A Matter of Shatner's Perspective

[Phaser Two]

I take everything Bill Shatner says on Twitter/SM with a grain of salt. He's playful and coy with his fans. It's very much an act and I don't get why more people don't see that.

 

[Khan 2.0]

William Shatner on Twitter: "I don’t purposely watch Star Trek. Every once in a while I’m zipping through the channels and I see an episode and I may watch a few mins of it and think “I should have delivered it this way or that way” I just don’t like watch myself.‍" / Twitter

 

[Ssosmcin]

Totally feel him.

 

[Khan 2.0]

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, I'm sure they regroup and plan how their feud is gonna go this week....

 

[Khan 2.0]

Shatner talks a little TOS in a new interview

The currents of happenstance eventually led him to Star Trek, which launched in 1966. Within two years, it would make television history, when Shatner and Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhura) enjoyed the first interracial kiss in a scripted show on US TV. “I don’t think in those stark terms, but I’m aware that the show had an impact,” he says. Yet the show was cancelled after just three series and Shatner was suddenly unemployed, broke and divorced, and living out of a camper van as he tried to support his ex-wife and their three daughters“That was a real blow. It was tough, supporting them. Eventually all three of them went to university. But yeah, that was hard,” he says.

Eventually, Star Trek became a cult favourite, thanks to TV reruns, then the movies took off at the end of the 1970s. Shatner, who starred in six of them, never had to live in a camper van again.

But Shatner has done a lot more than Star Trek. He starred in two other TV shows, for a start: TJ Hooker and Boston Legal, and guest starred in The Practice. He is always fun when he makes occasional appearances in films such as Miss Congeniality and Dodgeball, and he has written about 30 books (with, perhaps, some help.) But he knows he will always be best known for Star Trek: “I understand that it’s a phenomenon and in your and my lifetime there will never be another thing like it, because it would take another 50 years and, as we already discussed, I’m already 52.” He is a good sport about it, but when I ask one too many Trek questions (ie two) he changes the subject and tells me he has recently done a project with a company called StoryFile, which will recreate him as a 3D talking hologram.

‘Take it easy, nothing matters in the end’: William Shatner at 90, on love, loss and Leonard Nimoy | William Shatner | The Guardian

 

[Damian]

I was just thinking of William Shatner yesterday and just how long his career was.

I'm a huge Hitchcock movie fan, but never really watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents. We get Peacock premium for free with our cable and Alfred Hitchcock Presents is one of the shows on Peacock so I figured I'd start watching it. Yesterday I watched the 3rd season premiere from 1957 and William Shatner was one of the stars of the episode. I'm pretty sure it's the earliest role I had ever seen him in. He looked pretty young when he started playing Captain Kirk and this was 9 years before that (he looked like he was maybe 18 or 19 at the time). It's amazing to think of how long his career has been going for.

 

[Grizzlor]

Shatner was basically just an actor, unlike Nimoy who took the work quite seriously, somewhat to the detriment of his mental well being. And so he didn't remember much of it, but most actors on series don't remember 90% of what was done. They are doing so many shows, day after day, week after week, it's a big blur. What he tends to remember are the anecdotes that made their way into his convention routines (with/without Leonard) and various books. He obviously never bothered to write notes during TOS production; in fact I do not believe any of the cast did, which is unfortunate.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Shatner was basically just an actor, unlike Nimoy who took the work quite seriously, somewhat to the detriment of his mental well being.

Shatner did three seasons at Canada's Stratford Festival starting when he was just 23, but yeah, sure, he didn't take the work seriously.

 

[Noname Given]

Shatner was basically just an actor, unlike Nimoy who took the work quite seriously, somewhat to the detriment of his mental well being. And so he didn't remember much of it, but most actors on series don't remember 90% of what was done. They are doing so many shows, day after day, week after week, it's a big blur. What he tends to remember are the anecdotes that made their way into his convention routines (with/without Leonard) and various books. He obviously never bothered to write notes during TOS production; in fact I do not believe any of the cast did, which is unfortunate.

