Captain Denny Crane

| June 1, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 43 comments so far

William Shatner made a little Trek ref in the season finale for Boston Legal

Catch Shatner tonight on the Henry Rollins show on IFC, Behind the scenes clip…

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I love Boston Legal! Shatner shines every week.

“I once captained, my own spaceship”. Wasn’t that what they used to call Starships, in TOS? The United Spaceship Enterprise?

I know they’ve made plenty of Trek references in Boston Legal, but that’s gotta be on of the most obvious references to date (besides the flip open phone with the TOS communicator sound :P)

YA gotta love THE SHAT. Is it me, or is he actually starting to look younger? It’s funny that Denny references sex so much, too. Different character, same fixation!

Well, some experts would probably say that the more active you stay in the twilight of your life, you’ll have more energy and live longer. I’ve lost count of all the people who seem to die soon after officially retiring. It’s like the body asks itself “well, if I’m not working anymore, what else is there?” And it just begins to shut down…

Shatner is so great. If they don’t put him in Trek 11, the franchise is probably finished. He is the true spark of Star Trek that keeps it alive.

Naw, it went on successfully for decades without him. Leave him be.

6#… Kirk was part of Star Trek for 3 decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Did it really go on “successfully” without him? After Star Trek Generations (and Kirk’s death), the ratings for VOY and DS9 began to drop and drop. Fist Contact did well, but none of the other TNG movies did. With Enterprise, the ratings where never high. Looking back, the franchise didn’t really do that well without Kirk. Killing him off was a bad move.

That all said, DS9 is my favorite Trek series. It may have not had stellar ratings, but it had good writing and a great cast. Voyager and Enterprise where very dull.

Ooops… I meant to say “First Contact”, and not Fist Contact.. lol… :)

It’s still in character. Denny Crane probably rented a ride to the ISS then took over for a week.

According to startrek.com, today is Rene Auberjonois’s birthday. Happy birthday, Paul Lewiston! And Odo, too!

Shatner rules. If he’s in the next movie and his role has merit and significance (whether he’s playing Kirk’s papy or future Kirk) then cool. If it’s some kind of lame assed cameo the screw it.

Best Star Trek Series…

1. Star Trek
2. Star Trek Animated Series
3. Babylon 5
4. DS9
5. TJ Hooker
6. Starship Exeter
7. The Captain Sulu Adventures (coming 08)
8. TNG
99999999. Enterprise
11111111111. Voyager

Denny Crane.

BEST!!

=h=

It’d be interesting to determine who came up with Shatner’s “captained my own spaceship” line. Was it David Kelly’s suggestion in the final script, or the Shat coming up with the idea himself to lampoon his own background?

The world needs Shatner back as Captain Kirk.

Nobody cares about Star Trek w/out William Shatner.

Um, where’s our remastered Spocks Brain pics/preview? I want to see what they did with that Ion powered ship…lol…

Yeah… I always laughs at Scotty’s “awe” of the ion engines, when they were far inferior to warp drive. Maybe he admired them as antiques.

Other references in Boston Legal–

Talked about Klingons durign a fishing trip ( they cling on to fish and kill them) and his cell phone opened and it made the old communicator sound from TOS. I’m sure there is more..I love Shatner. He’e made quite a name for himself and has a great sense of humor.

#16, Maybe he was in awe of the fact that ship made it that far out into space under ion power? LMAO!!!

He was thinking “AAACK!!! I dinnae see how uh ship like that could have the berrens to get her oot this far, Cap’n — let alone bring a go-go booted lass here to steal Spock’s Brain!”

I can’t wait for Shatner on “The Henry Rollins Show” tonight on IFC.

I am putting it on my TIVO right away.

Lord Garth, you forgot a few…

– Firefly
– Lost in Space
– Lost (it’s just one giant episode from TOS season 3.)
– Buffy the Klingon Slayer
– Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (took itself too seriously, just like TNG)

Lord Garth and Jeff…

Don’t forget the classic Shatrek films…
-White Comanche (shares stock footage with Paradise Syndrome)
(and no doubt made out of unused 4th season scripts:)
-Kingdom of the Spiders
-Devil’s Rain
-Horror at 37,000 Feet
-The Intruder (aka I Hate Your Guts) [and what’s really sad is I didn’t make up that title]
-Airplane II: The Sequel

for a BIG, Shatner-sized laugh, check the pics from these:
http://www.shatnerology.com/films.html

Two words. Denny Crane.

What!?

I don’t get it. Why is Captain Kirk dressed as a lawyer? Perhaps there was a space-time distortion of some kind. Only explanation.

