Background The Roddenberry Archive, a collaboration between the estate of
Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry and computer graphics company OTOY, was announced in August 2021 by Gene's son
Rod Roddenberry and OTOY founder and CEO Jules Urbach. In early 2022, the archive team interviewed several individuals involved with "
The Cage" (1964), the first
pilot episode for
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966–1969).
Laurel Goodwin, who played
J. M. Colt in "The Cage", was expected to be interviewed for the project but died earlier that week. After noticing a resemblance between Urbach's wife Mahé Thaissa and Goodwin's portrayal of Colt, the archive team had planned to accompany Goodwin's interview with new footage of Thaissa as Colt on digital recreations of the episode's sets, filmed using
virtual production techniques.
Carlos Baena, who joined OTOY as a freelance director in early 2022, directed a short concept video featuring Thaissa as Colt that was released in May under the title "
765874", a reference to Colt's in-universe
Starfleet serial number. Rod wanted the archive to highlight
Star Trek spin-off fiction that had not been visualized in live-action, and the team looked to a 1998 comic book story published by
Marvel Comics in
Star Trek: Early Voyages as inspiration. In the comic, Colt
time travels to the future and when she returns to her own time she has an "awakening" when she sees "all of
Star Trek timeline". Urbach expanded on this, treating Colt as an "observer" who has seen different moments throughout
Star Trek history. A second short concept video, "
765874 – Memory Wall", was released in August 2022. In addition to Thaissa as Colt, it features Lawrence Selleck as
Spock. Prosthetics and digital technology were used to recreate the appearance of original actor
Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015. The video builds on Gene Roddenberry's
novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) which describes Spock's
mind meld with the entity
V'Ger as an "awakening", allowing him to be treated as another "observer". It recreates imagery from the
Early Voyages comic book as well as the 2015 comic book ''Star Trek: Captain's Log – Pike
from IDW Publishing. A third short, "765874 – Regeneration", was released in April 2023. It is set after the events of the film Star Trek Generations (1994), in which the USS Enterprise
–D crash-lands on the planet Veridian III, where James T. Kirk is later killed and buried. The third season of Star Trek: Picard'' (2023) reveals that Starfleet recovered the crashed ship and Kirk's remains sometime after the events of the film. The video depicts Starfleet's efforts to recover the ship, and also shows Spock visiting Kirk's grave. The latter sequence visualizes imagery from Kirk star
William Shatner's novel
The Ashes of Eden (1995), the first in a series known as the
Shatnerverse that imagines a resurrected Kirk's life after the events of
Generations. In February 2024, the archive team's digital collection of
Star Trek sets, props, locations, and concept videos was made available as
The Archive, a new
mixed reality app for the
Apple Vision Pro.
Development and story was an executive producer and consultant on the video. In mid-2023, months after completing "Regeneration", Urbach shared his idea for a fourth concept video with Baena. He was inspired by comments Shatner made in an interview with the archive team, as well as fan frustrations regarding Kirk's death in
Generations and the off-screen death of Spock in the alternate
Kelvin Timeline, as revealed in the film
Star Trek Beyond (2016). Urbach thought it was horrible that the two characters died in separate universes and wanted to give them a "proper sendoff" that would also bring closure for fans. After the team considered whether they should "dare" make such a project, they received approval from Shatner, Nimoy's family, and
Star Trek parent company
Paramount Global. The video was executive produced by Shatner and
Susan Bay Nimoy, the widow of Leonard Nimoy. Shatner gave his approval after enjoying the archive team's previous work. He told them that they should only make the short if it was going to be "something meaningful". The title, "765874 – Unification", refers to Kirk and Spock's reunion but also the creative team's attempt to unify different parts of the
Star Trek franchise. The creators wanted the video to end with the reunion between Kirk and Spock. The rest of the narrative developed through discussions between Urbach and Baena, including during a February 2024
location scouting trip to
Huntington Botanical Gardens in
San Marino, California. Baena created a bullet-point list and a
mood board to guide the story, which was refined with
storyboard artist Ahmed Nasri,
previsualization artist Jonathan Roybal, and visual effects artist J. J. Palomo. There was no script, but Baena wrote script pages for some scenes to convey the subtext that he wanted. They went through several months of editing to refine the story before production began. Urbach had various
