'Bring Back Kirk' Aims To Restore TOS Captain

Stating that "Kirk deserves a happy ending", a trio of fans have created a trailer in an effort to bring William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk back for one more journey.

The 9-minute, 15-second trailer, which begins with Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock stating that "Captain Kirk is alive", was released on March 22nd - the birthday of Shatner, whom the creators described as the only man who should play Captain Kirk.

"We knew this time around that we wanted to make a story that would not only get Kirk back, but like any good Trek story, would have our heroes facing and defeating adversity," trailer artist Jason Turner told SyFy Portal. Working via e-mail on two continents, the creators put together a script using dialogue spoken by the actors from available clips.

In a storyline that spans from the era of Enterprise's Archer to present-day, post-Voyager Star Trek, the trailer finds Kirk, Spock and a holographic Dr. McCoy recruiting the help of Captain Picard, Admiral Janeway and the Emissary, a.k.a. Captain Sisko.

"Bringing back Kirk...could be an opportunity to revive the shows and the franchise, and to boost 'Enterprise'", said artist Wil Jaspers. There is no reason for 'Enterprise' fans not to support it, the way it is going, this could be a step in the right direction save that show and boost Star Trek's viewer base."

The creators told TrekWeb that they began work on a trailer two years ago, but started from scratch for the new version.

"It's pretty much been an ongoing project since Wil joined the team," explained Turner. "He emailed us out of the blue with a very ambitious but slick video promoting William Shatner's 'The Return'. From then on his contributions to the CGI enabled us to do things we couldn't have accomplished before."

"We knew we wanted at least one character from each Star Trek series," added Jaspers. "And we knew we wanted some exciting action sequences."

Some of the scenes show Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty wearing contemporary Star Trek uniforms and interacting with technology from the later shows.

"Everything you see, uniforms and surroundings are made up in 3D models," Jaspers explained. "This was our way of showing that the possibilities of bringing Kirk back are endless. So we developed a storyline that would reach out to several shows and centuries...we want to show how exciting it would be to see Kirk interact with characters from other shows."

Kirk's return, the creators feel, would be a sure ratings bonanza for Paramount and Enterprise should it take place there.

"Enterprise's chief competition is Smallville," noted Turner. "Its highest rated show was when they got [movie Superman] Christopher Reeve to guest."

The trailer will be screened at conventions and is available for download at BringBackKirk.com.

The original articles are at SyFy Portal and TrekWeb.

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