Comments on: Shatner on Stern: Talks Trek Fueds, Abrams Trek, Berman Trek, and more

By: Joyce

Joyce — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:23:59 +0000

When you read the biography of Deforest Kelly and what Leonard Nimoy had to say about Bill Shatner on Star Trek they never seem to blame him for what the other members of the cast did, they understood that as the perceived star of the show he rightly thought he had to fight to make it the best he could!
I love all the cast members of Star trek, having seen them at the coventions, but it does seem that it was they not Mr. Shatner who said the hurtful things! Although I really love to see Bill shatner and leonard Nimoy on stage together, I would really really love to see all the remaining cast members together on the stage, that would be a wish come true, and make my journer over to the Us from the Uk really something!.
I met Mr, Shatner this year on the set of Boston Legal and the following day at the Hollywood charity horse show , he seemed to have so much energy and he was really nice.
It was a mistake to kill of Captain Kirk – Bill shatner is so popular now with his part in Boston Legal I think it would have drawn in more people to see the new film.

Long may he go on entertaining us.

By: Stupis DeLupus

Stupis DeLupus — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:12:10 +0000

William Shatner’s face used for a mask on a deranged serial killer. To boldly go…

By: Dom

Dom — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:28:13 +0000

Contractually Shatner was allowed considerable influence on the Trek films, so I meant Shatner’s contributions across the board, not specifically directing. He and Nimoy had a lot of creative influence in the post-TMP films. Remember how, on TWOK, he made a list of remarks to Nick Meyer, resulting a redraft of the screenplay, which led to Shatner calling Nick Meyer a ‘genius.’

By: Mr. Poopey face(formerly known as Closettrekker)

Mr. Poopey face(formerly known as Closettrekker) — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:09:45 +0000

#112—I think you give Shatner a little too much credit for his moviemaking abilities. I don’t think his directing work belongs in the same breath as that of Nick Meyer.
I do agree with your overall assessment of the TNG-era films as substandard, however, I attribute that more to the fact that TNG was far less suited for the big screen in the first place. Because of the iconic nature of the TOS characters (particularly, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty), it was a much better transition from television to feature films. They only had one really bomb, and that was TFF (The Great Trek Turd). TMP is a grand and epic sci-fi experience with tremendous visual quality, and I think its depth is often underestimated. TWOK is the mainsteam crossover and a great tie-in to one of the more memorable TOS episodes. Its multiple themes are very well done and proof that an enormous budget is not essential to the success of a TOS-era ST movie. TSFS is more of a lower budget project and a pure fan film, but it is certainly not on my list of ST films to criticize. It has some great moments. TVY was a wonderful revisit to the style of social commentary inherent in the original series, and the humor is very well done, IMO. TFF is a WTF moment for me, and I’d just like to pretend it isn’t there, but it always comes up. TUC is a decent bounce back, and although I have some issues with it, it isn’t a bad movie.

The TNG-era films were, IMO, straight-to-dvd quality movies…nothing more.

By: Dom

Dom — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:25:26 +0000

Hi Shatner_Fan_2000 (111)

Killing Kirk off wasn’t a mistake in hindsight. Anyone with half a brain could see, even in 1994, that Generations was a rushed, badly compromised project that should never have been made.

The cast hated it (Ron Moore even looks back on it with regret!) The TV team had to rush a set overhaul. The costumes were dreadful and had to be ditched in favour of DS9 gear. It was leaden with excessive continuity references . . . and everybody already knew Kirk was going to die! Not to mention they used a TV director who pretty much never made another theatrical film, meaning the cinematographer had to bail out the whole production from looking like a TV movie.

The film was essentially what Shatner said it was: an attempt by Rick Berman to clear out the old guard so he could control both the film series and TV show. IIRC, as a result of a subsequent legal action, Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Micholas Meyer were barred from having anything to do with the TNG film series, in spite of the fact that these guys had worked on excellent, cinematic films.

If they had waited just one year to make Generations after TNG finished, Leonard Nimoy would have joined the writing team and might very well have directed the film. The original crew’s involvement could have been better utilised. Deforest Kelly and Leonard Nimoy might even have made an appearance in the film.

