WILLIAM SHATNER DIDN’T THINK STAR TREK WOULD BECOME SUCCESSFUL! « Showbiz Spy

WILLIAM SHATNER DIDN’T THINK STAR TREK WOULD BECOME SUCCESSFUL!

Posted by Adam

Monday September 6, 2010

WILLIAM Shatner admits he didn’t think Star Trek would become a “big deal”.

The actor — who played James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series from 1966 to 1969 — thought the program would only last a few episodes.

“I never thought it’d become a big deal, just 13 episodes and out,” Shatner, 79, told the New York Times.

“I didn’t think I was hard to get along with. There were a few disaffected actors who came in once a week. I had nothing to do with them. Friendly!

“I was working seven days a week, learning 10 pages of dialogue a day. They had one line! Then after the show was canceled and the Star Trek phenomenon began, those actors would go to the conventions. They’d get applause, praise, and begin to think, ‘Hey, I was wonderful, and Shatner stole the spotlight.’

“Then that character was foisted on me by people in the press.

“They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it. Pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded.

“So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner. At least one of us should.”

Shatner recently revealed he might be involved in JJ Abrams‘ reboot of the Star Trek franchise in time for his 80th birthday.

“I’ve become a buddy of JJ but I don’t know if they can solve the problem of how do you put the body I’m in now with the Kirk that we remember forty years ago,” says William, who was not involved in last year’s Star Trek prequel movie.

“They just did a Tron with Jeff Bridges and de-aged him but I don’t know how they did that. It’s going to take a lot of electronics on me!”

William Shatner

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bob jones
Hey Shatner,
Why don’t you act your age and take off that hair piece…
Then you can show us the REAL William Shatner………..

http://yahoo Richard Ables
Yea Bob Jones, why don’t you get a real job. You are just jealous of Mr. Shatner. People like you have not brains at all, just big mouths.
Larry Lee Moniz
Hey Jones,
Why don’t you act your age and take out your crayons…
Then you can show us the REAL Bob Jones………..

bob jones
I just tell the truth…I also, tell it like it is……….

STan da man
meaning you have nothing better to do then “tell it like it is” to people who KNOW more of what it is than you could ever possibly imagine in your puny little head.
and truth? what is truth? If it is what is real, then what IS real?
if it is what you read on your computer screen or concoct in your brain then real is simply electricity bent to the will of your mind.
The Matrix has you Mr. Jones, and until you see the absolute and unerring truth, you will never break free…
i can only show you the door, it is you who must travel through it.

Fred
Shatner’s a good guy. He was brilliant in the series. I don’t like remakes, though. Can’t they leave it alone now?
Chad in Japan
W.S.
You finally said/put it right!
Born in ’67 grew up on re-runs and dragged my Dad to one convention in BOS (’80 or so) nobody from the cast came–was a ST freak, back then.
After that, there was no ST for me.
Became an adult and grew into heavy, human dramas/documentaries (Schindler’s List, Fog of War…etc.).
But if it wasn’t for ST, I never would’ve developed–as a tween, it introduced me to a lot of issues. I might watch every eposide again–after all these years–and still learn something (acting, even!).
Alan
“Denny Craine, Denny Craine!”
I’m sorry; the actors in the new movie were, for the most part, great, but the movie stunk. JJ Abrams (I love Fringe BTW) ruined Star Trek. You can’t make a “prequel” and change history (unless you make it very clear that it is an alternate universe story, which wasn’t done here). You can just frivolously destroy Vulcan, have an encounter with a Romulan before what was clearly described as the first encounter in TOS, etc., etc. If you allow this new movie into the canon, then you have to discount everything that came “after”, TOS, Next Generation etc. How was Spock brought back to life on Vulcan in The Search For Spock if Vulcan did not exist?
Abrams could have made a very good, exciting movie using all of his fancy special effects and stayed true to the original, but no! Unless Mr. Abrams returns to Star Trek “reality”, I don’t think Mr. Shatner should have anything to do with the next movie. Otherwise let it RIP.

Some Guy
If you weren’t paying attention, they clearly pointed out that by going back in time, the current timeline was completely and totally disrupted. It was exactly, as you say, “an alternative universe story”. Nothing that happened in TOS will happen in this new universe in the same way, something that is clearly pointed out by differences in the two timelines. This is far more realistic than Star Trek 4′s going back in time and having their previous timeline being maintained. If one were to go back in time, any changes would ripple and change everything in the future.

Achmed
Not necessarily. There is a theory that the further back you go in time, the less of an affect it will have on today. Consider a pebble thrown into a pond. The ripple from the pebble subsides the further away from the pebble it travels, until the ripple fades away. The same can be considered for time travel.
But this is purely academic at the moment, since we can’t travel back in time currently.

tebjr
I’ve never understood the love for Shatner. He’s not that talented as an actor, and he comes across as a smug, conceited smart-@$$.

Brian
People love Shatner… because he IS Shatner! Duh! Take him as a smug ass if you will but people love him. Enough said.

