william shatner star trek age

William Shatner

William Shatner is best known for his distinctive voice and his roles on 'Star Trek' and 'Boston Legal.'

Who Is William Shatner?

Actor, director, author, singer William Shatner is best known for his roles on Boston Legal and Star Trek .

Born on March 22, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Shatner started his career as a child performer in radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As a student at McGill University, he continued to pursue acting. Shatner spent his summers performing with the Royal Mount Theater Company. He graduated from the university in 1952 and joined the National Repertory Theater of Ottawa. Working with Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Shatner also appeared in productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.

Early Stage and Screen Roles

In 1961, Shatner had a small part in the Holocaust drama Judgment at Nuremberg , playing an army captain. He had a lead part in The Intruder (1962) as a racist who fought against school integration. On the small screen, Shatner had his first series, For the People , in 1965. He starred on the short-lived drama as an assistant district attorney in New York City.

'Star Trek' Series and Films

The following year, Shatner took on the role that made him famous around the world. As Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek , he commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise , a starship traveling through space in the twenty-third century. Kirk encountered all sorts of unusual aliens and challenging situations during his journeys. Accompanying him on these adventures was his loyal crew, which included first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). The science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry premiered on September 8, 1966, and lasted for three seasons.

During the run of the show, Shatner also made an unusual career move. He recorded an album, The Transformed Man (1968), which featured spoken word versions of contemporary pop hits. Already known for his dramatic, but earnest delivery of his lines on Star Trek , Shatner recorded renditions of such songs as the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Not long after the album, Star Trek was canceled. The show, however, continued to live on in syndication and became even more popular. Star Trek became a Saturday morning cartoon that ran during the mid-1970s, and it was resurrected a live action film in 1979. Returning to the role of Kirk, Shatner starred in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The film's warm reception by film-goers showed how much affection the public had for the old series. At the beginning of the film, Kirk has become an admiral, Bones has retired, and Spock has returned to the planet Vulcan. But the three return to work on a new version of the Enterprise to solve a crisis involving a mysterious cloud that has destroyed several spaceships.

In the sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Kirk has to overcome an old adversary out for revenge, Khan Noonien Singh (Richardo Montalban). He followed with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

The next chapter in the Star Trek film series received a lukewarm reception. For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Shatner not only returned as Kirk, but made his debut as a feature film director as well. The film, unfortunately, received some fairly negative reviews. Movie critic Roger Ebert called it "a mess," involving "not much danger, no characters to really care about, little suspense, uninteresting ... villains, and great deal of small talk."

Not matter what the reviews said, the Star Trek film series continued at warp speed. The next installments were Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and then Star Trek Generations (1994). In Generations , the members of the original Star Trek hand the baton to the cast of the spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation , marking the end of Shatner's starring role in the franchise.

TV and Movie Roles

't.j. hooker'.

In 1982, Shatner took on a new leading television role in T. J. Hooker , as a veteran police officer who returns to a street beat. The supporting cast included Heather Locklear and Adrian Zmed as younger officers who work with and look up to Shatner's character. Unlike the original Star Trek series, T. J. Hooker was immediately popular with television audiences.

Shatner remained a fixture on television even after T. J. Hooker went off the air, becoming the host for Rescue 911 in 1989. This was an early entry into the reality television genre, featuring reenactments of emergency situations.

'The Practice,' 'Boston Legal'

On the big screen, Shatner appeared as a beauty pageant host in Miss Congeniality (2000) and its sequel Miss Congeniality 2 (2005), with Sandra Bullock . In 2003, he made a guest appearance as a talented, but eccentric lawyer on The Practice . His turn as Denny Crane brought him his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He had been previously nominated for his guest appearance on the science fiction sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun in 1999.

The Practice creator David E. Kelley created a spin-off series, Boston Legal , featuring Shatner's character Denny Crane in 2004. Law partner and master litigator Crane acts as a mentor of sorts to Alan Shore (played by James Spader). For his work on the series, Shatner won his second Emmy — this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series — in 2005. More nominations in this category followed in 2006 and in 2007.

'Shatner's Raw Nerve,' 'Weird or What?'

In 2008, Shatner began work on Shatner's Raw Nerve, a celebrity interview program on the Biography Channel. He then worked on another Biography Channel project entitled Aftermath with William Shatner , which focused on the stories of ordinary citizens who became overnight celebrities, and also hosted the supernatural-themed Weird or What?

'$#*! My Dad Says,' 'Better Late Than Never'

In 2010, Shatner returned to sitcom TV in the short-lived $#*! My Dad Says , based on a Twitter feed of the same name. He began hosting the U.S. version of the stop-motion series Clangers in 2015, and enjoyed some success with the reality-travel series Better Late Than Never the following year, alongside Henry Winkler , George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw .

'The UnXplained' on HISTORY

Shatner is the host and executive producer of the HISTORY nonfiction series The UnXplained , which premiered on July 19, 2019, at 10 pm ET/PT. The series tackles subjects that have mystified mankind for centuries, from mysterious structures and cursed ancient cities to extraterrestrial sightings and bizarre rituals.

“It’s an intriguing show that will offer viewers credible answers to questions about mysterious phenomena, while also leaving other theories left unexplained," Shatner said.

Shatner has experienced great success as an author. During the writers' strike of 1987, he transformed a screenplay idea into a novel. The result was TekWar (1989), a work of science fiction featuring a middle-aged private detective working in the twenty-second century. More Tek titles followed and were later adapted for television.

Additionally, Shatner worked with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens to create a series of Star Trek novels, and launched the Quest for Tomorrow and Samuel Lord science fiction series.

Also a veteran of nonfiction, Shatner co-authored Star Trek Memories (1993) and Star Trek Movie Memories (1994) with Chris Kreski. He and Kreski also worked together on Get a Life! (1999), a look at the whole Star Trek fan phenomenon. The actor went on to pen several nonfiction books with David Fisher, including Up Till Now: The Autobiography (2008) and Live Long And...: What I Learned Along the Way (2018).

Marriages and Personal

From 1956 to 1969, Shatner was married to Canadian actress Gloria Rand. The couple had three children together. Shatner married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. That marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Shortly thereafter, he married model Nerine Kidd. Kidd's life came to a tragic end in 1999, when she accidentally drowned in a pool at the Shatners' home in Studio City, California.

After such a tragic loss, Shatner was able to find happiness again with his 2001 marriage to Elizabeth J. Martin, a horse breeder. In late 2019, it was reported that the 88-year-old actor had filed for divorce.

As part of his own love of horses, Shatner started the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show to raise funds for children's charities in 1990.

In late 2017, Canadian Governor General Julie Payette appointed Shatner an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to popular culture and his charity work.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: William Shatner
• Birth Year: 1931
• Birth date: March 22, 1931
• Birth City: Montreal
• Birth Country: Canada
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: William Shatner is best known for his distinctive voice and his roles on 'Star Trek' and 'Boston Legal.'
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• McGill University

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: William Shatner Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/william-shatner
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 11, 2019
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• The line between making a total ass of yourself and being fundamentally funny is very narrow.

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William Shatner turns 93: His No. 1 secret to longevity and newly-revealed health scare

William Shatner is taking the famous "Star Trek" motto “Live long and prosper” to new heights.

The actor, who turned 93 on Friday, March 22, remains energetic and galactically busy almost 60 years after he became famous as Capt. James T. Kirk on the classic sci-fi series.

Shatner is the star of a new documentary, titled “You Can Call Me Bill.” On April 8, he’ll give a talk in front of 60,000 people at Indiana University Memorial Stadium ahead of the total solar eclipse . And he’s sailing to Antarctica on a cruise in December.

He's doing all of this on top of an already full schedule appearing at “Star Trek” fan events across the country.

What’s the secret to his longevity? When TODAY’s Craig Melvin asked him, Shatner suggested not letting people know his real age.

“Don’t tell anybody,” he said during an appearance on the show on March 18 as the co-hosts wished him a happy birthday. “I’ve always got a birthday coming up,” he added with mock frustration.

“You’ve never stopped working, you’ve never stopped staying current, you seem to reinvent yourself,” Al Roker noted.

How has William Shatner aged so well?

The actor believes luck is a big part of longevity.

“My life has been so lucky — I’ve been so fortunate in terms of health, which is really the basis of everything,” he told NBC News in 2018. “Your health and your energy is partially your doing, but partially accidental — genetic and accidental.”

In his memoir “Live Long and… : What I Learned Along the Way ” he advised people to remember the basics: Don’t smoke, stay active, eat sensibly and get as much sleep as you need.

Then, there was his ultimate No. 1 secret for longevity: “Don’t die. That’s it; that’s the secret. Simply keep living and try not to slow down,” the actor wrote.

Along with staying busy, he credits his enthusiasm for life as a factor. When the phone rings, say yes, he advises others.

“You should be looking for joy anywhere, whether it’s a hot bath or a good friend or a piece of cheese . There’s joy everywhere,” he told Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Shatner finds joy in horses, dogs, family, adventure and food, he said at the red-carpet premiere of his documentary released on birthday.

“I’m curious about everything,” he noted. “You’ve got to cherish each day.”

He flew on board Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule in 2021, making him the oldest person to go to space at 90.

The actor advises people to keep their inner child alive no matter their age and avoid regrets.

“Recently when my granddaughter was worried about going to cooking school in Italy, I said to her: ‘Think of your journey as a movie. You’re the main character, go have a good time and make a great movie,’” Shatner told The Times.

William Shatner’s health

The actor recently revealed he’s a skin cancer survivor after he felt a lump near his right ear and was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, according to Managed Healthcare Executive , an industry publication.

The spot was removed and Shatner was treated with immunotherapy, he said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology on March 10. Shatner didn’t disclose when the episode happened.

In 2016, Shatner received a prostate cancer diagnosis after his PSA level — the marker for the disease — suddenly rose, but he later learned it was a false alarm.

“That was really scary,” the actor told NBC News. He said he’d been taking testosterone supplements and once he stopped, his PSA level returned to normal.

Shatner lives with tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, after he was exposed to a loud blast during the filming of “Star Trek.” He was able to find “effective management tools, and today considers himself habituated to the sound,” according to the American Tinnitus Association .

As he ages, the actor keeps thinking about his mortality.

“I don’t have long to live,” told Variety in 2023. “Whether I keel over as I’m speaking to you or 10 years from now, my time is limited, so that’s very much a factor.”

A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.

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William Shatner facts: Star Trek actor's age, movies, wife, children and career explained

14 February 2024, 15:32

By Tom Owen

William Shatner is a Canadian actor who has achieved iconic status in the world of entertainment.

Listen to this article

He is best known for his portrayal of Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, a role that he played for nearly three decades across TV and film.

He has also starred in many other popular shows and movies, such as TJ Hooker, Boston Legal , and Miss Congeniality . He has won several awards, including two Emmys and a Golden Globe, and has been honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

• William Shatner in tears after he becomes oldest man in space: "It was unbelievable"

Besides acting, Shatner is also a prolific writer, musician, producer, and philanthropist. He has authored dozens of books, ranging from science fiction novels to memoirs, and has recorded several albums, featuring his distinctive spoken-word style of singing.

He has also been involved in various charitable causes, such as animal welfare, environmentalism, and space exploration. William Shatner is a remarkable figure who has left an unforgettable mark on the culture and history of the 20th and 21st centuries.

How old is William Shatner and where was he born?

William Shatner is 92 years old as of 2024, and he was born on March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

His parents were Joseph Shatner and Ann Garmaise. His father was a clothing manufacturer and his mother was a homemaker.

