#unification short

[yourlocalrandombisexual]

i finally sat down and watched the unification short. this fic flew out of me. it's not much but it's the dialogue that flew through my head as i watched. you can find the ao3 version here

i'll put the fic under the cut, i hope you enjoy it.

Jim Spock must’ve whispered it, but to Kirk it sounded like Spock was standing right next to him. 

He watches the younger versions of himself fade away and quickly makes his way through the mist. Spock needs him. He steps out onto a veranda and it suddenly strikes him that he’s in another universe. The universe Spock flew to all those years ago. 

He walks over and sits down on the edge of Spock’s bed. Spock immediately takes his hand. He doesn’t even have to look to confirm who it is, who’s come to him at the end. Finally Spock’s eyes find his and the bond, their bond, rouses from being dormant for over a century.

Not that they needed a bond to share their thoughts.

They had never needed words. 

Jim, we were supposed to have forever.

I know. 

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. 

I was always with you. 

I know. I felt you every day. 

I’m glad, t’hy'la.

How are you here?

I heard you. 

Even across universes? 

I’ll always hear you, Spock

[radical-zelenka]

It's not fair we got the k/s short film and I gotta get through my workday being insane about this quietly

[purple-iris]

765874 Unification - Short Film from The Roddenberry Archive, OTOY, William Shatner and the Nimoy estate, in commemoration of 30th anniversary of Generation being released.

[angrywarrior69]

I'm

2024 what the hell

[null-doesnothing]

[spirk-trek]

Unification (2024)

[mr--spock]

Admit it, Spock. For people like us, the journey itself… is home.

[calmao666]

We meet at the appointed place

[wizard-dax]

AI in Unification?

If you, like me, couldn't fully enjoy Unification because there was a horrible feeling in your gut the whole time of "is this AI? Did Shatner really let them use AI? That seems like a thing he'd do, because he's kind of awful" then you've come to the right place.

I did a deep dive of the technologies used for Unification and while this isn't a 100% comprehensive guide here's what I've learned:

According to Trekmovie.com's article about the film, the production team used a "team of artists and animators, who combined digital and physical prosthetics with live-action location photography, virtual production, and CG set extensions" and used "OTOY’s “Octane” rendering software and the “Render Network” decentralized GPU rendering platform. Characters and props were digitized using OTOY’s Academy-Award winning “LightStage” scanning system."

So what are all these proprietary names / jargon, and are any of them AI?

LightStage: A scanning tech that allows for digital capture of a human face (probably used to capture the stand-ins faces and superimpose older footage of Spock / Kirk like they would for a video game motion capture or something) = Not AI

OctaneRender: "Fastest unbiased, spectrally correct GPU render engine" (Probably used for sets based on the example I'm seeing on OTOY's website. It DOES use AI for "denoising and lighting" but this is a feature of the program and not the only thing the program does, so it is unclear if this is something they would have employed for the shot film. If they did, this would not be used for character work / deep fakes, and given what little information is written about this tech I'm almost curious if it is even a full AI system at all or just an automatic denoiser that they've dubbed as AI to look impressive. So I'd say results inconclusive here at best.)

The Render Network: "The network connects node operators looking to monetize their idle GPU compute power with artists looking to scale intensive 3D-rendering work and with machine learning developers looking to train and tune AI models. Through a decentralized peer-to-peer network, the Render Network achieves unprecedented levels of scale, speed, and economic efficiency. " (This basically means people can use the platform FOR AI but means nothing in the context of whether AI was used for this project.)

TL;DR: AI is an umbrella term for a lot of technology and it seems if anything, there may have been some AI used in the background rendering process but nothing generative AI / deep fakes. In my cynical opinion, if they HAD used AI in general for this, I feel like they'd be shouting it from the rooftops right now since people who love AI won't shut up about it. I'm tentatively saying this was 99% made with traditional CGI and artist work as is stated in the Trekmovie.com article, but I wouldn't be surprised if that opinion changes as the day goes on and more information is released.

[schn-tgai-saavik]

I will reiterate, to me and on this blog, Saavik is still and always will be Spock's daughter and protege. I always pick and chose canon, so I choose Spirk and not that weird romance between her and Spock.

The Vulcan dude in the back in the Unification short film wasn't named, and while behind the scenes interviews would have him be the son conceived from Spock's Pon Farr on genesis, I'm staying with Nimoy on that one and not going in that direction.

On the other hand, the soft look on Jim's face when he recognized Saavik was also so very parental to me, in a "my kid is grown" type of way.

TLD:R - Saavik is still Spock's daughter to me

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

[cosmicspacenova]

“How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life”

[casdeanwin]

They really said, "One Jim Kirk isn't enough. Let's give them three."

And boy, I am not complaining. To see him in three stages of his life was so emotional. 😭

And I love how this moment preceded him joining Spock. It's like his entire life was leading up to the meeting with this one person. To be reunited with the soul, which made his own whole. And that much is canon. Jim says as much after Spock dies in TWoK. And to see it play out fully here was so beautiful.

[purple-iris]

Star trek short film - Unification by the Roddenberry archive available on YouTube

[kirkodiletears]

Just watched Unification. Well, I said it before and I will say it again: Spirk is canon and always has been. No doubt. The one and only reason, why this fact is even debated, it's homophobia. Only that. Nothing else. Everything, absolutely everything about them says, they are a couple. And not just any couple: a destined one. Two halves of One.

One of the most beautiful relationships of all time.

[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.