Listen To Gene Roddenberry Interview William Shatner at Roddenberry.com October 26, 2009
by TrekMovie.com Staff , Filed under: Shatner, TOS , trackback
Back in 1976 Gene Roddenberry released an album called "Inside Star Trek" which included conversations with many Trek luminaries and others, it didn’t sell that well, but was released on CD in 1999. And today the folks at Roddenberry.com have put one of the more interesting tracks, a conversation with William Shatner, online in a ‘hidden section’ of their website. Find out how to listen to it below
Hidden interview
You access the interview by visiting www.GenesJournalComic.com and typing in a well-known old school cheat code called the "Konami Code."
UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, ENTER
Once you do that, the screen will go dark and you see a retro radio appear and controls to play, pause, and close the audio.
Secret audio player
Gene and Bill talk about if there is any Shatner in Kirk or Kirk in Shatner, tensions between Shatner and Nimoy, why Roddenberry left in the 3rd season, what Trek should be like if it ever came back to TV (remember this was 1976), and more.
Inside Star Trek
Copies of the LP for "Inside Star Trek" may be hard to find, but you can buy the album as part of the 20th Anniversary Star Trek The Motion Soundtrack box set, where it is combined with the soundtrack for TMP. That set is available at Amazon in CD and Audio Download.
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Comments»
Wow that sounds neat.
Isn’t that interview also on the soundtrack CD of STMP? Not sure, but I’ve heard it before. :)
This is a very cool and historic thing.
not on the soundtrack but as mentioned in the article the 20th ann. soundtrack has the album as a bonus cd with some new intros by nichelle–i bought the album when it originally came out andbgot another copy in a cutout bin for 99 cents-the album is great and has clips from roddenberry speeches other guests like mark lenard in character as sarek, de kelly etc–album shows roddenberrys optimism hope for the future etc
My friend had a copy of this on vinyl. We used to do hospital radio in London in the 80s and early 90s. We played the crap out of it. It’s terrific.
There is an album from the ’70’s of Shatner doing various bits and some Con Appearance stuff and he talks about ‘The Movie’ and why it’s held up by Nimon’s lawsuit with the studio and a conversation he has with a producer (who talks really fast)
This producer is talking about all things they can do in the movie…
“We can kill Kirk, we can kill Spock…”
WS: “NONONO”
PRO: “It’s science fiction, we can bring them back to life!”
WS: “Then kill Spock!”
I don’t remember him mentioning who the producer was and he outlined the general plot of ST: TMP without spoiling it.
Interesting stuff if it can be found…wish I could still find that one
#4 Yes, Jim, I meant the 20th Ann. bonus CD.
Wow, I had that “Inside Star Trek” album! Wish I still did.
The DeForest Kelley segment of that record is particularly terrific.
Nimoy wouldn’t do the album, but they got Mark Lenard to represent the Vulcan end of things: The part where he as Sarek explains patiently to GR how Vulcans not only mate but how Amanda was able to bear and birth Spock. (It was great, until Paris & Torres did it with a yawn.)
I still have to get used to the idea that everybody doesn’t just automatically know about this–especially after the CD reissue.
Got this on the TMP soundtrack set…..the whole album is pretty goofy, but I’m sure Gene made a nice penny from it back in the day.
I still have my vinyl copy of the album.
Already got this with the 20th anniversary TMP soundtrack CD. Listening to it, I realized where a lot of the most persistent myths about Star Trek came from; stuff like the network disliking Majel’s Number One JUST because she was female, or the idea that they never realized who she was when she put on the blond wig and played Nurse Chapel.
Am I the only one lost as to how to get the website to show the radio player??
My favorite thing about the album ( as a kid ) was the inclusion of the original sound effects. This was of course decades before the GNP Crescendo SFX Album. Being a bit industrious ( and not terribly outdoorsy ) I took my family’s old Reel To Reel tape recorder and spent a couple of hours playing and replaying the short section of bridge sound effects right after Shatner said, “Scotty, ahead – warp factor one!” and editing that piece over and over to create a crude loop of bridge ambience. It only lasted less than three minutes, but I loved being able to secrete a small speaker behind my AMT bridge model kit and play the sound loop. It really enhanced my imagination as I looked at the model.
Did I mention that I wasn’t very outdoorsy?
When I bought this LP in the record store way back when (the clerk told me I was lucky, it was the last one and it was discontinued, I still have it), I, too, was fascinated by the original series sound effects on it, especially the warp drive sound, which is still much better on that LP than on the Crescendo CD’s.
This album was one of the ways that I learned to refine my Roddenberry impersonation… that and the various interviews he wound up doing for TNG… :)
Umm … type in the Konami Code WHERE in the site?
I think I still may have the album somewhere. I’ll have to check the next time I get back to the States.
I’m seriously mentally deficient, please explain this “code” to me so that I too can access this bit of Star Trek juiciness, despite my limited brain capacity.
