#unification

[palpablestupor]

They made it :)

[vulcanspacedragon]

Lawrence Selleck, who played Spock in Unification

[lifebloodblue]

Feel free to say why in the replies and tags, I’m genuinely curious since I’m seeing all kinds of different reactions

[thesadchicken]

Only moments ago, the room was silent. Now there is the sound of footsteps, and there is nothing else. Spock knows the weight of those feet on the ground; he would know it blind and deaf. It is him, here in the foreshocks of ending.

But Spock also knows it is only a dream. He does not open his eyes. He is too tired and age-worn to be chasing phantoms. They never stay, Spock knows this better than anything. He has had such visions before. If he tries, he can almost convince himself that he hears the distant echoes of a beloved mind. Parted from me and never parted. He has had that dream before, too.

And yet there is a tremor at the edge of Spock's consciousness, his telepathy that has grown weak over almost a century of disuse—there, it moves again, trembling, like leaves in the wind. The bond that once lived there, now a house overgrown with ivy. Could it be? Or are these the last lingering longings of an old fool?

He thinks, I will not try. He does not wish to break himself at this moment, just as his long night begins.

He tries anyway. He always does.

A touch. A touch. His thumb tracing circles over a wrist, the steady pulse he finds there, those fingers clasping his own—the touch, of hands and palms and minds, so painfully familiar, he would know them anywhere, he would know them blind and deaf. He has died and he has been resurrected by these hands, these hands that hold him now, that hold the entirety of him, Spock, everything he is, and he opens his eyes.

Blinking, like a newborn, into the dawn. Never and always touching and touched. Hazel eyes that know him, brighter than the sun, this simple feeling. He remembers it all: a life well-lived, a life lived together. Jim, without the shadow of a doubt, beyond logic and beyond reason, Jim Kirk. He is here, and Spock is dying, and there is nothing else.

There are words between them, but they are not spoken. They are only felt. Spock feels. He feels everything. Then he feels only one thing, and he feels it so loudly that he can hear it burning brilliantly through their bond as the sun rises on the last day.

At the end of all things, you.

[darthcontusion]

I think something that is missing from a lot of analyses, but probably not all, just the ones that seemed to have risen to the top, is that we see kirk's self-image change over the course of the short from his 1967 tos physique to his 1994 appearance when he was taken into the nexus during the introductory scene of generations.

But as he holds spock's hand, it's not just "movie kirk" because it's a well-remembered iteration of the character, it's because that is the iteration of the character, the point in time, when James T Kirk, now an extra-dimensional entity, feels the most sorrow and the greatest desire to hold spock's hand: the climax of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Spock, ever logical, made the decision to pass his soul on to Doctor McCoy, another close friend, although he desperately would have wanted that duty to fall to Jim, before sacrificing himself to save the crew of the Enterprise. And then he dies in an isolation chamber pressing his hand in the shape of the vulcan salute on the opposite side of a transparent barrier as Jim's hand.

That regret is so crucial to Jim in the ensuing 2 films, and then writers kinda let that spark wane because the storyline was complete and Trek is, at its heart, episodic pulp fiction.

But here he is, not just any version of himself, but the version of himself that needed to be with Spock as badly as Spock would have longed for Jim in his dying moments trapped in a parallel dimension, once again trapped and unable to share this scary and intimate final moment with the person he loves the most.

Like this... specific moment in time

is when Kirk is being drawn to Spock's side. THAT is likely the intent of the unification short, in addition to perhaps a little selfishly nodding at Shatner's own regrets about his relationship with Nimoy at the end of Nimoy's life.

Spock and Jim are together then, now, and forever into the future.

[vulcan-logic-zone]

This scene is emotional

🖖🏼

“we were separated. he couldn't touch me.”

[x]

[sailor-moon-moon]

Suddenly I’m 14 and insane and truly happy again. Neat.

[silfron]

Ok hang on hang on hang on. Was no one going to tell me that Unification is not only *actually Shatner* (at least partly) but Shatner was an executive producer?? That does not seems like something he'd want to do? What is happening

[sapsuckers-and-stardust]

I need us to connect some dots because this is like a shittier, vaguer version of cas going to turbohell but the community isn’t ready for that conversation.

[neapeaikea]

This. And the feelings I have around that are almost as beautiful as the short itself.

cannot stop thinking about all the fandom foremothers (and fathers) who would have been so happy to see this. who never could have imagined the technology involved to create it 54 years after the show was cancelled. the ones who were around to watch generations but not to see this final moment, and how they would've smiled and cried and drawn their art and clutched onto each other in excitement just like we are <3

[a-most-beloved-fool]

all told, Unification will probably not affect how I write (future) fic or engage with fandom, but I did find it genuinely satisfying. it's not the best possible end for the characters, but it's still a resolution for them that we never had previously. it takes away some of canon's bitter edge. i'm quite happy to ignore generations & aos as far as the fates of spirk prime are concerned (or fix it in other better ways), but i like knowing that even with those bits of 'canon', it isn't so bleak anymore. y'know? it's an affirmation that they are connected, in some way, and that they aren't alone, and sure, I can and do write that for myself, but. i like that i don't have to, all the time. i'm not sure i'm making sense

[notcisko]

Just watched 765854- Unification. I think it would've been less painful to have been shot with a gun.

[chariot-to-somewhere]

I'm not even tangentially in the Star Trek fandom. But I'm so happy for y'all.

We actually have an epilogue to a 55-year-old love story that has consumed literal generations (no pun intended) of people. We have that epilogue NOW in 2024 when the world feels like nothing will be okay again, suddenly THIS. The fulfillment of hope. Expressed through two of the most beloved characters in history. And maybe things will be okay again, even if it's 30 years later. A lifetime. If Jim and Spock can find each other again, anything is possible.

Luck. Miracles. You know how it goes. They make me believe in both.

[harrykim]

The Wrath of Khan / The Search For Spock / Unification | ID in ALT

[jim-bones-spock]

[thesadchicken]

i'm reading the comments under Unification on YouTube and it's mostly older people who watched Star Trek when it first aired in the 60s i am going to cry