New Star Trek Short Sees Spock Visiting Kirk’s Grave and Starfleet Retrieving the Enterprise-D

A new short set in the Star Trek universe depicts the recovery of the USS and Spock’s visit to James Kirk’s grave on Veridian III. The video does not come directly from Paramount but rather from the Gene Roddenberry Estate and OTOY, who created it for the new Roddenberry Archives website where fans can virtually tour the bridge of the Enterprise as it has appeared throughout Star Trek’s history and more. It is the third of the Roddenberry Archive’s “765874” series, “Regeneration.” It sees Spock (with the digitally recreated likeness of Leonard Nimoy) going to Kirk’s grave and retrieving his Starfleet badge.

While Spock is visiting his friend’s final resting place, Starfleet is at work retrieving the Enterprise-D’s saucer section from where it crash-landed on the planet. You can see the video embedded below.

Kirk’s Star Trek future

The short draws inspiration from two primary sources. The Enterprise-D’s recovery is based on its return in Star Trek: Picard Season 3. Geordi La Forge rebuilt the ship at the Starfleet Museum after Starfleet determined that the Prime Directive wouldn’t allow for the vessel to remain on Veridian III’s surface.

The other inspiration is Ashes of Eden, the Star Trek novel written by William Shatner that began what fans call “the Shatnerverse,” a series of novels following Kirk after his final on-screen appearance, with him resurrected after his death in  and continuing his journeys in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era.

This also has ties to Star Trek: Picard, as an episode of the show’s final season confirmed that Section 31 has Kirk’s body in stasis at Daystrom Station. ComicBook.com asked , including whether we could see Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ Kirk, played by Paul Wesley, portraying the iconic character in Star Trek’s 25th century.

“In Star Trek, anything is possible, right?” Matlas said. “Look, we put that in there as an Easter egg. I always thought that it was a shitty grave on Veridian III. It was a pile of rocks, I don’t care what fans think. It became a controversial idea. Starfleet showed up an hour and a half later. There was no way they were going to leave Kirk’s body that had just come through the Nexus under a pile of coal on the planet. So it was less an insidious plan, and it was mostly a nod to Shatner and Judy and Gar’s [Reeves-Stevens] novel The Return in that way, and to give some opportunity to keep that character alive in some way, whether that would be Shatner or some new actor, or crazy gender swap clone, some fun thing. It’s science fiction, and your imagination is endless. That was the idea behind that.”