Hi-Sci-Fi

by Irma Arkus

SciFi Scanner released an interview with J.J.Abrams revealing the reasons for obvious lack of William Shatner in the new Star Trek film.

Abrams politely and rather diplomatically explains that Shatner has initially been very much a part of the creative process as they “actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing.” The idea though was dropped as the scene “didn’t quite feel right.”

Why didn’t it feel right? Because, suprise, suprise, Shatner was “very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly.”

As far as appeasement of Trek fans goes, J.J. Abrams explains that dealing with fans is kind of crazy and inconsistent. One segment of fans demanded some face time from their favorite man-diva, Shatner. But then again, “a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon.” To which he asks “Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”

So there. No Shatner in the movie. I will really miss him, because Shatner is fun on screen. Then again, I really look forward to seeing an entirely different version of Enterprise gracing the screen.