Old Shat
William Shatner wrote a book on his memories of the Star Trek series, another on the Star Trek movies, another on his life as Captain Kirk, and not too long ago came out with a full-blown autobiography. So of course it's time for a new book, Shatner Rules.
He looks over his years and discovers what we can all learn from them. It's a catch-all, with chapters on hitchhiking across America, appearing on Broadway, doing Star Trek (among other TV), being roasted, getting an honorary degree, throwing parties, making albums, doing comedy and whatever else he can dredge up that hasn't been covered before.
Maybe there's not quite enough here for a full-length book, but I enjoyed it. Some time ago Shatner saw a lot of people were laughing at him and he decided to join them, and it's nice that he's in on the joke. But, as this book demonstrates, it's not that simple.
Sure, you can make fun of his acting style, but he has done good work, before, during and after Star Trek. In fact, he got past the typecasting to create another classic TV character, Denny Crane, on The Practice and Boston Legal, who won him a couple of Emmys. The Star Trek series has too many flaws not to have a little fun with it, but there's still something there, and it probably couldn't have succeeded without William Shatner giving it his best.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
7 Comments:
He played Kirk (and TJ Hooker) straight. He played Denny Crane like he was in on the joke and played that character like a blustering full of himself Bill Shatner.
Hooker was too ridiculous but the other two characters worked despit the very different approaches
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the documentary "Captains" in which Shatner visits and interviews all of the other actors who have played the captain of a star ship in the series (including Chris Pine).
Each of the interviews is interesting, but it's clear that he has developed quite a friendship with Patrick Stewart.
Since Star Trek was one of the first dramatic theatrical productions I watched (once I graduated from cartoons), I did not initially view Shatner's Kirk as any sort of unusual performance. In any film or TV work, there has to be something that makes the main characters stand out, otherwise you wonder why you are watching them instead of the red shirt at the console. Kirk was played flamboyantly, and it was clear that that flamboyancy was part of what made Kirk a great captain 9for purposes of the show). And it contrasted with Spock's ultra-cool, logical approach to everything.
One of my favorite NexGen episodes is the one where Q grants Piccard a glimpse of what his life would be like if he hadn't been so rash in his younger days. Piccard ends up on the Enterprise, a well-thought of, but clearly average crewman.
I don't think this tendency to play up extremes in theater reflects reality - the great often are the unassuming people in society (think Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and tons of people whose names I can't remember). But drama is entertainment, and we like to think that greatness exhibits identifiable traits, so that's what TV and movies show.
Look at any traditional war movie from the time right before Star Trek- Kirk's character is no different than unit leader. (I said "right before" because I think movies like the The Dirty Dozen, Catch-22 and (I think) The Great Escape were out to change the traditional cliches (sorry didnt look it up).
On a side note- my son is into watching the old Twilight Zone episodes- we just got season 4 - the year they did hour long episodes- its fun to see the other Star Trek characters in bit parts- I just Scotty as an unfriendly resident of a small town where strange things happen.
I'd say even by the standards of the day Shatner was overacting. Still, that was Shatner trying to be a hero, not Shatner mocking a role he thought was beneath him.
Tex Ritter, zero comments, William Shatner, five comments.
Is there no justice? Is there no justice?
We're commenters not cultural caretakers, dammit.
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