After 30 years, Titan’s official Star Trek magazine has ended its run. The 14th issue of what is now titled Star Trek Explorer is arriving now for subscribers and retailers. In addition to looking back at the history of the magazine, the final issue is “going out with a bang” with several exclusive interviews, including one with William Shatner. We have some excerpts from his interview about his time as Kirk and how Leonard Nimoy was his “brother.”
Kirk Fun… and remembering Leonard
The cover feature for the final issue is fittingly about Star Trek’s first captain, William Shatner and includes commentary from several Star Trek luminaries talking about Shatner along with the man himself. Bill talked about his thoughts on taking on and playing the role of James T. Kirk:
“They had made a pilot [“The Cage”] with another actor, Jeffrey Hunter. NBC didn’t want to buy that pilot, but they wanted Roddenberry to redo it because they felt it was intriguing. I was asked to come in and look at the pilot with the idea of playing the captain. I thought it was terrific”…. “The role is that of a leading man, a warrior with an intellect. There’s nothing not to enjoy. It’s good writing and I enjoyed playing the role.”
Not counting a skit for 2013’s Academy Awards written by Seth MacFarlane (which Shatner did because he thought it was “very funny”), has last canon appearance as Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. He has spoken in the past about having some regrets over how he played the death of Kirk and also spoke about it in the 2024 doc You Can Call Me Bill. Over the years there have been many times when it seemed like he might be about to return to the role, but it never worked out. Shatner seems sanguine over it, seeing his time as Kirk in the context of his larger career:
“Do I miss playing Captain Kirk?… I’ve done other things, I’m having a good time. Certainly, Boston Legal was a great deal of fun and extremely well-written. I’m grateful to have been able to play that part. It was great fun to play.”
William Shatner as James T. Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
One thing that came out of his time on Star Trek was his long friendship with the late Leonard Nimoy. Shatner even wrote a book about it (Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man) in 2017. In his Explorer interview, Shatner talked about why they were so close for all those years until something happened in the final months before Nimoy’s death in 2015:
“I didn’t have a brother growing up. Leonard and I were born within four days of each other – he was born in Boston, I was born in Montreal. It was almost a sister city. Many of life’s problems were his as much as they were mine. We had so much in common: Divorce, death, money. We were united. He was my best friend, I was his… He got divorced, I got divorced. Throughout it all, Leonard was my brother. Then something happened and it will remain a mystery to me for the rest of my life. He stopped talking to me about three months before he died. He wouldn’t take my calls. Something went wrong in our relationship. Before he died, I wrote him a letter saying ‘I’m so sorry if I’ve done something to you.’ Later on, his daughter (Julie) and his son, Adam, told me how much he loved me.”
You can see Shatner and Nimoy together sharing a laugh in 2011 at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention below.
Star Trek Explorer #14 out now
Star Trek Explorer #14 arrived on Tuesday, December 24 in the USA and Canada. In addition to the piece with Shatner, the final issue also has exclusive interviews with John de Lancie, Denise Crosby, and Alan Ruck. There is also a chat with Strange New Worlds prop master John Kirk. The issue includes two exclusive short fiction stories: A DS9/Voyager story from Una McCormack and one about Wesley Crusher from David Mack. As the it’s final issue, the editors past and present reflect on their time in with the official magazine as well. You can order the issue directly from Titan HERE.
Here are the newsstand and exclusive covers.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
I thought the issue was that Shatner had utilized convention footage of Nimoy for one of his documentaries after Nimoy had passed on being in it. Which amused Nimoy not at all. Is that wrong?
That’s the speculation, but since Mr. Nimoy didn’t confirm it, we don’t know for sure.
I also seem to recall reading of Nimoy having dinner with Harlan Ellison and Walter Koenig not long before he passed. If so, there wasn’t a lot of Shatner-love going on at that table; that I’ll guarantee.
Wait, Shatner love or Shatner hate?
The biggest cut would be if Shat didn’t come up at all during that dinner, and they spent the evening talking art, B5, HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and OUTER LIMITS.