He had two sisters, Joy (who died in 2023) and Farla.

His paternal grandfather, Wolf Schattner, anglicized the family name to Shatner. Shatner’s grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and Shatner was raised in Conservative Judaism.

How did he get his start in acting?

William Shatner got his start in acting by performing in radio productions for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Montreal Children’s Theatre as a child.

He also acted in student productions at McGill University, where he graduated with a degree in commerce in 1952. He then joined the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1954, where he played supporting roles in various classic plays under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie.

He moved to the United States in 1956 and began appearing in Broadway shows and television dramas. He made his film debut in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and his first major TV role was in the series For the People (1965).

Is William Shatner married and does he have children?

William Shatner has been married four times:

• Gloria Rand (1956–1969), a Canadian actress and the mother of his three daughters
• Marcy Lafferty (1973–1996), the daughter of a television producer and an actress who appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
• Nerine Kidd (1997–1999), a model and actress who tragically drowned in their pool.
• Elizabeth Martin (2001–2020), a horse trainer whom he divorced in 2020

He has three children from his first marriage to Gloria Rand: Leslie, Lisabeth, and Melanie.

What are his most famous film and TV roles?

William Shatner has had a long and diverse career in film and television, but some of his most famous roles are:

• James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, including six feature films and the original TV series
• T.J. Hooker in the police drama T.J. Hooker (1982–1986)
• Denny Crane in the legal comedy-drama Boston Legal (2004–2008), for which he won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award
• Buck Murdock in the comedy film Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
• Stan Fields in the comedy films Miss Congeniality (2000) and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
• Kazar in the animated film The Wild (2006)
• Santa Claus in the animated film Gotta Catch Santa Claus (2008)

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William Shatner boldly went into space for real. Here's what he saw

Joe Hernandez

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket system lifts off from the launchpad carrying 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner and three other civilians near Van Horn, Texas, on Wednesday. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket system lifts off from the launchpad carrying 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner and three other civilians near Van Horn, Texas, on Wednesday.

Blue Origin's second human spaceflight has returned to Earth after taking a brief flight to the edge of space Wednesday morning.

Among the four passengers on board — there is no pilot — was William Shatner, the actor who first played the space-traveling Captain Kirk in the Star Trek franchise.

Canadian actor William Shatner, who became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, speaks at a convention in 2019. Michele Spatari/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Canadian actor William Shatner, who became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, speaks at a convention in 2019.

"The covering of blue. This sheet, this blanket, this comforter that we have around. We think, 'Oh, that's blue sky,' " an emotional Shatner said after returning to Earth.

"Then suddenly you shoot through it all of the sudden, as though you're whipping a sheet off you when you're asleep, and you're looking into blackness, into black ugliness."

At age 90, Shatner is now the oldest person to fly into space.

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me," he said in a tweet after landing.

William Shatner dresses as Capt. James T. Kirk at a 1988 photo-op promoting the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . Bob Galbraith/AP hide caption

William Shatner dresses as Capt. James T. Kirk at a 1988 photo-op promoting the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .

The rocket system, New Shepard, took off around 9:50 a.m. CT from a launch site near Van Horn, Texas.

Joining Shatner on the flight was a Blue Origin employee and two paying customers.

Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, was on-site for the launch and shook the hands of all four passengers as they boarded New Shepard. The rocket is named after American astronaut Alan Shepard.

William Shatner is bound for space, but the rest of us will have to wait

The entire suborbital journey lasted about 10 minutes. On part of the trip, the four passengers experienced weightlessness.

The capsule topped out at an apogee altitude of 351,000 feet (about 66 miles up). It then fell back to Earth, landing under a canopy of parachutes in the West Texas desert.

Blue Origin launched its first human spaceflight in July , with Bezos and three others on board.

Wednesday's flight came about two weeks after 21 current and former Blue Origin employees wrote an essay accusing top executives at the space company of fostering a toxic workplace that permits sexual harassment and sometimes compromises on safety. Blue Origin denied the allegations.

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Published Apr 23, 2014

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: William Shatner, Part 2

William Shatner moves at a pace that would exhaust most people half his age – and Star Trek ’s legendary Captain James T. Kirk turned 83 years old in March. Last year, he starred in Shatner’s World , a one-man stage show that played on Broadway and toured the country. That’s now a movie… with Shatner’s World set to play for one night only in 600-plus theaters on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. local time, presented by Fathom Events and Priceline.com.

Shatner will also host his annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show on April 26. And, not at all shockingly, there’s more, lots more: he’s got a new album, Ponder the Mystery , out now, not to mention a book on the way (it’s called Hire Yourself ), another Star Trek documentary in the works, plenty of convention appearances lined up and two new TV projects in development. StarTrek.com recently caught up with the man himself to discuss all those aforementioned enterprises and more. Below is part two of our exclusive conversation; click HERE to read part one.

Your latest book is Hire Yourself . What inspired that?

SHATNER: The fact that people over 50 are being rehired at a much slower rate because they want more. They want more, but they have more to offer. And in many cases, they’re failing to be rehired. Corporations are hiring younger people with less experience and less knowledge and paying them less. So I’m advocating… hire yourself.

The 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series is almost upon us. For you, it was one job that lasted three years. Some people might call it a failed series or, at best, semi-successful. So how surreal has this all been for you, that Star Trek snowballed into what it’s become?

SHATNER: It is surreal. It has an aura of unreality about it. It’s a phenomenon. There’s never been anything like it before. If you talk in 50-year terms, then we need to go another 50 years before we think there’s something like it again, but we’ll all be dead, so we won’t know. So we can safely say that (in our lifetimes), it’s never happened before and it will never happen again.

We ran a story recently on StarTrek.com in which we commented on some of your best non- Star Trek work and asked readers to share their thoughts on the matter. We were talking about your acting, but people included other things, too, so the list encompassed The Brothers Karamazov, Judgment at Nuremberg , your episodes of Twilight Zone and Columbo, Rescue 911, The Andersonville Trial, Airplane 2: The Sequel, Third Rock from the Sun , and, of course, Boston Legal . We know you tend to joke about not remembering things, but in all seriousness, what of your non- Trek work are you proudest of?

SHATNER: My attitude towards what I do as an actor is more about hitting a moment. Did I play that moment with honesty and with truthfulness and in character? Did I hit the right notes? So that breaks itself down into moments, and that means that every one of the shows and movies you mentioned I may have hit a moment that resonated in me and for other people. Certainly the ones I can remember the best are from Boston Legal , when there moments when I thought I’d brought to life a line within the character dimensions, moments that were truthful, that conveyed the meaning, that had layers of meaning, so that if you were to see it again, you’d think, “Maybe he meant ‘Hello’ in a different way.” So I don’t break those things down into, “That was my favorite,” because everything I have done has something about it that I really like. That includes the commercials I’ve done for Priceline.

We had people state the case for T.J. Hooker

f that more as a guilty pleasure than as some of your fine e of your finest work, but you may disagree…

SHATNER: I did have moments there, too. And I will give you an instance of a moment. I directed quite a few of the T.J. Hooker s. One of my shots is used in the opening sequence, and that is a silhouetted policeman – which happens to be me – running down a tunnel. The cinematographer wanted to light the tunnel and I said, “No, leave it in shadow.” And it was dramatic. It paid off. I felt exultant having conceived the shot, fought for the shot, made the shot and that people agreed with me by using it not only in the show, but as part of the opening credits.

And many fans pointed out that Airplane 2 , in which you pretty much spoofed Kirk, sent you down the comedy path. How much of your performance was ad-libbed?

SHATNER: A lot of it was ad-libbing. To hear a laugh… Here’s the delineation of the situation. You do something on the set and a year later you see it in a film. I went to see Airplane 2 , and one of the lines that I’d ad-libbed, which I forget now, but which I knew when I did it I had timed correctly, got a huge laugh in the movie theater. So I felt terrific, warmed by the reaction to the delivery of that one line a year later.

We talked about some of your new endeavors, but there are actually more. If you have a few more minutes for us, let’s go through them. One that most people probably have not heard about yet is The Shatner Project . What is that?

SHATNER: The Do-It-Yourself Network, DIY, is shooting me and my wife as we renovate our house. We’re having a terrific time. And they’re making what I say in the beginning part of the show is a perfectly fine house into a much better house. But I fought the change for quite a while. This is my house in L.A.

And what else do you have going on?

SHATNER: The Hollywood Charity Horse Show is on April 26. We’ve raised several million dollars for charity. We usually raise between $300,000 and $400,000 a year and I’ve been doing it for nearly 30 years, so it’s the millions of dollars that we’ve raised. Wynona Judd will be coming to sing for us. If people go to www.horseshow.org , they can contribute $1 or $5 or $10 even if they can’t come to the show. Every penny goes to the charities. We have a private donor who takes care of the expenses. So every dollar goes straight to children and veterans.

My album, Ponder the Mystery , is out there now. I’m inordinately proud of Billy Sherwood’s work and my own. I’ve also sold an interview show called Brown Bag Wine Tasting . It’s been on my website, but a company has bought it, so we’re going to make some more. It’s me interviewing people. Talking to people, it can take time for them to warm up. My insertion, if you will, is a sip of wine from a brown bag. We analyze the wine and then the guests talk about themselves, and they’re mostly man on the street people rather than celebrities. They’re literally man on the street; they’ll be walking by and I’ll accost them and start talking to them.

Visit StarTrek.com to read part one of our exclusive interview with William Shatner, and check out his official site at williamshatner.com . Also, go to fathomevents.com for details about a Shatner's World screening near you.

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William Shatner

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William Shatner, OC ( born 22 March 1931 ; age 93), an Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor, became most famous for portraying Captain James T. Kirk of the starship USS Enterprise in all 79 aired episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , 21 of the 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series , and the first seven Star Trek movies . He also directed and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . His image also appeared in Star Trek Beyond , in a photograph that was among Spock 's possessions bequeathed to his alternate reality counterpart .

In addition, Shatner appeared indirectly (through archive footage) in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations " and his archive voice-over was used in the Star Trek: Enterprise fourth season episode " These Are the Voyages... ". He has also voiced the role of Kirk in a number of video games and he is the credited author for a series of Star Trek novels involving Kirk, the first of which was The Ashes of Eden . (His primary "ghost" writers are Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens .)

Outside of the Star Trek franchise, Shatner is well-known for his roles on several other television shows, including Bob Wilson in the "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of The Twilight Zone , the title character on the 1980s police drama series T.J. Hooker , and his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of famed attorney Denny Crane on the ABC drama The Practice and its spin-off, Boston Legal . He is also remembered for hosting the informational program Rescue 911 from 1989 through 1996 and is currently recognized as the official spokesperson for Priceline.com , having appeared in advertisements for the company since 1998. Prior to his work on Star Trek , he starred in Incubus , one of a handful of movies to be filmed entirely in the constructed language known as Esperanto.

In 2021 , Shatner was a passenger on private spacecraft company Blue Origin's second Human spaceflight, NS-18, becoming the oldest Human ever to fly into space. This makes him one of a select few Star Trek performers to have actually been to space, along with Mae Jemison , E. Michael Fincke , and Terry Virts , although unlike them, he was a space tourist rather than an astronaut.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Early career
• 3 Playing James T. Kirk
• 4.3.1 Denny Crane and Boston Legal
• 5 Musical career
• 6 Book writing
• 7.1.1 Novels
• 7.1.2 Non-fiction
• 7.2 Documentaries
• 7.3 Video games
• 7.4 Discography
• 9.1 Additional appearances
• 10 Star Trek interviews
• 11 External links

Biography [ ]

Shatner was born in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood of Montreal , Quebec, Canada, to a Conservative Jewish household. A native English speaker, he is also fluent in French.

