When William Shatner’s The Captains documentary airs next month, fans will get to see Shatner and Chris Pine (aka the two Captains Kirk) arm-wrestle. More on that below, plus news on Shatner being nominated for yet another lifetime achievement award and landing a guest spot on Psych.
Shatner arm-wrestles with Chris Pine in "Captains" Doc
For the last year William Shatner has been directing a new documentary called "The Captains," where he sits down with all of Star Trek’s TV captains (Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks and Scott Bakula) as well as Star Trek’s new Kirk Chris Pine. The doc comes out next month and Shatner offered Canoe.ca a spoiler on his Pine interview saying:
He’s shy. So the way I started the interview, I put out a table and chairs outside the Paramount gates, and arm-wrestled with him. That was the beginning of my interview with him. I think it broke the ice, that’s for sure.
William Shatner’s "The Captains" premieres on the EPIX Channel on July 21st, along with a "Shatnerpalooza" of Shatner-related programming. And if you are not a subscriber of EPIX, you will be able to watch the documentary for free online at epixhd.com.
TrekMovie will have more details on The Captains on EPIX coming up, so stay tuned.
Pine and Shatner to face off in "The Captains"
Shatner nominated for TCA Award + guest spot on Psych
In other Shatner news, the veteran actor/producer/director/writer has been nominated for the Career Achievement Award by the Television Critics Association. The award is for those who have "influenced television through their work on the small screen." In addition to Shatner, this year’s nominees are Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues”), NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol, late-night talk show host David Letterman (“Late Show David Letterman Show”), and actress Cloris Leachman (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) and talk show host/network executive Oprah Winfrey (“The Oprah Winfrey Show”). The TCA Awards will be held August 6th. More details at tvcritics.org.
And one final bit of Shatner news has Bill returning to TV in a guest spot on the USA comedy procedural Psych. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Shatner will appear in the upcoming sixth season playing the estranged father of Detective Juliet O’Hara (Maggie Lawson). The character is described as “a charming con man who wants to mend his broken relationship with his daughter. But when the opportunity to pull off a dream con is presented to him, his decision to stay on the right side of the law becomes more complicated.”
Archer came first! (I kid – – I kid.)
Hope this reaches British shores too.
Not taking anything away from Mr. Shatner but, if anyone should be nominated for a lifetime achievement award it should be Leonard Nimoy. His performance as Spock was the most influential of the 20th Century. The present looks the way it does because of “Star Trek” and his was the pivotal role on that show. Also any movie which has been made from a TV show owes its existence to “Star Trek,” and all of the movies (let’s face it) were about Spock.
I just don’t see enough respect being paid to this man.
Was Pine nice enough to let the old guy win?
Trust the Shat to put Pine in a no-win situation. If Pine easily beats Shatner, the kid comes off looking uncaring and callous to the elderly. If Pine allows the Shat to win (the only way Shat WOULD win), then Pine looks weak.
What a pr*ck move.
4.
…
Oh, c’mon Harry! I’m sure they were just fooling around! No need to attack Shatner.
I’m dying to see it… I loved the pictures you guys chose for the article! ….
I’d love to see CP commenting this meeting in an interview… will be awesome!
:-) :-)
Oh yes, Shat on Psych. I love this show, his role sounds good.
This should be pretty good. The Shat is simply Shateriffic. A Great Actor and good man.
Yes… CP always said he is a shy guy… but Mr. Shatner can not be easy for anyone, I guess … I wonder what CP was feeling about this meeting… after all the pressure to replace “the legend”… and Mr. Shatner was never
effusively supportive with the Young Kirk, after all …. LOL
:-) :-)
The Toupee wins, its a no brainer.
Harry always has a hate-on for Shat…him and MJ both…it’s come to be expected around these parts. When an article features Shatner, the tired barbs are sure to follow. The Shat kicked their puppy when they were kids or some such nonsense, who knows.
Can’t wait to see the documentary, however. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun!
Apparently, Shatner was singing his version of “O Canada” while arm-wrestling Pine—and kicking a puppy at the same time!
What a terrible, terrible man.
Neither of them believe in the no-win scenario, Mr. Ballz. They’ll be fine. :)
#13 Funny thing, Pine found himself in a no-win scenario. But don’t worry, I’m big on the Shat…
and the Pine.
not a shat fan but this could be an interesting documentary, hope we get it in England (or online) too
2,
TWOK was certainly not about Spock. That is a Kirk movie through and through.
Shat’s Kirk (as written by Coon, and in some pre-Coon shows) IS Trek. Before Meyer messed him over in TUC, his Kirk was also pretty damned interesting. By comparison, Spock is important mainly as a reflection element like McCoy (though less interesting), and as visual iconography for the series.
