{"id":1069565,"date":"2026-01-21T20:18:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=498387"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:18:54","slug":"digital-de-aging-has-been-a-shortcut-for-bad-movies-but-a-star-trek-short-proves-it-can-make-for-great-art-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/digital-de-aging-has-been-a-shortcut-for-bad-movies-but-a-star-trek-short-proves-it-can-make-for-great-art-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital de-aging has been a shortcut for bad movies, but a Star Trek short proves it can make for great art too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"a
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want to make a cinephile cringe, \u201cdigital face replacement\u201d is the phrase that pays. \u201cDigital de-aging\u201d and \u201cdeepfake\u201d will do the trick, too. While theoretically just the latest addition to the filmmaker\u2019s toolkit, it\u2019s proven to enable some of Hollywood\u2019s ugliest and most cowardly instincts. In an industry already averse to risk and change, digital de-aging and the more dehumanizing practice of outright replacing an unknown actor\u2019s face with a familiar one allows media corporations to lean more than ever on the cheap high of nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Of course, any illusion \u2014 cinematic or otherwise \u2014 is only as good as the magicians creating it. If their intent is merely to dazzle you for a hot second, then it\u2019s just a magic trick. With loftier goals and an artistic hand, a visual effect can be profoundly moving.<\/p>\n

Improbably, this year\u2019s best argument for the value of digital face replacement in cinema came from a big-budget Star Trek<\/a> fan film. 765874: Unification<\/em><\/a> is a 10-minute short produced by effects studio OTOY and The Roddenberry Archive, an online museum founded by Star Trek<\/a> creator Gene Roddenberry\u2019s son Rod. It follows Captain James T. Kirk after his death in 1994\u2019s Star Trek: Generations<\/em>, navigating an abstract afterlife and crossing barriers of time and reality to comfort his dying friend, an aged Spock in the image of the late Leonard Nimoy.<\/p>\n

The role of James T. Kirk is portrayed by William Shatner \u2014 but also, it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s actually actor Sam Witwer, wearing a digital prosthetic of Shatner\u2019s face circa 1994. This latest generation of digital mask renders in real time, allowing the actor to rehearse in front of a monitor and perfect his performance as he would with a physical makeup effect.<\/p>\n

Witwer\u2019s work absolutely pays off. On first viewing, practically any viewer would reasonably assume that the actor on screen is a de-aged William Shatner.<\/p>\n

Without seeing it for yourself, you could be forgiven for dismissing Unification<\/em> as easily as the late Harold Ramis\u2019 cheap, ghostly cameo in Ghostbusters: Afterlife<\/em><\/a>. The difference, however, is in the execution of this story as well as in its purpose. The climax of Ghostbusters: Afterlife<\/a><\/em> sees a digitally resurrected Ramis effectively passing the Proton Pack to a new generation, offering a tacit endorsement of a commercial product that the actor never saw. It\u2019s a mechanically engineered tearjerking moment amid a hollow exercise in nostalgia, a sweaty effort to invest a new generation in Ghostbusters<\/a> \u2014 not the raunchy snobs-versus-slobs comedy, mind you, but the toy line it inspired.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Unification<\/em> is a noncommercial work about putting the past to rest, and saying goodbye to two beloved figures: not Kirk and Spock, but Shatner and Nimoy.<\/p>\n

Kirk and Spock, after all, live on, recast twice already on film and television. But this film wouldn\u2019t work if the roles were played by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto<\/a>, or Paul Wesley and Ethan Peck<\/a>, because it\u2019s not really about Kirk visiting Spock on his deathbed. It\u2019s about the 93-year-old Shatner \u2014 who also produced the short along with Nimoy\u2019s widow, Susan Bay Nimoy \u2014 facing his own death through the lens of his most famous character and finding comfort in the notion that he may be reuniting with the man he once called \u201cbrother.\u201d It helps that this is a noncommercial work, but what really makes Unification<\/em> outstanding is Sam Witwer\u2019s performance. Director Carlos Baena composes something that is somehow both art film and tech demo, hiding the weaknesses of the VFX while trusting Witwer\/Shatner\u2019s face and Michael Giacchino\u2019s original score to tell the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like most new technologies, digital makeup hit the market well before the kinks were worked out. Mass audiences got their first obvious look at the process in 2006, when the eerily smoothed-out faces of Sirs Patrick Stewart<\/a> and Ian McKellen<\/a> stepped into frame in the prologue of X-Men: The Last Stand<\/em><\/a>. In order to make the two actors, then in their 60s, appear 20 years younger, the production enlisted the VFX house Lola to apply a process that they\u2019d previously employed to \u201cperfect\u201d the skin of pop stars in music videos. The results on the screen were infamously uncanny, but Lola co-founder Greg Strause nevertheless predicted that this work would cause a \u201cfundamental shift\u201d in cinema.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n