He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, where the Student Center was unofficially renamed "The Shatner Center" in the 1990s in a student popular election. As of 2014, a flimsy sign was hanging in the lobby, but the university administration had not officially accepted the name change.

Famous for his clipped, dramatic, and often-imitated narration and dialogue delivery, Shatner has become one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood. In a career spanning five decades, he has become a household name not only for his role as James T. Kirk , but also for playing T.J. Hooker in the series of the same name, the host of Rescue 911 , and for his Emmy Award-winning role as legendary but senile lawyer Denny Crane on Boston Legal . He is also an accomplished writer, producer, director and host. On 14 December 2006, Shatner was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame for his many accomplishments in the field of television.

Shatner has three daughters: Leslie , Lisabeth , and Melanie . All are from his first marriage to Gloria Rand, whom Shatner married in 1956 but divorced in 1969, following the cancellation of Star Trek. Shatner subsequently married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. Shatner and Lafferty remained together until their divorce in 1994. Shatner then married Nerine Kidd in 1997, but this marriage ended tragically with Kidd's death in a drowning accident in 1999.

He is currently married to Elizabeth Martin, who shares Shatner's passion for horses. They live together in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, he plays paintball and tennis and is a professional horse breeder. In this latter profession, he founded the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show in 1990, which he continues to host.

Shatner has been awarded the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honors in the country, and has received two Emmys for his work on Boston Legal . He is also commemorated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, and has two honorary degrees to his name from McGill University and the New England Institute of Technology. On 29 April 2014, Shatner received NASA's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service medal. [2]

Early career [ ]

Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions, including the role of Ranger Bob during the first year of the popular children's show Howdy Doody . He was also seen in a 1952 episode of Omnibus with future Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country co-star Christopher Plummer , who also hails from Montreal. In fact, Shatner would eventually be Plummer's understudy at the Stratford Shakespearan Festival's 1956 production of Henry V, where Shatner had to take Plummer's role for a performance when he was ill, giving the younger actor his major break in his career.

One of Shatner's earliest American television appearances was a 1956 episode of The Kaiser Aluminum Hour called "Gwyneth," in which he co-starred with Joanne Linville , who played the title role. Shatner later reunited with Linville in episodes of The United States Steel Hour and The Defenders before co-starring together in the Star Trek episode " The Enterprise Incident ".

Shatner ultimately landed several guest roles on the TV series Studio One in 1957. His first appearance on that program was in a 1957 two-parter entitled "The Defender" (featuring Ian Wolfe ), which served as the basis for the aforementioned TV show The Defenders , on which Shatner had a recurring role (albeit as a different character than the one he played on Studio One ). The following year, Shatner landed his first American film role, playing Alexi Karamazov in 1958's The Brothers Karamazov . Among his co-stars in this film were future TOS guest stars David Opatoshu and Harry Townes .

On Broadway, Shatner performed with his future " Elaan of Troyius " co-star France Nuyen in The World of Suzie Wong , with Nuyen playing the title role. This play ran for a total of 508 performances from 14 October 1958 through 2 January 1960. Shatner's performance won him a Theatre World Award in 1959. He and Nuyen performed an excerpt from the play on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. His next Broadway play was the comedy A Shot in the Dark , which ran for 389 performances between October 1961 and September 1962. Fritz Weaver joined the cast late in the run, replacing actor Walter Matthau.

In the meantime Shatner continued co-starring with a number of future Star Trek guest-stars in several popular American television programs throughout the 1950s and '60s, including Playhouse 90 (with James Gregory ), Kraft Television Theatre (with Richard Kiley ), Outlaws (with John Anderson , John Hoyt , and Ken Lynch ), Naked City (with Theodore Bikel and Lou Antonio ), The Dick Powell Show (with Frank Overton ), The Nurses (with Stephen Brooks and Madlyn Rhue ), 77 Sunset Strip (with Brian Keith ), Route 66 (with Glenn Corbett and Louise Sorel ), Burke's Law (with Michael Ansara and Bill Catching ), The Outer Limits (with Lawrence Montaigne , James B. Sikking , and Malachi Throne ), Twelve O'Clock High (with Robert Lansing , Frank Overton, and Bert Remsen ), and The Big Valley (with Bill Quinn and Jason Wingreen ). He even appeared along with his future co-star Leonard Nimoy in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. called "The Project Strigas Affair." He also appeared with George Takei (as well as Keye Luke and Abraham Sofaer ) on Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre that same year.

Other popular TV shows Shatner appeared on during this time include Alfred Hitchcock Presents , Thriller , The Fugitive , Gunsmoke , and The Virginian . He also had a recurring role as Dr. Carl Noyes on Dr. Kildare in early 1966, during which he co-starred with Bruce Hyde and Diana Muldaur – both of whom he was reunited with on Star Trek. Most notably, however, he starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone , both written by Richard Matheson , including the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", in which he played Bob Wilson, a man released from a mental hospital who seemingly suffers a relapse aboard an airliner after seeing a creature on the plane's wing.

Shatner also continued acting in films during the 1960s. In 1961, he appeared as Captain Harrison Byers, the aide to Judge Dan Haywood, in the classic Academy Award-winning drama Judgment at Nuremberg with future TOS guest actor Rudy Solari . That same year, he had the starring role as a revolutionary and controversial high school teacher in The Explosive Generation , and the following year he starred as a bigot in the Roger Corman classic The Intruder (with George Clayton Johnson ). He then appeared as a preacher in 1964's The Outrage (co-starring Paul Fix ).

1965's low budget horror film Incubus stars Shatner. The film was believed to be lost for some years, until a copy was found in France. Its main point of interest, other than Shatner's starring role, is that it is entirely filmed in Esperanto , a constructed language, which has very rarely been used onscreen. The pronunciation of the language by the actors has been criticized by fluent speakers; Shatner's has been compared to Montreal French.

In 1968, while Star Trek was still in production, he starred in the dual role of brothers Johnny Moon and Notah in the Western White Comanche . He also did a television movie entitled Perilous Voyage in 1968, again working alongside Louise Sorel. For unknown reasons, NBC sat on this film for eight years, not airing it until 29 July 1976.

Shatner's first television series, the crime drama For the People , aired in 1965 but failed to gain the attention needed to keep it on the air past the initial thirteen episodes. Also in 1965, Shatner played the title role in a pilot, Alexander the Great , which co-starred Robert Fortier and featured music by Leonard Rosenman . However, the pilot was not picked up for a series. (It was finally aired on television in 1968.) Fortunately, however, Shatner gained a new opportunity for stardom when, that same year, he starred as Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the second pilot for a show by Gene Roddenberry called Star Trek , " Where No Man Has Gone Before ".

Playing James T. Kirk [ ]

Stardom was not immediate for Shatner or the rest of the Star Trek cast. Ratings for the series were low and, after only three years, resulted in its cancellation in 1969. But that same year, the Apollo 11 moon landing transformed the vision of interplanetary travel from fantasy to a more realistic possibility. Star Trek reruns gained new popularity and thrust Shatner and the cast into television immortality.

By 1973 Star Trek had gained an extensive amount of popularity thanks to reruns. There was such a high demand for more Star Trek that a new animated series was put together, reuniting most of the original cast members to lend their voices to their now famous characters. The series lasted for two seasons, with Shatner voicing Captain Kirk in all but one of the 22 episodes. Although the animated series came to an end in 1974 , Trek had still not died; pre-production began on a new, live-action Star Trek series in 1977. Although this new series was never made, it resulted in the first Trek feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture , in 1979 . And, for the first time in ten years, Shatner was back, in the flesh, in the role that had made him famous.

Shatner continued playing the Kirk character through the next six features, concluding with his character's demise in 1994 's Star Trek Generations . Although Shatner enjoyed working on the film, he later displayed regret at having Kirk killed off and commenced to look for the opportunity to once again play the legendary Starfleet captain, although he did play him during a pre- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country period for video cutscenes along with Walter Koenig and George Takei for Interplay's Starfleet Academy in 1997. He did not appear in 2009 's Star Trek , however. [3]

In 2006, a commercial for DirectTV aired in which Shatner reprises his role as Captain Kirk, complete with a Trek film Starfleet uniform. The commercial takes place during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country but it has Kirk stepping out of character to promote DirectTV.

Shatner has also reprised the role of Kirk – albeit, in voice over only – for the video game Star Trek: Legacy . Also giving voice to their respective captains in this game are Patrick Stewart ( Jean-Luc Picard ), Avery Brooks ( Benjamin Sisko ), Kate Mulgrew ( Kathryn Janeway ), and Scott Bakula ( Jonathan Archer ).

Shatner was contacted about a possible role in Star Trek Beyond . Along with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy was also rumored to appear before his death in 2015, in a scene with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto , as the future alternate reality versions of the characters. [4] This did not come to fruition.

Post-TOS career [ ]

In the aftermath of Star Trek 's cancellation Shatner continued to work steadily in film and television; because his marriage to Gloria Rand had failed, he was no longer living to pursue his career as a direct result, but instead pursuing his career to live. The year after Trek 's apparent demise, Shatner starred in the made-for-TV movies Sole Survivor (which also featured a former Star Trek co-star, John Winston ) and The Andersonville Trial (with John Anderson, Harry Townes , Whit Bissell , Robert Easton , Dick Miller , Kenneth Tobey , and Ian Wolfe). He also made guest appearances in such shows as The F.B.I. (with Lawrence Montaigne), The Name of the Game (with William Smithers ), Storefront Lawyers (with Robert Foxworth ), Ironside (with Gene Lyons , Barbara Anderson , Roger C. Carmel , Barry Atwater , and Robert Ito ), The Sixth Sense (written by Gene L. Coon ) , Mission: Impossible (with Barbara Anderson), Barnaby Jones (with Darleen Carr , Vince Howard , and Lee Meriwether ), Mannix (with Yvonne Craig and Phillip Pine ), The Six Million Dollar Man (with Alan Oppenheimer ), Kung Fu (with Rosemary Forsyth , Keye Luke, and France Nuyen), Petrocelli (with Glenn Corbett, Susan Howard , David Huddleston , and Susan Oliver ), and Police Story (with Dean Stockwell ).

In 1971 he co-starred with Barry Atwater , Robert Hooks , and Michael Strong in the TV movie Vanished and with Bruce Davison in the pilot movie for Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law . The following year, he was reunited with his " Miri " co-star Kim Darby in the science fiction telefilm The People . He also co-starred with Anthony Zerbe in the TV version of the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles . He had several more TV movie credits throughout the 1970s, including Incident on a Dark Street (1973, with Robert Pine ), Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973, with Darleen Carr, France Nuyen, and Paul Winfield ), Indict and Convict (1974, with Susan Howard), The Tenth Level (1975, with Stephen Macht ), Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976, with his former Trek co-star Walter Koenig ), The Bastard (1978, with Kim Cattrall , John Colicos , John de Lancie , William Daniels , James Gregory, and Alex Henteloff ), Little Women (1978, also with John de Lancie), Crash (1978, co-starring Adrienne Barbeau , Ron Glass , George Murdock , and then-wife Marcy Lafferty ), and Riel (1979, with Christopher Plummer).

