Shatner Watches the Star Trek XI Trailer
Watching this video is painful to me — William Shatner is a class act in this case, but there’s something cruel about not having him in this film. It would be one thing if Nimoy didn’t have a cameo because then you could argue that “we just couldn’t make it work with the script”. But sadly my bet is that while this may been about ego, it most likely had more to do with money (which may not be unrelated to ego). Shame on Paramount for letting this happen this way.
At the end of the day Star Trek became a classic due to the work of many folks, not just the actors but people you never see on the screen from scriptwriters to designers. But the actors were a big part of this show, and it wouldn’t have been Star Trek without Shatner. And as imperfect as he is Shatner deserves some sort of tribute — the guy is 78 years old and won’t be with us forever.