WILLIAM SHATNER
WILLIAM SHATNER EXPLORES TRUE LIFE WEIRDNESS IN THE UNXPLAINED. SFX BOLDLY GOES WITH HIM
The Trek icon warps into true-life weirdness in TV series The UnXplained.
OUR LIVES ARE consumed in mysteries,” says William Shatner, on the line to SFX from his home in California. He has career experience when it comes to the inexplicable. As James T Kirk in Star Trek his entire mission statement was to search out strange new worlds. The cold reaches of Kirk’s cosmos concealed such phenomena as salt vampires, incorporeal serial killers and the occasional Greek god. TJ Hooker’s beat, it’s fair to say, was considerably less freaky. Now Shatner’s back fronting The UnXplained, a documentary series that explores the fringes of science and history, from murderous cults to miraculous meteorites, cursed islands to extraterrestrial contact. It’s a subject that clearly enthuses him. He may be in lockdown when he speaks to SFX but the Shatner brain rockets to the edges of reality as talk turns to all things unknown…
On a sliding scale between scepticism and a willingness to believe, where would you place yourself?
I’d like to join both ends of that choice. I want to believe. I’m of the age where I want to believe I continue on, in life after death, and I will be aware, and I won’t be lonely, I won’t be without my loved ones. And yet my logical nature says, “All the billions who have died, how do they appear – how they looked in their old age, or do they appear at their youthful best?” It’s so illogical to our human minds that I want to believe and I don’t believe. And that goes for everything. We’re all aware of the incredible mysteries around us. Quantum physics has revealed even more. Scientists, simply by looking at an experiment, bring that experiment to life. And when they stop looking the experiment winks out of existence. How’s that possible? It’s the stuff of science fiction. One mystery after another needs explaining and there’s no explanation. At least, we don’t know the answer. But we seek the answer. Every so often we come across an answer, and we say, “Oh that’s the answer to that question…” but it only reveals another question.
What’s been the most compelling subject in this series for you?
I’ve become fascinated with precognition. What the heck is precognition? Where does that come from? Take 9/11, for instance. How did those people know that something was going to happen, a plane crashing into a building? They wrote it down and people said, “Are you crazy?” Shortly thereafter, a plane crashes into a building. How would they have known? Given the choice between two slots, a photon of light seems to make a choice. And not only does it seem to have free will to choose which slot it’s going to, it’s preceded by a wave of something that helps it make its choice. Something tells the photon which slot to go in. Could that be what precognition is?
Quantum physics is mindblowing…
It’s mindblowing. Did that little radio tower inside that person’s head receive that message? If so, where was the message sent from? Did that mean that that event has happened before? And is happening again? One resonance after another. You are filled with these waves of questions. What is it? What’s there? And then you realise your whole existence, everything Which would you prefer to encounter: a ghost, a UFO or maybe something cryptozoological?
I’m talking to you from inside what’s essentially my man-cave. And I’m looking at a picture of my long-dead parents. My mother and father are looking at me through a black and white photograph. Wouldn’t it be something to see my dad? He died in 1968. I’m looking at him now and I’m thinking, “Hey, pop, why don’t you come out?” The older you get the more you think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful, just for a moment, to see those long-dead people that you might have loved?” What a mystery that would be. And yet people claim to see them. Is that a vision? Or is that something similar to precognition?
David Lynch once said that mystery is beautiful, and nothing is more beautiful than a continuing mystery. Is there part of us that doesn’t want this stuff to be solved? Is there something more transcendent in the mystery itself?
What an interesting statement. And I would add to that statement. As well as the beauty of mystery there’s the joy of discovery. Every mystery reveals another mystery. So there’s a continuum. You can have the joy of discovering that the Earth goes around the sun, and realising that there’s something beyond this planet. And then you’re visited by the mystery – what exactly is it that’s beyond this planet?
Does this stuff actually deserve to be on the fringes, as it generally is?
In World War II, Britain employed psychics to try and find who and what was where. And I think they made some hits, as they called them. There were certain psychics that could say, “I’m getting a vision of…” And they would treat that seriously. The police absolutely employ psychics to try and find criminals. Not so long ago, I had somebody in my life die that I loved very much. I was so overwhelmed by grief that I was on my way, if you can believe this, to see a psychic who had a television show. I was so overwhelmed by the desire to see that person again. I was literally on my way when I suddenly thought, “What am I doing?” And I stopped. I called and said, “I’m not coming.” But in my grief I so wanted to see that person again. Many civilisations talk about a period of time in which that soul which has passed still remains around the loved one. Usually it’s around 30 days. Now that’s universal. Why? Life after death. That’s the big mystery. And everybody realises there’s no answer. If you’re religious you go on faith and you say, “Yes, this must happen.” That’s one way. Another way is saying, “I don’t know and I’ll find out.” And then you’re terrified. One is terrified by the potential of nothing.
How does the show balance entertainment with investigation?
I would think it’s no different to you and I talking right now. You and I are engaged in a conversation. We’re both talking about mysteries of death, mysteries of life, mysteries of science. Inexplicable events that happen in the world. We say, “How on earth did that happen?” Voodoo: why did sticking a pin in a doll result in the death of that person? Why do people go to a certain forest to commit suicide? Where did those Russian students go? Why did they behave in such a peculiar fashion? Their bodies were mangled and strewn around a square mile… Why? What happened? There’s never been an explanation. We’ve just discovered, within the last several years, that plants give off a toxin so insects won’t bite them. Trees give off a pheromone to communicate with other trees. But what we didn’t know until very recently is that they’re also communicating with low-level electrical impulses. Did you know that? They use the pathways of mushrooms. The tree uses that as a conduit to send electrical impulses to other trees. Everything’s intelligent around us. Do you realise that? Everything. I saw two snails, without their shells on. They were mating and shaking with what has to be joy. Two snails, for god’s sake! [Laughs] We’re surrounded by life and intelligence and mystery. And we just have to become aware of it. And this show gives us a peek at some of those mysteries.
You always have so many projects on the go – so how are you coping with the current lockdown?
I’m spending this incarceration in my home trying to perfect myself. I’m trying to get myself physically back into shape and lose weight and eat properly so I don’t have inflammation. I’m working on an album that is unique – an autobiographical album. I’ve got a wonderful wordsmith, a guy who writes melodic lines, and the three of us are working together, each in our own little cell. I’m also working on selling shows that we’ve devised. I’ve got unique access to the Los Angeles Police Department files, trying to sell a show called Unique Stories Of The LAPD. My day is busy, trying to be creative both in a dramatic way, and physically and mentally.
You’ve written a few books. Are you tempted to do a book on this subject? Absolutely. I’m reading voraciously about these things. Just one book after another, why people behave the way they do. Robert Macfarlane wrote a book called Underland, all about things that happen underground. A guy got into a cave and fell down a chute and was stuck. And then other spelunkers found him and tried to get him out. They tried everything. And they couldn’t get him out. He was in a chute, several feet deep, and he was wedged in there. And finally he died, and they poured the calcium from the stalactites in his grave and buried him in the cave. Isn’t that wild? So there was a living body, organic material, buried inside a hole in a calcified cave. The circle of life!
The UnXplained is airing on Sky HISTORY now, on Tuesday nights.
Given the choice between two slots, a photon of light seems to make a choice