Star Trek references and characters that he wanted to include, but some of these were cut during editing for simplicity and focus. The video has no dialogue and is designed to be open to interpretation. Urbach offered three possible explanations for what happens: Kirk is resurrected following the events of
Picard third season and physically travels to the Kelvin Timeline to reunite with Spock before the latter's death; Spock is imagining a reunion with Kirk while on his deathbed; or the two characters are reuniting in a version of the
afterlife. Urbach said they were "meticulous" in ensuring that they did not contradict one of these options. The video begins with a prologue featuring the character
Gary Mitchell from "
Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966), the second pilot episode for
The Original Series. Despite Mitchell seemingly dying in that episode, spin-off fiction had shown him surviving with his newly acquired godlike abilities. Urbach particularly drew on the "A Perfect System" comic book story from
IDW's Star Trek #400 (2022). He said Mitchell is "playing god and learning about humanity's future... he has seen enough to pass along information" that sets the story into motion. The prologue continues with clips from the previous videos, recapping the story so far, and then shows Colt reviewing files on Kirk's death and remains. Urbach said this is the version of Colt from the Kelvin Timeline rather than the Prime Timeline version seen in the previous videos, and she is able to review files on Kirk's death in the Prime Timeline because of Mitchell. He said this version of Colt would have interacted with Spock before his death, which "explains possibly more than anything". The main story starts with Kirk, in a garden, appearing as he did in
Generations. Urbach confirmed that this unspecified setting is not the extra-dimensional "Nexus" realm from
Generations. He originally envisioned the sequence taking place on a cliff or bluff and wanted to film at
Mackinac Island, Michigan, but this proved impractical and Baena suggested the garden setting based on the film
Big Fish (2003). Kirk meets Yor, a character mentioned in the series
Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024) who is the only known being to have travelled from the Kelvin Timeline to the Prime Timeline. Yor presents Kirk with his own Starfleet badge, which Spock recovered in the previous video, indicating that Spock took the badge with him to the Kelvin Timeline and gave it to Yor as a message for Kirk. Urbach compared this moment to
Orpheus entering the
underworld in
Greek mythology, with Yor taking on the role of
Charon the ferryman. Kirk is transported to the planet New Vulcan in the Kelvin Timeline. New Vulcan was previously only depicted in the IDW comic book
Legacy of Spock (2016), written by Mike Johnson who consulted on the video. Urbach said Spock is not expecting to see Kirk but is hoping that he will. The video ends with the pair watching the sunset together. Urbach said it was important to "see them together in a meaningful way. And that is where the piece really ends... They are together and that is a beautiful thing." He said this was the culmination of the characters' stories and he did not intend to continue beyond this point in future videos. in
San Marino, California, where location filming took place After settling on the filming locations for the garden sequence in Huntington Gardens, Baena felt the space was too big for just Kirk and Yor. He suggested that a group of characters with significance to Kirk should also be present, taking inspiration from when he visited his dying father in hospital and was met with "a hallway full of loved ones already there". The characters in the garden were chosen to avoid giving away whether they are actually there or if Kirk is in the afterlife. Urbach said Kirk seeing his friends from the past such as
Leonard McCoy would mean he is in the afterlife, but seeing characters from the future does not preclude him from being in the afterlife due to people being able to appear at any age. This interpretation of the afterlife was inspired by the 1978 novel
What Dreams May Come written by
Richard Matheson, who also wrote the
Original Series episode "
The Enemy Within" (1966). Future characters seen in the garden include an unidentified descendant of
Beverly Crusher from the series
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), an older version of
Saavik from the
Star Trek films, and a
Vulcan man who is implied to be the son of Saavik and Spock. Urbach confirmed this, explaining that Saavik was originally revealed to be pregnant with Spock's child in an early script for the film
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Nimoy's family believed it was his intention for the characters to have a child together. Urbach also pointed to the novel ''
Vulcan's Heart'' (1999) by
Josepha Sherman and
Susan Shwartz in which Spock and Saavik get married. He chose the name Sorak for their son as a name that "you could imagine as Spock's son". It was important for Urbach to include Spock's family in this moment, believing they should be at a ceremony that sends someone to see Spock.
