William Shatner wants into the new Star Trek film and feels slighted he wasn't invited. The real question hanging in the air is whether this Shatner invite hullabaloo is merely advertisement or sincere frustration. The tenth Star Trek feature is a complete reboot of the series intended to bring geek-life back to the fractured franchise by a master hype-smith. Might this invite fracas be intentional? Another element of the industry machine designed to bring further Net-chatter to the project in question - after all, I'm writing about it, aren't I?

J.J. Abrams, the multitalented court jester of over-hyped productions, has been knighted to find the long lost soul of Star Trek and return it to its rightful place - and if he can't do that, for god's sake, at least strap together a movie that delivers on opening weekend. Abrams is game for the challenge and appears to have the next year tied up and ready to bleed green on his command. Up first is Cloverfield (aka: Cthulu Eats New York), premiering Jan. 18.

Not surprisingly, Cloverfield will have the first teaser trailer for Trek, scheduled for release during Christmas. It's a great 2008 one-two punch: make sure the well-known and geekly controversial Star Trek teaser is attached to Cloverfield (left jab), giving it one more hook, ensuring a Blair Witch-like opening weekend. This is followed by the massive tent pole release in December of the reimagined Star Trek original series (straight right), and you have an early Cus D'Amato managed Mike Tyson financial TKO on your hands.

But then the wild card Shatner throws his hat into the ring and suddenly a preordained fight has become not such a sure thing. If Shatner announces that he was forced out of the project, will the die-hard fans boycott? Yes, Abrams has pulled in the very reliable Nimoy to (rumor has it) bookend the film. But is Nimoy the heart of Trek, or is it the man who, with a wink via the SNL cameras, got away with telling all of Trek fandom to "Get A Life?" Most certainly Shatner has had his missteps along the way. While it's clear The Shat is on his own path, there is little to no excuse for such things as his direction of Star Trek V. I don't lay complete blame on him for the feature, but I find it hard not to see his bloody fingerprints on the project.

The question I cannot answer is whether this whole spit fest is intentional or not. Are Abrams and Shatner in league together or are they fighting for two different visions for the new Trek movie? Only time will tell. For my money, I think Abrams should find a way to get the wild old man into the project. The death of Kirk was one of the worst in film history. To this day, I do not believe Captain James Tiberious Kirk's dying words. I'm not even going to print them here: they're just too absurd. Look them up if you don't believe me. If there are two movies I think should be excluded from the Trek reboot, it would have to be Star Trek V, and VI. With that move, among other things, you would erase his death and give Captain T. Kirk an honorable final moment, before it's too late.

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