William Shatner’s ‘TekWar’ Being Developed As Animated Series, And He May Be Headed To Space

At age 90, there is nothing slowing down Star Trek’s Captain Kirk. Just as William Shatner’s latest album is released comes news of a new series being developed from his TekWar books and a report that he is set to actually go into space.

TekWar reborn

According to Deadline, William Shatner’s TekWar series of books—which also spawned a television series, comic books, and a video game—is being developed as an adult animated series. He has teamed up with Pure Imagination Studios for a show being developed by Matt Michnovetz (24, Star Wars: The Clone Wars). It is described as a “mixed-reality” animated series that will include an element of audience participation via mobile devices.

Shatner’s TekWar series of nine novels released between 1989 and 1998 was adapted as a live-action television series that ran for two seasons between 1994 and 1996 in syndication and on the USA Network. The books and series were based on a future where a mind-altering high-tech drug named “Tek” had transformed society. The series starred Greg Evigan as Jake Cardigan, a private detective and former LAPD cop, with Shatner playing his boss and owner of the private security company Cosmos. It’s not known what role if any Shatner would have for the new version in development.

Imagination’s John P. Roberts sees TekWar war as relevant to today, saying in a statement, “We are very excited to work with the legendary William Shatner to reimagine the world of TekWar at a post-pandemic time. TekWar was truly ahead of its time envisioning a future filled with AI and the world of simulated reality. It’s becoming our reality now, and we’re excited to build a storyverse around it.”

Shatner in space?

Last Friday, TMZ reported that William Shatner is headed to actual space, set to launch aboard the second Blue Origin human spaceflight, following their initial flight in July which included founder Jeff Bezos. As of now, neither Shatner nor Blue Origin has confirmed the report. On Monday, Blue Origin did confirm that flight NS-18 (the 18th flight for the New Shepard rocket) will launch on October 12th with four astronauts. They also announced two of those going on the trip, promising the “two other astronauts will be announced in the coming days.”

If the report is true, it would make Shatner the oldest person to ever go into space. According to the TMZ report, Shatner’s mission to space would be filmed for an upcoming documentary.

Shatner talks firsts with Rolling Stone for new album

Shatner’s brand new autobiographical album Bill was just released. He spoke to Rolling Stone about his music career and more firsts from his many years in show business, including the first time he was on set for Star Trek and meeting co-star Leonard Nimoy.


Find more Star Trek celebrity stories.

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Which starfleet badge should Shatner wear into space? TOS, TMP or TWOK? (id go with the TMP admiral pin badge)

They should all four sew TOS emblems on their flight suits/coveralls. No worries about TWOK-GEN pins getting loose while they float around in zero-g.

Much is being made about his age, but New Shepard isn’t a severe ride. It only pulls a few g’s, about the same as a rollercoaster

no bloody A, B, C, or D

I honestly cannot believe the Shat might be actually going to space at the age of 91. If a little bit worried about him, not just because of his age but also about the safety of those celeb flights. If something goes wrong that would be just awful… Back in the day, it took Dennis Tito months of hard training to be ready for such an endeavor. Twenty years later, a 90+ year-old can do that trip? I dunno. I just don’t….

I have my doubts as well.

Never bet against shatner

Could Tito’s extensive training have had something to do with being on the space station for eight days? Shatner’s trip will be around 15 minutes. So there’s that.

Garth, Shatner is only 90, not 91…..but still, your point is well taken.

Ahh, only 90, that’s lucky – it’d have been a disaster if he was 91;
Thank God he’s only 90!
:-)
Just kidding :-)

Really hope all goes well. Would love to see him heading to space with his starfleet uniform, badge, something related to Kirk. Unbelievable, from our beloved show to real space!

Tito and the other tourists (there were six or seven in the ’00s) had to learn to don and doff spacesuits, how to use the zero-g toilet and other things, emergency procedures for two orbital spacecraft (Soyuz and the International Space Station), survival basics in case of an abort or remote landing, and had to learn enough Russian to get by. That takes time and money.

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 also required months of training. It is unclear how long training will be for upcoming SpaceX tourist flights, such as Axion 1 to ISS in February. They will probably work to cut that down considerably.

New Shepard (and Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo) have much less need-to-know for the passengers, much shorter flight duration, and no complex spacesuit (they just wear coveralls.) I think the familiarization training is less than a week.

Tekwar and Babylon 5 revivals. Some fans will be really excited about all this.

Not me. But other people. Good for them.

Next up SeaQuest 2057

After that, it’s a new episode of M.A.N.T.I.S.

LOL watch that when I was a kid.

MANIMAL 2021!

Buck Rogers is getting a reboot with George Clooney as producer(hopefully not as Buck – he’s way too old now).

Supertrain

I’m surprised they haven’t rebooted Space, Above and Beyond. It was basically Teens in Spaaaaaaaace! and would fit right in on The CW.

[DELETED]

Goodbye

I am surprised this news about Shatner possibly going into space is not a bigger post on this site. It’s all over the media. I do love this site, but I’m surprised about this instance.

Maybe because it’s unconfirmed

That’s possible. If it is confirmed, I hope this makes major news here.

FWIW, I think trekmovie”s Shat sources would be far more reliable than TMZ’s, or, at the very least, trekmovie would be far more capable of properly interpreting what the same sources told them as opposed to TMZ?

All these guys did was cull some info off of TMZ, basically acknowledging the chatter out there. Until something turns up from Blue Origins page, he’s not going.

It hasn’t been confirmed.

The books were pretty good (and I wish people would stop saying Shatner wrote them, because despite the cover bylines they were written by Ron Goulart). The movies were OK. The live-action TV show was boring. And the comics were non-memorable. The TEK line just got worse as it went along, which makes have little hope the animated series will be worth watching.

actually that may mean it could be good. Take a decent premise with otherwise forgettable storylines and re-roll it. May work out? Hopefully better than wildly re-writting a classic like “Foundation”

Tekwar. Oh god no. Not again.