Generations was a terrible theatrical film, barely passable as a two-part TV episode of TNG and the blasé attitude to the TOS characters (as if Scotty and Chekov would call Kirk ”Captain!’ – something Berman insisted on!)

Thus, the film series went down the toilet. Jonathan Frakes made a really good stab at First Contact, even if it did still look cheap. He took advantage of the poor budget and made a really claustophobic film. But, notoriously, he was given far less freedom on Insurrection – aka ‘Star Trek: The TV Movie’ (my guess would be that there were fears he might become the TNG films’ Leonard Nimoy and wield too much power!) And Nemesis was a huge embarrassment.

Just think how well the TNG films might have fared with the contributions of Shatner, Nimoy and Meyer! It was a silly waste and JJ and his team are effectively (if not literally) having to reboot Trek to recover from it.

By: Shatner_Fan_2000

Shatner_Fan_2000 — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:55:19 +0000

That was a very interesting hour of radio! 2 points:

It always cracks me up when people take everything a star (especially Shatner!) says literally. I’m sure Berman never said he was going to kill Kirk whether Shatner participated or not! That would’ve been kind of impossible. Rather, what Bill likely meant was what I’ve been saying for ages here whenever people grouse about how ‘Shatner agreed to kill Kirk!’: At the time, there were no plans for the TOS characters to ever appear again. They were effectively dead already. Those who were fans back then may recall that Paramount publicity made that quite clear after TUC. Berman then offered Shat one more chance to come back, and Shat accepted. We all know now that killing off the character was a bad decision, hindsight being 20/20 and Star Trek 2009 now being a reality. But in 1994, I can totally understand why Shat would’ve seen the offer as an opportunity worth taking. His choices seemed to be limited to either ‘never play the character again’ … or … ‘come back one more time, pass the torch to the new Captain and do a dramatic death scene, and of course get loads of pay and publicity.’ Many of us would’ve made the exact same choice Bill did.

Second, I’d like to point out that the Stern interview validates a 10 year old line of dialogue from the still funny Free Enterprise:

Sean: “Even Kirk never had a threesome.”

Robert: “That’s just because they couldn’t show it on network tv.”

By: Dom

Dom — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:05:02 +0000

The again, Dennis (90) Jeanne Dillard managed to pull a very good book out of all the compromised material, so there was something of quality there. It depends on how you look at Trek. TOS was a blood and thunder series, while TNG was effectively The Office without the jokes. You could easily translate TNG into a TV series about managers and middle managers in a corporation. I know some people like that.

Personally I prefer to see fistfights and hot women in minimal clothing, shot in soft focus, getting pulled by Kirk, while a bit of philosophy is thrown in for good measure.

Kirk’s team were soldiers on the unknown frontier fighting operatically big bad guys, exploring places so gobsmacking that they could blow your mind apart! TFF wanted to be something big, which is good. I would rather watch a failure with a good heart like TFF than endless discussions in a board room!

A disciplined, shorter recut of TFF, ditching the jokes Shatner was forced to add in and some new FX could still make a solid little film! In all honesty, though, I like the theory that the whole storyline was a drink-induced dream from Kirk, Spock and McCoy’s trip to Yellowstone!

By: Battletrek

Battletrek — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:50:35 +0000

Nimoy is getting a lot of money for the new Trek. Do not trust Nimoy on whether this new film will be good or not.

By: Hat Rick

Hat Rick — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:13:32 +0000

105, that’s an interesting observation. I’m trying to think of a similar group of actors who have had similar success playing the same characters over the course of decades, and the closest I can come up with so far is the Monty Python gang, before the death of one of the members. That troupe in its original form lasted for about two decades, and even at that, they didn’t play the same characters.

In the Bond franchise, they’ve had several actors playing Bond, obviously, and at least two Q’s (one played, coincidentally, by John Cleese of the aforementioned Python fame).

As far as Doctor Who, several actors have played the Doctor, and there’ve been several sidekicks and actresses playing those sidekicks.

Can’t think of any other comparisons at the moment.

So, good point, 105.

By: Xai

Xai — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:18:59 +0000

99. K. M. Kirby – May 15, 2008

“Obviously, there are other issues involved. Like the availability of director Nicholas Meyer, perhaps…”

Huge issues… Like…. the movie’s already been filmed.