BL has been riddled with Trek nods.

Apart from anything else, just look at the number of Trek actors who are or have been in the show:

Shatner, Rene Auberjonois, Etahn Phillips, Jeri Ryan, Armin Shimmerman, Lawrence Pressman, Patti Yasutake, Michael Ensign, Ed Begley Jr……….

We have had Odo and Quark sharing a couple of scenes!

Shats the main reason I’ll watch the show. Rene Auberjonois ( I liked his work before he ever did Star Trek) and of coarse James Spader are wonderful on this show as well.

It’s so great seeing STAR TREK fans re-embracing TOS and Shatner/Kirk. I remember when NEXT GEN hit its stride and it seemed, to my dismay, that all the fans had forgotten Kirk, Spock, and company in favor of Picard’s crew.

Thank God the original reigns supreme!

I have only one thing to say: Show…me…the…ion ship remastered!

CmdrR and Jeffster!!!!!! I apologize for my errors. I am trying to keep this a TV based list. One of you can do the movie list (Please include Master and Commander in the top 5. Was Kingdom of the Spiders made for TV?? the revised greatest Star Trek Trek Inspired televison list list is…

1. Star Trek

2. Star Trek the Animated Series

3. Babylon 5

4. Lost

5. DS9

6. StarShip Exeter ( Thanks for the updates Dennis, much appreciated)

7. Boston Legal

7. TJ Hooker

8. Kingdom of the Spiders (Rack Hansen???)

9.Six Million Dollar Man

10. Firefly

11. Buck Rogers ( Come on Hawkman was friggin cool)

12. BSG

13. Spectreman ( He threw dropkicks like Captain Kirk)

14. BBC Horitio Hornblower

15. TNG

999999999999. Enterprise

111111111111111111 (dead last) Voyager

#28 “7. T.J. HOOKER”
Your choice for the number 7 spot is T.J. Hooker??? Oh my stars and garters!!!

Lord Garth – Your #14 is dead on. Roddenberry sold TOS as Wagontrain to the Stars, but he fashioned Kirk to be Horatio Hornblower. Loved the BBC’s update on that story. 6 parts, the first 4 had REAL tall ships, whilst the latter 2 used gawdawful CGI.
JJ — PLEASE DO NOT USE CGI SHIPS!! THEY SUCK ASS!!

OK, maybe a 70/30 mi\x of models and CGI… but you get my point. First Contact LOOKED better by far than Insurrection or Nemesis.

OK, maybe a 70/30 mi\x of models and CGI… but you get my point. First Contact LOOKED better by far than Insurrection or Nemesis.

hic

CmdrR- Where’s our movie list??? Guess where Nemisis and Insurrection are on my list????

#14 Ivory..

Quit speaking for all of humanity.
Trek is blessed to have had Shatner, but is not reliant on him. You, Demode and others like to point out the negatives of post-TOS Trek…. and there were inferior episodes and movies…. but there were also success stories as well. Just because you didn’t enjoy all or parts of the ENTIRE Trek universe does not mean other people agree.
My opinion (underline that) is that Shatner advise the new Kirk actor and pass the torch that way.

X

Henry Baltz wrote:

> It’d be interesting to determine who came up with Shatner’s “captained
> my own spaceship” line. Was it David Kelly’s suggestion in the final
> script…

According to David Kelley’s assistant, Jen, on the Boston Legal set, she said that the Star Trek references in the various BL episodes are coming from David Kelley.

One of the benefits of attending the William Shatner Weekend every year…

Imagine that…
The “DennyCraneLaw.com” site that “Captain” Crane mentions takes you to the Boston Legal subsite at ABC.com
http://abc.go.com/primetime/bostonlegal/index.html

They think of everything…

X

And frankly the site is….. fun!

X

21. CmdrR:

Red Alert!!
When I visited the shatnerology website you linked to, my browser crashed. That’s not your fault. It was the site designer’s.
Had to pull into spacedock for repairs.
Professional webdesigners create sites so they are IE/Firefox friendly, in my humble P.O.V., having designed sites for a number of years.

#36 Thanks for the answer, I appreciate it!

OK, you guys HAVE to go to that ABC Denny Crane site and look in the upper left corner…you can log in as Denny Crane, and go through saved emails, case notes, etc. Hilarious!

Hey guys, don’t forget the eisode where Neelix was the father of the man accused of murdering Quark’s wife… that made four trek actors in one episode, by my count. Do you think they all went out for drinks after?

And if Shatner makes the cut in TrekXI will he announce that he once was a hammy lawyer as he enters the turbolift?