I survived pm-ing William Shatner

Mr. Shatner is currently engaged in his one-man show Shatner's World which we all know. His web site WilliamShatner dot com has been languishing for quite some time due to chronic inactivity. The same members kept posting loyally but apathy still set in. It couldn't have hurt if Mr. Shatner had been willing to post there a little bit more often...but he didn't. I myself was booted from the Shatner forums over a year ago for trashing JJ Abrams' star trek film. Shatner's webmaster is a good guy if a bit too authoritarian. In the shadow of a fading website Shatner's webnaster has created the official WilliamShatner.com Group on Facebook. Shatner's webmaster allowed me to join and I was determined to prove his new faith in me would be well-founded. William Shatner has been interacting frequently with the new FB members and I figured a good time to catch him actually online would be the late nite hours. I had guessed right. Following my hunch several nights ago I pm-ed the great man himself. Not really knowing he was online but my short message was sent...but not with the desired result hoped for. First let me ask, what does one say to a living legend and an icon on a computer late at nite? I suppose I should have kept it simple and benign beyond question with something like "Hi Bill, are you there?" or "Just wanna say hello, Mr Shatner"...but I didn't. I got creative. Rather I thought to address Mr. Shatner as if I were hailing him over a communicator. I suppose referring to him merely as "shat" may have struck him as perhaps me being a trifle too familiar with him. It may also not have been helpful that my message ended with "do you read?" Mr. Shatner was perturbed...as his webmaster informed me later the next day. Out I am again. Quite honestly, I don't think Mr. Shatner would have answered me no matter what I had sent.

 

So you're a red shirt.

 

Aren't we all?

 

No. I'm Helen Noel..

 

(I'm sorry, it's all I could think of...)

 

You should have said 'over'. How was he supposed to remember stuff like that after 50 years? Over.

 

Marianna Hill? I loved you in High Plains Drifter with Clint Eastwood.

 

Now see. Bill was silly to send you to the death planet.

 

Yeah, either "over" or "me". My bad.

 

First off, take him off the pedestal and remember he is just a person like you. A person whose interests (strangely enough) do NOT include Star Trek. He likes breeding and showing horses and if you would have asked him about that he would have chatted your ear off.

He doesn't like the fans that take Trek seriously, so addressing him like it WAS Trek is probably the worst thing you could have done. Luckily this is the Internet so you can get another email address and try again.

 

Right. The chances that the actual Shatner was on a social messaging site are so remote ... the majority of "celebs" who have pages aren't really run by them. They are handled by PR firms, assistants, volunteers, or people who are paid to do it. It's like calling a "Studio Fan Mail" preprint an autograph.

 

Wait, so you got banned from the forum just for badmouthing the 2009 trek film? WTF???? People have a right to their opinions, I know for a fact that most of this board would be banned from there because alot of people have it in for the reboot. I know guys like that, little guys who make themselves feel big.

But Shatner sounds really nice, sounds like a swell guy. I renember watching a "have I got news for you" (a Brtiish pannel show, not sure if people in the states know about it) with Shatner as the host, and it was the funniest HIGNFY I've ever seen, Shatner made the entire atmosphere electric, I really hope he returns for annother episode within the future. But that episode showed off Shatners vibrant personality, I imagine he's a cool guy.

But the fact he answers his fans shows how considerate he is. Glad he didn't get big headed and a general asshole like John Wane and that type did.

 

You're telling me he pays people to pass themselves off as him? No, it was him I'm pretty sure. I don't think he would have answered no matter what I said. I think most understand that Bill Shatner simply doesn't want to be bothered by his fans anymore. I mean how much do you really have to put out stamina-wise to tap a few keys and give someone a short acknowledgment? I would have been thrilled to no end with a quick "Hi sport! Go kiss a girl." According to his webmaster Shatner was pi$$ed off with "do you read?". But seriously, why get mad when you're not gonna answer somebody irregardless? I am well aware that Mr. Shatner has probably heard enough about Star Trek to last him a millennium but still, it made his fortune. As far as I'm concerned the man can retire whenever it suits him...so as to not be bothered by all us pesky fans any longer. One of the FB members who found my choice of words quite understandable remarked to me that if I had said that I wanted to donate a million dollars to the HCHS, Shatner would have jumped outta my monitor at me.

 

Oh, by the way The old Shatner BBS at WilliamShatner dot com is to be eventually discontinued...however, a lot of the members have expressed great reticence at getting involved with facebook. So a member assisted by Shatner's webmaster has set up a new forum at http://billshatner.freeforums.org

 

n/t

 

And then he got banned from the FB group because of his tacky p.m. to Shatner. And then he came here to complain about all of it. Uh huh. Very promising.

BTW, what does "n/t" mean in this context?

 

I wanted to delete something but I see no delete button therefore the n/t. Some of you guys won't even give me credit for actually miffing Mr. Shatner.

 

Oh you are here for credit!

From what I hear he is pretty easy to miff. So no credit for you. Here though, have a navy bean.

 

You're joking, right?

If not, yeah. The overwhelming majority of "celebrities" pay people to do this sort of work for them. They may have a team of people posting as them on Twitter, or on Facebook. They also pay people to sign autographs through the mail. If it surprises you to know William Shatner doesn't answer his own fanmail, then I'm sorry but the reality is they don't.

Mira Furlan, Pat Tallman, Claudia Christian, and Jason Carter have been off Babylon 5 for about 15 years. With the exception of Mira's role in Lost, none of them have had a "hit" since then. Yet all four have teams of people who post as them on Facebook.

George Takei has his own team of people who do the same thing.

What makes you think Shatner is the exception? That he's waiting by the computer, desperate, hoping someone is going to send him a message on Facebook?

 

My guess is that you have never met Shatner, or at least never had to deal with him personally. Shatner was a royal pain in the @$$ when I had to deal with him.