In 1975 Shatner became the star of another series, a Western comedy-drama called Barbary Coast . However, the series was canceled after its first season. Afterward, Shatner starred in two TV mini-series, both of which co-starred fellow Star Trek performers: 1977's Testimony of Two Men , with Theodore Bikel, Jeff Corey , John de Lancie, and Logan Ramsey , and How the West Was Won , with Robert DoQui , Fionnula Flanagan , Brian Keith, Ed Lauter , Ricardo Montalban , George D. Wallace , and Morgan Woodward .

During this time, Shatner appeared in a three cult feature films: the very adult 1974 action film Big Bad Mama , co-starring Dick Miller and Noble Willingham , the 1975 horror movie The Devil's Rain , and the 1977 sci-fi/horror picture Kingdom of the Spiders , co-starring wife Marcy Lafferty. Another movie from the 1970s was titled Want a Ride, Little Girl? This film, also called Impulse and I Love to Kill , and in which he again co-starred with wife Lafferty, has been so critically condemned that Shatner himself has come forward and said that it was a "bad time" for him, and he has also denied being able to remember why he agreed to join its cast.

Unlike many actors who have become identified to specific characters in film and television, Shatner has been able to escape typecasting and continued to find roles outside the realm of Trek which have also been popular; this is due at least in part to, as having been pointed out above, his having pursued his career to live rather than his living to pursue his career. From 1982 to 1986, he starred in the title role of T.J. Hooker , a hard-boiled police officer. That series also starred Star Trek: Voyager guest star Richard Herd and frequent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star James Darren . (Shatner later reunited with Richard Herd for a 1994 episode of seaQuest DSV .)

It was during the 1980s that Shatner began an acting trend that lasts to this day: making fun of himself and of his role as Captain Kirk, the popularity of which he had trouble understanding. An early example of this came with his role as Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock in the 1982 spoof Airplane II: The Sequel , which had him poke fun at many of the quirks and mannerisms of Kirk and Star Trek in general. (Marcy Lafferty also appeared in the film, as did Bruce French .)

In 1986 Shatner hosted Saturday Night Live and took part in an infamous sketch in which he told Star Trek fans to " get a life !" The appearance later became the subject of an autobiographical account by Shatner, chronicling his relationship with the Star Trek fandom.

Outside of Star Trek , Shatner continued to act in Canadian-made films (such as 1980's The Kidnapping of the President and 1982's Visiting Hours ) and American-made TV movies (such as 1988's Broken Angel , with Roxann Dawson and Brock Peters ). In 1989 Shatner became the host of the popular documentary series Rescue 911 , which lasted from 1989 to 1996.

It was in the 1980s that Shatner geared towards directing. In 1989 having already directed multiple episodes of T.J. Hooker , Shatner directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , for which he also co-wrote the story. This came as part of a deal made between him and co-star Leonard Nimoy several years earlier; Nimoy was able to direct two earlier Trek films only if Shatner was also allowed the opportunity to direct one later. The result was lukewarm, earning negative criticism and low box office proceeds. Nonetheless, Shatner was not deterred and continued directing for television and for films he had written.

1990s and 2000s [ ]

Continuing his trend towards "lampooning" himself Shatner starred as the villain in yet another spoof, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 , in 1993. James Doohan also made a gag appearance in his beloved role of Scotty (albeit, as a 20th century police officer in charge of repairing the police station's cappuccino machine), while F. Murray Abraham , Whoopi Goldberg , and Charles Napier also had cameos.

Loaded Weapon 1 was followed in 1998 with the popular Free Enterprise (written/produced by Mark A. Altman and directed/co-written by Robert Meyer Burnett ), a Star Trek -themed black comedy in which Shatner played a caricature of himself named, aptly enough, "Bill." He is currently set to film a sequel to Free Enterprise . reprising his role as "Bill."

In 1998 Shatner became the spokesperson for "Priceline.com." The earliest of this company's commercials, in which Shatner strummed a guitar and spoke "songs" advertising Priceline in front of a bemused audience, gained much notoriety and earned him somewhat of a come-back in show business. He continues to perform for Priceline commercials, which he at first did in voiceover. More recently, he has been seen as the "Priceline Negotiator." He did appear in two Priceline.com commercials with Leonard Nimoy as well, and one with Robert Pine.

In 1999 and 2000 Shatner had a recurring role as "The Big Giant Head" (aka Stone Phillips) in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun . This role led to the actor's first Emmy nomination, that of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, in 1999.

In 2000, Shatner appeared in the popular comedy Miss Congeniality as Stan Fields, the aging host of the Miss United States Pageant. This role ultimately led to Shatner becoming the host of the real thing – the 50th Annual Miss USA Pageant – in 2001. Also in 2001, Shatner lent his voice as Mayor Phlemming in the combination animated/live action hit comedy Osmosis Jones with Rif Hutton and Herschel Sparber lending their voices as well. Shatner reprised his role as Stan Fields in the 2005 sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous opposite Diedrich Bader and Enrique Murciano . Continuing his experience as a master of ceremonies, Shatner was the chairman for the 2001 specials Iron Chef USA and Iron Chef USA: Holiday Showdown . In late 2006, he hosted the short-lived ABC game show Show Me The Money .

Shatner's popularity has also earned him cameos in such films as Showtime (in which he spoofs his T.J. Hooker character as well as himself) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story in which he played the chancellor of the dodgeball tournament. Shatner later made an appearance in the 2008 comedy film Fanboys , which also featured Christopher McDonald in a supporting role. Additionally, Shatner has lent his voice to a number of animated films, including Osmosis Jones (2001) and Over the Hedge (2006). In Shooting Stars (aka Shoot or be Shot , 2002), he played a deranged script writer; the film also features Voyager and Enterprise actress Julianne Christie .

In 2002 Shatner and the rest of the original Trek cast (minus DeForest Kelley and James Doohan) lent their voices to their animated selves in a popular episode of Futurama called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." That same year, Shatner wrote, directed, and co-starred in the independent science fiction film Groom Lake . Also starring in the film were fellow Trek performers Dan Gauthier and Tom Towles .

Shatner voices the sun's core in the 2010 computer-animated film Quantum Quest . The film's main protagonist, a photon named Dave, is voiced by Chris Pine , who stars in 2009's Star Trek as an alternate-continuum incarnation of James Kirk , the role whose "Prime Continuum" incarnation Shatner originated in the 1960s. Also lending their voices to Quantum Quest are Star Trek alumni Jason Alexander , Robert Picardo , and Brent Spiner . [5] [6]

Shatner later starred on the CBS sitcom $#*! My Dad Says (pronounced "bleep"), based on Justin Halpern's popular Twitter feed. But that program's run was short; it was cancelled without completing its only season.

Shatner played the author Mark Twain in an episode of "Murdoch Mysteries" called "Marked Twain". [7]

Denny Crane and Boston Legal [ ]

In 2004 Shatner made his debut as legendary but eccentric attorney Denny Crane on The Practice , earning an Emmy Award as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He reprised the role of Crane in the spin-off series Boston Legal , which also starred former DS9 cast member René Auberjonois . For the last two seasons of the show, Auberjonois was replaced by Shatner's Star Trek III co-star, John Larroquette , although Auberjonois made continued recurring appearances.

Shatner won another Emmy for playing Denny Crane in 2005, this time as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for his work on Boston Legal . He received another Emmy nomination for the role in 2006, although he did not win. He was awarded a fourth Emmy nomination for playing Denny Crane and his third nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2007. The award, however, ultimately went to Terry O'Quinn for his role in J.J. Abrams ' Lost . In 2008, Shatner was again nominated for an Emmy Award for Boston Legal .

In 2005, Shatner won the Golden Globe as Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Boston Legal . In 2007 Shatner was nominated for a second Golden Globe.

Shatner starred as Denny Crane on ABC's Boston Legal for four years, from 2004 through 2008. The series ran for its fifth and final season in the fall of 2008, with the two-hour series finale airing 8 December 2008. Because of Shatner's involvement, the writers of the show often threw in puns and in-jokes related to Star Trek , usually delivered by Shatner himself.

Besides former series regular René Auberjonois and more recent regular John Larroquette (whom Shatner worked with on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ), other Trek performers with whom Shatner has worked on the show include Henry Gibson (as a peculiar judge whom Denny Crane refers to as "nansy-pansy" and "namby-pamby"), Joanna Cassidy (who played Denny's lover and his brief eighth wife), and the aforementioned Jeri Ryan (as an actress with whom Denny, of course, becomes infatuated). DS9 actor Armin Shimerman also had a recurring role, as did Ethan Phillips of Voyager fame, although neither shared scenes with Shatner. Scott Bakula had a guest spot on the series, as well but he also did not share any scenes with Shatner.

Musical career [ ]

Between 1967 and 1970 both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy recorded covers of famous songs for MCA, which were later collected in the album "Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner."

Shatner is also (in)famous for his rendition of the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," as well as his spoken word cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long Long Time);" both were featured on an album titled The Transformed Man .

"William Shatner Live" was released in 1977, and includes references to the then-upcoming Star Trek film.

In 2004, he returned to his musical career with a new album, titled Has Been , produced by musician Ben Folds, who previously worked with Shatner on his own first solo album, Fear of Pop . The lead track Common People is a cover of a Pulp song, but much of the other content is co-written by Shatner himself. It features guest performers such as Joe Jackson, Lemon Jelly and Henry Rollins.

Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts features Shatner doing a Biblical reading, accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

2011's Seeking Major Tom is an album of cover versions, mostly themed around science fiction, or space, with some exceptions, such as his version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". There is one song by Shatner, co-written with Adam Hamilton, called "Struggle".

In 2013, he released Ponder the Mystery , which features guest appearances from the likes of Mick Jones of the Clash, Rick Wakeman, and Tony Kaye of Yes.

Book writing [ ]

Following the death of Kirk in Star Trek Generations , Shatner has written, with the assistance of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens , as stated above, a set of nine novels, chronicling the resurrection and subsequent adventures of Kirk in the 24th century. His tenth novel, Star Trek: Academy - Collision Course , shows his own views of how the Star Trek universe began.

He has also written a series of novels called TekWar . These novels, for which one of his inspirations was Marie Winn 's book The Plug-In Drug , ultimately became the basis for a TV series and a number of telefilms, which Shatner himself directed, starred in, and served as executive producer. There was also a comic series titled TekWorld , inspired by his writings.

Other projects and appearances [ ]

Shatner appeared on the USA Network's and the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night RAW to promote TekWar , where he was involved in an altercation with Jerry "The King" Lawler . Shatner personally inducted Lawler into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. He later guest hosted the February 1, 2009 episode of RAW , which included a segment with Trek alumnus the Big Show . Shatner was, himself, inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame's Celebrity Wing with the Class of 2020 .

Shatner participated in the 2001 Star Trek Edition of the game show Weakest Link , along with LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby , Roxann Dawson , John de Lancie , Robert Picardo , Armin Shimerman , and Wil Wheaton . He lost, but not before showing host Anne Robinson what his Trek character was most "known" for: his way with women.

Shatner opened the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for Star Wars creator George Lucas on June 9, 2005, beginning the segment with "Star Trek changed everything ."

In 2005, Shatner starred in the reality mini-series, Invasion Iowa, which took place in Riverside , Iowa, the future birthplace of James T. Kirk. In addition, Shatner hosted two specials for The History Channel in 2006, Comets: Prophets of Doom and How William Shatner Changed the World .