Thank you.
I have that CD with the TMP soundtrack, and the interviews are great. I love it when Shatner goes into Kirk mode and actually says a few lines as Kirk,
I just tried it. Here’s what I did. I set my internet browser to:
http://www.GenesJournalComic.com
You don’t need to look anywhere on the website. Just wait a minute and examine your keyboard.
On my keyboard, and probably on yours, there’s an UP arrow button, a DOWN arrow button, a LEFT arrow button, a RIGHT arrow button, a B key and an A key (to type “a” and “b”). There’s also an “Enter” button. So all you do is go to http://www.GenesJournalComic.com, wait a minute, and then press the following keys somewhat quickly in a row:
UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, ENTER
Within twenty seconds you will see the old-time radio audio player appear, and then you will soon hear Rod Roddenberry introduce the wonderful audio segment which I heard dozens of times back in the 1970s. Oddly, they cut out a few moments from the very end, where Shater says, “Scotty, Ahead warp factor one!” and we hear the TOS warp sound effect.
For those who haven’t heard this, it’s a pretty cool album. Chek(ov) it out!
and for non video game fans the konami code-konami is or was a japanese video game company and many of their games had special cheat codes or bonuses you access by making those moves on your nintendo joystick at the title usually-my game boy sp konami classics cart turns old classic games on it like frogger into a modern graphics version when u enter that code-
One of my fave parts on the album is when the Shat explains that when you are on a tv series and they maky ya work 20 hours a day 7 days a week that you are too tired to be able to act so that the stars on tv thats how they really are that they are not acting-so he thinks he really is like kirk, haha-how does he explain the bad guys they are really klingons and murderers i guess -
Right now I can’t be bothered navigating to it, but I’m sure that when I do I’ll get an interesting listen. Thanks for posting this!
the Shatner album was “William Shatner Live” I remember I ordered mine from “new Eye Studio” way back in ‘78 ?? it came with a poster..it was recorded about the time of Roddenberry’s “The God Thing” being the leading canidate for being the “return” of Star Trek….I remember I couldn’t wait for Lincoln Enterprises..they were sooooooo slow. new eye used to ship in about five days from Cali to NY
I’ve still got the vinyl LP. I loved the part about Spock being essentially a test-tube baby, since that was all the rage in the news at the time. No mention of him being born in any cave, anyway– but then, I always thought that part of Star Trek V was his mental interpretation of the hospital facilities and/or the emotional rejection demonstrated by Sarek at seeing the infant Spock.
Wonder if I can find my old audio tape recording from one of the NYC conventions of Shatner imitating whales and Wells (H.G., that is) as well as telling us about his Kodiak hunting days? Maybe I could do something retro and “burn” it to an actual vinyl LP to add to my “Inside Star Trek” and “William Shatner Live” LPs and my Star Wars laser disc!
Ahhhh…the memories of the 70s when there was no Trek except for the syndication reruns, novels and the animated series–and fan clubs.
22 — Yeah, tried that. Nuthin!
Can someone just put the final thingie up there? That’d be great for us idiots.
People in the UK and other countries can find the whole thing to stream for free on Spotify – just search Gene Roddenberry and it’ll come up :-)
30 – Or I could have tried YouTube in the first place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB25_OTvExQ
Of course, that’s not nearly as much fun as typing some idiotic code into a site that just sits there and lets you and then does nothing. (At least it doesn’t for me.)
Ok, I have tried multiple times and entered this dang code fast and don’t see anything change and hear no audio! But I did own the LP, transfered to CD, and have the TMP 20th CD w/ it on it as well, so no biggie…but still can’t figure out why code won’t work. I tried lower and upper case for A/B.
Oh well!
Having now LISTENED to the interview, there are a couple of observations:
Both men are doing a fair amount of cya. While I don’t doubt Gene’s ‘fatigue’ factor or Bill’s ’squabling siblings’ tale, I think we’ve since come to learn a lot more about their motivations.
Also, in 1976 Bill still had a lid. Now — NO WAY he holds back anything.
Won’t work for me either, DAGNABIT!
Type the same Konami code after you log in to Facebook and you get, drum roll please, lens flare when ever you do anything on the site. I thought that was Star Trek related.
=A=
try here if u get tired of plasying with that code,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB25_OTvExQ&feature=related
Hmmm. Some days I know how Colmes felt. See post 31. Or not.
That was a great interview. Love listening to classic Shatner’s voice.
@22: Thanks! That did the trick!
Finally heard it. Great interview. Man, I am so grateful to have been able to have watched this show as a little kid during its original network run (I still remember the NBC Peacock opening its tail feather just before each episode started). There was nothing like watching these episodes for the first time ever.
code didn’t work
I couldn’t get the code to work either. Thanks for the post of the youtube link!
okay, the code on facebook thing is fantastic. what else does it work on?
I was impressed by Shatner on this.