If I was editing The Captains maybe I’d save the arm wrestling bit for the end, and just as the match begins, freeze it so you don’t find out who won, like the end of Rocky III.
come on JJ, Bob
Get the Shat with the Pine in the next movie. There have been some successful cameos this summer…
@4: “Trust the Shat to put Pine in a no-win situation. If Pine easily beats Shatner, the kid comes off looking uncaring and callous to the elderly. If Pine allows the Shat to win (the only way Shat WOULD win), then Pine looks weak. What a pr*ck move.”
Agreed!
@11 Harry always has a hate-on for Shat…him and MJ both”
“Fortunately” though, Jonboc is always around to provide his incessant whining about how so unfair it all is, and to throw his juvenile barbs at us….”but like a poor marksman, he keeps missing the target.”
Sorry Jonboc, but Harry and I are not drinking the Kool-Aid that Shat is providing.
Kirk vs. Kirk? Ends in a draw.
@ 4, 5. Come on guys, we all know Shat is a big boned muscled mass of manhood….
No more close up’s though, okay?
@23. And on any close-ups, please, not in 1080P HD….if I want to sell red boulder fields I can see those on the Mars page at Nasa.gov.
i can’t wait for this!! It will be awesome!! :)
Oh please…Pine doesn’t need to “let” Shatner win. Even if Pine tried his hardest, he wouldn’t be able to beat Shatner.
WELL, that answers that! Pine gets to be in the documentary. I love Shatner’s interviewing skills on Raw Nerve; I expect his documentary to have that little something extra. Can’t wait. (What on earth is an EPIX, though?!–you’d think it’d get a more mainstream showing!)
@27, it’s like a cable channel I think? Like a special one that you have to specifically subscribe to. Which I don’t, so I shall have to watch online. I’m excited for this, though.
I think Shatner and Pine would be evenly matched. Both have well toned arm-wrestling muscles – note those one-armed full press ups Chris Pine was doing in the Special Features section while they were waiting for cameras or whatever.
It also looks like it will be a bearded Chris Pine we’ll be seeing in the interview (well, I hope I will get to see it, living down thisaway). Picture is a bit out of date, Anthony – you know, Dee and I do try to keep things current…
@29 “Both have well toned arm-wrestling muscles”
Awesome Keachick, here do you come up with this stuff?…hilarious…please keep the entertainment coming. Can’t wait to hear from you about Shat’s preparations for the 2012 Olympics in London. :-))
Anyone else finding it difficult to get into these articles from the main page?For several weeks now, with a number of the articles, I click on the “(more…)” link or the title of the article, and it takes several attempts to get to the main article. Sometimes I have to leave the site and come back and try again. Anyone else have the same difficulty?
Oh, and GO, SHATNER! I think he could hold his own arm-wrestling Pine, and possibly even beat him. He is no weakling at 80.
Google Chrome seems to work a lot better than Firefox on this site. Maybe that will help?
#30 MJ – Only too happy to oblige…:)
Shatner has lost quite a bit of weight in the last year or so. I have no doubt he could afford to hire a personal trainer (maybe Chris Pine can as well) and his exercise routine would surely be an overall cardiac and muscle-toning workout.
I don’t know about the Shat’s preparations for the 2012 Olympics – I think he’s left it a bit late, but who knows…
Unfortunately, it seems that the arm-wrestling took place outside the studio where they were going to film the interview(s) and he didn’t say who won, so there may be no film of it. Damn you, Shatner, you big tease…:)!
No doubt this will be become another one of those secrets these Hollywood types love to have and talk about. I guess if it’s OK for JJ Abrams to have all these secrets, then why not a Shat/Pine secret…
11.
Yeah, like I had any influence over Shatner pulling the dick move.
#5 thats all Harry has to offer when it come’s to Shatner.
Harry, you are starting to become a lame parody of yourself my friend. It used to be funny, now its just looking like obsessional behaviour!
and MJ is just a little Harry Wannabe! Its all rather tragic really.
Look, let me give you a little insight into my view of Shatner. Picture it….Winter of 1973/74 in Toronto. I was driving home from a poker game when I noticed all the lights lit up at 2:30 am at a Loblaws (grocery store)in my neighbourhood. I could see they were filming a TV commercial for the chain. Knowing Shatner was the spokesman for that chain at the time, i stopped to see what was going on. Sure enough, they were filming a commercial for Loblaws and Shatner was there doing his part. I walked in and stood in the back so I wouldn’t be noticed. They kept rehearsing one take after another, with one young actor screwing up his part. I can remember it to this day…….the young actor’s part was as a store manager talking to the camera where he had to say, “this senior citizen came in today complaining how a canned ham she bought wasn’t quite right…she wasn’t looking for a refund, she was simply mentioning it to staff. Well, after work I personally dropped by her house and delivered another canned ham.” At this point Shatner steps into frame and, looking right at the camera, says, “Loblaws, where more than the price is right, but BY GOSH, the price is right!”
