My name is William Shatner and I was a starship captain,
but I wasn't the only one,
So were Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks,
Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula,
and most recently, Chris Pine,
That's a lot of captains,
In fact, that's a lot of "Star Trek,"
Lasers, fire, point blank!
The original series,
despite being canceled after only three seasons in 1 969,
spawned perhaps the most durable
and profitable franchise in the history of entertainment,
At the center of each incarnation of "Star Trek"
is what has become the truly iconic character...
the captain,
Engage!
These dynamic and unique actors have inhabited this role,
each bringing their own interpretation and personality,
Warp six,
Engage,
The captains,
Who are they?
What were they before they got the role,
why did they get the role, what have they done afterwards?
It's a journey of discovery...
by me, you, and, ultimately, them,
Woo!
( cheering )
Wow!
Hey!
- Spock! - How are you?
Spock?
I'm not Spock,
That guy called me Spock,
Oh!
( cheering )
We began our voyage,
taking the jet to Toronto
to pick up our Canadian crew,
Woo!
And surprise,
The president of biz for Bombardier,
Steve Ridolfi,
met the plane to say hello to me,
and what do you know?
He tells me he got into the airplane business
because of "Star Trek,"
He became an aeronautical engineer because of me,
I still remember my first "Star Trek" episode
on a little black-and-white television, 'cause that's
- all we had in those days, - Right,
Wow,
I had to think about that,
As we flew across the ocean
and as I prepared to meet the actors...
I had a lot of unanswered questions,
Not only for them...
but for myself,
( dog barking )
Oh, my God,
Patrick, what are you doing here?
Bill, you called me,
I'm waiting for you,
You said you had something you wanted to say to me,
I do,
- Hello, - Hi,
Patrick Stewart, or as he is now known,
Sir Patrick Stewart,
was Captain Jean-Luc Picard of
"Star Trek: The Next Generation,"
A superb classical actor,
Patrick is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company
and brought a tremendous dignity to the role,
Being born at the beginning of the war,
I suppose I was used to the idea of war
and if something has always been that particular way,
it doesn't seem extraordinary,
SO We Were Very poor, we didn't have much...
We had nothing, really, leftover
at the end of the week...
but it didn't...
create problems for me
because all my friends were the same,
There was... there was nothing you could compare your life to,
so there was no sense of...
being excluded in society or being without,
because that was how it was,
and everybody was the same,
I remember a play I did
in a camp that my mother's sister ran
about something about the Holocaust,
- Really? - Yeah,
- And I played this boy... - How old were you?
Uh, six, five, six,
And one of the kids played a dog,
and I was saying goodbye to my dog,
'cause the Germans were taking me,
that was the... that was the little drama that we were,
When the play was over,
I looked out there and the audience was crying
because the subject matter was so embedded in the people,
And so I took my bow
and my father came and held me and praised me,
and I'm convinced that that was the moment
that I thought, hey, this is fantastic,
This has got me places with my father and the audience
that I've never dreamt of
and I'm convinced that that's what...
That's what started me on my acting thing,
What about you?
I was 12 when I was first put into a play with adults and...
Well, how did that happen?
I mean, why would they put you in a play with adults?
I had an English teacher,
He was the man who first put a copy of Shakespeare into my hand
and said, "Read it out loud, this is..."
Why would he do that?
He was an English teacher who loved drama,
and he was an actor and director...
Amateur actor and director,
and he wanted... I went to a...
It was not an academic school,
but he wanted us to have some experience of our dramatists,
and so he would give us...
The first play was "The Merchant of Venice,"
And he gave me Shylock to read,
I don't know why,
Patrick, let's examine that a second,
He must have seen something, something you did,
Let's pause a moment, maybe you won't remember what it is,
but maybe if we look at it more carefully,
something will suggest itself
that you haven't thought of in a while,
You see, here's the other strange thing,
I never had any difficulty with Shakespeare,
It never seemed alien or strange,
I mean, this was a 400-year-old text,
I found I enjoyed the Shakespeare,
In those days, there was a lot of Shakespeare on the radio
and our leading actors would be playing the parts...
John Gielgud, Alec Guinness,
- I listened to them, - Yes,
- And I copied what I heard, - Yes,
And just, the mere act of copying...
- Even at 12? - Yeah,
Wow,
You don't have the emotional experience,
but there is something in the brain
and in the body that can make that child connect
to the instrument, to the bow,
- or to the text on the page... - The word,
... intuitively,
You know, the valley in the back, as we see it,
that's the beauty of the thing,
That's how I see the world,
- As a road to somewhere, - Like a road to...
Yeah,
Yeah, but where does that road go to?
The horizon is ever-changing,
- Right, - You with me?
I am so with you,
Ever-changing, but can you ever get to it?
- No, that's the point, - The point is?
And Ill stay as long as I can see the horizon moving,
- Oh, wait a minute, - Yeah, okay,
1 2 miles away, the horizon sort of disappeared,
they used to see sailor ships by their sails,
- Sure, - Right?
Sure,
I mean, that's the limit of the...
So here comes a ship 12 miles away,
they think it's the end of the world,
- Yeah, - That was the way it was,
- Well... - What's it like now?
Well, that was a way of perceiving,
and what we know is that that's not...
That wasn't sufficient, was it?
- Correct, - No,
Not only that, but the sea...
The first seafarers in the world were Africans,
They didn't think about that like that,
What'd they think?
No, they saw the ever-changing horizon,
- It's true, - So wait a minute,
Are you telling me that you're tuned in...
Avery Brooks was Captain Benjamin Sisko of
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,"
Avery, in addition to his impressive work
on the stage and screen
is a tenured professor of theater at Rutgers University,
and if that isn't impressive enough,
he's an accomplished jazz singer and pianist,
_ _et/ _
# Girl #
# What you doing in here? #
.t You're . #
# In my heart #
# Without #
# Consent #
# You asked me here #
# You asked: e to come in.
_ hnd _
# I said I would #
# You said come in #
# And I came #
# And found you here #
# Down the stairs... #
Yeah, that's funny, too,
# Into your head I went #
# Into my head #
# I thought you'd never be # #
I went to Oberlin College,
and I wanted to audition for the choir,
this world, you know, world-renowned choir,
the conservatory,
and so I met these men, you know,
athletes and stuff... You know, I came early,
And they said... I said, "I'm going on..."
And, you know, I'm from Gary, Indiana,
and, you know, the thing...
And they said... yeah, I said, "I'm going to audition
for the choir in the morning," and they laughed at me,
They said, "You can't get in the choir, you're from, y'know,"
- I said, no... - Wait a minute,
You're from...
- I'm from Gary, Indiana, - Right,
I'm from this inner-city place...
- Right, - ... and so you can't get...
You can't get in...
But why did they say you can't?
Was it from Gary, Indiana?
Maybe because I had a football jacket on
and rose-tinted glasses and I'm from the urban thing,
- That's what they said, - All right,
Even though I've been, y'know, in this music thing
- my whole life, - Right,
My whole life has been music,
So aren't you enraged by that?
No, I just told them I'm going in the morning
and I'm gonna get in the choir,
- And what happened? - I was in the choir!
( horns honking )
Oh!
What is...
( laughing )
Where have you been?
- You look so cute in that box, - I'm so hot in here,
Come on, we're supposed to be doing an interview,
I brought my air-conditioned box,
'cause I didn't know how long you'd be,
How handsome, Bill in a box,
You could market it,
How are you?
Just add water, which we've done,
Oh, boy, sweetheart,
Oh, I am so hot just waiting for you,
What does that mean?
That's what they all say,
Kate Mulgrew portrayed Captain Kathryn Janeway
on "Star Trek: Voyager,"
You will meet Kate in the setting
where she is perhaps most at home, the stage,
The first female captain of a "Star Trek" series,
She brought all of her training and discipline to bear
and made Janeway an impressive leader,
I think when I was young,
acting was, for me, the great escape,
Although I took it very seriously,
You wanted to go to college, obviously,
Not really, I didn't,
Well, but you had a desire...
