NO SPACE in Shatner’s schedule
Famed TV and film star, bound for Fan Expo, rejects talk of starring in a new Star Trek series
William Shatner says it’s too late in his career to reboot a television series around the character that made him famous.
“Right now I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” he told the Star in an interview in Toronto. “I’ve been offered many series over the years. But I haven’t done them because of the commitment of time. And at this stage of my life that’s more valuable than anything else.”
So though CBS announced this month that it’s bringing back Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation in his own show, and that its Star Trek: Discovery series will be adding the character of Spock next season, you can forget about any sustained return for the original Captain Kirk. Shatner says that at the age of 87 he’s never been busier anyhow, writing books, doing guest-starring roles on TV, and producing music albums — plus making an appearance at Toronto’s Fan Expo on Friday and Saturday, where fans can pony up $85 for a photo op.
Still, there was, naturally, some speculation that Montreal native Shatner could be next for a standalone show. “I would love to do something with Shatner,” says Shawn Piller, the executive producer of fantasy-drama
Haven (where he had Shatner appear as a guest star) and who has written episodes for Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager.
“It would be great to get another Star Trek series going (and) I would work with Shatner any day of the week,” he tells the Star — and the star’s busy schedule is part of the reason. “He still rides horses. He does 10 pages of dialogue a day and puts everyone else to shame. He’s a director himself and directed one of the big Star Trek movies.
“And on top of that he sings. He’s an animal. I want to be as with it as he is when I’m that age.”
Piller is already something of Trek royalty thanks to his father, the late Michael Piller.
“It would be great to get another Star Trek series going (and) I would work with Shatner any day of the week.” SHAWN PILLER TV PRODUCER
The elder Piller was the showrunner of The Next Generation and would go on to create Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager with executive producer Rick Berman.
Shawn Piller, who wrote his first Trek script when he was still in college, says he has kicked around ideas with Rod Roddenberry, son of the late Trek creator Gene, about doing a potential series together. “We thought it might be fun to get together with the sons of Piller and Roddenberry back working together again.”
Nothing is set in stone, clearly, but Shatner says he doesn’t rule out making guest appearances in the future as the starship captain.
“It will have to pass through enormous hurdles including permission from Paramount and then they’ll have to get back to me and see where things are at,” says Shatner, who congratulated Stewart with a tweet when the new Star Trek series was announced.
The last time Shatner made headlines around these parts it was over a tweet to realtor Brad Lamb and his proposed Television City development in Hamilton. The project will turn the headquarters of CHCH into two giant condos.
Most people outside Hamilton didn’t know about the project until Shatner tweeted to his 2.48 million followers that Lamb was using his likeness to market the development. He requested that the condo developer, who also once had his own reality TV show — Big City Broker on HGTV — donate money to one of his favourite charities.
The controversy and subsequent publicity also turned out to be the best marketing you could get for the project, which sold out the first 40-storey tower in a month. But it seems there is some dispute over whether Lamb paid up.
“He promised us money, and he never gave us money,” Shatner tells me. “Whatever it is, it’s up to his honour. He doesn’t owe me. He owes charity. He owes his conscience. I don’t want to say that he has to give for his soul. I don’t even know if it exists. But for his humanity, for a guy who needs to keep his head up. That’s all I’m asking.” However, Lamb disputes Shatner’s accounting in an interview with the Star.
“We sent a good-sized cheque to his favourite horse charity. I believe it was a reasonable amount of money for the disruption, and I even got a tax receipt,” says Lamb, who did not wish to specify the amount.
Lamb promised the Star a copy of a letter sent to his firm from the charity, but was unable to provide it in time for publication. However, he sent a copy of a message from Shatner thanking him personally for his “generous donation.”
“Every kid of that era wanted to be Captain Kirk,” says Lamb. “And I thought we were paying homage to our favourite television characters and doing a nice thing.”
It could simply be that, given Shatner’s schedule and commitment to dozens of charities, he just forgot about the donation. But it seems to have had the outcome he wanted: The Television City project is now before the Ontario Municipal Board after Hamilton’s plan- ning committee voted to oppose the development, saying it was incompatible with the surrounding neighbourhood. Lamb says he is still in talks with the city over modifying the development.
Lamb says the whole controversy has been a “tempest in a teapot. Nobody really cares what you name the suite after. No one buys a suite because you name it after someone. Nobody’s that stupid. And really, I think we did more sales after we took the names off the suite than before. But Captain Kirk has always been a God-like figure to me.”
“Captain Kirk has always been a God-like figure to me.” BRAD LAMB CONDO DEVELOPER