Oh, and Michael, on your rec I finally watched COTTON CLUB. My wife, who has not seen ONE FROM THE HEART and came in late from the kitchen, kept saying ‘are you sure this is Coppola?’ We both think it really suffers from what we’ve come to call the NASHVILLE problem (most people don’t think of NASHVILLE as having a problem, but William Goldman voiced this op and I bought into it), where they treat a lot of storylines superficially instead of getting to the guts on just one or two of them (folks say the same thing about RAGTIME but for me that really really works well.) She also thinks Fishburne is playing the same character he did in HOODLUM, even the name. This movie actually cost more than ST-TMP! (included for relevance.)
But after that we got xmas celebrated properly with THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT and EYES WIDE SHUT, so all is well.
Well, tastes differ, and that’s what keeps us yakking and writing about these things so it’s all good. No, I don’t consider NASHVILLE to have a problem, as the way that all of the interlocking plots bring order out of life’s chaos is kind of the point; same with E. L. Doctorow’s novel of “Ragtime,” which the film version pretty much flubs precisely by narrowing the focus. I certainly won’t argue that THE COTTON CLUB does for Black history and jazz what THE GODFATHER did for The Mafia and Italian culture, or has anything like that film’s stature. But for all the behind-the-scenes drama, in its best moments I clearly saw the hand of a master filmmaker at work, and was never less than thoroughly entertained. I’ll gladly take it over EYES WIDE SHUT any day.
¡Feliz Navidad!
. . .and just to add (and with all respect to Ms. Kmart), I’m a little puzzled by any question over whether it was obvious that Coppola had actually directed THE COTTON CLUB, which love it or hate it stylistically falls well within his body of work. (I’d say the same of MEGALOPOLIS, which overall didn’t work for me at all.) In fact, the only exception to that would be the Grisham adaptation, a modest critical and financial success so generic and phoned-in that I found it more dispiriting than all of his misfires put together.
Christina has heard me talk about how much astaire hated the way ffc shot the dance numbers in Finian’s Rainbow, cutting him off at the knees, and hasn’t dared to view One From, so she may have assumed the fc you could see all of a dancer in Cotton was a not-Coppola flag.
And she may have been pulling my leg. I thought I pulled off a great gift for her, an acclaimed pricey oop bio on Francis bacon the artist. But it turned out to be about sir Francis bacon, the guy perhaps responsible for a factory of scribes who supposedly cranked out Shakespeare’s works, and is about as unpenetrably dry as heart of darkness was to me back in high school. We’re thinking this is going to be a giggle point for years, like mistaking Neil Connery for his bro sean.
LOL, that is pretty funny. Tell her to think of that mistake like the harmless calamity that disrupts an otherwise forgettable wedding reception the participants now get to talk about for years — the unexpected gift in laughter that keeps on giving, which is priceless.
Not giving the dancers’ legs their due was a fairly common criticism of TCC when it came out iirc, so Astaire’s dissatisfaction doesn’t come as a surprise.
I’ve got the wedding stuff as well, with my folks’ asthmatic chihuahua audibly licking himself to climax during their last remarriage. Or checking out my own wedding tape and thanking fortune for not using my stage lights to brighten things, since my zipper was open the whole time.
Hey at least nobody interrupted the proceedings with a call to battlestations!
Omigod, I may never be able to look at a chihuahua again without busting a gut, thanks. Seriously, that may be the funniest thing I’ve seen in print since Chuck Barris’s confessional re the brouhaha over his hosting The Popsicle Twins on “The Gong Show,” and that was quite a spell of years ago. The zipper thing was good (hey, we’ve all been there), but nothing could follow the mental image of that dog — that *asthmatic* dog — no, wait, dammit, I’m laughing again. Not to give her any ideas, but has your wife ever suggested that the your fly oversight turned out to be a metaphor for the marriage?
This may make you wonder if I lived on another planet for a time, but I’d never heard of the Popsicle Twins till you mentioned it. I promptly looked it up, and even though I mistyped it as ‘poopsicle’ a ton of entries appeared.