- Bill, Bill, - Yes?
- Trust me, - Trust me,
I wanted my father to pay my way to New York,
The only way I could get here
was to get in through New York University,
I wanted to study with Stella Adler,
I have my sister to verify this,
College to me was absolutely unimportant,
and as it turns out, I have had much less college
than I even thought,
I thought I dropped out at the end of my junior year,
in fact, I've only had one year,
Okay, why couldn't you say to your father,
"I wanna go to Stella Adler, pay for that for me, please?"
My father...
Absolutely... tough, tough old Irishman,
Tough, what, but his daughter wants to learn,
- Why can't you got to your... - To be an actress,
- Yeah, - And you know what my father
said to me when I said I wanna be an actress?
- What, what did he say? - And I proved it to him,
He said, "You're gonna break your neck out of the gate
and Ill be goddamned if I'm gonna subsidize that,"
How did you feel about that?
I said, "Then Ill do it myself,"
He said, "Guess what?
- You will," - And guess what?
You didn't, 'cause you went to college,
You said, "Then give me the money for university,"
- Yes, - So you fooled him,
- I did, - You lied,
- I did, - Why did you do that?
'Cause I wanted to be an actress,
That much,
And I didn't mind sticking it to him a little bit, either,
He was tough,
Tough, tough,
But he didn't know that I dropped out,
I didn't tell him I dropped out of school,
So why did you drop out?
I dropped out because I got two leading roles,
Where?
I got the lead in a soap opera called "Ryan's Hope,"
I played Mary Ryan, and I got the lead in "Our Town"
at the American Shakespeare festival...
- Wow, at the same time? - Same time,
- How old were you? - 1 8, 1 9,
So they recognized your talent right from the very beginning,
Yeah, they did, yes,
( chuckling )
Poker face,
Shut up,
( laughing )
- Scott Bakula, - Bill Shatner,
I have admired you for so long,
- You are my hero, - Are you kidding me?
No, no, no, no, I'm not kidding, because...
Vice versa,
Well, I appreciate that, but the truth of the matter is,
you're such a hell of an actor, but you're a singer,
- I am a singer, that is true, - Yeah,
Where... Do you think of yourself as a singer first?
Yeah, that's where I started,
- I know, musical theater, - That's right,
- Did you study? - Of course, I still study,
- Voice? - Every week,
You take voice lessons every week?
Yes, every week,
Give me a... Give me a thing?
- What do you... - A voice exercise,
A voice... an exercise?
_ Ahh _
Jeez, that's wild,
( laughing )
I can't sing, but I can ride a horse,
- Let's hear a little, - Let's go...
- Let's hear a little singing, - No,
- I sang yesterday, - I can teach you today,
- How long do we have? - Really?
We've got... We've got 'til 1:3O
and then you have to go,
Come on over here,
I'm... I'm, uh...
Here's the... Ill go wherever Calvin takes me,
but when you say, "Come on over here..."
- No, no, no, press your legs, - Yes?
- Press your legs against him... - Yes,
- Against her very slightly... - Yes,
and she'll go forward, Yes,
And then, if you wanna go to your left,
you just point it to the left,
Yes,
- A little leg pressure, - Yes,
All right,
That's good, guys, let's dismount...
Let's stop here,
Okay,
That was... That was fabulous,
Now here's what I want to do...
Scott Bakula played Captain Jonathan Archer
on "Star Trek: Enterprise,"
and was arguably the first captain,
as his series was set before the original series,
even though it was the last to be produced,
You got all that?
Scott has been a fixture on television for decades
and like Avery,
is an accomplished singer,
No... my mother's very musical, my dad's very musical
and I have become...
What does that mean, "very musical"?
Well, my dad was a concert pianist,
so I had pianos in my house my whole life
and that's a huge deal,
And did they say, sing?
They didn't say sing, but my mom was a singer,
So there was always music around,
and my parents, 'cause my dad went to Princeton,
he used to go to New York when he was at school,
so he developed this love of New York shows
and so when I was growing up in the '60s,
my parents would disappear for a few days,
go to New York,
see a Broadway show and come back home with "Cabaret,"
an album from 'Cabaret,"
or "How to Succeed in Business Without Really..."
You know, or any of those kind of shows,
and so I was getting this kind of distant love affair,
and then you'd put the album on
and you'd be listening to "Mame" or Angela Lansbury
or somebody, and you'd be all... that's...
You know, so I grew up having it around me,
Did they encourage you to sing?
They did, yeah, I started singing from
- a very, very young age, - How young?
Well, I was singing... I had a band in the fourth grade,
- I sang with the symphony... - fourth grade, you did...
- Ten, 1 1 years old? - Nine, ten, 1 1, yeah,
And you sang with the symphony?
I sang in a children's choir in the fifth grade,
- Oh, in a choir, - And then I sang...
The big thing that started me was, there's an operetta called
"Amahl and the Night Visitors,"
Yeah,
It's Menotti, and I played Amahl when I was 1 3,
And I started... And I... then the acting,
the musical theater kinda came out of that,
# All day long I'd biddy, biddy bum #
# Biddy, biddy, biddy biddy bum #
- Yeah, you got it, - ? \?
# Wouldn't have to work hard #
# Ya, da, da, da, da, da, da da, da, da... # #
( laughing )
I love it!
My parents were making a living,
Nobody suffered but nobody had any excess,
I played in little kids plays,
in parks, and then I got onto
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC Radio,
for radio drama, fairy tales,
and I played Prince Charming,
"Princess, are you all right?"
- The hushed voice, - Yes,
"I'm here,"
( laughing )
And then I went on for radio, more mature radio,
and college plays and stuff like that,
and so it just evolved to the chagrin...
Worse than that, the astonishment of my father,
who really didn't want me to do this,
He called it hanging... "Hangers-on,"
You're gonna become a hanger-on,
You understand that, Bill?
You can't make a living,
Well, my dad was no psychic,
I started out in Canadian radio in my late teens,
and before you know it, I appeared in my first feature,
"Butler's Night Off,"
The '50s became a time of great opportunity for me
as I did a variety of radio,
theater and live television productions on the CBC,
Those early days of live TV have proven valuable,
setting the stage for what would prove to be
the beginnings of my life's journey,
William Shatner, as I live and breathe,
How are you?
I'm very well, how are you?
Okay, sit down,
Just another day, sitting on the sidewalk,
- At the office, - Yeah, sure,
Look at you,
You're me 50 years ago,
You don't look too bad,
Well...
I'm 50 years older,
I wonder how much I've lost,
You wanna go?
Come on, let me... let me see,
You sure about this?
I... I couldn't be more sure about anything,
Give me that hand,
Let me feel a 30-year-old hand,
- Let's rumble, - Hey, wait a minute,
Let's party,
You already know what to do, right?
"Over the Top," baby,
- Stallone, - Give me this hand here,
I know, I know, come on, let's party,
Ready?
- One... - Two, three, go,
Come on, give me...
Hey, wait!
Hey!
Was that a breeze?
Hey, wait a sec, wait!
You did the whole thumb thing,
- I want another shot, - Sure,
All right,
You did the thumb thing,
Wrap around... you see that... Yeah, there you go,
Ahh, see that?
- All right, - Wow,
That's two...
- Best out of... - Best out of three, why not?
- Best out of three, - Yeah, sure,
All right, you ready?
Captain Kirk, huh?
