Star Trek icon’s career keeps moving at warp speed
With StAr Trek And numerous TV, film, musiC, writing And other projeCts in his pAst, oCtogenAriAn WilliAm ShAtner tells Mark Daniell, ‘I’m just getting stArted.’
At 87, William Shatner’s career is still going boldly where few have gone before.
Aside from the convention circuit, he has a touring show, he’s guest starring on various TV shows, he’s got two albums on the go — a country music one, Why Not Me?, and a Christmas LP, Shatner Claus — and there’s a self-help book due (Live Long And ...: What I Learned Along the Way) out Tuesday.
One thing he won’t be doing, though, is beaming himself back on board the USS Enterprise as his best known character, Captain James T. Kirk.
This despite the news that his fellow captain, Patrick Stewart, will be coming back for a new show that picks up with his Star Trek: The Next Generation character, Jean-Luc Picard.
“I’m wishing Patrick all the best,” Shatner says down the line from Los Angeles. “I hope he does really well going back to Star Trek, but that isn’t for me.”
Q The last time I spoke to you, you mentioned the book, Live Long And ... What was your reason for wanting to write that?
A At the back of my mind, I’m always thinking about what my kids and grandkids are going to remember about me. So I’m jotting down these things to give them some guidance as to who I was and what I was about.
Q What was the best piece of advice you ever got?
A That’s an interesting question. There was the cop who told me once, ‘Don’t speed,’ and there was a financial adviser who encouraged me to sell Priceline (stock of a travel website for which Shatner was TV pitch man). But the best piece of advice ... you know one of the themes of my book is, how can you advise anybody about anything? All you can do, and maybe I’ve done this in my own life, is to say to people, ‘This is what I did when I was in a similar situation to you, and this is what worked or didn’t work for me.’
Q Tell us about your country music record.
Well, the Why Not Me? country music album, I had songs that were submitted to me to sing. Along with (Alabama’s) Jeff Cook, I chose the songs that I thought could be popular; songs that had a lilt to them.
Q What about Shatner Claus? You have a star-studded lineup on that record singing all the classics such as Jingle Bells and Blue Christmas. How did you choose what to sing ?
A You’re going to love it. We took a variety of traditional Christmas songs and do things with them and bend them out of shape a little bit. Then I commissioned a poet, he’s a military guy, to write a Christmas poem, which he did and I think is epic, and I had musicputtoit.
Q Star Trek V: The Final Frontier turns 30 next year. In a previous interview with us, you hailed it as a “brilliant film.” Are you going to do anything fun to celebrate that?
A You know, I would like to think so. There are some flaws with Star Trek V, but there are some really good things. I think it’s worthwhile bringing that one back. So if I can convince (Paramount) to do something, it could be interesting.
Q You turned 87 earlier this year. Is there still something out there that you haven’t done yet that you would like to try?
A There’s so much. I’ve just begun. In my opinion, really, I’m just getting started.