Filming and post-production The video was directed by Baena in early 2024. He felt dialogue would take away from "the power of visual storytelling" and wanted to create a "visual poem" that worked for anyone regardless of what language they spoke. Baena's background in animation helped with this approach. He said the short explores themes of connection and "what it truly means to be human—including themes of mortality and goodbyes. That's why I wanted to leave space for viewers to bring their own interpretations, shaped by their personal journeys and perspectives." Baena was influenced by key moments in his personal life from the five years leading up to production: being with his father when the latter died, not being with his mother when she died, and becoming a father himself. Baena used animatics created during previsualization as the basis for discussions about filming each shot with the heads of production, such as cinematographer Leonidas Jaramillo who also worked on
Picard and the television film
Star Trek: Section 31 (2025). The previous videos were managed through
Zoom, but the increase in scope and complexity for "Unification" required a new workflow to handle
dailies and feedback. The production used the SyncSketch tool developed by Baena's former
Pixar colleague Bernhard Haux. Major scenes were captured in two ways: they were filmed in a video format for the short, while the archive team also captured them in a "spatial experience" format that was mastered for
The Archive. The crew expected to film in Huntington Gardens for one day, but it was raining which did not match their hopes for sunny weather. Baena asked to shoot the scenes again on a different day, and Urbach agreed despite the cost. Returning from the previous videos were Thaissa as Colt and Selleck as Spock, with practical and digital prosthetics again used to recreate the likeness of Nimoy for Spock.
Sam Witwer was cast as Kirk and the same technology was used to recreate Shatner's likeness from earlier
Star Trek productions. Witwer, who had previous experience with similar technology on another project, contacted Urbach in late 2022 to ask how the recreation of Spock for the "Memory Wall" video was achieved. Coincidentally, the archive team already planned to speak to Witwer about him joining them to work on a potential recreation of Shatner's Kirk. Witwer and visual effects producer Clay Sparks led a
research and development team dedicated to the project, working for more than a year on the technology and performance elements before they presented their progress to Shatner. Their tests included recreating Kirk's scenes from earlier
Star Trek projects and also shooting new scenes written by former
Star Trek writer and producer
Ronald D. Moore. Discussing the digital prosthetics process, Urbach explained that the actors' faces are replaced but their underlying facial performances are kept. Witwer described it as a digital mask that covers the actors' faces and picks up even the most subtle movements. The actors had to learn how to move their faces to create a performance that looks correct for the digital face instead of their own. The number of face replacement shots expanded from three in "Regeneration" to more than thirty in "Unification". Baena said his focus was on avoiding the
uncanny valley with the digital faces. He felt the effect was convincing because they were combining the digital enhancements with practical prosthetics, specific lighting, and casting decisions, rather than just "swapping out faces". The actors were chosen because of their physical resemblance to the original stars, particularly in head and face shape. Shatner consulted on the digital recreation of Kirk throughout production. The team were able to see the recreations on a monitor during filming, allowing Baena to direct the performances based on the final effect. Urbach said the performance for Kirk was "90-something percent Sam Witwer". He told Witwer that whatever is happening to Kirk, "his presence in this space has not been for very long" and so he should start the video perplexed and then become more confident. Urbach said the technology was not preventing the actors from speaking, reiterating that it was an artistic decision to have no dialogue and the voices could have been recreated if they wanted to. The digital prosthetics process uses
machine learning, but Urbach pushed back on the term
artificial intelligence (AI). He said it was still a creative process that required a team of artists, rather than "a magic button that does everything for us", and was much higher quality than the similar
deepfake technology. Urbach compared it to the
performance capture technology used for the
Avatar films, though it had improved to no longer need tracking markers on the actors' faces and to be available in real-time on set. Also appearing in the video are