- Captain Kirk, - Captain Kirk,
Captain Kirk,
All right, one, two, three, go,
Here it goes, you're going now,
You're going,
Unbelievable,
I can't believe how strong he is,
Hey, you guys gotta get out of here,
Move along, get out of here,
Get out of here, man,
- Well... - I can't believe it,
Chris Pines is the latest actor to captain the Enterprise,
and his character is James T, Kirk, as was mine,
It all becomes clear,
Chris is extremely talented, and like the rest of us,
thrives on the stage,
We speak to him at what promises to be
at the beginning of a long and successful career,
I watched that today,
"Train," what was it called?
"Unstoppable,"
- I watched "Unstoppable," - Yeah,
And not only did I see a really entertaining film,
but I saw a great young actor,
What's his name?
( laughing )
You're wonderful,
- Oh, thank you, - You've got the whole thing,
You got the looks and you got the attitude
and everything, it's really great,
And I saw you doing some gags,
Uh-huh,
How much of that did you do on the thing?
I did a lot of it,
Y'know, I don't...
I don't have any kind of death wish
but I definitely do get competitive,
Did you feel a sense of risk
at any time you were doing the stunts?
Interestingly enough, not really,
I think I was...
First of all, we had a great stunt team,
I felt very secure with that,
It's interest...
I think you get into such a zone
when it is that kind of high-risk
that your focus is so placed on the stunt itself
that you don't have time to be scared,
I...
But it's not Tom Cruise kinda stuff...
I... I did a cheap version of what you did
and I had to get up on top of a train,
I said to the guy, the director,
"How are you gonna do this?"
He says, "I don't know, maybe in a green screen,"
I said, "What... if I got on top of the train
"and you went ten miles an hour,
could you speed it?"
"Aw, yeah, let's just do that,"
Ten miles an hour... What'd it look like?
It looked like ten miles an hour,
So we gradually upped the speed to 40 miles an hour,
- Oh, God, - I'm on the top of the train,
- Were you scared? - Out of my mind,
I met your dad, worked with your dad,
He's a wonderful actor, he's been an actor all his life,
I mean, you're like, what, second generation?
- Or is there more? - I am a third generation,
My grand...
Well, in fact, I just found this out recently,
my great-great-uncle was an actor,
so it actually started way, way, way, way back,
Isn't that amazing?
So the idea of choosing to be an actor was not foreign at all,
In fact, it might have been inculcated,
In a way, yeah,
I often say it's like, I know that my friends' parents
were doctors or lawyers, let's say,
when they, you know, around the dinner table,
you would talk about your day
and your day would consist of cases
or the paperwork you had,
Around my table, it was inevitably about
the day spent at work,
and the work would be... Would be "Quantum Leap"
or it would be "Magnum, P, I,"
So around your dinner table, it was show business,
Yeah, pretty much, yeah,
And was young Chris intrigued, or...
You know, I wasn't,
I wanted to be everything but,
I wanted to be...
You know, I saw "Top Gun,"
and I wanted to be a fighter pilot,
How far did that go?
That went about three days,
I have my... I have a bad case of ADD,
You know, I think, in fact,
having grown up so close to it,
maybe my reaction
and my experience with it was different,
instead of wanting to do it from an early age, I just...
It was what my dad did, it was what my mom did
and I met some cool people
and got to do some fun things because of it,
but, you know, I wanted to be a baseball player,
- I wanted everything... - Were you good?
I was... I was... I was, uh...
I was mediocre,
I think when I was young I was pretty good,
and then once I hit 13,
it was... I realized it was going...
You... you understood that...
- Very quickly, very quickly, - Really?
Yeah, very quickly,
And when was the transition between baseball and tennis
and fighter pilot?
I had a wonderful English teacher who I bonded with
greatly and she...
We did an independent study on "Waiting for Godot"
as an English project
and as part of that English project,
at the end, we decided,
yeah, well, why don't we put on the first act of
"Waiting for Godot"?
So we put it up in this atrium in the science building,
I remember,
and I don't have any memories from that
other than it was so simple then,
It was the joy of just getting together with some friends
and putting on a show,
And with an audience, finally,
Yeah, and it was the beauty of theater,
You know, what I loved about theater
is that there's an ephemeral quality to it,
it happens, it comes together,
it exists and then it goes away,
Las Vegas,
- Save this... - Of course,
( laughing )
- Ready to start it off? - Good crowd?
- Very good, - Ooh, very good,
We beat the world record this morning,
No, world record?
A world record!
There's a power...
that the camera has,
Just start pointing a camera,
people give way and police open up,
borders stop, meld,
Sorry, we're filming,
Hey, man, how are you?
Your nephew,
- You're my nephew? - Yes,
I don't even known you,
( laughing )
What the...
I am Locutus of Borg,
The five captains are so distinctive
because of the five actors that play them, obviously,
Patrick was cast against type coming after Bill,
Avery, quite obviously,
was cast against type coming after Patrick,
who was smart to bring Kate in as a woman
and then Scott had an entire charm of his own,
I think it was very successful,
whether it was planned or not,
it was a very successful endeavor,
We're getting ready to do another franchise
of "Star Trek,"
- I'm gonna say it, - Okay,
And we want you to be the captain,
Yes,
Boom, what goes on?
My first thought?
- Not interested, - Why?
And I may have even said...
I'm not interested in,
you know, the next captain seat,
And they said, it's... you're gonna be the first captain,
And then I was done,
( laughing )
You're gonna be 1 00 years before Kirk,
I said, I'm in,
This is Captain Archer of the Starship Enterprise,
We respectfully would like to ask for your assistance
with a little problem...
Sir, they're charging weapons,
Polarize the hull plating,
Grab hold of something!
That was an easy kind of a thing,
because I had a knowledge of what it was gonna be,
but I don't know what it would have been like to be you
when somebody says...
Calls and says, "Come in and audition for..."
- Well... - 'Cause there weren't...
There had been, like, a couple of bad '50s kind of TV shows,
- Right? - Right,
Well, what happened with me was...
I was in New York doing something
and I got a call from a guy named Roddenberry,
who said, "My name is Roddenberry
"and we've shot a pilot
"and it didn't sell,
but what they said was, recast it and we'll take another look,"
So I go to LA, I fly into LA,
So I looked at this pilot that Roddenberry had shot
with an actor named Jeffrey Hunter,
and Leonard Nimoy playing a smiling Vulcan
and they say to...
"We want to recast it,"
So I said things like,
it should be a little more lighthearted and that,
and they all agreed and we made another pilot,
So I was like...
- I had a judgment call, - Yeah,
I was... I could be a little bit of a jury there,
Yeah,
Saying I will or I won't,
and I said I will, if you make these changes,
and they did, and so it worked out,
It wasn't any great miracle,
George, just get it over here a little bit, you know,
avoid that meteorite,
A little more to the left, George!
- Y'know, as against... - Right!
..."We're turning right, "
So that's what I... That's what I...
It wasn't any great thing,
- And then because it was... - Oh, no, it's a huge thing,
It was a tone, and that's what everybody fell in love with
was the tone of the show,
But I must point out that the possibilities,
the potential...
for knowledge and advancement is equally great,
Risk,
Risk is our business,
That's what this starship is all about,
That's why we're aboard her,
It was very slowly that I began to realize
that if I were to do this,
I was gonna have to commit for six years,
and at that point, I said, out of the question,
I've got too much to do,
I can't involve myself in a television series
in California for six years,
Everybody knows it's not gonna work, they said,
You cannot revive an iconic series,
You cannot replace those guys,
So don't worry about signing a six-year contract,
You'll never see it out,
Patrick Stewart, who was not Gene's first choice,
In fact, he kind of fought even reading him at first,
but Bob Justman insisted,
so Gene did
and eventually came to realize
that he was just the perfect actor,
30 years with the RSC before he came to "Star Trek,"
and having played all of those kings and emperors
and lead characters,
you know, that's what a starship captain is,
You're an officer onboard this ship
and I require you to perform your duty,
That is an order, Commander,
Yes, sir,
I read the pilot, that's what happened,
and I said, "Oh, well, oh..."
