Star Trek continuity is confusing. But, it’s also beautiful. For nearly 60 years, various competing visual and sonic aesthetics have somehow represented a sprawling shared narrative. Unlike other shared cinematic universes like say, the MCU and Star Wars, the various iterations of Star Trek look and feel wildly different from one another. And yet the fandom and the various Trek creators of the years have all performed imaginative mental acrobatics to make sense of it all. In real life, it may seem absurd how often Starfleet changes its basic uniform structure or starship design, but in the tapestry of Trek, sorting out those differences is part of the fun.
In 2024, there was one standout, shining example of how subtle art can be made from something that is also, fundamentally, canon-obsessed fan service. The haunting, nearly wordless short film, titled 765874 - Unification, gave Trek fans everywhere closure concerning the fates of two characters who are arguably the most important men in Trek history: Kirk and Spock. The film appears to star William Shatner and the late Leonard Nimoy but manages to give us glimpses of those characters at different points in the timeline. Densely packed with Easter eggs, fans everywhere are still discussing this short, less than half a year after its release last November.