In August 2006, Shatner was the guest of honor at the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner . His chair of honor was his captain's chair from the original Enterprise . This event was hosted by "roastmaster" Jason Alexander (a huge Star Trek fan and one-time Voyager guest star who credits Shatner as an inspiration for his becoming an actor) and had a number of comedians (including another one-time Voyager guest, Andy Dick ) taking jabs at Shatner, joking about his life and career. Among the "roastees" were Shatner's TOS co-stars Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, while Trek alumni Clint Howard (reprising his role as Balok , now middle-aged and addicted to tranya ) and Sarah Silverman left recorded messages for Shatner. In attendance at the event were Shatner's Boston Legal co-stars René Auberjonois and Mark Valley, TNG actor Brent Spiner , and Voyager actress Jeri Ryan . In September 2011 Shatner followed up on his appearance in the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen , this time as one of the roasters. This outing was hosted by "roastmaster" Seth MacFarlane . MacFarlane, an unapologetic " Trekkie " himself and having missed out on Shatner's own roast, made use of the opportunity to take several swings at the illustrious Star Trek actor after all.

Since his own roast, Shatner has appeared in two music videos with Jason Alexander for country music star Brad Paisley – "Celebrity" and "Online". Both have referenced his singing career and "Online" also has several Star Trek references. In the latter, Shatner plays Alexander's father, while Voyager guest-star Estelle Harris plays his mother, as she memorably did on Seinfeld .

Shatner currently hosts his own offbeat celebrity interview show for A&E Television's revamped "Bio" channel entitled Shatner's Raw Nerve , which premiered on 2 December 2008. Among the guests he has interviewed so far are his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy and TNG guest star Kelsey Grammer .

In addition, Shatner made frequent appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien . He first appeared as a guest on the show, but he has since made cameos to recite the resignation speech and the Twitter posts of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as though they were poetry. Most recently, he recited quotes from Levi Johnston , the father of Palin's grandson.

Shatner is also featured in the introductory video for Conan O'Brien's "In the Year 3000" segment. In the video, Shatner's disembodied head "floats" across the screen while introducing the segment: " It's almost like a cosmic ride into the millennium. That far-off reality that is the year 3000. It's the future man. " In the 13 November 2009 episode, the video was altered to include Shatner's TOS co-star George Takei, who destroys Shatner's head by firing " phasers " from his eyes and " photon torpedoes " from his mouth. After destroying Shatner's head, Takei remarks " Mmm, delicious! " and laughs maniacally.

In February 2011, Shatner appeared in an episode of the History Chanel series American Pickers where he and his wife asked the show's stars Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz to find items for their new Kentucky vacation house.

In 2009, Shatner produced and starred in a film called William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet , a documentary about a ballet set to his album Has Been , which was produced by Ben Folds. The award-winning film received critical acclaim and had a successful film festival run. The film had a multi-platform television premiere in July 2011 through EPIX, a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate, and MGM.

In 2017, Shatner guest-starred in an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic , entitled " The Perfect Pear ", in which he voiced the character of Grand Pear , the maternal grandfather of Applejack . Prior to the airing of the episode, Shatner had teased his role through a number of Twitter posts. He also proclaimed himself a "Brony" in 2016, and went on to state that the character of Rainbow Dash was his favorite.

The same year featured Shatner cast alongside fellow iconic 1960s television actor Adam West, as Two-Face and Batman respectively in the animated film Batman vs. Two-Face . The film also featured Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether , who co-starred with both actors in their respective series'.

In 2021 , private spaceflight company Blue Origin announced that Shatner would be a passenger on its second Human flight, NS-18 . The flight was originally scheduled for 12 October 2021 , and (after a day's weather delay) launched on 13 October 2021 . Shatner, then 90 years old, became the oldest Human to go to space (in the process belying his alter ego's "galloping about the cosmos is a game for the young" quote in The Wrath of Khan ), [8] [9] as well as becoming the very first major Star Trek contributor, be it cast or production crew, to do so – alive that is, as the ashes of both Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan were spent into space after their respective deaths. But Shatner is, strictly speaking, not the very first (living) Star Trek -affiliated person to go into space, as three real-world astronauts with actual cameo appearances (as opposed to those only featured in utilized archival footage) in live-action Star Trek under their belt, had already preceded him, as had Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos incidentally, on his company's 20 July 2021 first Human flight NS-16; " Trekkie " Bezos had a cameo role in Star Trek Beyond .

In 2023 , Shatner was among those inducted into the San Diego Air & Space Museum's International Air & Space Hall of Fame. [10]

• The Ashes of Eden
• Dark Victory
• Captain's Peril
• Captain's Blood
• Captain's Glory
• Academy: Collision Course
• Academy: Third Class

Non-fiction [ ]

• Get a Life!
• Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man
• Shatner: Where No Man...
• Shatner Rules
• Star Trek Memories
• Star Trek Movie Memories
• Up Till Now: The Autobiography
• I'm Working on That
• Spirit of the Horse: A Celebration of Fact and Fable

Documentaries [ ]

• How William Shatner Changed the World
• Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime
• The Captains
• The Captains Close Up
• William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge
• William Shatner's Star Trek Memories

Video games [ ]

• Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
• Star Trek: Encounters as Kirk
• Star Trek: Judgment Rites as Kirk
• Star Trek: Legacy as Kirk
• Star Trek: Tactical Assault as Kirk

Discography [ ]

• "How Insensitive" / "Transformed Man" (Decca Records, 1969)
• The Transformed Man (Decca Records, 1969)
• William Shatner – Live! (Lemli Records, 1977)
• Captain of the Starship (K-Tel Records, 1978) Reissue of "Live!" album.
• Shatner once bought a horse from the father-in-law of Scott Bakula , who played Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise .
• Shatner suffers from tinnitus , along with the late Leonard Nimoy, reportedly due to a special effect explosion on the set of the Star Trek episode " Arena ". [11] Shatner has since then become involved with the American Tinnitus Association. [12]
• On 28 March 2013, a humorous advertisement for the Star Trek video game depicted Shatner "fighting" a Gorn in a parody of this episode. [13]
• Actor John Lithgow , whom Shatner worked with on 3rd Rock from the Sun , essentially played Shatner's character from the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" when it was remade for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. A reference to this was made in an episode of 3rd Rock in which Shatner played role of "The Big Giant Head". When asked how his flight was, Shatner's character explained that it was horrifying: " I looked out the window… and I saw something on the wing of the plane! " to which Lithgow exclaimed, " The same thing happened to me! "
• Several costumes worn by Shatner were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a grey jumpsuit from Star Trek: The Motion Picture [14] and a white undershirt. [15]
• Shatner is referenced in The Canadian Conspiracy mockumentary (1985) and the satirical movie Canadian Bacon (1995) in a list of Canadians supposedly trying to take over the USA by infiltrating its media. If Geneviève Bujold had been kept for the role of Kathryn Janeway , then he would have been one of two Montreal natives to have played a Star Trek captain.

Appearances as Kirk [ ]

Shatner appeared as Kirk in

• Star Trek: The Original Series : every episode except for " The Cage "
• Star Trek: The Animated Series : every episode except for " The Slaver Weapon "
• TAS : " The Slaver Weapon " (main title voice footage)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek Generations
• Star Trek Beyond (photo only)
• DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " (archive footage)
• ENT : " These Are the Voyages... " (archive voice footage)
• ST : " Ephraim and Dot " (archive voice footage)

Additional appearances [ ]

Star Trek interviews [ ]

• TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "A Tribute to Gene Roddenberry " ("Gene Roddenberry Building Dedicated to Star Trek's Creator"), interviewed on 6 June 1991

External links [ ]

• WilliamShatner.com – official site
• William Shatner  at MySpace.com
• William Shatner at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• William Shatner at Wikipedia
• William Shatner at the Internet Movie Database
• William Shatner at the Internet Broadway Database
• William Shatner at the Notable Names Database
• William Shatner at TriviaTribute.com
• Transcript of the Saturday Night Live "get a life" sketch
• Interview at the Archive of American Television
• William Shatner at SF-Encyclopedia.com
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

Screen Rant

Star trek: how old every tos main character was at the start & end.

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Star Trek Officially Unveils Its Realm of the Gods THE PLEROMA

Star trek confirms the most feared species in the galaxy & it'll blow your mind, star trek fleet command codes (june 2024).

The main cast of Star Trek: The Original Series remains some of the most iconic in the Star Trek franchise, but how old was every main character in their first and last appearance? TOS first aired in 1966, and although it was famously canceled in 1969 after only three seasons, the show gained a cult following in syndication that paved the way for every other Star Trek  series and movie that came after. Today, TOS is still thought of as one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time, and the franchise it created is still going strong.

TOS's popularity was due in large part to its main cast of characters, who viewers fell in love with while watching the show. Even people who are not fans of Star Trek will still often recognize the names of the show's characters, such as Captain Kirk, Spock, or Doctor McCoy. The TOS characters continue to loom large in the  Star Trek canon, and because they have become so popular a lot of information has been revealed about them over the years, including - in most cases - their birthdates and ages.

Related: Star Trek: Kirk's Iconic Uniform Color Was A Mistake  

For the most popular characters like Captain James T. Kirk , exact dates of birth (and death) are widely known among Star Trek fans. Even for secondary players like Sulu or Chekov, dates of birth have been provided for them to allow fans a sense of where they fit into the timeline. This means that the ages of the TOS crew are fairly well documented, and easy to track over the course of their multiple appearances throughout the franchise.

James T. Kirk

Played by William Shatner, James T. Kirk's biographical details are perhaps the most well-known of any TOS character. Kirk was born on March 22nd in the year 2233, which made him 32 years old at the beginning of TOS  as the first season was set in 2265. TOS covered from 2265 to 2269 in the timeline, so by the final season, Kirk would have been 36. Shatner's version of Kirk made his final appearance in the film Star Trek: Generations , which mainly focused on the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation but included Kirk as a significant character. Generations were set in both 2293 and 2371 and it was also the movie where Kirk met his end, dying in the battle with the main villain after being rescued from the Nexus by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Because he had not aged during his time in the Nexus, Kirk was physically 60 years old when he died in 2371, but technically 138 years old if the intervening years are counted.

Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has an equally well-documented age. Spock was born on January 6th, 2230, and by the start of TOS  was 35 years old, turning 39 by the end. The last time Leonard Nimoy's Spock appeared in the franchise's Prime Timeline was in the TNG episodes "Unification, Parts 1 and 2", which were set in the year 2368. Spock was 138 years old by this time, his Vulcan heritage allowing him a much longer lifespan than most humans. However, the rebooted  Star Trek films that began in 2009 included Nimoy as part of their main cast, making them TOS Spock's actual final appearance in the franchise. In the films, Spock was accidentally sucked in a black hole that transported him from 2387 in the Prime Timeline to the year 2258 in the Kelvin Timeline. Spock was 157 when he ended up in the Kelvin Timeline and lived another four years there before passing away at the age of 161. His death in canon was the result of Leonard Nimoy's passing in 2015.

Leonard "Bones" McCoy

Rounding out the iconic TOS trio, Doctor "Bones" McCoy , played by DeForest Kelley, had a slightly more straightforward timeline in the series. According to canon, McCoy was born in 2227, making him 38 at the start of TOS and 42 by the end of it. This also made him the second oldest character in the main cast. Kelley's last appearance came in the TNG pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" where he made a cameo as a way of passing the torch on to the next Star Trek show. "Encounter at Farpoint" was set in 2364, making McCoy 137 years old and demonstrating that humans had developed ways to live much longer in the 24th century. McCoy's death was never shown on screen, but Kelley died in 1999, making further appearances by his version of McCoy impossible in later Star Trek projects.