This is very interesting to me,
I mean...
defending humankind
to some other intelligence in the universe,
a man dealing with... loss,
having to raise a child,
indeed a male child, by himself,
and be brown,
as we spin this tale in the 20th century
about the 24th century,
I said okay,
Excuse me, Captain,
Here's tomorrow's duty roster for your approval,
Lieutenant...
- Lieutenant... - Benjamin Sisko, sir,
I've been on temporary assignment here,
Before I leave, I just want to say,
it's been an honor serving with you, sir,
We got word that Kate Mulgrew was cast,
and from the moment she stepped on the bridge,
we could all relax,
because Kate is a natural leader,
We had an actress who wanted to be there,
was immaculately prepared every day,
and, as I said,
just has a take-charge element in her personality,
You can try and stop us from getting to the truth,
but I promise you, if you do,
I will respond with all the unique
technologies at my command,
Janeway out,
"Star Trek" captains have to be on it right away,
'cause so often the camera's with us
and we have to hit these unspeakable marks,
green screens, blue screens,
nonexistent aliens, spouting this language,
and setting the tone for the rest of our company,
And mine were...
I had nine in my cast,
And people think that we're having these lovely breaks,
don't they, Bill?
And being brought coffee and stuff,
It's 18 hours,
You're lucky to go to the john, right?
You get 20 minutes for lunch, that's it,
Exactly right,
You gotta be strong,
So I think when they were looking at us,
certainly Patrick and me, Avery,
They were thinking, constitutionally,
is she up to it?
Then, can she speak the language?
Which it...
It might as well be Shakespeare, it's so highly stylized,
to be able to spin that language out
and make it accessible to the audience at large
is a gift not a lot of actors have,
Lastly, I think there has to be a great sense of discipline,
We are all disciplined people,
Very punctual,
So I could never be late,
I could never really complain, I had to be on my...
I had to do it,
and I did it, so I'm very proud of that,
- And so was I, - Ill bet you were,
Yeah,
And how do you do this thing and what's the manner
in which you say these words?
And therefore, the classical work
- that all of us have done... - Yeah,
came to use,
Ah, New York City, the home of American theater,
I came here in 1956
with the Stratford Shakespeare Company
and I was performing in Marlowe's "Tamburlaine"
at the famous Winter Garden Theatre,
Agents found me, producers found me,
The Broadhurst Theatre,
legendary theater, another one,
This is...
1919, I think it was built,
"Les Mis�rables, " "Cats,"
Gigantic productions
of which "The World of Suzie Wong" was one,
In the late '50s, it ran for two years,
I was the leading actor,
At this theater,
while I was playing "The World of Suzie Wong,"
"Funny Girl" opened,
Barbara Streisand opened here,
This was the beginning of her career,
While I'd be in my dressing room one day,
there was a water pipe going from my dressing room down,
descending into wherever,
and there was a hole by the water pipe,
so I looked down and I saw that that hole
looked down into the dressing room
of the dancing girls in "Funny Girl,"
So I spent part of my time in my dressing room,
trying to see if there was water in the pipe,
So this is Shubert Alley and I was in this theater
in a play called "Shot in the Dark,"
Julie Harris, Walter Matthau,
and he was hysterical, Julie was hysterical,
I was pretty funny, and we ran for a year,
The common denominator with the captains
is that all of our roots are based in theater,
At one time or another,
we've all played memorable characters on the stage,
Did I say characters?
Did you ever see "Star Trek"?
Ahh!
Yeah, I love it, yeah!
I did, yeah!
Did it change your life at all?
Well, it's still changing,
( laughing )
- And you... - Ahh!
And as Apple Annie, you watched "Star Trek"?
- Yes, wonderful, - What was your favorite?
I forget the first couple of...
- Years? - Yeah, wonderful,
It can't be beat,
- With Captain Kirk? - Yeah!
- Yeah, yeah, - Yeah, Captain Kirk?
- And Spock? - Yeah,
The whole cast, I love it,
There's nothing like theater,
( laughing )
Why are you called Apple Annie?
Well, it's like a "Bigfoot George,"
That's what the Italians do, they have a lead-in,
( laughing )
Yeah,
I loves you, you look so nice,
- Oh, thank you... - Ill take you,
In Jewish, you say you're a bargain,
Bye-bye, honey,
That's... And that's New York,
He's a bargain!
( laughing )
Because the work on "Star Trek" was...
The scenes and stories were generally serious,
the moments between the filming
were where we had the balance,
the yang to the yin,
and that's where we were just shamelessly silly,
Maybe the rest of the cast of "Next Generation"
were having a good time right from the get-go,
I wasn't,
I was too nervous,
I felt out of my depth, out of my comfort zone,
I had never filmed in Hollywood in my life before,
I had no ambitions to film in Hollywood,
I was just scared, scared and exhausted all the time,
I'd never worked so hard in my life,
I called a meeting of the principal cast of
"Star Trek: The Next Generation,"
and I spoke to them very seriously, and I said,
I think there is too much messing about,
I think there's... too much fooling around
goes on in this show,
We are wasting time,
We get days off occasionally,
Some of us get, you know, a week off at a time,
The rest of these people on the set, they don't,
they're here every day, day in, day out,
and I think we've got to be aware of that
and I think we need to be taking this more seriously,
And I remember Denise Crosby, who was Natasha Yar,
saying to me, "Oh, come on, Patrick,
we gotta have some fun,"
And I said, "We are not here to have fun!"
They never, ever let me forget that,
because the one thing that I took away
from my "Star Trek" experience,
every episode, every movie, all four of them,
was that for the first time in my life as an actor,
my fellow actors showed me how to do good work
and have fun at the same time,
- Whoa, they changed you? - Yes,
Morning, darling,
"Deep Space Nine" was funny,
because it's like Avery was the leader,
he was our captain,
we paid attention and he did set the tone,
He set the tone in terms of respect and seriousness,
Any scene, especially two-character scenes
is like a sport
and you're playing it together
and you want to get the volleys going,
You're not competing with each other,
but you are demanding of each other
that you deliver the goods
and with Avery, that was implicit,
You're firing me?
I have no choice, Benny, it's his decision,
Well... you can't fire me,
I quit,
To hell with you
and to hell with Stone!
Try to stay calm, Benny!
No, I'm tired of being calm,
Calm never got me a damn thing!
Do you try and relate the music to the performance?
It's all music,
I mean, I could talk about literature,
you know, in terms of music,
not just the form of it, but, you know, like the sound
and the complexity of the movement
and the expression of it,
Sure, I sure could,
Well, you know, Art Blakey said that, you know, expression...
You know, he's talking idiomatically,
but not so much so that, you know,
the highest form of expression
is this music, from God through me to you,
It is as wide and varied
as there are people on the earth,
That's what I know,
- Music, - Yes,
Absolutely,
Everybody has their song,
Go ahead,
- Everybody has their music, - Go on,
- They vibrate according to... - Go on,
- their own... - Go on,
- tempo and timbre, - Go on, go on,
So everybody has a unique piece of music,
I think so,
Go on,
They play it and it goes out into the universe,
We don't know whether it returns or not,
- Returns to whom? - Exactly,
- Does it make a cycle? - Well, I'm not sure about that,
You know, I mean, that's the what do you call it of humankind
and to some extent, you know, the desire for a return,
That's the, what do you call it, of humankind,
the small of humankind,
I need to get it back,
No, you don't,
I need to believe that my existence and my music
- i n so m e m a n n e r... - M ea n s so m et h i n g,
Continues,
Whether you get it...
Whether you hear it back or not,
When I took command ten years ago,
I saw myself as an explorer,
I thought all the risks would be worth it,
because just beyond the next planet,
just beyond the next star,
there would be something...magnificent,
something noble,
The thing about working with Scott is,
he has such a disarming quality and a...
