I found myself taking an interesting position in a conversation over a drink, the other day. One of the group stated that William Shatner wasn’t a successful actor as he had only really done one thing, throughout the entirety of his career, that was playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
Now I must say, right away that I am not an authority on the work of Mr Shatner, nor have I stalked him over the past twenty years but I felt a slight need to set the record straight, at least as far as my memory would allow.
This is how the conversation went, me, “do you remember the television series, T J Hooker where Shatner played a Police office, I believe that it also co-starred amongst others James Darren, who played Vic Fontaine the holographic night club singer in Star Trek Deep Space Nine”? The group said “oh yeah”. I then said, “does anyone remember the series, the Barbary Coast? If I remember correctly Mr Shatner played a variety of roles in that one? Worryingly only one of the group said “oh yeah”. I thought well I’ve come this far so I said “ what about his role in “Tek War, which he also created as a series of novels and his Star Trek novels? “ the group said, rather testily “anything else”? I said, “well he has guest starred in shows like “the Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Columbo, The Man From UNCLE, and was in the film Judgement at Nuremberg starring along side Spencer Tracy.
The group said “Get a Life”, I said ironically the man in question recently wrote a book by that title about his experiences with Star Trek fandom over the past twenty plus years”! I was lucky to get out of the pub alive.
I felt glad that I hadn’t mentioned the TV movie that he made with Sybil Shepherd, the title escapes me. That dealt with the obsession of a business and family man, who felt the need to visit prostitutes, I also felt relieved, that I didn’t mention that he was in a legal series and a pilot about Alexander the Great.
My parting shot to the group was, “well you missed a treat when Bill was in Kung Fu with David Carradine”, I felt OK about calling Mr Shatner Bill by this time as we had been through so much together.
I decided to return home to my horse ranch and commune with my Doberman dogs, and forget the night that I stuck up for this unknown and obscure actor, who I didn’t know much about.
David Smith
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