The effect of using specific wordage is really beginning to register on me. I had originally typed my above response as “my folks’ dog” and then realized it didn’t really paint a true picture till I altered it to ‘asthmatic chihuahua.’ I think this is due directly to my reading a screenwriting book right now called STORY MAPS –probably at least the 50th book I’ve read on the subject, though I’ve only ever really learned things from about a half-dozen of them — that really provides a lot of concrete examples of effective screenwriting, contrasted with lame ones. (the book also has some interesting asides, like the fact that THE SIXTH SENSE script had a huge subplot about an old guy and a ton of R-rated violence, all of which was shot but ultimately cut from the PG film as distracting and unnecessary.)
I think my wife would absolutely see the validity of your metaphor, given how not keeping my mouth zipped has cost me any number of freelance gigs and my only permanent writing job, and as such it will never ever come up in conversation with her again!
The anecdote would have been amusing in any case, but ‘asthmatic chihuahua’ absolutely took it to the next level (and perhaps some levels beyond that), so in the case of that book I’d say your money was well-spent.
You may recall that Chuck Barris makes a cameo appearance in a Harlan Ellison “Glass Teat” column recalling his disastrous appearance on the Barris-produced “Dating Game.” (You’d think that the two little guys might have bonded over their shared world perspective — i.e. from less than 5’5” — but nope.) The uber-talented Twins aside, Barris got filthy rich peddling to Baby Boomers the means to waste as many precious moments of one’s life as possible, and I’m inclined to hold him responsible for every disastrous turn America has taken in the decades since. But his memoir “The Game Show King,” lent to me by a brother who likes books about funny stuff, turned out to be a decent-enough read. Chuck took his boodle and retired to the south of France, where he spent his time hanging out with the locals, motorboating around the Cannes harbor, and enjoying the benefits of the French healthcare system, which is helpfully free even to rich expats. Life is, of course, terrible.
IIRC Shatner showed up with a camera crew at Nimoy’s residence after Nimoy had already said no and Nimoy got understandably pissed.
But Shatner gave Nimoy a LOT of reasons to be pissed over the years, and Leonard never said what led to the final rupture. We’re guessing, but we don’t know for sure…
All true. Miss you btw.
Hugs to you!
HUGS!!!!!
This is what I’ve heard as well, although I don’t recall the source. If so, this is a rather extreme reaction from Nimoy, considering their relationship. Or maybe it was just the last straw…
Its possible the convention footage without consent could’ve touched a ‘raw nerve’ for nimoy after all the well publicised problems nimoy had with paramount in the 70s over his image use from TOS (leading him to the unthinkable, not to participate in the proposed Phase II TV series, and not until his lawsuit had been settled did he agree to be in TMP) so maybe nimoy was flabbergasted over Shatner doing something similar to him (especially since nimoy taking on paramount benefitted shatner with their ‘favoured nation’ clause) and as you say it was the last straw over a tumultuous relationship over the decades ..
I heard a less forgiveble possibility, that Shatner used Nimoy in a car ad he appeared in without Nimoy’s consent. But that just sounds odd, because Nimoy was filmed for it. Shatner has stated the possibility that it was the illness acting, and I think he may be right.
Seems a somewhat disproportionate reason for such an extreme response. I don’t think we’ll ever know the truth. I like to think they’d have made up had Nimoy not passed away so soon after the incident.
Sometimes when people are gravely ill they don’t want to see or talk to others, even people who are very close to them. I’ve seen this in my family.
Shatner has suggested that might have been the case, or even that he knows it.
Yeah this seems to be the most logical answer for me. I think Nimoy knew that he was dying so he wanted to spend what time he had left with his family and maybe didn’t want his friends to see him in that way. Same thing happened with my Grandparents when they were reaching the end of their lives.
