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I truly hate and despise the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy so much that I too often overlook how much I dislike what Paramount has done with the Star Trek license. I honestly cannot fathom what the studios have against the fans of their franchises, but it is apparent they really don't want to give the fans what they want.

Up to this point, the fan film Prelude to Axanar had been the greatest Star Trek we fans have received since Enterprise was cancelled. That was released over 10 years ago at this point and, partly due to a massive lawsuit brought by CBS/Paramount, partly due to mind numbing drama behind the scenes with production, it feels as though fans are waiting in vain for the promised Axanar. There have been other fan films released in the last 10 years, including many that use the stunning Axanar set design. However, none have come close to what OTOY has produced with William Shatner and the Nemoy family in Unification.

Star Trek was very underrated for how well it took common human experiences and phenomenon and explored them from a different point of view. OTOY did that in a phenomenal way with Unification! How often have we seen and heard of our loved ones seeing long lost family and friends in the moments on their death bed. That's what this is about, but instead of Kirk randomly appearing at Spock's death bed, it's Kirk's journey to be at the death bed of his beloved friend. I honestly never pondered what that experience would be like to leave the afterlife to visit someone at the moment of their death. There is so much depth and hidden meaning in this fan film, it's truly remarkable!

I truly admire Trek fans for their true love of this franchise. Getting Lenard Nemoy's family on board, bringing William Shatner back to play Captain James T. Kirk one last time, and getting the artists on board to map the faces accurately is quite the feat. I don't know if I'm more surprised that a fan film was able to pull this off or how stupid Paramount is for not making this happen.

This scene belonged on a big screen, or at least behind a paywall on the Paramount+ streaming service. Instead, they routinely passed on bringing William Shatner back despite his desire to reprise the role one last time. They could have made SO much money creating something with just half of the emotional weight this fan film carried. Even though we had to watch this on our phone and computer screens instead of our televisions or local theaters, I'm thankful to William Shatner, the Nemoy family, and the people at OTOY for making this happen.

As Paramount continues to butcher the legacy of the original series and bury the importance of these characters, Star Trek fans never had a true opportunity to say goodbye to Kirk, Spock, and Bones. The only real shame here is that they couldn't find a way to get Deforest Kelly's Dr. McCoy back for the final moment. However, that won't take away from my happiness for having this exist.