There's just something about him
that you're put at ease,
and I think that's... He wants that to happen,
He wants that sort of one-on-one relationship with a person,
Lead me along the lines of your awareness of "Star Trek,"
- My awareness? - Yeah,
- It starts and ends with you, - Really?
- Tell me about that, - Yeah, 'cause I...
When I was in college, you guys were... hit the rerun world,
five nights a week, and that was...
It was mandatory viewing, and it was...
And I was in a fraternity,
and the fraternity stopped at 11:00 at night,
you were... wherever you were, if you were at a bar,
whatever you're doing, studying, whatever,
stop, "Star Trek's" on,
What were you thinking?
Why... why were you watching?
I watched because I loved the male relationships on the show,
and, of course, you watch because you wanna be you guys,
wanted to be you,
but the way you guys related to each other
and the camaraderie and the friendship and the love,
I always said, you know, the love,
You know...
That was my goal,
one of the things I was attracted to
about doing my version was to try and get that back,
and I don't...
We didn't succeed the way you guys did,
but that's why I watched,
Why not?
That's a good question,
There's magic in casting
and there's magic in the actors around you
and you can't... You can't make it happen,
It either happens sometimes and it doesn't happen,
I had a great cast,
I don't... I can't... I couldn't really tell you,
All I know is that you guys had it in a way
that was so appealing,
Do you know what you get if you feed a Tribble too much?
A fat Tribble,
No, you get a whole bunch of hungry little Tribbles,
Well, Bones, all I can suggest
i s y o u o p e n u p a m ate Rn i Ty wa rd,
What's interesting about it is everybody says,
it's so brave of you not to try to imitate William Shatner,
I said, "Well, of course...
There's no courageousness at all involved with it,"
I think, you know, the obvious choice would be, clearly,
to try to do your own thing,
because anything else would just be a joke,
There was a conversation all the time about, because...
Your imprint on the character is, like Nimoy on Spock,
is... will stand the test of time,
so knowing that this was some kind of preque
and we are essentially versions of...
I am a version of you,
to hopefully pepper the character with some...
Some things that would...
- Mannerisms, behaviors, - Something that would resonate,
That would resonate,
I'm coming with you,
I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it,
See?
We are getting to know each other,
In the early weeks of shooting the pilot,
somebody said to me,
"How does it feel to be filling the shoes of Captain Kirk?
How does it feel to be filling the shoes of William Shatner?"
And I said, "Excuse me,
"but William Shatner and Captain Kirk
is still filling his shoes more than adequately,"
I'm attempting to fill different shoes,
You hovered over our early weeks
and months on the series...
Iike...
Like a Klingon warbird,
Oh, no, the Romulans had warbirds, didn't they?
You see, you know...
It's been longer for me than you,
I know, but I bet you would not have made that mistake,
I... I would not have made...
I would not have used that simile at all,
But I was trying to find, you know, something that,
rather ominously, slightly threateningly,
you know, kind of hang over your heads,
That was what William Shatner and Captain Kirk was,
I think, for many of us,
though we would never have admitted it at the time,
Did you ever see the "Star Trek" I did?
No,
Had you ever heard of me?
Possibly,
- Possibly not, - Possibly not,
That's a pretty nice-looking costume you have,
What...
what era is that?
- Oh, my gosh! - Oh, my gosh!
- What era is that? - I'm a Tribble slayer,
- You're a Tribble slayer? - Yeah,
- Wow, - Yeah,
Wish I were a Tribble,
Hey, everybody,
( all laughing )
Imagine finding you here!
( cheers and applause )
- How are you? - Hi,
Hey!
- Back of my hand, - Hi there,
Can I just put a big heart?
Doesn't recognize...
Jeri Ryan,
Listen, if I had to vote,
she was the most beautiful girl on "Star Trek" I ever saw, ever,
- Aw, you're so sweet, - Ever,
And you would know,
- Mr, Shatner, - How are you?
Holy cats, look at that, the pumpkin,
Holy crap, that's William Shatner,
Hey, how you doing?
Oh, my God!
I was this close!
Do you believe this?
The most beautiful girl in "Star Trek" is still selling,
Still selling,
You look beautiful,
Liz, is it okay if I kiss him?
- Yes, it's okay, - Kiss him, kiss him, kiss him,
It's okay,
- Is your husband here? - He is,
- Where is he? - Where's my sweetie?
How are you?
Hi, how are you?
Oh, excuse me,
- Sally Kellerman, - Yes,
The most beautiful girl who ever appeared on "Star Trek,"
The real way to determine the success of the various captains
in the "Star Trek" franchise is to see whose action figure
is still available,
Now, we have Patrick Stewart here,
so Patrick is a very popular and very wonderful captain,
but how popular could he be?
'Cause you can still find his figure,
Is Captain Kirk here?
Did we see a...
Did we see a, um...
Apparently, um...
this is very exciting news for you, Bill,
You're sold out,
During the shooting, y'know,
the audience doesn't... isn't quite aware as you and I are
that the hours are so overwhelming,
Yeah,
Minimal 1 2-hour day and most of the days longer than that
and then you've got publicity and interviews
and rewrites
and other things to do having to do with production,
that the end of the week, you're exhausted,
You only get enough rest on the weekends sometimes
if you're not traveling someplace
and then you're back again doing it for 40 weeks,
So the working actor,
if he knows anything, is not complaining,
but it's overwhelming, and no time for relationships
of any kind, including your family,
- Did you find that? - Yeah, very much so,
Not as much in "Enterprise,"
but when I did "Quantum Leap" years ago, it was...
That was a marathon,
I liken that to a marathon,
to try to get to the end of the season,
I had five days off in 4!_z years
when I wasn't on the set, from first shot to last shot,
Did it affect your relationships?
- Absolutely, absolutely, - Did it affect your marriage?
- Absolutely, absolutely, - How badly?
How bad?
- Well, that marriage ended, - Right,
- So did mine, - And that was really a...
It wasn't a direct product of it,
but it was... It certainly fed into it,
So you're working all these hours
and your wife is waiting at home,
and she says, "Will you be home for dinner?"
And you say, "Yes, dear, we're on our last scene,
should be done by 6:30,"
This is like bad... bad memories, we all have 'em,
It's just like...
And then the camera breaks down
and 6:30 becomes 9:30,
Yeah, yeah,
And you get home at 9:30,
she says, "I thought you were gonna be here at 6:30,
Where were you?"
So I thought, what do you mean, where was I?
I was pacing back and forth,
just like, I gotta get home for 6:3O
- and they say you can't leave, - Yeah,
- What... Tell me, describe... - Did you have kids during...
- Oh, yeah, I had... - Did you have kids yet?
I have three children and all three children
were born in that period of time,
Yeah, yeah,
I only had a daughter at the time
and then my second child was born during...
During the time,
and part of the goal was to get home for dinner
and also to see your kid before they went to bed,
Yes,
And, you know, about a year into it,
after we kinda figured out what it was,
and I was a new actor, I didn't have any kind of cache,
so I couldn't say, I want this time off,
I don't want to work these nights,
I don't want to get forced...
I don't want to have any forced calls, you can't do this,
I just said, whatever... You know, I'm there,
Whenever you need me, I'm there,
You're an actor trying to make a living, you're...
Yes,
You have the potential for making a good living,
save this money from "Quantum Leap"
and you may not have any worries,
at least "not how to pay the rent" worries,
Unless you get divorced and give half of it away,
I'm glad to meet ya,
And retire,
- Yes? - Yes, right there,
- Exact same history, - Really?
Of, I was never there, Star...
This, for me, was "Star Trek,"
I'm "Star Trekking" and I'm getting home the same hours
you were talking about,
and my wife says, "This isn't working out,"
And I've got three kids,
and it didn't work out and we did get a divorce
and I found myself broke,
I remember once sitting around a dinner table
and hearing colleagues, actors, directors,
and hearing one of them say,
"I love my job,
but my family always come first for me, always,"
And a voice inside my head said, "Not me,"
Wow,
I can say that now because I've discussed that,
I've talked about this with them,
and they know about...