Ok but no phone call? Skype/Zoom? even a brief note to Shatner to let him know he was good with him and any past grievances forgiven.. Idk, like someone said here maybe nimoy didnt expect to go when he did and was too focused on battling the latest bout of illness/deterioration , Shatner couldve been a secondary concern to him, and if he pulled through then he’d contact him/respond to his letter. idk :(
We know that when filming TOS, Shatner demanded that Leonard Nimoy’s lines be cut if Mr. Nimoy had more than Shatner did, even if cutting one of Spock’s lines made the story less understandable. Given that Mr. Nimoy forgave Shatner THAT, he sounds like a very forgiving person. But the last month of life is often only for family…
After seeing the recent Otoy short of kirk meeting spock one last time I just wish there been something similar in real life, eg. Shatner takes it upon himself to visit the hospital where nimoy is one night when the family is taking a break., he enters the hospital, finds from a porter where nimoy is.. he approaches the room.. Hesitatingly entering.. nimoy is there asleep.. Then awakes as he senses his old friends presence… they share a look. .nimoy beckons him over..’jim’ he says weakly.. Shatner takes his hand.. “spock..’ he says fighting back the tears..
Kirk and spock together, one last time..
IIRC, and I don’t knoew if I do, the Nimoy family did not want him there and he had “other obligations” which sounds like an excuse to me.
I think those obligations were connected to a horse show for charity.
But, it was a long time ago.
Shatner’s daughters went.
Shatner was hosting a Red Cross charity ball at Mar-a-lago the night before that had been arranged months in advance.
He said he couldn’t get a flight back in time. Twitter gave him a hard time for not taking a private jet. It was nobody else’s business.
The funeral was two days after Nimoy died, as per Jewish custom.
Note how the captain Pike Shatner is describing from the first pilot is NOT the same character we are getting in that fake Trek show SNW.
Everytime I get depressed about the state of fake Trek, I see a picture like this and I realise no one can ever take away what Star Trek once was (and hopefully one day will be again)
I leave 2024 hating the fake Trek we have had since 2009 and look forward optimistically to the future
LLAP
I loved the ST09 film and ID (more at the time but still look back and remember that awesome time to be a fan) , Beyond I had little time for after Orcis intriguing timeline under attack/Shatner Kirk returns script was jettisoned for Pegg/Lin’s TOS meets Guardians/Fast/Spaced that even general audiences who’d lapped up JJs films rolled their eyes at (and after SW was back and even the trekkies were licking their lips in anticipation of the next Episode, and Trek brings out a subpar movie? It was like 98/99 all over again)
STD started off quite well and even s2 was pretty decent. But I tuned out with s3, and never went back (despite s5 looking interesting sequel to The Chase), SNW i expected it to be great yet s1 for me was meh bar the awesome Balence of Terror redux, and as a result not seen s2 yet Picard 1 was incredibly interesting for the fact it was a TNG legacy sequel (done bc Patrick was bewitched by doing it Logan style) but ultimately disappointing, s2 started off well with the alt mirrorverse timeline and then dove off a cliff, and of course all was forgiven with the truly exceptional s3 (basically TNGs Undiscovered Country). Lower Decks and the other kids CG toon I never bothered with.
As for the future I’m intrigued with s31 as I feel there’s going to be something special/secret for us old time trekkies in relation to the TOS movie era time period (I may be wrong though), there’s the constant hope of kelvin ST4 and this mythical origin/prequel film supposedly set to film next year (presumably for 2026/60 anniversary abit like the way Harve Bennett wanted the Academy movie as a treat for fans for the 25th)
Unfortunately every time you get depressed about Trek, which seems to be every day, all of us here in the comments section pay for it.
I really long for the day when you get banned from this website so we don’t have to read any more of your gatekeeping and toxicity. Not only is flagrantly untrue but it is tedious. There is NO fake Star Trek. You don’t get to decide that and no amount of whining about it from your parent’s basement is going to change that.
Be gone.
He’s the gatekeeper but you want him banned and gone? He’s toxic so you accuse him of being a whining basement-dweller, basically sub-human? “IDIC for me but not for thee”, eh?
Enough of the 2017 crybully behavior. Enjoy what you like. Let other fans have differing opinions, and recognize that hateful vitriol isn’t going to change hearts and minds. CBS Trek’s multiverse means he doesn’t have to care about what you like, and vice versa. Enjoy the “Star Trek”-branded entertainment products that speak to you.
But remember, too, that the most popular new CBS Trek has been the stuff that has reminded people the most strongly of the Original Universe from the 1966-2005 productions. That might continue to annoy you, but try not to lash out.