10 Greatest Star Trek Moments In 2024

2. Dawn As The New Sun Sets

Unification Kirk Spock
OTOY / The Roddenberry Archive

Something rather special happened in 2024. So special, in fact, it might just have set the precedent for the years of Star Trek — and these lists — to come. That's not hyperbole, just a fact. The name for changing the game was '765874: Unification' — a short film with longer ambitions from OTOY and The Roddenberry Archive.

All it takes is about eight minutes. What it took to reunite two old friends was talent, a lot more time, and the technology to go with it. On 18 November, we were looking back to Star Trek: Generations for its 30th anniversary. Through 765874: Unification that day, we got to see its stunning coda. As Kirk held Spock's hand one last time on New Vulcan, we were all crying. 4.5 million people were now all crying.

In the past, the uncanny valley has been hard to climb out of. Now, there's no way to know, if you didn't know any better, that the actor was Sam Witwer on set. The combination of his studied performance and OTOY's physical and digital prosthetics produced astounding results, as did Lawrence Selleck’s considered and considerate performance for Leonard Nimoy's Spock.

Ultimately, 765874: Unification is one of the greatest moments because it is, quite simply, a great story, stitching together elements from across the Star Trek franchise. As one sun sets, a new dawn is on the horizon. Paramount would do well to be awake enough not to miss it.

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Jack has been a content creator for TrekCulture since 2022, and a Star Trek fan for as long as he can remember. He has authored over 170 articles, including one of TrekCulture's longest, and has appeared several times on the TrekCulture podcast. He holds a first-class honours degree in French from the University of Sussex, a master's with distinction in Language, Culture and History: French and Francophone Studies and a PhD in French from University College London (UCL). He has previously worked in the field of translation. His interests extend to science-fiction television and film more widely. His favourite series is Star Trek: Voyager, followed closely by Stargate SG-1.