be crushing at times for most people).

I want to see what kind of "Star Trek" movie J.J. Abrams wants to make, not the movie that other people are convinced to varying degrees that he ought to make.

 

[shapeshifter]

Perhaps the story is written with Kirks death very much in mind, it may not be the same story if Kirk were still alive, perhaps it would not work at all if he were?

 

[Captain59]

William Shatner is Star Trek. You cannot have Star Trek without William Shatner. This movie will be the farse of all farses unless William Shatner is in it.

Well...unless Jolene Blalock is shown. Then they can keep Kirk dead for all I care.

 

[Woulfe]

^ You do realize that there were 4 Star Trek TV shows that didn't have William Shatner in them !

- W -
* Just thought i'd point that out *

 

[Holytomato]

"William Shatner is Star Trek. You cannot have Star Trek without William Shatner. This movie will be the farse of all farses unless William Shatner is in it."

Walter Koenig, George Takai, Nicolle Nichloas, Deforest Kelley, and James Doohan are Star Trek. You cannot have Star Trek without Walter Koenig, George Takai, Nicolle Nichloas, Deforest Kelley, and James Doohan. This movie will be the farse of all farses unless Walter Koenig, George Takai, Nicolle Nichloas, Deforest Kelley, and James Doohan are in it.

 

[martin]

Holytomato is obviously passionate about TOS, loony but passionate. I do feel sorry for him, he has had no Star Trek in his life since 1991!

 

[seigezunt]

I'm a huge fan of the Shat, adore all he does, but I can't see them bringing him back without reducing the film to utter fankwankery. Not that I don't love fanwank: the Shatnerverse is my personal continuity.

That said, I think it was Sam Cogley who had a great way to include the Shat. But it's not happening. Time to move on and experience the new flick on its own merits.

Unless, of course, they are tricking us, and he's in it. But it's doubtful. The simplest explanation is often the right one.

 

[Woulfe]

DeKelly : You're charater is dead Bill !
Shatner : But I HAVE to be in the new Star Trek !
DeKelly : Were you in any of the other new Star Treks ?
Shatner : No, I wasn't....
DeKelly : Then there you go.....

 

[Doomsday]

Captain59 said:
William Shatner is Star Trek. You cannot have Star Trek without William Shatner. This movie will be the farse of all farses unless William Shatner is in it.

So, are you saying that "The Cage" is not Star Trek? I find that idea quite absurd, considering that The Cage is GR's original vision for Trek(at least the most original version that made it to film).

I think that The Cage proves that Trek is a bigger idea than any one character or any one actor.

As others have said, I am as big a fan of Shatner as any. But Trek is bigger than just him, and it will do fine without him, if the story is strong enough.

Trek V proves that Trek WITH Shatner can suck.

Shatner does not, by himself, make Trek.

 

[martin]

On Speculation...

The way I would have brought him back, would have been to include a scene between old Spock and old Kirk, set just before Kirk set off to the Enterprise B's launch. Perhaps they could of had an argument which led to Spock's non attendance, relating to Spock's intention to pursue re-unification between the Vulcans and Romulans.

This could have also linked into the Romulan plot of the movie...

 

[cardinal biggles]

Thomas Riker said:
Oops I have more to say on this sorry. This business of JJ Abrams saying there was no way to bring kirk into this story is complete nonsense. I could think of half a dozen ways varying directly from sensible into ridiculousness. My favorite being, if this film does concern itself with Time Travel, why does it have to originate from the 24th Century. It could just as easily been an Older Spock and Kirk from the 23rd Century, it is canon that the enterprise had many 5 year missions prior to kirk's death in generations.

Abrams never said there was no way to bring Kirk into the story. He said there was no way to bring him into the story without a great deal of ridiculous technobabble and fan service. The less we have of those two elements in this film the better.