Well, the kid kept screwing up his lines and Shatner, instead of being understanding and supportive to a fellow actor, continuously ridiculed the kid for getting his lines wrong…..such things as , “so, you thought show biz was easy!” etc……
Disgusting! I’ve heard from numerous sources over the years that Shatner would make a habit of teasing other actors just before a take, making every attempt to throw other performers in the scene “off their game’. I guess he was doing whatever he could to appear better in comparison.
The man, by any account, is an example of the most selfish, self-absorbed actor one could ever encounter. No wonder his co-stars on TOS hated him!
32 – Thank you, MJ. Google Chrome is what I use.
@36. Buzz, I have discovered who you really are — you are Shat’s lazy and comical nephew as featured in Shat’s “Invasion Iowa,” aren’t you? Don’t wait for the translation Buzz, answer the question NOW!
@37. Harry, I’ll be interested in here what kind of spin the Shat aplogizers put on this one?
Harry, sometimes I think that you and I are stuck in the movie, “They Live,” and only we have the “special sunglasses” that allows us to see the Shat for what his really is, while the rest of humanity guffaws and drools over every move Shat makes.
Harry, if I were up at 2:30AM filming an ad for a grocery chain, the first place I’d be wanting to go is back to bed, and not waiting for a colleague who is under-performing to pull his finger out and do his job.
I literally walked into Shatner on 6th Avenue (I was reading the paper, and not looking ahead) in 1992 as he was headed into ABC News. Before I knew it, my NY Times had his signature right on top of “William Jefferson Clinton elected 42nd President of the United States.” In that quick exchange, he was quite gracious, even though I was most likely drooling in utter disbelief at the time.
While no one would call Shatner modest, or even say he has ’empathy’ for his colleagues, the guy has taken quite a few hits in life, including having to bury one of his wives, and has come storming back. At 80, he comes off as a smarmy, egotistical semi-comedian very much aware of his pulpy sci-fi cred playing a legend, and happens to own a bunch of Emmys for good measure.
Years ago, I went to sleep-away camp with Sam Robards, Jr., son of Sam Robards and Lauren Bacall. Bacall came up to Maine to pay a visit, and she was an absolute bitch on wheels, yelling at the camp’s director that she insisted on seeing her son right away. As he endured that verbal abuse, he was actually escorting her to her son’s cabin (probably with a clenched fist behind his back). That event alone does not define my opinion of Ms. Bacall. Maybe, like Shatner at 2:30AM outside a grocery store, after the one-hour flight on a tiny airplane, and the 90 minute drive through podunk to the camp, she was just tired and annoyed. Happens to the best of us.
One thing to bear in mind: One Robert Pine has worked with William Shatner on at least one occasion. For some reason I feel that, if not the younger Chris, then the older Pine could put one there if it was needed and I also suspect that the Shat man is well aware of that. Of course, we would never ever know about it… This is in no way meant to discredit Chris Pine. This is just generational stuff. (Robert Pine turns 70 on 10 July 2011).
This is just a hunch on my part, of course.
@41. You are missing the point. Harry’s incident reinforces the detailed record of how he treated others in profession, including several Trek actors. It proves “the pattern” of the guy, to put it bluntly, being at best, a megalomaniac, and at worst, an a-hole.
You argument would be like someone saying that because “I met LeBron James, and he was nice to me” that we should then ignore the pattern of his behavior where he has show great hubris and put himself abnormally above others, even for a sports mega-star.
I’m looking forward to both the documentary & his guest stint on PSYCH, since it’s my favorite show on USA now…
#43 The thing is that I have only read that the TOS actors have told of how Shatner behaved badly. I have not been aware of other professionals referring to him in such a bad way or having had such bad experiences working with him. A lot of this bad feeling seems to have been *encouraged* by George Takei in particular.
I find this whole business curious as I get the impression that it is normal for older members of a profession, trade, workplace to treat the younger, newer workers with rudeness and disdain. It seems to be a way of testing them, their toughness, their resolve etc.
There are two scenes from two different movies (both characters played by Chris Pine incidentally) which have irked me. However, when these scenes are talked about, other posters (on other boards) have taken a different view of the same events.
1st scene – Star Trek 09 – Bar scene – the red shirted Starfleet cadets hassle Kirk (not a SF cadet) and Uhura and it ends up in a brawl. Most other posters believed that the young Kirk was a real smartass and deserved to “be kicked to the curb”, as it were, or in this case, punched in the face several times. However, from the very start, I saw the behaviour of the cadets as meddlesome and bullying, to say the least. I could not believe what I was reading. Truly.
