“Slowly, I began to warm up to the possibility of cameo appearance–a GFII-like flashback scene from the prespective of Nimoy’s Spock, depicting a conversation between the two of them prior to the incident aboard the Enterprise-B which had some bearing upon what Spock was facing at a particular time in the story.”

I’m still rather schizo about a cameo but I like your idea. A final conversation between these 2 characters would have been nice.

“I felt like that could have worked. But it didn’t happen. Oh well. How many goodbyes does Shatner’s Kirk need?”

Well, he’s only had the one and it sucked. Which is why I and so many others wish he could have been a part of this movie. A better send off for his many years of being Kirk and the fun of seeing Nimoy and Shatner together one last time. We haven’t had that since STVI.

The last few Shatner polls on Trekmovie showed no clear cut mandate for Shatner. And “talked about”? Try “debated” and the debates on here take a lot of posts. Suggest that the new Enterprise will have a third nacelle and you’ll get 329 posts on that too.

It would be annoying, and perhaps a little insulting, if Shatner were involved only to the extent of doing the voice-over. Give him a proper part (i.e., at the very least, a cameo scene) or no part at all. Besides, Shatner’s doing the voice-over would make no sense if he were not given a proper part in the film: there would be no elder-Kirk in the film, after all. As it stands, let Nimoy do it. This makes sense and is a ‘nod’ to the Trekkies, anyway.

#327:

Regardless of whether there are a few ‘repeat posters’, that this thread has generated FAR MORE posts than any other recent thread shows, quite clearly, that this issue is the most talked-about; and that, in general, people care more about this issue than any other recently brought to our attention. Most regulars have spoken on this issue; and some have spoken more than others; but the total number of posts has dwarfed that of any other recent thread.

One further point: of course this film will be judged, principally, by how much money it makes. And perhaps the addition or omission of Shatner will not significantly affect the amount of money that the film makes. However, fan satisfaction is also important; and, including Shatner, perhaps, would make people enjoy the film more. This, at least, seems to be true of a great many Trekkies—perhaps a clear majority? Movie makers want to make money; but they also want to please the (core) fans. George Lucas is a possible exception…

read 314 and 315 in sequence and look at all the posts on this thread. I was referring to the thread…. not the “millions” worldwide.

#320 Ivory

same thing…. repeating posters… even 6 or so… (I didn’t count) can add up to 300… not out of adoration… out of debate.

Let’s bear in mind that, just because Orci’s comments appeared in an article in November, does not mean that those comments were not actually made to the interviewer prior to that. Shatner’s “I don’t do cameos” statement was only made public in October. Bob’s seemingly still mildly optimistic stance could easily have been expressed a couple of weeks (or more) before the article (as is often the case).

Don’t get me wrong. I do not actually believe that if Shatner hadn’t made that statement that he would have gotten a cameo. I just believe that the statement put the final nail in the coffin. After that, the creative team had no further reason to explore the possibility.

I made no secret early on that I had no wish to see Shatner in STXI. I love his portrayals from TOS-TVH, but I think he started phoning JTK in after that. I think that for the first two decades, it was Shatner as Kirk, and that was fantastic. Beyond then, I think it became Kirk as Shatner. That, to me, was not so good. I think he began pandering to the Parodic SNL/Mad TV crowd a bit too much. I cannot imagine a STXI performance that would have come off any different to me.

I honestly recall walking out of the theater after STV: The Great Trek Turd Of ‘89 and thinking (among MANY things) that it would be best if someone else took over the chair (not just the director’s chair). Patrick Stewart did not turn out to be what I had in mind (and I’m not denegrating the actor, rather the character which was written for him). Twenty years later, I’m getting my wish. It sure took long enough. The last thing I wanted was for Shatner to show up and ruin any chance of a new generation taking Star Trek (or Captain Kirk in particular) seriously.

Slowly, I began to warm up to the possibility of cameo appearance–a GFII-like flashback scene from the prespective of Nimoy’s Spock, depicting a conversation between the two of them prior to the incident aboard the Enterprise-B which had some bearing upon what Spock was facing at a particular time in the story.

I felt like that could have worked. But it didn’t happen. Oh well. How many goodbyes does Shatner’s Kirk need?

His word choice is simply a reflection of the calendar. “Difficult” became “impossible” because of the late date — the USA Today article was in January. You can’t still be saying you’d love to find a way to make it work when filming is almost complete, you can’t change the script anyway and Shatner is having hip replacement surgery in late January.

” I realize you believe that. But here’s the problem with that belief. It requires what Roberto Orci said in March to be a complete falsehood,”

Not at all. I took Orci’s comment — about the storyline being unable to accomodate the size of role Bill wanted — to be a summary of the problem from the beginning and not an immediate reaction to Bill giving interviews in October. Afterall, Orci himself was still making with the wistful at the start of filming and subsequent to the OCTOBER Shatner comments:

“There are two things,” Orci said in an interview in November. “One, from our point of view, we are still hoping to find a way. Secondly, one of the difficulties that was brought up and discussed with Shatner when we all met him and pitched him ideas is that Trek fans are sticklers for their canon. [And,] unfortunately, Shatner’s Capt. Kirk was killed in Star Trek VII [1994's Generations]…..The difficulty there is not just ignoring that or explaining it in an unsatisfactory way merely to get him back in,” Orci said. “So that is the struggle: the rigors of canon and not phoning it in just to have a cameo.” Still, it could happen, he said. “From my point of view, it’s a very long shoot, and things change. It’s just whether we can figure it out.” Another possible problem: The ongoing writers’ strike prohibits members of the Writers Guild of America from making any changes to the script until the strike is settled. ”

Given that JJ hadn’t talked to Shatner beyond those first meetings in 2006, it doesn’t seem that it was ever really a viable option, just wishful expressions based on their feelings as fans of Shatner and his character. I love the respect they’ve shown him in their comments and it’s very nice that they were trying to be gentle in deference to the fans like me who were crushed by his lack of inclusion (kobayashi maru is right!!!). It just apears to me that it was over long before anything Shatner said in October. Kirk had died so he couldn’t fit into the timeline with Nimoy’s old Spock….and JJ deemed just a cameo “too fanboyish”. [Course I might argue that I find many of the choices they HAVE made to be on the fanboyish side which calls this into question...but that's another debate!]