My son, of course, is now an actor,
but that was my life, my work, and still is, essentially,
Are you lonely?
Never,
You're never lonely?
I've always been content with my own company,
- Really, - Even when others weren't,
What's it feel like to be divorced?
I have two major regrets in my life,
and they're both to do with the failure of...
My failure in my marriages,
How I behaved,
what I did, um...
... can't be corrected
and...
guilt, I think, has gone,
but regret remains,
and I have that very strongly,
And it is kind of handicapped me a little bit,
I've been married twice, divorced twice,
I don't know that I could possibly do it again,
You know, I'm the only female captain on this franchise
called "Star Trek,"
And I think that the great difference is I...
The female is hardwired, once she has her young,
to take care of them and to raise them
and I couldn't do it well,
You know, there were 1 6-, 1 8-hour days on that set
for seven years,
And I had two little kids, and believe me, Bill Shatner,
they resented it,
And to this day, they never watched it, they disdained it,
they had nothing but dripping contempt for it,
and I don't blame them,
so the woman cannot have it all,
but I've watched you guys and you guys can,
- So... - Mm-hmm,
Brings me to the meat,
the heart of what I want to talk to about,
How can you be a starship captain, a real starship...
How can you be a naval captain going off...
- To the Delta quadrant, - ... to the Delta quadrant...
Yeah,
... and have all those hormonal things rage?
How can you be Secretary of State?
It's very hard,
Well, "hard" isn't nebulous,
Isn't it impossible to have the same objectivity
that a man has?
- Yes, of course it is, - Ah, you admitted that,
It's impossible to have the same gender,
I mean, I'm a woman, you're a man,
Right, so it's quite different,
It's absolutely different,
To be a leader, a woman leader,
that's quite different from a man leader,
There's no question about it,
Now, Ill sit back and look at Mrs, Albright
and Secretary Clinton
and Ill say to myself, how do they do it?
But I asked myself the same question,
It's just diabolically difficult,
Now, they're both at an age where they've let...
The rest of the hard work is gone, the kids are up, right?
But the lack of hormones is raging there as well,
I mean, it never stops,
It doesn't stop,
- No, - So...
This could be unanswerable,
No, it has an answer,
But...
You have an answer for it,
Well, you have an answer,
I would apply this...
Let me apply it to myself as an actor
and not as a... a politician
or anything else, because I couldn't speak for those woman,
I would say, this being the second-oldest profession,
it's all right to be an actress,
but it's not as kind as it was even 200 years ago
when you were allowed to bring your children with you
to the theater,
when children were a part of your life,
Now everything is severely compartmentalized,
and you know Hollywood better, much better than I do,
It's tough,
It's a boy's club out there and they're very tough,
You play by their rules and you must subscribe to them,
so that doesn't have any...
See, that sounds very politically interesting,
what you said, but it doesn't make any sense,
What do you mean you play by their rules?
You have to appear at 6:00 in the morning
and be ready with your lines and say the words
and be there 'til the end of shooting,
Right,
That could be... 8:00, 9:00, 10:00...
You and I have worked 'til 12:00, 2:00,
- 4:00 in the morning, - That's correct,
To complete the day's work on a Friday, especially,
That's right...
Then you're wrecked for the weekend,
That's right, you're wrecked,
You gotta sleep all day Saturday,
But you're not wrecked, 'cause the minute you get home at 5:00,
you've got two hours before those kids
- are jumping on your bed, - Right,
Now, as a man, I suppose you have the license
or the opportunity at any rate, to say, go to your mother,
But if you're a single mother, which I was,
with your two little children, you get up,
So what do you...
- Now... - You get up,
Okay, so I have just come from,
in the sequence of activity that I'm doing,
I've just come from England with Patrick,
- I know you have, - flown...
I'm in jet lag, okay?
I've survived because I don't have any kids with me,
my wife and I stayed in the room, we rested, have gone...
And I am... I am energized to talk to you,
- But if I were jet-lagged, - And you look very dapper,
- Thank you, - And let's be frank,
Liz looks after you a little bit, does she not?
- That's right, absolutely, - I don't have anybody looking after me,
My wife looks after me,
You don't have anybody looking after you,
Of course I don't, I never did,
And you were looking after your kids by yourself,
- That's right, - How do you...
It's impossible to do,
It is impossible, but it's not...
Obviously not impossible, I did it,
Well... no, no, it is impossible to do, so how did you do it?
I didn't,
I'm afraid I didn't do parts of either thing very well,
I didn't reach the excellence I could have reached
had I had a little more rest, a little more help,
and Ill have to live with that myself,
but I did the very best...
The excellence with the children or with the role?
- Absolutely, my motherhood, - And what about the role?
What about Janeway?
Well, you know, my pride, my ego is very substantial,
so I never gave her less than I would say 950/o,
but there were days when there was absolute exhaustion,
There were days when my kids were suffering,
and, you know, you can't walk off a set,
You know that better than anybody,
There's no way they're gonna let you go,
so the preoccupation with your children's pain is enormous,
and add to that eight pages of "techno-babble"
that you've got to execute
by 2:00 in the morning
and you can't get to the phone because they don't let you...
It's... it's... It's very hard,
- Did you lose family time? - Of course,
- Did it hurt? - Of course,
But how much harm was suffered...
Well, you know, you have to ask them, because the attendant...
The attendant of the movement of time,
you know, for us all,
You know, there it is,
There's the one... The one hand or the other,
I mean, who knows, therefore?
You know, in retrospect,
you know, I mean, you could do it that way,
Say, oh, I should have done this as opposed...
I mean, who knows?
I mean, so... so...
So I hold fast
to what I've chosen to do
and I'm not apologizing for that,
but the attendant toll taken on family and all of that, it's...
That's it,
What do you mean, that's it?
- That's profound, - Hey, man, that's it,
- That was terrible, - It's true, baby,
That was terrible,
Well, it's not terrible or not terrible,
Well, you suffered, you suffered,
It's true, it's true, they suffered,
- You suffered, - It's true,
- But you suffered as well, - Now, watch...
Well, if they suffered, didn't you suffer?
- Watch what I'm saying to you, - I'm listening,
It's true, it's not terrible or not, it's true,
You know, the toll...
The toll on people, you can't get it back,
I mean, no matter what,
I mean, whether the decision to make...
You know, to do a thing or not to do a thing...
You know what I'm talking about,
Yes, I do,
Did you discuss this with Vicki like this or did you...
She knows, of course,
Ill move,
Whether we survive it is still extent, isn't it?
Whether we survive all of the sum...
The killing of the effects of life,
Yeah, that living, baby,
Like you,
- What's different? - The same,
This is 50-something years later
and I'm...
an old man, reminiscing
about a kid...
who was so afraid,
I was afraid of the future,
I was afraid of my fellow actors,
I was afraid of not being good enough,
I didn't realize it then,
but I'm starting to realize it now, I...
God, I come from such a sense of inferiority,
I'd been asked to come to Stratford
because I'd been playing in professional theater in Ottawa,
and so I came to this tent
that was erected over a hole in the ground,
This was Stratford Theatre,
We were all there,
the acting company waiting for Tyrone Guthrie,
legendary English producer/director,
And I'd come to his attention because
I had understudied Chris Plummer in "Henry V,"
Chris, about two weeks into the run got sick for one day
and they asked me if I could go on,
and I went on,
I got lucky, it went well, and then I got good notices
and my name became known a little bit at Stratford,
But this was a time of great ferment for me,
I didn't know whether I could make it as an actor,
I get to meet my old friend Chris Plummer
on the stage at Stratford,
He might not have been a captain,
but he was a general,
Coming to Los Angeles to do "Star Trek,"
do you recall telling anybody and...