Related: Star Trek: What Happened To Bones After TOS & Movies

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

Played by James Doohan, The Original Series'  Scotty was born in 2222, making him 43 at the start of TOS and 47 by the end. Doohan's last appearance as Scotty was the TNG episode "Relics", which was set in the year 2369. Thus revealed that in 2294, Scotty had been aboard a ship that crashed on the surface of a Dyson Sphere. In an attempt to save himself, he rigged the ship's transporter to store his patterns in the buffer and survived for another 75 years in transporter limbo until he was found and rescued by the USS Enterprise-D. In 2294, Scotty was 72 years old and appeared the same age when he was rescued from the transporter buffer, although technically he was 147 years old with the additional 75 years. Like McCoy, Scotty's death was never shown in canon, but James Doohan died in 2005 and never made another appearance in the franchise after his episode of TNG .

Nyota Uhura

Uhura was played by Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek: The Original Series and is one of two main characters whose date of birth was never established onscreen. However, thanks to the Star Trek Encyclopedia and the Star Trek Chronology -  both of which were written by franchise graphic designer and Trek expert Michael Okuda - Uhura's birthdate has been established. According to  Chronology , Uhura was born in 2239. This made her 26 at the beginning of TOS and 30 by the end of it. Nichols' last appearance as Uhura was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , the final film to focus on the TOS cast . Uhura was 54 years old in The Undiscovered Country , which was set in 2293.

Hikaru Sulu

Sulu, played by George Takei, was another character without an unestablished birthdate before Star Trek Chronology . According to the   chronology, he was born in 2237. This would have made him 28 and 32 at the beginning and end of TOS respectively. Although Sulu appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback", his last appearance in the timeline was in The Undiscovered Country  at the age of 56. Despite Voyager being much farther along in the timeline, Sulu's appearance was part of a recollection of the events of The Undiscovered Country , and anything he did after the events of the film has never been depicted in canon.

Pavel Chekov

The youngest member of the main crew, Chekov, played by Walter Koenig, was born in 2245. The character was not added to the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series  until season 2, so his first appearance was in 2266 when he was 21. By the end of TOS , Chekov would have been 24, and his last appearance came with  Star Trek: Generations in 2293 at the age of 48. Like a number of other characters, the rest of Chekov's life including any instance of his death has never been depicted onscreen.

More: Star Trek: Is The Phrase "To Boldly Go" Grammatically Incorrect?

• SR Originals
• Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)

‘It Moved Me to Tears.’ William Shatner On Briefly Going Where Some Men Have Gone Before

On Oct. 13, actor William Shatner, 90, best known for his role as Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk , went to space for real aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. He was aloft for only 10 minutes—but they were 10 minutes that forever transformed him. The day after his return, Shatner—now the oldest person to have ever traveled to space—sat down with TIME to talk about his experience.

TIME: I was struck, as were many people, by the degree of your emotion when you returned to Earth. You seemed especially moved by the sight of the thin onion skin of atmosphere that is all that protects us from the killing void of space. What affected you about that?

Shatner: I saw the spaceship coming through the blue, and an instant later it was through the blue; this bullet exploded into the blackness of space, so in that instant I saw the blue suddenly disappear, and suddenly space is smack up in my face. I saw death there. The suddenness with which I looked at that blackness, I thought, “whoa, suddenly you go out there and then you’re dead.”

Did you have those intimations of mortality before you left? Did you have any trepidation about the safety of making the journey?

No. I mean, you can be in jeopardy in front of an audience. My own family goes on these rides at the amusement park, and I don’t need to go on that. I’m going to sit here while you guys go up and down for the ride. I don’t need a ride up to give me a thrill. But when it came to going to space, I thought “what the hell, I’ve got this opportunity and why not go through with this experience?” Now, I know it’s safe. At the moment their business model depends on convincing people with money that it’s safe to up, and it is. But still, they’ve been up 17 times, and maybe it’s not gonna go right this time.

Read more: Why William Shatner’s history-making spaceflight is something to celebrate

But it did go right, and when you came home, you seemed transformed. Were you?

Yes I was. I was so besotted by what happened on that flight. It moved me to tears, so much so that … I couldn’t control my emotions for 15 to 20 minutes.

Tell me about the experience of weightlessness. One astronaut told me that while the view is magnificent from space, you never get tired of the ability to fly. Was that your experience?

It’s impossible to describe because the English language, any language doesn’t have a frame of reference, so you can only infer. You jump up in the air and weightlessness is so mysterious and frightening because your whole body reacts against that. You enter weightlessness and suddenly the whole thing occupies your whole being and your whole consciousness.

Many astronauts talk about experiencing the Overview Effect when they come back to Earth—a new appreciation of the need to protect the planet because you’ve seen its fragility, its destructibility from above. Did you come home with a new sense of the importance of saving the world from ourselves?

Yes. We need 7 billion people to be angry. We need to get in motion. This is a struggle against the dark forces of pollution. And I think the overview Overview Effect that people get when they’re in space can help.

For individual people the stakes can be different. [I’m] 90 years old. Oh my God, you know, what have I got? I’ve got a week, a year. Maybe 10 years, and it’s over so quickly. It’s over so quickly, man. But it’s different when you’re 12 years old and still in school, when you’re 20. You’re thinking about your life and the preciousness of this thing. The [politicians] who are making these decisions for us—having trouble getting some goddamn million dollars, billion dollars to fight pollution. Are they crazy? We should send everybody up into space to see what they’re voting against. It’s crazy. There’s nothing more important.

Do you really think the political system could ever be shaken out of its constant state of partisan warfare by that kind of change in perspective?

I don’t know. I think everybody knows how sick the political situation is, everybody fighting rather than being patriotic and doing what’s best for the country. Everybody’s doing what’s best for themselves. I know that American history is rife with that kind of historical antecedent, in the past it has worked itself out, and the pendulum has swung the other way. So maybe it will again.

Read more: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover found some boulders. That’s a much bigger deal than it seems

You’ve now been on a suborbital mission to space. Would you like to go back to space for a full orbital flight?

I don’t know. I’m calling you from my beautiful home, overlooking the San Fernando Valley. The sun comes up. I’ve had a lovely egg sandwich my wife made, my two dogs love me and I’m sitting in a comfortable chair, and I’ve just come from this thrilling thing of life. I’m going forward to entertain audiences tomorrow and all weekend. And I’m crying in the middle of this fulfilling life.

So that sounds like a hard no.

I’m happy petting my dogs. I don’t need any more of that stuff.

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Write to Jeffrey Kluger at [email protected]

William Shatner

• Born March 22 , 1931 · Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Height 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
• William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university, he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness , James Mason , and Anthony Quayle . He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles in major shows on live television. Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) . He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) , The Defenders (1961) , The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959) . In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966) , co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy , with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known variously as "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds, guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968) , Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967) . He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare, such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) . However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) , Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) . In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear , and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) , Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000) . He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004) . Outside of work, he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health. - IMDb Mini Biography By: [email protected]
• Spouses Elizabeth Shatner (February 13, 2001 - 2020) (divorced) Nerine Kidd (November 15, 1997 - August 9, 1999) (her death) Marcy Lafferty (October 20, 1973 - December 11, 1996) (divorced) Gloria Rand (August 12, 1956 - March 4, 1969) (divorced, 3 children)
• Children Melanie Shatner Leslie Carol Shatner Lisabeth Shatner
• Parents Joseph Shatner Ann Shatner
• Clipped, dramatic narration.
• Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek (1966) and seven of the Star Trek films.
• Voice like a radio disc-jockey.
• Shortly after the original Star Trek (1966) series was canceled, his wife Gloria Rand left him and took a lot of money with her. With very little money and his acting prospects low, he resided in a pick-up truck camper until continually acting in bit parts led into higher-paying roles.
• Recorded a special message for the crew of NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-133 that woke up them at 3:23 a.m. (EST), March 7, 2011. The message included the Star Trek theme song along with Shatner's narration: "Space, the final frontier. These have been the voyages of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Her 30 year mission: To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before.".
• His clipped, dramatic delivery of his lines, peppered with dramatic pauses, is often referred to as "Shatnerian".
• Auctioned a kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for $75,000. The money went to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds houses for the needy.
• In 2001, he married Elizabeth Shatner (Elizabeth Anderson Martin), 30 years his junior. She is a horse trainer who had lost her husband to cancer in 1997. Their grief (Shatner was a widower) and their love of horses drew them together. They reside in Southern California and in Kentucky.
• [When asked if he wore a hairpiece] It's a question that I find like asking somebody, "Did you have a breast implant?" or "When did you get your lobotomy?".
• [When asked if he was a fan of technology] I love technology. Matches, to light a fire is really high tech. The wheel is REALLY one of the great inventions of all time. Other than that I am an ignoramus about technology. I once looked for the 'ON' button on the computer and came to find out it was on the back. Then I thought, anyone who would put the 'on' switch on the back, where you can't find it, doesn't do any good for my psyche. The one time I did get the computer on, I couldn't turn the damn thing off!
• I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-1701, or own a phaser. And I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu or Spock. And no, I've never had green alien sex, though I'm sure it would be quite an evening. I speak English and French, not Klingon! I drink Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me "Live long and prosper", I seriously mean it when I say, "Get a life." My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's Ginsberg. And tribbles were puppets, not real animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever talk like every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was raised in Montreal. And yes, I've gone where no man has gone before, but I was in Mexico and her father gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!
• We were basically one and the same, although Jim [Kirk] was just about perfect, and, of course, I am perfect.
• What he tells his kids about money: Don't buy anything on time, and that includes cars and houses. (Money magazine, 2007)
• Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) - 20,000 plus 7 1/2 percentage of the gross

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William shatner explains how he landed ‘star trek’ role as captain kirk.

The actor landed in Austin for South by Southwest and discussed his iconic role.

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

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William Shatner recalled how he managed to land the role of Captain James T. Kirk on the original 1966 Star Trek series.

During the actor’s keynote interview at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League asked Shatner about how he got his career-changing gig.

“Talent,” Shatner initially deadpanned, to audience applause, but then he told the story.

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“So they went around looking for a new captain,” Shatner continued. “I was in New York doing some work. They called me and said, ‘Would you come and see the pilot?’ With the idea of me being the captain. And I watched the pilot [and thought], ‘Oh my God, that’s really good. Why didn’t they buy it?’ Yet [the actors] were a little ponderous. Like, [ soberly ] ‘Helmsman, turn to the Starboard.’ You’ve been out five years in the middle of space, wouldn’t you say, [ casually ] ‘Hey, George, turn left’? ‘There’s a meteor coming!’… ‘Well, get out of the way!’ So I added a little lightness. Then it sold. And that’s the answer.”

Shatner also said his worst “role” ever was one time when he attempted to give a stand-up comedy performance as Captain Kirk, with the joke being that Kirk would deliver cliche one-liner jokes and not understand why he wasn’t funny. Yet the bit bombed spectacularly. “It was probably the the worst thing that ever happened to me,” Shatner said.

League also asked how Shatner would deal with somebody talking or texting during a movie in a theater. “Shut the fuck up!” Shatner roared, then proceeded to talk about the benefits of the F-bomb for getting people’s attention.

The 91-year-old Star Trek icon was also at the festival to support his new biopic documentary, You Can Call Me Bill , which chronicles his six decade as an Emmy-winning actor, author, recording artist and environmental activist. The film has its premiere tonight.

