Boldly Going ... Everywhere!

Catching Up With William Shatner

Ninety-year-old William Shatner keeps a schedule that would make folks half his age blanch. And that’s just the way he likes it. Between appearances at comic cons and Star Trek and Wizard World conventions, penning books and performing around the world, he relishes expanding his own horizons while giving his massive, multigenerational fan base a wide variety of Shatner-y goodness to savor.

We caught up with Shatner just before the premiere of his recent NBC unscripted series Better Latethan Never, which featured Shatner on a comical, monthlong sojourn through Asia with Henry Winkler, George Foreman andterry Bradshaw.

Tell us how you became part of the excellent adventure that was Better Late Than Never.

William Shatner:they said, “We’re going to go to Hong Kong” — I’ve never been to Hong Kong. “We’re going to go to South Korea,tokyo” — I’ve never been. I thought, “What an adventure!” And the very title — Better Latethan Never! And to talk about the lap of luxury, you have to have a movie company provide for you.they have people … they get the tickets … they get the private planes … they carry your luggage … they throw roses in front of you. It’s a trip made in heaven because there’s nothing to do.

Henry Winkler says you have “read every book since Copernicus” and remember every word you’ve read. True? I do read a lot, but the retention — I can read a book twice in a month and not realize I’ve read the same book. In fact, I’ve probably only read one book. I just think it’s a new book. … When you’re on a show and you know everybody’s being funny, if there was any competition, it was who could be funnier. I didn’t want to enter that competition, so I would mostly make up facts. I was able to sell them that I knew what I was talking about.

You’re still really involved in Star

Trek culture; do you also keep up with what’s happening with space research and the possibility of living on other planets? I’ve tried to sell several shows dealing with space and space progression and things like that — I’m in the process of trying to make those kinds of shows. But I don’t think that we can do more than just exist on Mars. And the reason for that being that the Earth is used up and we have decimated the Earth. We have to bring the Earth back to health.