Geoff
Alan,
It’s clearly explained in the new movie that a new alternate reality was created by Nero’s acts. That’s why old Spock could still be around even though Vulcan was destroyed.
This is not canon of the original run of Star Trek. This is a brand new line of history separate from the original series. Just to go back and make everything exist in the original canon would be not good. Remember “Enterprise”? Didn’t that change “everything after it”? It’s shown in the original series that no one knew what a Romulan looked like because they didn’t have view screens when they first met one. Enterprise had view screens all over the damn place.
Don’t blame J.J. Abrams for trying something new. Rick Berman drove Trek into the ground. Abrams just wanted to make it interesting again.

Alan
If you want to create something new fine, then don’t call it Star Trek. Or at least make it a sequel that happened after what we saw before.
Roddenberry’s vision of the future was bright and hopeful. It was one of the few si-fi futures that was what we would hope the future would be like, where ‘man’ actually ‘makes it’. Where we have learned to suppress our warrior instincts. It is a future of peace. War really is a last resort. Abrams future is dark, dreary; almost “Blade Runnerish”. That may equal bucks at the box office in a world full of people who didn’t live through the Cold War and Vietnam, but it is NOT Star Trek. Sorry.
Make your movie JJ, I may even go see it and enjoy it; but don’t call it Star Trek. Don’t take away my childhood dreams of THAT future.

living long and prospering
berman , piller , roddenberry WERE genuis , ABRAMS is not , want a great movie? let , nimoy or frakes direct the next one ,
anti-matter
i remember as a kid, when it came out. i knew it was going to be a hit. ‘Lost In Space,’ was getting too campy, and was still in black & white. Roddenberry had a lot of great and novel ideas, and much better special effects, along with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy providing the core. and i think Shatner’s an excellent actor. both he and Nimoy made that series. the ‘Wrath Of Khan,’ is still one of the best Trekkie movies. as a sidebar (imo), the next jump in special effects was ’2001 A Space Odyssey,’ in 1968, and then ‘Star Wars,’ in 1977. but now it seems to have gone full circle, as the total CG generate seems to have eliminated much of the ‘tactile’ effect.
Jeff
star trek was a horrible show.. any one who is a (trekkie) so to speak has serious issues

SciFiNUTT
That’s funny. If you don’t like the Star Trek subject matter, then just WHY the HELL are you reading this article and then taking the time to respond to it? You don’t like it, THEN IGNORE IT! Common sense.
Larry Lee Moniz
I can only imagine that you are a well put together human being that gives to charity and continuously embarks on humanitarian efforts thus helping to make this a better world for all… oh wait, you’re just another asshole that gets off on “calling out” groups of people that like harmless things you don’t understand. My bad.
Brian
You STILL need to get laid… don’t you?

Bill
Since he’s now in a different body, maybe he should play another, similar, older character. Nothing like new material to juice up a plot.
bob jones
Hey Shatner,
Why don’t you act your age and take off that hair piece…
Then you can show us the REAL William Shatner………..

Brian
That’s Shatner’s real hair. He did the Bosley type transplant thing. You might do it too if your career depended on it!

http://none james
dont do it.., dont make another trek with kirk in it unless its one that shows memories of him.., if another sequel.., series.., etc with him in it as a regular charachter is made it’ll just ruin the franchise…, people think its to-much fantasy or sci-fi as it is & as much as i’d like to see kirk or shatner back – it just wont work!.., shatner chose to be killed off & they brought pikard in to take his place & puttin shatner back in another star trek series wud make asmuch sense as bringin bush back in to take over from obama.., leave it be as-is before they really mess it up.

Thomas Boussum
I agree with you in part, James. Bringing Bill back as James T. Kirk, like they did Leonard as Spock, wouldn’t work. But…they could have Bill play Kirk’s grandfather, Tiberius.

http://none james
if they wanna bring him back.., then bring him back as tj hooker or denny crane.
Naes
The only way Shatner could do it as a cousin( AT OLDER AGE) of J.T.Kirk & working on a Federation Historical project….J.T.Kirk died in “Generations” & the alt. time line thing just would not hold up for a modern movie audience( Proof-? note how fast the movie came/went, did at box office-THAT’S PROOF !)….
What should follow now is “the Chronicles of Excelsior” with Captain Sulu & the Starship USS Excelsior…
the books are great Star Trek material!
Roddenberry would be proud of that continuation!
barry
A new Star Trek movie Shatner would be great. I dont care If he is older. I am older too. I loved all series and the movies. Even Janeway. Thanks for all the good work. Captian Sulu might be funny…
Love Barry

Brian
Sulu isn’t funny… he’s GAY.

GeeWang
The new Star Trek stinks anyway. JJ Abrams is ruining the franchise. The guy doesn’t even like star trek.
chris
I agree. I liked the movie, but they ruined it to me by erasing all star trek history we grew up on for 1 movie (they might get 4 out of it at the most). I was hoping that Abrams would just do adventures with the crew that maybe was not chronicled, instead of deleting everything. You all know that if the 2nd film doesn’t make a ton of money that will end this reboot and star trek fans everywhere will be stuck with this “timeline”. Also I didn’t really get the spock and uhru love thing… I believe it would have been better if spock was goin’ have a love interest it would have been nurse chapel. That’s what most fans of the show wanted to see anyway.
http://yahoo Eric
If he ever does come back,he should be like a General or leader of defense (some time of comendable high military power)and let the fans deside if he is worthy or not. Every body deserves a chance!
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