And any reaction you had?
Yes, I wanted to keep it quiet,
( laughing )
You told no one,
I said, listen...
Well, no, I said I'm in LA for tests,
No, I'm joking,
No, I was very proud of it,
I told everybody,
I went on and on saying
that you realized you couldn't go on with your career
without hiring me,
Chang,
Can you see me?
Oh now, be honest, Captain,
Warrior to warrior,
Chang was an integral part of "Star Trek,"
a character that the fans, as I understand it...
Yes, well, you know,
I was a serious Trekkie when it first came out,
- No, I didn't know that, - You didn't know that,
No,
But I was, in the early '60s when it began,
- Yeah, - Wasn't it the early '60s?
- Yeah, middle '60s, yeah, - Middle,
And I'm... but I was living in England all through the '60s,
but I watched you on television,
Oh, for gosh sakes,
Over and over again, I became a complete Trekkie,
so when you asked me, 1 00 years later
to play in this very witty "Star Trek VI,"
I played this...
I think the only Klingon that didn't have a hairpiece
and I had this sort of blind eye
and this eye patch with a nail through it,
I looked a bit like Moshe Dayan in heat,
- In heat, - Yes,
And I had the most marvelous time
playing with you guys again
and everybody seemed to be a Canadian on that show,
That was right,
We larded it with the finest talent in the world,
who just happen to be Canadian,
Of course,
The line that stayed with me was,
that you should read Shakespeare in the original Klingon,
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
Prick us, do we not bleed?
Wrong us...
shall we not revenge?
I think it was something like, you haven't heard Shakespeare
until you've heard it in the original Klingon,
And sitting here in a seat of Shakespeare's,
it's really funny,
It strikes a chord,
Was Chang a challenge?
- Yes, yes, - How so?
Well, for the...
It was a challenge to begin with
because I didn't want to look like
every other Klingon that had ever walked with...
The omelet,
With the massive head and the massive brow,
- Right, right, - I thought that... And we had...
We ran into big difficulty, because, of course, isn't it...
Isn't there a language already in Washington?
Yeah, a guy invented the Klingon language,
Yes,
And it's... it's been certified
and it's been recognized as a language,
( laughing )
- Dead or alive, - Oh, my gosh,
And so I got a lot of flak,
A lot of people were saying, nO, nO, nO, nO, nO,
You've got to have all this, 'cause it's traditional,
we can't walk away,
- finally, Nicholas... - Nick Meyer, yeah,
Nick Meyer, who wrote that very witty tongue-in-cheek script,
he stood up for me and...
I didn't come to you because I thought,
you know, Bill's not gonna help at all,
So at least the director stood up for me and I got my way,
I didn't have the long hair,
- The omelet, - I looked... Yeah,
( beeping )
To be or not to be,
I'm a native of the planet Risa which was the planet
that everybody went on vacation when they had time off,
It was the spring break planet,
Yes, basically,
- Spring break planet, - Risans gone wild,
- Yes, - Woo!
From TOS to TNG to DS9 to Voyager,
it's pretty much also inspired my life,
I study mechanical engineering,
The next generation right here,
I've always been a "Star Trek" fan,
Humanity has settled its differences with each other
and that's what I really would like to...
I'd like to live,
Well, he is about the most ultimate "Star Trek" fan
that every lived,
He came from Albuquerque and had...
Drove up 12 hours, so...
In a van, and it was quite a...
Quite a difficult trip for him,
but it's worth it,
He's had like two hours of sleep,
He doesn't care,
It helps his mind, he says,
It's, I think, something that's positive and creative
and it brings a lot of meaning to him,
( cheers and applause )
for a long time,
Bill had no interest in going to the conventions,
He and Leonard both had issues with getting away
from that character,
only being identified with one role,
They were actors, they wanted people to
appreciate their ability for other things,
not just for the one character they'd played,
They finally did a convention in New York in 1 976,
He was very nervous,
I don't think he realized what it would be like
to get on stage and have, in this case,
thousands of people who absolutely adored him,
just that love that hits you when you get on that stage
and he started going to conventions after that,
( cheers and applause )
Um...
I'm doing a documentary called "The Captains,"
Avery Brooks,
What a great guy,
( cheers and applause )
But he's kinda out there,
He's doing jazz things in his head,
( scatting )
Captain,
Avery, are you there?
Yes, I'm here,
And that phony accent that Patrick Stewart puts on,
( laughing )
I had the best time with Patrick at his house,
It was...
He's got a great house in the country,
Can't tell you where, can't even tell you which country!
Kate Mulgrew in New York,
So she's on her way down to the location
and I sat in a packing box
and people start passing by and they're looking at me,
and I'm in the...
I'm like a homeless guy in a packing box,
Isn't that Captain Kirk in there?
What's he doing?
Yes!
What's your favorite dramatic scream, Spock or Khan?
You gotta help me,
Scream Spock like I did,
Spooock!
( cheers and applause )
Okay,
Now scream "Khan" like I did,
Khaaan!
( cheers and applause )
That's pretty good, kid,
Which is my favorite scream?
Screams of ecstasy, but you wouldn't know about that,
( cheers and applause )
Goodbye, goodbye,
( cheers and applause )
You don't mind, do you?
Oh, mind, my friend?
My dear friend,
I love you so much,
But...
And you know it's mutual,
- I know, - I know,
Where are we going now?
You have a backstage meet-and-greet...
A backstage meet-and-greet,
- How are you? - Fine, how are you?
What's your name?
My name's Dawn, I met you in San Francisco,
I recognized your pretty face, Dawn,
- Thank you, - Hi,
- Hi, I'm Debra, - Hi, Debra, how are you?
Pleasure to see you,
Hi, how are you?
She told me a lot about you,
Really?
Pleasure to see you,
I'm Amy, it's nice to meet you,
Hello, Amy, pleasure to meet you,
Hi, Blair, nice to meet you,
Blair, nice to see you,
Andy, nice to see you,
Hi, Scott, how are you?
- Pleasure to meet you, - Pleasure to meet you,
Hi there,
How are you today?
William Shatner, this is Captain Dave,
Hi, Captain Dave,
How are you?
- He's one of your biggest fans, - It's a pleasure to see you,
How are you?
- He's speaking now, - There you go,
I understand you're fine,
Are you excited?
That a boy,
It's good to see you,
Are you having fun?
Must be quite an experience, huh?
It's good to see you,
Take care of yourself,
So I am on this Bombardier airplane
and I'm watching for the first time, you,
I'm looking at the dignity
and the seriousness
and the application of your talent to this role,
and I'm thinking, this is really good,
And I know the quality of your talent,
I've recognized a long time ago
what a fine actor you are,
and then I plumbed a note inside me
that I want to talked to you about,
and that's this,
When I did Captain Kirk
and we opened up in the first season,
the notices were not particularly good about the show
and not particularly good for me,
Whatever they said about me
was not as laudatory as it had in the past
and what I was able to get sometimes in the future,
In fact, Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr, Spock so well,
so uniquely,
that although he didn't have spectacular things to do,
that we would think of for an actor,
he played the thing so differently,
that it caught the attention of people and the critics
and he had a nomination for an Emmy
and none of that came my way,
Then as the show continued, I would get things like,
"Hey, beam me up, Scotty!"