2nd scene – Unstoppable – Will Colson (Chris Pine) presents himself to his superiors on his first day of work. He presents papers, ID etc to the guys, tells them his name and where he has been told he is to work and offers his hand… Except the older guys just stare at him disdainfully, give each other looks until finally Will asks “Is there a problem?” The answer he got was that they didn’t think they were working in a daycare centre. After a short silence, Will retorts with the notion that he didn’t think that he would be working in a resthome…
Once again, lots of people thought that Will was being a snotty upstart, whereas I thought that those older, supposedly more mature people were being antagonistic, rude and insulting – totally uncalled for.
Frankly, after seeing these two scenes, and reading the reactions since then, it seems that William Shatner’s behaviour that night in 1973/74 was not so out of keeping with how older people behave towards younger, less experienced co-workers. It seems to be almost expected.
Truly – what gives here? Have I got it wrong?
Shatner is a diva.
Harlan Ellison tells a story during the TOS first season.
Shatner came to visit him to talk about “City”
Ellison discovered Shatner was counting his lines to make sure he was in more scenes.
My brother met him at a function in Toronto.
He was treating everyone poorly.
Anyone that would wear that dead woodchuck on his head for so long-
DIVA.
His talent is unquestionable though.
The story I read was that Harlan Ellison was arguing with Gene Roddenberry about the entire premise of Star Trek and its characterisation. He wanted the captain and crew of the Enterprise to be smoking and also behaving in a generally more lowbrow decadent manner that Gene R did not want to occur within the kind of world that he had envisioned that Star Trek would show. Harlan Ellison refused to change the script to suit the style of the Star Trek that Gene R had created. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. Various changes were made to the script, but Ellison still had Kirk and co smoking. Gene R finally asked William Shatner to visit Harlan Ellison at his home and Shatner reported that Ellison lost his temper with Roddenberry and Shatner and punched/physically assaulted Shatner. Shatner promptly left and told Gene it was his problem.
There are two sides to every story, but I don’t think many have heard Shatner’s side of the story. It is also well known that Ellison can be something of an arrogant a-hole, who liked to have everything his way and was not a good team player either. It was not only Roddenberry and Shatner who have had run-ins with Harlan Ellison.
I believe it was one of the other cast members who first mentioned the fact that they had noticed William Shatner counting lines. Whether it was actually because he wanted to make sure he had more than anybody else or whether this was some other cast member’s (possibly jealous/envious) assumption, I do not know. Frankly, I suspect that both answers may be correct, but frankly, I don’t think anybody knows for sure. Shatner was not necessarily very forthcoming about hows and whys of what he did or thought.
I am not saying Shatner is a saint, but then nobody else is either. One thing I have felt is the level of jealousy and envy towards Shatner is quite palpable sometimes. William Shatner is NOT James T Kirk. Even though Kirk may not harbour resentment or show a lack of professional courtesy to those who may not like him for whatever reason, does not mean that also applies to William Shatner. I am thinking of the TOS episode “Court Martial” – watched it again the other day.
It takes two to tango. It also takes two (or more) to have an argument.
“Anyone that would wear that dead woodchuck on his head for so long-
DIVA.”
Maybe Shatner does not like being bald. Most men don’t. Why do you think there are so many products, and always have been, promising hair regrowth etc. They weren’t all developed for the sake of Shatner’s vanity. Sir Elton John does not like being bald either and he has gone to great lengths to address his problem. Nobody makes rude comments about how he looks sometimes. Enough already.
OT – Question to Anthony Pascale – trekmovie moderator.
I do not know where else to ask this. I am just wondering if it is now policy not to acknowledge some Trek actors’ birthdays but to acknowledge others? Zachary Quinto’s was celebrated here (2 June) but Karl Urban’s ignored (7 June). I have read some posters thinking it naff or something to note such “trivia” here, however I do not think acknowledging the birth of a (Trek) actor or other is trivial at all. The fact that we think, feel, discuss whatever about these people is because they were BORN. It is about acknowledging their past existence and contribution and wishing them yet more life and everything good that life can bring. That is in no way trivial.
Thank you for your attention. (If you must delete this, please contact me at the email address you have.)
Sometimes it’s downright embarrassing to read some of these threads….like this one. A few of you are SO bitter and hateful for no damn reason, towards a guy 99%+ of you have never even met. Do you have any idea how many actors are pretentious a**holes? Most of them.
The one saving grace is that I’m quite certain Mr. Shatner couldn’t give a rat’s ass what any of us think; his body of work stands for itself.
Some of you folks need a new hobby. Go help build a house for the homeless or something. Get some fresh air.
Very much looking forward to the documentary.
#33- Keachick … the most recent picture I saw of CP… his arms look great… it seems he is being working out now… and still with a beard… but you know… no papz pictures here, so… LOL
:-) :-)