For everyone who has been worried about the appearance of William Shatner in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek picture: good news. No, the whole Shatner issue hasn’t been solved as far as the eleventh movie goes, but Shatner’s Kirk is heading to the big screen one more time, although it’s the classic version of the character. We’re not talking about Shatner attempting to play years younger here, thankfully (I really don’t want to see modern day Shatner with his shirt off). Instead, this is a special theatrical offering of the classic Trek episode, “The Menagerie,” brought to theaters for a one time showing by NCM Fathom, CBS Home Entertainment, and StarTrek.com.
The special one-time viewing is part of the promotion for the new, digitally remastered episodes of Star Trek, featuring updated visual effects. For “The Menagerie” this also means a special orchestral re-recording of the score as well. Along with the episode, there will be an introduction by creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, and a behind-the-scenes look at the remastering process for the revived Trek episodes.
For those not aware of the original Trek to the point that episode names mean anything, “The Menagerie” was the two-part episode that featured Mr. Spock stealing the Enterprise to help Kirk’s predecessor, Captain Pike, leading a court martial hearing for Spock. The episode gave Roddenberry a chance to reuse footage shot for the original, unused pilot for the show that was deemed “too cerebral.” Both episodes are being shown as part of this cinematic event.
A word to the wary, however. As awesome as this sounds for Trek fans, NCM Fathom is on thin ice with a lot of genre fans after the recent one-night-only presentation of Poltergeist, which was shown in the wrong aspect ratio and reportedly wasn’t a film presentation of the movie, but a lower quality video projection. Hopefully they’ll make amends for that with this Trek showing. Fathom just might be digging their own grave if they mess up Trek the way they messed up things for horror fans.
Tickets for the one-night event, taking place on over 300 screens on November 13th at 7:30pm (local time), can be purchased at theater box offices or through Fathom Events.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Classic-Trek-Heads-For-Screens-6579.html
