Shatner strong
“Star Trek” star in town for “Wrath of Khan” showing
William Shatner wants fans to know they’re going to get their money’s worth seeing him and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” at the Paramount Theatre on June 21.
“You could spend a lot of money going to a Broadway show and not be happy about it,” Shatner, 87, said over the phone last month. “Hundreds of dollars, in fact. And that’s not the case here, generally speaking.”
That’s because Shatner, a.k.a. the original captain of the Starship Enterprise on the 1960s “Star Trek” series and its later movie spinoffs, is a stage performer at heart. For the most part, he has embraced fans of his iconic sci-fi work as much as anything else he has done, including his Emmy-winning roles on “The Practice” and “Boston Legal,” as well as his tongue-incheek ad campaigns and albums.
And given the nature of the event — a movie screening of 1982’s now-classic (and still franchise-best) “The Wrath of Khan,” followed by Shatner on
taking questions from the audience — he certainly expects plenty of hardcore fans.
“It most certainly is a ‘Star Trek’ event, but a lot of people come for other reasons as well,” he said. “It isn’t a comic con. It’s basically a movie-going theater group, you know? People who have followed me over the years. It’s a happening. An explosion of information and laughter.”
Is it, now? We talked about that, Shatner’s longevity and evolving sense of mortality, and much more in advance of his June 21 visit. Tickets for the Paramount show are available via altitudetickets.com for $49.50-$99.
Q : So the last time we chatted you had been doing your Broadway one-man shows, which you described as surreal. Have these “Wrath of Khan” shows been more down to earth?
A: They’re different in that they’re tied to the movie, so what happens is that they play the movie — which still holds up — and everybody enjoys the film and then I come out and talk about it and tell stories and we have a good time. When I did the show back East a couple days ago it was explosive, listening to the reactions to the film by the audience. It’s quite a lot of fun seeing people applaud moments and laugh at things. It’s a totally different experience looking at that film in that way.
Q : As compared to when you first saw it?
A: No, because I never saw it in front of an audience before. When it first came out, I never actually saw the film. So I’m seeing it for the first time here.
Q : Really? That can’t be true.
A: I never like to look at anything I’m in. But in any case, a great and enjoyable time is had by everybody and then I come out afterwards and I answer a lot of questions and tell a lot of things.
Q : Do you have a favorite scene in the movie?
A: Probably the very ending, the culmination of the whole film. As a result of being a decent film, the ending evokes emotion that is dependent on you identifying with it. It’s the summation.
Q : Is there anything you won’t talk about on stage?
A: Well I don’t talk about (sex). But other than that ... . I tried politics for awhile, and nowadays you get screams from the audience when you bring that up. I keep saying, “It’s a joke, it’s a joke,” but I watch Bill Maher and marvel at him, the way he handles it. For the most part, it’s things people don’t talk about at dinner: religion, sex and politics. And that applies in the theater as well.
Q : Why is it so exciting seeing someone in person after watching them on screen? What’s the appeal? I know John Cleese did a similar tour with “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” last year.
A: What is the power? Well, there’s got to be a shock because of the magnitude of appearing on screen, where you’re 16 feet high, and then you come out and you’re merely mortal. But in this case, the film was made some 35 years ago and then I come out, much to the consternation of everybody, 35 years older. So I joke about that. How would you feel if people were comparing you from 35 years ago in person? But I still have the powers to amuse them and make them laugh and keep them held. So it’s from a point of view of where I’ve matured and gotten older. I talk about that, and about where the film resides in the canon of “Star Trek” and its historical significance. It’s great fun.
Q : Of all your movies and TV shows, which do you wish got more attention?
A: I really can’t think of any ... . It’s quite an honor that this film has been so meaningful as to get people to come and watch it again years later. There has to be some fascination and significance to it. But I don’t know. I’ve heard Mel Brooks is going out with “Blazing Saddles,” and I’m not sure that “Blazing Saddles” is worth a retrospective. I think it’s Mel Brooks who is hysterical. So maybe people are coming to see me in conjunction with the film.
Q : You also have an interest in educating people about science and astronomy. Can you talk about that?
A: I’ve done my share of perusing and then I had a show (on Netflix) last year called “The Truth in Our Stars,” where I interviewed a lot of cosmologists, which ended up with Stephen Hawking, which was an experience. I’m intrigued, as we all must be, by what science is doing and the mystery that’s out there — and what we don’t know, which is evstage erything. And given that truth that we don’t know anything, any of the speculation both by sci-fi writers and scientists is valid.
Q : How do you mean?
A: I mean anybody can speculate and it’s valid because we don’t know. And given the fact that we have dark matter and dark energy, which is doing things to the universe that we don’t understand at all, our science is suspect because we’re looking at things that are 95 percent covered by something we don’t understand (dark matter and dark energy). But I had an argument about that with (”Cosmos” host and astronomer) Neil degrasse Tyson and he said, “Well, we do know some things!”
Q : We’ve also talked before about the perils and promise of being on stage. What keeps you coming back? You clearly don’t need to tour at this point in your career, or life.
A: Well, I’ve been associating myself with a lot stand-up comics of late. Of all the entertainers I can think of who live by their wits — which goes for everybody, really, whether they’re writers who write down their witticisms or stand-ups who annunciate them — they do the most on stage. If you can still entertain an audience by coming up with something that is intuitive and distinctive, or whatever response makes people laugh spontaneously, it’s learned intuition — if there is such a thing. That’s a skill. That’s a talent that is there, and that is honed by both natural and experiential factors.
Q : What are you thoughts on mortality as you approach your ninth decade?
A: I think about it a lot because it’s around the corner. I am fearful because I don’t have ... well, I envy the people who have faith that they’re going to a better place and they’ll meet their loved ones. That theory is so filled with a lack of logic. I remember the movie “Gladiator,” and he had left his wife and children and gone out to battle, and found a beautiful girl and lost her as well. When he died, he was going to see his loved ones again. And I wondered, “Which loved ones was he going go see? Will I see my mother and father again? And in what state of decomposition will my mother and father be? Are they frozen in their youth or old and crippled the way they were when they died?” So all that is mystifying and I’ve come to the conclusion that death is in all likelihood the end. And that saddens me because there’s so much to be done and said.
Q : Like what?
A: I’ve got two albums coming out this year — a country music album with Jeff Cook (of Alabama) called “Why Not Me,” and a Christmas album called “Shatner Claus.”
Q : That title is excellent.
A: The humor of the title and some of that is reflected in the numbers that I’m doing, which are standards. But there’s also some very serious stuff in there and I have high hopes that both those albums will be kindly regarded. And I’ve got another book coming out about old age, and how you can’t advise anybody to do anything because you don’t walk in their shoes, which is the only way that works for me. If that works for you, good, and the book is called “Living Long and ... . ” You know, “dot dot dot.” So I’ve got stuff coming out that reflects me, I think, at my best. And if that’s it, I’m leaving that legacy. It’s as good a work as I’ve ever done and this thing on stage is me at the height of my powers of amusing people and entertaining people, you know? I’m still good.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or @johnwenzel