May 12 2009'Star Trek' Almost Had a Little Holo-Shatner
If you haven't seen the Star Trek, look away, because here's a spoiler: William Shatner is not in it. While Leonard Nimoy was given the privilege of donning his prosthetic ears one last time, Shatner was conspicuously absent from the film's symbolic passing of the tricorder. But, as writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci explained in an interview with io9, that wasn't always the case. In one draft of the script, there was apparently a Bill Shatner "Happy Birthday, I'm almost certainly dead" scene:
Orci: We wrote [a Shatner scene], it was in the script.Kurtzman: The very last scene when Spock and Spock meet each other, finally. And elder Spock is convincing young Spock that he couldn't interfere, because it would have diverted [Kirk and Spock] away from their friendship. And that their friendship is the key to the whole sort of shebang.
Orci: He gave him a recorded message from Kirk.
Kurtzman: He [elder Spock] said, "Don't take my word for it." And he handed him [younger Spock] a little holographic device and it projected Shatner. It was basically a Happy Birthday wish knowing that Spock was going to go off to Romulus, and Kirk would probably be dead by the time...
That would have been something, but I'm personally glad they ended the film the way they did:
Did you not stick around for this after the credits?
Reader Comments
1. Ramon M. - May 12, 2009 3:04 PM
I understand why they left Shatner out, but they weren't going to follow the Star Trek history anyway. It is blatantly stated that they are in an alternate universe.
So why not? In a place where you can travel faster than the speed of light why not throw in some Shatner...
2. J - May 12, 2009 4:01 PM
Sure, it's an alternate history, but it's also a continuation of what's come before. Kirk died in Generations, it would have been jarring (to me, at least) for him to just show up as a tag-along with Spock.
3. first haha - May 12, 2009 5:06 PM
WARNING!
If you're a crazy star trek person, don't watch the bloopers video. The truth that Star Trek was just a TV show and wasn't reality will freaking make you commit suicide!
Kill me! ahahahahahaha
penis
4. MacMaster - May 12, 2009 8:37 PM
Aside from the fact that William Shatner is a big fat jerk-off, and he dies while taking a maiden voyage on the Enterprise-B, not much else kept him out of the movie.
5. Rhialto - May 13, 2009 2:46 PM
In the 1960's Star Trek ran from 1966 untill 1969 for three seasons.All the original crewmembers are still alive.
6. Bladedemon - May 14, 2009 9:02 AM
Nah, Kirk's dead. So Shatner's career . . .