Shatner made global headlines last year by becoming the oldest person ever to go into space. The actor flew in a suborbital capsule piloted by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. In his memoir  Boldly Go , he shared how the experience left him profoundly sad. “I wept for the Earth because I realized it’s dying,” Shatner wrote. “I dedicated my book,  Boldly Go , to my great-grandchild, who’s 3 now — coming 3 — and in the dedication, say it’s them, those youngsters, who are going to reap what we have sown in terms of the destruction of the Earth…. I saw more clearly than I have, with all the studying and reading I’ve done, the writhing, slow death of Earth and we on it. It’s a little tiny rock with an onion-skin air around it. That’s how fragile it all is. It’s so fragile. We hang by a thread…. We’re just dangling.”

Shatner currently is the host and executive producer of The UnXplained on The History Channel, which “explores the world’s most fascinating, strange and inexplicable mysteries.”

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Star Trek: 10 Biggest Takeaways From 'William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill'

Television icon explores a lifetime, his legacy and the final frontier.

UK Trekkies! ? There's a special screening of ‘William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill’ at London’s Prince Charles Cinema this Wednesday (22nd May).Tickets: https://t.co/Qgu6sqxnf8 Rent & buy on most digital platforms 27 May. Blu-ray 3 June. #StarTrek @WilliamShatner pic.twitter.com/PEIl86dP3Q — TrekCulture (@TrekCulture) May 20, 2024

10. By Any Other Name

At this age, maybe it's time […] to put it down on film what I feel […]. What I was doing was telling the honest truth, unadulterated by, 'I wonder what people will think.' So that my family in the years to come will have some kind of legacy from me.

Jack Kiely is a writer with a PhD in French and almost certainly an unhealthy obsession with Star Trek.

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In a Blue Origin Rocket, William Shatner Finally Goes to Space

The actor who played Captain Kirk played the role of pitchman for Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company at a time that it is facing a number of workplace and business difficulties.

William Shatner Blasts off to Space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Rocket

At 90 years old, the actor william shatner became the oldest person to travel to space and cross the kármán line. the “star trek” star traveled to space with three other passengers on a mission that lasted about 10 minutes..

“T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 — command engines start — 2, 1.” “The rocket is climbing towards an altitude, we’re aiming just over the Kármán line, the internationally recognized line of space of 100 kilometers that is about 328,000 feet, and a gorgeous view down the rocket. And there they are, over 328,000 feet, over 100 kilometers. Welcome to space, the newest astronauts on board our crew capsule. And here come the mains. Oh, what a flight.” “Stand by touchdown. Stand by touchdown.” “Stand by touchdown.” And the capsule touched down. Welcome back. The newest astronauts, Audrey Powers, William Shatner; our customers, Glen de Vries and Chris Boshuizen. What a day for you. Welcome back.” [cheering]

By Joey Roulette

NEAR VAN HORN, TEXAS — William Shatner , the actor best known as the heroic Captain James T. Kirk in “Star Trek,” and three other passengers returned safely from a brief trip to the edge of space on Wednesday.

Mr. Shatner, 90, became the world’s oldest space traveler on the flight, which was the latest excursion over the West Texas desert aboard a rocket built by Blue Origin for space tourists. The private space company is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

It was the sixth launch carrying private passengers this year, as billionaire-backed companies jockey to normalize launching humans to space. Carrying two paying passengers, the quick jaunt to space also checked off another revenue-generating flight for Blue Origin’s space tourism business, advancing competition with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to attract more wealthy and adventure-seeking customers.

But the successful flight and landing came amid a string of controversies for Mr. Bezos’ company, particularly charges from current and former employees that its workplace culture was “rife” with sexism and that it prioritized speed over addressing some employees’ safety concerns. The company has rebutted the criticisms, but has also faced setbacks in other lines of its business.

William Shatner Is Brought to Tears Describing His Trip to Space

The actor who played captain kirk in “star trek” told jeff bezos his visit to the edge of space in the blue origin rocket was the most profound experience he could imagine..

Just unbelievable, unbelievable. I mean, you know, the little things — but to see the blue color whip by, and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s the thing. The covering of blue is — this sheet, this blanket, this comforter, this comforter of blue that we have around, we think, “Oh, it’s blue sky. And then suddenly, you shoot through it all of the sudden as though you’re whipping a sheet off you when you’re asleep. And you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness and you look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there. And it’s just — there is Mother Earth, comfort. And there is — is there, death? I don’t know — was that death, is that the way death is? Whoop, and it’s gone. Jesus. It was so moving to me. What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just — it’s extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. It’s so — so much larger than me and life. And this is now the commercial, everybody — it would be so important for everybody to have that experience.

Those concerns were absent on Wednesday as an effusive Mr. Shatner bent Mr. Bezos’ ear just outside the capsule after it landed, pouring forth words during a video livestream to describe his brief trek into the limits of the planet’s atmosphere. His trip aboard the rocket might have been conceived as a publicity stunt, but brushing the edge of the sky left the actor full of wonder, mixed with unease.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine,” Mr. Shatner told Mr. Bezos, waxing poetically about the “immeasurably small” line he witnessed between Earth and space, describing it as a fragile, underappreciated boundary between life and death.

“This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin,” he continued, adding: “it would be so important for everybody to have that experience, through one means or another.”

Mr. Bezos, who has said he was inspired by “Star Trek” as a boy, listened, still as a statue. He may have been giving Mr. Shatner some space, but it was a sharp contrast to his appearance after his own brief spaceflight in July, when he was aboard the same spacecraft. Then, Mr. Bezos held forth from a stage, rousing condemnation from critics of the vast company he founded as he thanked Amazon’s employees and customers for making it possible for him to finance his private space venture.

Mr. Shatner shared the capsule on Wednesday with three other passengers: Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president who oversees New Shepard operations, and two paying customers: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of a company that builds software for clinical researchers.

The launch Wednesday morning was pushed back by roughly an hour by two pauses to the launch countdown — caused in part by extra checks to the spacecraft and winds near its launchpad. The quartet was driven in electric pickup trucks to Blue Origin’s launchpad, roughly an hour before liftoff, flanked by Mr. Bezos and company employees.

For a moment, it appeared Mr. Bezos, dressed in a flight suit like the one he wore in July, would join them in flying to space. But he closed the hatch door before leaving the pad, sending the crew on their journey.

The rocket lifted off at 9:49 a.m. Central time, ascending nearly as fast as a speeding bullet at 2,235 miles per hour and sending the crew some 65.8 miles high. The whole trip lasted 10 minutes, 17 seconds, and gave the four passengers about four minutes of weightlessness.

Mr. Boshuizen, talking to reporters after the flight, likened the crew’s entry into space to a stone hitting the surface of a lake. “I was trying to smile but my jaw was pushed back in my head,” he said.

Mr. de Vries said the crew “had a moment of camaraderie” when they reached space. “We actually just put our hands together,” he said.

“And then we enjoyed the view as much as we can,” Mr. de Vries said.

In video footage released later by Blue Origin, Mr. Shatner appeared nearly speechless as the crew floated inside the capsule, legs aloft and small toys wafting around. “This is nuts,” said Ms. Powers, gripping the frame of one of the capsule’s windows.

William Shatner and Crew Float in Space

Footage captured the 90-year-old “star trek” actor and three other passengers floating weightless inside the blue origin spacecraft capsule during their trip to the edge of space..

“God.” “Weightlessness. Oh, Jesus.” [laughter] “No description can equal this.” “This is nuts.” “Oh, my God.” [laughter] “This is Earth.” “Oh wow.” “Holy hell.” “Oh, my goodness. Wow.”

The capsule then descended back to land under a set of three parachutes.

Mr. Shatner wasn’t thrilled about his new status as the oldest person to fly into space. “I wish I had broken the world record in the 10-yard dash, but unfortunately it was how old I was,” he said hours after the mission during a news conference on the landing pad. He beat the record recently clinched during Blue Origin’s first crewed flight in July by Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and former candidate for NASA’s astronaut corps who was turned down from joining in the 60s because of her sex.

Like Blue Origin’s July trip, in which Mr. Bezos launched to space with Ms. Funk and two other passengers, Wednesday’s flight served as an advertisement of the company’s space tourism business to prospective wealthy customers. It is competing primarily with Virgin Galactic, a rival space company founded by Richard Branson, the British businessman.

Virgin Galactic’s suborbital ship is a space plane that takes off from a runway like a commercial airliner. It tops out at a lower altitude. The company sent Mr. Branson and three company employees to the edge of space in July aboard SpaceShipTwo, nine days before Mr. Bezos’ flight.

Blue Origin has declined to publicly state a price for a ticket to fly on New Shepard. The company is nearing $100 million in sales so far, Mr. Bezos had said in July. But it’s unclear how many ticket holders that includes.

Tickets on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo were hiked to $450,000 in August, from $250,000, when the company reopened ticket sales after a yearslong hiatus. And flights to orbit — a much higher altitude than Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic’s trips go — are far more expensive. Three passengers going to the International Space Station next year are paying $55 million each for their seats on a SpaceX rocket, bought through the company Axiom Space.

But space tourism is not Blue Origin’s only business, nor its only challenge. Earlier this year, the company lost out to SpaceX, the rival rocket company owned by the billionaire Elon Musk, for a lucrative NASA contract to land humans on the moon. The company is currently challenging the award to SpaceX in federal court, and may receive a ruling in November.

Mr. Bezos’ company is also attempting to overcome technical hurdles in its effort to finish building its much bigger rocket, New Glenn, as well as that rocket’s engines, which are to be relied on by a competitor, United Launch Alliance, to fly NASA and Pentagon hardware on its rockets.

Its most immediate challenge has concerned accusations that the company’s work culture allowed harassment and sexist behavior. In September, Alexandra Abrams, the former head of employee communications at Blue Origin, published an essay with 20 unnamed current and former employees of the company outlining those charges, as well as accusations that internal safety concerns were often dismissed by management.

“Even if there are absolutely zero issues with all of Blue’s programs, which is absolutely not the case, a toxic culture bursting with schedule pressure and untrustworthy leaders breeds and encourages failures and mistakes each and every day,” Ms. Abrams said this week.

Blue Origin disputed the allegations in the essay, saying in a statement that the company has an internal hotline for sexual harassment complaints. And on Wednesday’s livestream of the launch, Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin’s astronaut sales director, emphasized the company’s safety record, saying “safety has been baked into the design of New Shepard from day one.”

On Wednesday after the flight, Mr. Shatner also brought up New Shepard’s safety.

“I think, just generally, the press needs to know how safe this was,” he said, adding “the technology is very safe, the approach was safe, the training was safe and everything went according to exactly what they predicted. We even waited for the winds an extra half-hour.”

But asked by reporters if he would launch to space again, he said, “I am so filled with such an emotion, I don’t want to dissipate it by thinking of another journey.”

David Streitfeld and Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting.

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William Shatner Has Never Watched an Episode of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’

William Shatner appeared in dozens of episode of the original Star Trek , and the animated Star Trek series.He starred in seven Star Trek movies — including Star Trek Generations , where Captain Kirk met his successor as Captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart . Shatner even wrote several Star Trek novels.

But he’s never watched a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Shatner made the startling omission during “Star Trek: The Captain’s Summit,” a special feature available on Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray collections. Recorded in 2009, the roundtable discussion brought together Shatner and Stewart and their respective first officers, Leonard Nimoy (Commander Spock) and Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) for a 70-minute chat about the history of the franchise, moderated by Whoopi Goldberg.

