Star Trek Writers Taunt Shatner With Spiked Cameo
After William Shatner wrapped the last season of Boston Legal, that left him free and clear to promote the ever-loving hell out of his next project: Why Am I Not In the New Star Trek, Guys? Leonard Nimoy is In It. Why Not Throw Ol' Shats a Bone, Here? (working title). Something tells me that a brand-new revelation from Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci has just provided Shatner's whiny franchise with a sequel.
The two writers spoke to MTV about a Shatner cameo they scripted due to his badgering, but decided to cut. The sequence would have come at the end (spoiler alert, nerds!) when Leonard Nimoy's Spock tells Zachary Quinto's young Spock that he will eventually become besties with the brash James T. Kirk:
"Elder Spock said, 'Well, don't take my word for it,' and he handed him a little disc -- a DVD, really -- that projected a hologram, and then he walked away. And the hologram was of Kirk," Kurtzman continued. "It would've been Shatner."
[...]
"It was a 'happy birthday' message [with Kirk saying], 'This is the last time I'm going to be able to wish you happy birthday, so I want to tell you how much you've meant to me and how amazing it was that we had all these adventures together,' " Kurtzman said of the alternate ending, which would have provided the last act with a powerful voice over the film's final scenes.
"That narrative, that voice-over," Kurtzman said, "became a link [to be heard] over [scenes of] this new crew coming in ... a young Kirk accepting the medal and becoming captain of the Enterprise."
We can see why the idea was cut (it's a little too, "Hey young Spock, here's the original remastered series on Blu-Ray"), but I wonder if Shatner will be so magnanimous. What's the over/under on the days until a red-faced YouTube rebuttal?
· 'Star Trek' Writers Reveal The William Shatner Scene That Never Was [MTV]
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
I'm not backing down on my love for the Shatner, no matter how much of a crank he becomes.
Dude WAS Star Trek, and no actor working at the time could have brought what he did to the role.
Yeah he's got a bloated ego, but fer chrissakes, that's what we pay him for. Shatner is right, the laws of physics, life and death - they just don't apply to him or to Kirk.
Did you see Nimoy trying to act opposite Captain Pike in the original pilot? NO - he was shrill and wooden! Shatner made that show, and I don't care how many weddings he misses behind his egocentric crap. Dude is a freaking original. And a nutcase, but original.
There was only one Kirk and only one Star Trek....all the others are spin-offs and in the mid sixties,this was cutting edge.How many people got their inspiration from that series ?
The New movie was awesome, and the new kirk did an amazing job. If anything i am glad they kept shatner out of it.
The actor who played the young Spock was a dead ringer for Leonard Nimoy. Seeing the Shatner against the new Kirk would not have been as believable.
Spock has gotten WAY too much credit for what made Star Trek good! Shatner was almost Shakespearean with his lines, pausing at times for effect and dramatically delivering his dialog with style. He was clearly the best actor on the show and was only matched by some of the guests. Just watch one of those shows (and watch Shatner specifically) and you'll see what I mean.
Shatner SHOULD have been included. Shatner performed brilliantly as Captain Kirk and it is disappointing that he was not nthe new movie.
He could potentially come back (Shatner) in any further sequels due to (NO SPOILERS HERE!) a specific story element that people are over-looking.
But I'm not sure it'd make as much sense in the future. The comment above about Quinto looking exactly like Nimoy is a good one. Pine's a lot "prettier" than Shatner was. And probably taller. Face to face it'd most likely be too distracting.
It was a good time though. (Even though it was definitely "Abramsized.")
Same Ol' Shats you love, now with more NUTS!
Oh Bill, calm down. There's always the T.J. Hooker re-boot to look forward to.
That 'Happy Birthday' message ending would have been awful (though fitting with the rest of the two writers' dialogue).
I wish they would bring Kirk back to life through the element of time travel; he deserved a much better ending than the Berman-assassination in the Generations movie.
The kids of the new Enterprise could have gotten around the galaxy a whole lot cheaper if they would've just utilized the Priceline Negotiator.
NERDS! NERDS!!! NNNNNEEERRRRDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!