Robin Curtis as Saavik, Gordon Tarpley as Yor, John Daltorio as Crusher, and Mark Chinnery as Sorak. Curtis reprised her role from the films
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. She had hoped for her character to be explored more, especially with the tease in
The Voyage Home that Saavik could be pregnant with Spock's child, but accepted when the franchise went in a different direction. Curtis said the opportunity to return to the role for this video was "life-altering" and unexpectedly emotional for her. Practical prosthetics were used to age the actress to depict an older Saavik. Urbach credited Baena for the visuals of the "otherworldly tunnel" which transports Kirk to Spock. The pair were inspired by the film
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Urbach said it was a "world between worlds" and noted that the sequence is more abstract than others in the video. The original plan was for Kirk to just see one younger version of himself in the tunnel, potentially how he appeared in
The Original Series, but this was extended to two younger versions—including how he appeared in the film
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)—because of the
2001: A Space Odyssey influence. Witwer portrayed all three versions of Kirk wearing different costumes and hair. He was filmed on a
green screen so the different versions could be put together in post-production. A line of voice-over was added late in production when the creators felt they "needed something here". It is dialogue that Kirk speaks in
The Wrath of Khan: "There are always possibilities, Spock said. And if Genesis is indeed life from death... I must return to this place, again." This references Spock's original death in that film, which Urbach felt was an important connection to draw and a moment that Kirk would think back on during this experience. The creative team initially recorded Witwer speaking the line and planned to use technology to change his performance to sound like Shatner's voice, but Shatner gave them permission to use his own voice and Paramount provided the actual audio recording from the film. Urbach thought it was fitting to have an element come directly from Shatner.
Picard production designer
Dave Blass designed the set for Spock's room on New Vulcan, with a
video wall displaying the sunset. Veteran
Star Trek production artists
Mike and
Denise Okuda helped decorate the set with
Easter eggs. The first thing the team created was a replica of the box that is presented to the Kelvin Timeline version of Spock, portrayed by
Zachary Quinto, in
Star Trek Beyond after the off-screen death of Nimoy's Spock. Urbach felt this was key to inform viewers that the scene is set in the Kelvin Timeline close to the events of
Beyond. He said Kirk does not care about the box and other things in the room because "he just knows that Spock is there and dying". The two characters clasp hands in a reference to the film
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), as Urbach felt the moment in that film where the two characters clasp hands is key to their friendship. He originally intended to end the video with the hand clasp, but Baena felt this was ending too early and extended the scene to show the pair looking at the sunset together. OTOY and other visual effects companies combined location photography, virtual production, and
computer-generated set extensions. Visual effects were used to create a "cinematic" version of Gary Mitchell's appearances in
The Original Series and the "A Perfect System" comic book story, based on a performance by original actor
Gary Lockwood. The initial plan was to not show the character's face, but this changed during the editorial process. Witwer brought on his friend David W. Collins to do the sound design with
Skywalker Sound. Baena imagined using music by
Star Trek franchise composer
Michael Giacchino, having been inspired by Giacchino since they both worked at Pixar, but was unsure if he would be interested; Giacchino's music from previous projects was used as a
temp track for the video. Collins approached Giacchino while they were working together on the series
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2024–25), and the composer agreed to join after seeing test footage of Witwer as Kirk. His score, which incorporates
the original Star Trek theme by
Alexander Courage, was completed quickly to fit into his schedule. Baena said they were happy with the music after two passes. Giacchino connected Urbach to
Marvel Studios president and noted
Star Trek fan
Kevin Feige, who consulted on the video before its release. Feige and illustrator
Alex Ross, who previously worked with OTOY and the Roddenberry Archive, both received special thanks in the credits. The video opens with a quote by Kirk from
The Wrath of Khan: "How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life". It ends with a dedication to Leonard Nimoy. == Release ==