Shatner approached acting differently from Nimoy, but to say he didn't take it seriously is just ridiculous. You don't have an acting career like his if you don't take the craft of acting seriously.

Leonard Nimoy's issue was the fact that even he admitted it was hard for him to get out of character during a job; and he played the character of Mr Spock for three TV seasons 6 days a week.

 

[Grizzlor]

Uh, where did I say Shatner did not take acting seriously? My point was he was simply an actor. He did not come to work looking to critique the writing based on the character or the subject matter. Nimoy was obviously far more introspective on the show, given he brought things like the neck pinch and Vulcan salute. Shatner's edits were, as the lesser cast complained, to steal their screen time!

 

[Methuselah Flint]

The only 'intervention' (for want of a better word), I can think of is when both Shatner and Nimoy voiced concerns about the promotion of the Vulcan IDIC (although how much each contributed, and who actually instigated the concern, I'm not sure).

There were other occasions (according to the unreliable Cushman books), such as Shatner getting the director to have the officers sit down at the bar when Kirk is alienated in Court Martial, so his presence is greater felt (tallest in room etc). But these were more about his own performance than character/story/historical background.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Uh, where did I say Shatner did not take acting seriously?

I already quoted it once, but...

Shatner was basically just an actor, unlike Nimoy who took the work quite seriously, somewhat to the detriment of his mental well being.

Shatner's edits were, as the lesser cast complained, to steal their screen time!

If Shatner ever line counted, that was him checking to make sure that they were fulfilling the terms of his contract as the lead of the show. He was supposed to get more lines than everyone else.

Plus, there's the fact that if Shatner wasn't the lead, the show likely wouldn't have sold.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Didn't I hear somewhere that his contract stating he should have more lines than anyone else, is a myth?

Look at The Galileo Seven and The Tholian Web...

 

[Harvey]

If Shatner ever line counted, that was him checking to make sure that they were fulfilling the terms of his contract as the lead of the show. He was supposed to get more lines than everyone else.

Yeah, the evidence doesn’t support a contractual basis for Shatner to have more lines than anyone else. The memos certainly indicate that the staff wanted to make sure Kirk was always driving the story, but they were never counting lines. Shatner may have been doing this—although some of the sources who say he was are a bit unreliable—but even if he was, Shatner did not have story or script approval, so there’s only so much he could do about it.

 

[Noname Given]

I already quoted it once, but...



If Shatner ever line counted, that was him checking to make sure that they were fulfilling the terms of his contract as the lead of the show. He was supposed to get more lines than everyone else.

Plus, there's the fact that if Shatner wasn't the lead, the show likely wouldn't have sold.

As far as line counting goes, William Windom stated that when he was working on the episode "The Doomsday Machine" Both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were doing line counting and complaining about aspects of it. Remember that after the first season they both were constantly wanting Gene Roddenberry to conclusively state which actor he thought was the lead of the series; and until the issue was raised by Fred Freiberger Before he took over for the third season; at which point Gene Roddenberry stated to all three of them that Shatner was indeed the lead.

So yeah during the network run there was a bit of a rivalry between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy - and I can definitely believe that they were both counting lines and making certain demands of Roddenberry for each of their characters.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Yeah, the evidence doesn’t support a contractual basis for Shatner to have more lines than anyone else. The memos certainly indicate that the staff wanted to make sure Kirk was always driving the story, but they were never counting lines. Shatner may have been doing this—although some of the sources who say he was are a bit unreliable—but even if he was, Shatner did not have story or script approval, so there’s only so much he could do about it.

Okay, thanks for the correction. Didn't Shatner have an ownership stake in the show, though?

 

[Grizzlor]

Okay, thanks for the correction. Didn't Shatner have an ownership stake in the show, though?

In Tek War probably, certainly not Star Trek! Not sure if Gene had any, as the show was produced (owned) by Desilu (studio later acquired by Paramount).

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I was asking @Harvey, who's in a position to know. Thanks.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I'm not @Harvey however from his own Star Trek Fact Check Blog...

• In addition, William Shatner had 5% profit participation in Star Trek,