Aaw, why couldn't that be in the movie....

That's an excellently written scene. *Sniff* I'm not crying *Sniff*

I have to agree with many of the commenters on this over at TrekMovie.com: Though a cameo, this scene, had Shatner agreed to do it, would have been one of the biggest talking points about the movie. It's well crafted and hits the film's themes exactly right.

Star Trek is still excellent, of course. But it could always have been excellenter.

That said, others are saying this scene should be tried again for the sequel. That seems like a mistake, to me. Missed opportunities rarely, if ever, come to fruition satisfactorily years later...

I liked their explanation of how this was going to be possible (recorded before Generations), and that Spock Prime would have had this message for a while and found the opportunity to pass it down as it were.

Maybe next movie? If not this cameo maybe another one.

I just wish it was in there so the critics would have hated the movie as much as I do. It's a horrible scene, corny and preposterous- like the "alternate universe" discussion on the bridge, it would have made absolutely no sense within the reality of the story. If a time-traveling bad guy attacked you, would you say, "Wow- we're in an alternate reality now!" And why would old Kirk be talking about his first days on the Enterprise and possibly getting the Enterprise back? They dealt with this in half the Trek movies Kirk was in- do you really think this is all he ever talks about? Plus he sings happy birthday. I'm no hater of Shatner "singing" (the album he did with Ben Folds is actually really excellent), but this would have been awful.

I always Shatner not appearing in the movie was to deny Generations movie disappointments.

I think it would have been way too corny if filmed. It seems like it works better on a written page.

They need to fully commit to the "new" Trek in future films if they expect the fans to commit to it. No more crossovers, or Shatner cameos, etc. Spock Prime was used sparingly and that was good...the movie wasn't about him, he just had a small role, to tie things together.

Time to move forward now.

I'm not gonna lie-I teared up a little reading that. I certainly enjoyed the "New Trek" but this would have been a nice little emotional moment to end the old franchise on...should have been filmed.

Call me a dork, but I already knew about that deleted scene. Never read the actual dialogue but I knew it existed before the movie came out.

There are two stories floating around as to why it didn't happen, one by the scriptwriters and the other by Shatner. The scriptwriters' story is that Shatner refused the cameo and wanted a more high profile role like the one Nimoy had. Shatner claims that he was never notified of the scene and that Abbrams and crew ended up deciding not to cast Shatner at all in the movie.

I think it would've been a great scene if they would've gone with it.

I think this was the ending the finished film needed. What was there was good, but this would had added an extra emotional theme and served the theme of starting over/having a second chance to fulfill greatness. It would have really made the passing of the torch more profound and more fittingly marked the ending or the original Star Trek.

The whole Shatner/Abrams "feud" seemed like a lot of passive-aggressive bitchiness. I wonder if Abrams even showed this to Shatner. I'd like to think Bill would have accepted once he saw how powerful a scene it was, but who knows.

I kind of wish the last line would have been Kirk saying 'I've got to go dedicate the new Enterprise now, but I'll give you a call when I'm back.'

Just because, well, it would have been gloriously evil.

An unnecessary scene, and I am glad it was not used. It would have drawn attention away from Chris Pine.

I did not need to see Shatner in this film. Kirk died in Generations, I moved on.

The film doesn't suffer for not having the scene, but it would have been incredibly sweet (and heartbreaking) to have.