Shatner seeks out unsolved mysteries

History launches a “new” series dedicated to one of television’s most over-subscribed genres and hosted by one of its most familiar faces.

William Shatner will present the eight-part series “The UnXplained” (10 p.m., TV-14), offering credible answers to lingering mysteries while leaving viewers to continue scratching their heads over deeper imponderables.

The notion of having a familiar star bring these campfire tales into your living room dates back decades. Over the years Raymond Burr, Karl Malden and Robert Stack hosted “Unsolved Mysteries” on network, cable and in syndication. Shatner’s “Star Trek” co-star Leonard Nimoy hosted “In Search of …” That show was recently rebooted by the History channel, with Zachary Quinto as host. One needn’t go too far in search of the Spock connection.

One of television’s greatest “UnXplained” phenomena is Shatner’s sheer staying power. Like Cloris Leachman and Betty White, the former Capt. Kirk connects current viewers to the medium’s early days.

Long before his “T.J. Hooker” stint, or the time he battled gremlins in the “Twilight Zone” episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” Shatner appeared in a 1953 Canadian series called “Space Command.” He also occasionally played Ranger Bob on the classic 1950s kids’ series “Howdy Doody.” He has lived long and prospered in front of the television camera.

› “Wonders of the Moon” (10 p.m., BBC America, TV-PG) departs from the recent spate of films about the Apollo mission to appreciate the unique relationship between humans and our closest heavenly neighbor.

In a concise hour, the show celebrates the moon’s waxing and waning and occasional eclipses, it’s gravitational tug on our tides and its mythical hold on our culture and language.

› Netflix brings fresh seasons of some of its more well-known series,

including a “Freshly Brewed” edition of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Host Jerry Seinfeld hangs out with a distinctly decaffeinated Eddie Murphy. At least they have the expensive Porsche to talk about.

“Queer Eye” enters its fourth season with a visit to the high school stomping grounds of the overly groomed Jonathan Van Ness, where the gang celebrates a hard-working band leader and music teacher by changing the mullet hair style she’s maintained

since the early 1980s.

Also on Netflix, the series “Last Chance U” enters its fourth season. After two seasons at East Mississippi Community College, “Chance” follows a season at an equally obscure outpost in Independence, Kansas, where once-promising football stars regroup after being let go from more elite squads for personal problems, disciplinary issues or other infractions.

Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin .tvguy@gmail.com.