At one point in the discussion, the topic turns to the various movies that they all made, including the one Stewart and Shatner made together, Generations. Stewart starts to ask Shatner why he never appeared on The Next Generation TV series, even though several other members of the classic Trek cast like Nimoy, James Doohan, and DeForest Kelley all did guest spots on the show.

“So they never approached you?” Stewart asked.

And then Shatner drops this bomb:

“Patrick,” he says, “ I’m going to admit something to you. You’re my buddy, I love you, we’ve been together many times over the years. We’re really friends, and I’ve never told you this. I’ve never watched your show. I never saw a full episode of The Next Generation. ”

READ MORE: Why The Wrath of Khan Is Not the Best Star Trek Movie

The whole room goes quiet for a brief moment. Frakes then jokes that it takes “huge balls” to admit such a thing on camera (on a Star Trek DVD special feature no less).

“Huge balls. Captain’s balls!” Stewart agrees.

Stewart warns Shatner he’s going to invite him over one night to watch an episode. (When Stewart mentions he has 178 to choose from, Shatner is stunned they did so many. “That’s 100 more than we did!” he exclaims.) Shatner then provides his defense for the slight: He doesn’t watch television. He also claimed he’d never seen Boston Legal , a show he starred on for five seasons.

Shatner then concedes there was “some reluctance, buried way deep” to watch the crew that replaced the original Star Trek cast, although he also said he was “newsaholic” who’s constantly watching news and sports instead of fiction shows.

At least one person on the roundtable wasn’t buying it.

“Bill, I love you, you’re my buddy, we’re very close to each other, and you’re lying,” said Nimoy. That got a huge laugh from everyone at the roundtable.

You can watch the full “Captain’s Summit” roundtable at this link . The key discussion about The Next Generation (and the fact that Shatner had never seen even a single episode) starts around 26 minutes in. (I suppose he might have watched some Next Generation since this roundtable was recorded. If so, I hope he enjoyed it.)

Inside the ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Series Finale: The Last-Minute Coda, the Surprise Easter Eggs, and What Season 6 Would Have Been About (EXCLUSIVE)

SPOILER WARNING: This story includes descriptions of major plot developments on the series finale of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

Watching the fifth and final season of “ Star Trek: Discovery ” has been an exercise in the uncanny. Paramount+ didn’t announce that the show was ending until after the Season 5 finale had wrapped filming — no one involved with the show knew it would be its concluding voyage when they were making it. And yet, the season has unfolded with a pervasive feeling of culmination. 

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“I think there’s more to it than just, ‘Oh, it was a coinkydink!’” the actor says with a laugh, before explaining that she’s thinking more about subtext than direct intent. “I’ve gotta give Michelle her flowers. She has always asked the deeper questions of this story and these characters. Those questions of meaning and purpose led to questions of origin and legacy, and, yes, that is quite culminating.”

Martin-Green and Paradise spoke exclusively with Variety about filming the finale and the coda, including the surprising revelation about the origins of one of “Discovery’s” most memorable characters and what Paradise’s plans for Season 6 would have been.

“It’s the Most Complicated Thing I’ve Ever Seen”

Once the “Discovery” writers’ room decided the season would be organized around a search for the Progenitor’s technology, they also knew that, eventually, Burnham would find it. So then they had to figure out what it would be.

“That was a discussion that evolved over the course of weeks and months,” Paradise says. Rather than focus on communicating the intricate details of how the technology works, they turned their attention to delivering a visual experience commensurate with the enormity and complexity of something that could seed life across the entire galaxy.

“We wanted a sense of a smaller exterior and an infinite interior to help with that sense of power greater than us,” Paradise says. Inspired in part by a drawing by MC Escher, the production created an environment surrounded by towering windows into a seemingly endless procession of alien planets, in which it’s just as easy to walk on the walls as on the floor. That made for a daunting challenge for the show’s producing director, Olatunde “Tunde” Osunsanmi: As Burnham battles with the season’s main antagonist, Mol (Eve Harlow), inside this volume, they fall through different windows into another world, and the laws of gravity keep shifting between their feet.

“It’s the most complicated thing I’ve ever seen, directorially,” Paradise says. “Tunde had a map, in terms of: What did the background look like? And when the cameras this way, what’s over there? It was it was incredibly complex to design and shoot.”

Two of those planets — one in perpetual darkness and rainstorms, another consumed by constant fire — were shot on different parking areas on the Pinewood Toronto studio lot.

“The fire planet was so bright that the fire department got called from someone who had seen the fire,” Paradise says. “It should not be possible to pull those kinds of things off in a television show, even on a bigger budget show, with the time limitations that you have. And yet, every episode of every season, we’re still coming in on time and on budget. The rain planet and the fire planet we shot, I believe, one day after the other.”

Martin-Green jumps in: “Michelle, I think that was actually the same day!”

“It Felt Lifted”

The last time a “Star Trek” captain talked to a being that could be (erroneously) considered God, it was William Shatner’s James T. Kirk in 1989’s “Star Trek: The Final Frontier.” The encounter did not go well.

“I had my own journey with the central storyline of Season 5, just as a believer,” Martin-Green says. “I felt a similar way that Burnham did. They’re in this sort of liminal mind space, and it almost felt that way to me. It felt lifted. It really did feel like she and I were the only two people in this moment.”

It’s in this conversation that Burnham learns that while the Progenitors did create all “humanoid” alien species in the galaxy in their image, they did not create the technology that allowed them to do so. They found it, fully formed, created by beings utterly unknown to them. The revelation was something that Martin-Green discussed with Paradise early on in the planning of Season 5, allowing “Discovery” to leave perhaps the most profound question one could ask — what, or who, came first in the cosmos? — unanswered.

“The progenitor is not be the be all end all of it,” Paradise says. “We’re not saying this is God with a capital ‘G.’”

“There’s Just This Air of Mystery About Him”

Starting on Season 3 of “Discovery,” renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg began moonlighting in a recurring role as Dr. Kovich, a shadowy Federation operative whose backstory has been heretofore undisclosed on the show.

“I love the way he plays Kovich,” Paradise says of Cronenberg. “There’s just this air of mystery about him. We’ve always wanted to know more.” When planning Season 5, one of the writers pitched revealing Kovich’s true identity in the (then-season) finale by harkening back to the “Star Trek” show that preceded “Discovery”: “Enterprise,” which ran on UPN from 2001 to 2005.

In the final episode, when Burnham debriefs her experiences with Kovich, she presses him to tell her who he really is. He reintroduces himself as Agent Daniels, a character first introduced on “Enterprise” as a young man (played by Matt Winston) and a Federation operative in the temporal cold war. 

This is, to be sure, a deep cut even for “Star Trek” fans. (Neither Cronenberg nor Martin-Green, for example, understood the reference.) But Paradise says they were laying the groundwork for the reveal from the beginning of the season. “If you watch Season 5 with that in mind, you can see the a little things that we’ve played with along the way,” she says, including Kovich/Daniels’ penchant for anachonistic throwbacks like real paper and neckties.

“I didn’t know that that was going be there,” Martin-Green says. “My whole childhood came back to me.”

“We Always Knew That We Wanted to Somehow Tie That Back Up”

Originally, Season 5 of “Discovery” ends with Burnham and Book talking on the beach outside the wedding of Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) before transporting away to their next adventure. But Paradise understood that the episode needed something more conclusive once it became the series finale. The question was what.

There were some significant guardrails around what they could accomplish. The production team had only eight weeks from when Paramout+ and CBS Studios signed off on the epilogue to when they had to shoot it. Fortunately, the bridge set hadn’t been struck yet (though several standing sets already had been). And the budget allowed only for three days of production.

Then there was “Calypso.” 

To fill up the long stretches between the first three seasons of “Discovery,” CBS Studios and Paramount+ greenlit a series of 10 stand-alone episodes, dubbed “Short Treks,” that covered a wide variety of storylines and topics. The second “Short Trek” — titled “Calypso” and co-written by novelist Michael Chabon — first streamed between Season 1 and 2 in November 2018. It focuses on a single character named Craft (Aldis Hodge), who is rescued by the USS Discovery after the starship — and its now-sentient computer system, Zora (Annabelle Wallis) — has sat totally vacant for 1,000 years in the same fixed point in space. How the Discovery got there, and why it was empty for so long, were left to the viewer’s imagination. 

Still, for a show that had only just started its run, “Calypso” had already made a bold promise for “Discovery’s” endgame — one the producers had every intention of keeping.

“We always knew that we wanted to somehow tie that back up,” says Paradise, who joined the writers’ room in Season 2, and became showrunner starting with Season 3. “We never wanted ‘Calypso’ to be the dangling Chad.”

So much so, in fact, that, as the show began winding down production on Season 5, Paradise had started planning to make “Calypso” the central narrative engine for Season 6. 

“The story, nascent as it was, was eventually going to be tying that thread up and connecting ‘Discovery’ back with ‘Calypso,’” she says.

Once having a sixth season was no longer an option, Paradise knew that resolving the “Calypso” question was non-negotiable. “OK, well, we’re not going to have a season to do that,” she says. “So how do we do that elegantly in this very short period of time?”

“I Feel Like It Ends the Way It Needed to End”

Resolving “Calypso” provided the storytelling foundation for the epilogue, but everything else was about giving its characters one final goodbye.

“We want to know what’s happening to Burnham, first and foremost,” Paradise says. “And we knew we wanted to see the cast again.”

For the latter, Paradise and Jarrow devised a conceit that an older Burnham, seated in the captain’s chair on Discovery, imagines herself surrounded by her crew 30 years prior, so she (and the audience) could connect with them one final time. For the former, the makeup team designed prosthetics to age up Martin-Green and Ajala by 30 years — “I think they were tested as they were running on to the set,” Paradise says with a laugh — to illustrate Burnham and Book’s long and happy marriage together.

Most crucially, Paradise cut a few lines of Burnham’s dialogue with Book from the original Season 5 finale and moved it to a conversation she has with her son in the coda. The scene — which evokes the episode’s title, “Life Itself” — serves as both a culminating statement of purpose for “Discovery” and the overarching compassion and humanity of “Star Trek” as a whole.

To reassure her son about his first command of a starship, Burnham recalls when the ancient Progenitor asked what was most meaningful to her. “Do you know how you would answer that question now?” he asks.

“Yeah, just being here,” Burnham replies. “You know, sometimes life itself is meaning enough, how we choose to spend the time that we have, who we spend it with: You, Book, and the family I found in Starfleet, on Discovery.”

Martin-Green relished the opportunity to revisit the character she’s played for seven years when she’s reached the pinnacle of her life and career. “You just get to see this manifestation of legacy in this beautiful way,” she says. “I will also say that I look a lot like my mom, and that was that was also a gift, to be able to see her.”

Shooting the goodbye with the rest of her cast was emotional, unsurprisingly, but it led Martin-Green to an unexpected understanding. “It actually was so charged that it was probably easier that it was only those three days that we knew it was the end, and not the entirety of season,” she says.

Similarly, Paradise says she’s “not sure” what more she would’ve done had there been more time to shoot the coda. “I truly don’t feel like we missed out on something by not having one more day,” she says. “I feel like it ends the way it needed to end.”

Still, getting everything done in just three days was no small feat, either. “I mean, we worked ’round the clock,” Martin-Green says with a deep laugh. “We were delirious by the end — but man, what a way to end it.”

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