William Shatner says Captain Kirk was a good hero
To many people, William Shatner is a beloved TV icon. To others, he’s a shameless self-promoter, a commercial pitchman for everything from margarine to hotel rooms. Few feel neutral about Shatner, so this story may come as something of a surprise. William Shatner rarely watches himself on TV and film. Like a lot of actors, when he works, he’s in the moment and doesn’t go back and study what he did and why. It’s been working for him. As Denny Crane on Boston Legal, he’s won two Emmys in the last three years.
He’s also not watching his old TV shows. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that Shatner actually sat and watched Star Trek. “I haven’t seen myself playing Captain Kirk in a long, long time,” he said. So when he saw the episode called A Piece of the Action, in which the Enterprise has to interfere in a planet that’s built its society on the model of a Chicago 1920’s gangster movie and threaten to kill each other, he watched it. Kirk dons a Fedora and pinstripe suit to beam down to the planet and broker a peace between the warring factions. Oh, and the episode is a comedy! It wasn’t as campy as Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack in Robin and the Seven Hoods, but they may have used the same costumer.
Anyway, Shatner didn’t reach for the remote. “I watched it now, from my perspective of 40 years later, and I thought, `You know, that’s rather good.’ It’s a starship captain trying to do the accent, the Noo Yawk accent, trying to play tough, trying to be one of the guys. It’s not quite right, but it’s what a starship captain would have done-a decent imitation, enough to fool those guys but not the audience.”
Reflecting on the character of Jim Kirk, Shatner said, “He was a good hero. He made decisions. He was forceful. He was compassionate. He was the instigator. He fought hard and long physically and emotionally. He carried the dilemma of whether to intrude or not to intrude. It was all the classic forms of good Greek play making: The hero has the dilemma and resolves the dilemma.”
Whether Shatner will feel that good about the upcoming (2009) Star Trek movie in which Kirk and Spock and McCoy and the entire Enterprise crew will return, but with new actors in the roles, remains to be seen. Chris Pine has been cast as James T. Kirk. All Bill is saying now is that he’s kind of sad that he’s not involved. True, this is sci-fi, but Kirk perished in the 1994 feature Star Trek Generations.
Meanwhile, don’t be stunned if Bill Shatner snags another Emmy nomination for Boston Legal. The nominations will be announced on July 17, 2008.
Tom Cruise visits Trek set
Don’t you just love the web? News traveling so fast, ideas extrapolated and speculated upon based on the simplest of facts. That said, here’s a sweet little tidbit that I found amusing. Tom Cruise was spotted on the Los Angeles set of the new Star Trek feature film. He reportedly was visiting writer/director JJ Abrams. The two men, you’ll recall, collaborated on Mission Impossible 3.
This exclusive, courtesy of JFXOnline, revealed that Tom stuck around the set for a couple of hours. Prior to this sighting, there had also been talk last fall that Abrams had wanted to enlist the superstar to make a brief cameo appearance in the revamped Star Trek opus, telling the story of how creator Gene Roddenberry’s original characters came to be. How Captain Kirk made it out of the Star Fleet Academy (in The Wrath of Khan he said he cheated on his Kobyashi Maru simulation test), as well as the first time Kirk met the half-Vulcan, half-human Mr. Spock.
Tom Cruise’s representatives Arnold Robinson, denied the rumors of his appearing in the film, and Paramount hasn’t said much since pushing the opening for the film to May 2009.
I’d like to think that Cruise’s visit — which was more than just a hit-and-run “hello, how are you?’” — means that he actually filmed a quick scene. After all, how cool would it be if he popped up in the feature. I’m not saying they have to cast him in a big part, but couldn’t he appear as a one of those anonymous redshirts that beamed down to a planet and wound up killed in the line of duty? I’d pay to see that. See, doesn’t Tom look good in red?
Star Trek movie pushed back to 2009
It looks like Star Trek fans are going to have to wait until May 2009 to see their franchise reboot. According to Variety, Paramount Pictures has pushed back the release date because they feel it would make more money as a summer tentpole.
The reboot is being masterminded by J.J. Abrams, who is behind such television shows as Alias and Lost. It stars Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock. Leonard Nimoy, who originated the role of Spock in the 1960’s, will be returning as well in the movie as an older Spock.
Frankly, I think this is a bad idea. While the movie-going public increases during the summer, Star Trek has the benefit of family appeal that would make it perfect as a Christmas Day release once the gifts are open and the family starts realizing that it can’t stand each other.
As someone who does not celebrate Christmas, I would have been very happy to have this option as something to do on Christmas Day. Now, I have to wait until May. Curse you, Paramount.
[Via Ain’t It Cool]
The Fonz to get statue in Milwaukee
It looks like the “Bronze the Fonz” campaign worked. The archetypical Happy Days character will be getting his own bronze statue in the city where the T.V. show was set.
This isn’t the first time a television character has gotten a statue. I live near New York City and I walk past the Ralph Kramden statue every time I take the bus. The cable channel TV Land has arranged for a half-dozen statues to be placed across America. TV Land is co-sponsoring the Fonzie statue as well.Henry Winkler is quoted as saying the project was “a phenomenal compliment”. Granted, the man’s career nosedived after this role, but very few of us get to be part of Americana like this. I do admit that if I ever visit Milwaukee after this is built, I will likely get a photo of myself next to the statue giving the double-thumbs-up and saying “Ayyyyyyy”.
Of course, the U.S. isn’t the only country that builds statues to fictional characters. In London’s Hyde Park, there is a statue of Peter Pan. What other American television characters should be getting a statue? Mork? Urkel? Lucy Ricardo? Captain Kirk?