A sort of, what had seemed to me as sort of derisive tone,
And then when the... My series was over
and a few years later, there began conventions,
I was asked to do the first convention,
and I thought, I'm not gonna do a convention
with all those people in costumes
and makeup and all this,
and then after a few conventions,
15.000 people would attend,
And I thought, well, 15.000 people,
I guess you can't ignore that,
So I went on and I would do these conventions
and there'd be all these people in wardrobe and costume
and, "What's it like to be Captain Kirk?"
and, "Yay, Captain,"
You know, they're taking me as Captain Kirk,
and I'm not Captain Kirk, I'm William Shatner,
More, and I think the right word is "derisive,"
I realized on that airplane
that I was slightly embarrassed about playing Captain Kirk,
I never thought of it in that way, but I thought,
all these people that would come up to me
and one who came up to me in Toronto when we landed
to pick up Canadian crew,
the head of Bombardier said what a fan he was of me
and that he had become an aeronautical engineer
because of what... Of my appeal to him,
and as I know and I want to hear about it,
so many people have come up and said my life has changed
as a result of seeing your work,
and what I have done always in the past
was go, "Oh, yeah,"
I'd say to myself, "Yeah, right,
Not really,"
I mean, you're... you're...
I'm part of this Hollywood mystique, you guys think...
And you think I affected you, but not really,
I would deny it,
even if I didn't so in front of them,
"Yeah, sure,"
And for the first time, when... When the head of...
The CO of Bombardier,
said, "I was affected,"
The first time, because I'm doing research on you,
I looked at him and I thought,
is it possible that what I did all those years ago
really did affect him?
I was in denial
and I was in a sort of derisive feeling about Captain Kirk
until I saw you play Captain Picard,
and I thought, you've brought all your talents,
all your excellence,
all your gravitas to the part
and then your statement in which you said
all the kings and emperors and romantic parts
that you have played classically and elsewhere
all have led up to playing Captain Picard,
But I, too, have played classical roles
and been in wonderful productions
and I never thought of it quite that way,
that the way Captain Kirk changed my life,
I never quite thought of it that way
until this epiphany
I've had as a result of doing the research on you,
How extraordinary,
I have so many observations about what you've been saying,
There are many places in which our careers and our lives
and work overlap,
Tremendous amount,
I don't believe this is coincidence,
I think Gene Roddenberry
sometimes knew exactly what he was doing
and sometimes was just working on instinct,
when he cast you, when, very improbably, he cast me,
And the story about all my work prior to "Star Trek"
being nothing but a preparation
for sitting in the captain's chair of the Enterprise,
I said this very early in the first season
when we were doing a lot of press
and I found myself being asked questions
or listening to comments
that were ever so gently, ever so subtly implying
that given my past, my history as an actor,
wasn't I just slumming a little bit now?
You know, hadn't this
just taken a little bit of a downward...
I was so offended by these suggestions,
because you know how hard we worked on those shows,
the hours that we put in, that everybody put in,
If I filled that chair at all well,
if I had any authority on the bridge
or on an alien planet,
it was because of what I'd done before
that gave me that confidence and assurance,
and I think thoughtfulness about the work,
And very early on,
I remember in a conversation with Jonathan Frakes,
Commander Riker,
saying I'm going to do the best work in this syndicated
science-fiction television show that I can possibly do,
Who am I to argue with the Captain of the Enterprise?
What's the name of that planet, Veridian I I I?
Yes,
I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim,
You could say that,
Sounds like fun,
You applied all your skills
without any sense of it being less
than demanding, everything you had,
I don't mean that when I was shooting,
that I didn't do anything less than my best,
I was coming from a more emotional point of view,
I think, and that I was trying to
generate as much ... emotion
within what was written,
to extract as much juice out of it as possible,
that I, when I look at some of the things I did, I...
"What was I...
Why wasn't I more diffident about that?"
Instead of trying to extract
every moment of drama out of it,
But there's one difference that separates the two of us,
We have all of these similarities,
You were creating a show,
We were developing that creation of yours,
The passion...
You see, it's so good you talked about the passion
that you put into it,
My passion was of a different nature
from yours as Captain Kirk,
You were setting the style, the form, the shape,
the quality of the energy of that series,
I finally realized that it wasn't Starfleet
I wanted to get away from,
I was trying to escape the pain I felt
after my wife's death,
I thought I could take the uniform,
wrap it around that pain and toss them both away,
but it doesn't work like that,
Running may help for a little while,
but sooner or later, the pain catches up with you,
And the only way to get rid of it
is to stand your ground and face it,
from God to you,
Through to me,
What happens when you die?
Tell me,
Wish I knew,
Do you have a thought?
( laughing )
It could be good, it could be bad,
That makes me smile,
I wish I knew,
Well, what's your feeling about life and death?
- What's your feeling? - Well, I don't think...
I think we're just... These are just...
The bodies are just temporal
and another word that you and I can use,
but, you know, we're not our bodies,
- tNe're... - Are we?
- We have a soul? - I think so, I think so,
And does that soul go someplace?
- I think so, - Like where?
- I think it's all around us, - Yeah?
It's not in a pearly gate or...
No, no,
But the souls, the essence of the lives
that have been before are around us,
Always, always,
And so there's... so...
And do they have an influence?
- Oh, absolutely, - And helping guide,
Yeah, sure,
So you don't think in terms of life and death?
I don't, I think about it in terms...
You know, for other people, but I think...
I'm so... the more we're...
The longer I'm here and the more I see,
the less I think about that
because so many people don't get it as long as I've had,
so many people don't have as much as I have,
and so I think as you get older,
you know, people always talk about perspective,
but I think you get more grateful,
Mr, Shatner, you are well-traveled, well-read,
You've loved often and well,
You've experienced a great deal of grief
and probably no end of problems that none of us will ever know,
so I have to conclude that you're an examined person,
so I want you to really answer this question,
When you die,
do you believe that there is a life after that
or do you believe that it is ashes to ashes, dust to dust?
When I had to play the death of Captain Kirk...
the night before, I said to myself,
I have to look at the moment of death,
how will I feel?
And so I imagined myself on the threshold,
I fainted once when I drank a cold beer
after a hot workout and I went out...
- How typical of you, - And I went out,
I chug-a-lugged a cold beer, and sooner or later
I passed out, and I was...
20 seconds later, I was going, what happened?
But I remember the closing in,
Yes,
The "iris-ing" in of my feeling,
And like how they're... Holy cow,
Zoom... and I was out,
So what is that moment of death?
Where is that margin
that you say I'm alive and I'm dying?
I'm dead,
I had to imagine that,
Then, I had to characterize it
by what would Captain Kirk do,
So there's two answers here,
One is, the death of Captain Kirk,
I imagined Kirk with a lifetime of looking at the...
The alien,
- The alien coming towards you, - Right, right, right,
And instead of fear, I always play, wow, look at that!
Oh, his giant teeth is coming towards me,
that sort of thing, awe and wonder,
I figured Kirk would look at the moment of death and go,
"Oh, my,"
It was...
fun,
Oh, my,
I'm frightened of death, I'm scared,
- Are you? - Yeah,
I thrust it out of my mind and probably by the dint of work
'cause I know death is over my shoulder,
by the dint of work that I'm doing, I'm alive,
By the passion I feel for my wife, I'm alive,
by my family affairs, I hold them so close,
I'm alive,
But death is right there,
And I'm fearful, I'm panicked, I'm...
What are you fearful of?
Losing all this,
Now you're out there,
you finished "Star Trek" and you leave,
- Where do you go? - Here,
Did you know you were coming here?
Yeah, I have nowhere else to go,
I have nowhere else to go,
You know when people say, "Oh, what are you doing now?"
Well, I mean, what I'm doing always,
I'm right here,
# Here you are #
# At home #
# So happy #
# And yet you yearn #
.\ For more .\
# What do you yearn for? #
# What do you want? #
# What's life #
# Going to tell you? #
( laughing )
# You look at me #
# And wonder #
You see?
# You look at me and... #
- # Think # - No,
# Doubt #
.\ _ou .\
Yeah,
# Look at me #
# And wonder #
# Will the flame #
Go out,
.\ No .\
.t No.. no.. no...t
# That flame is there #
.t No one is sure .t
# Of sunshine #
# No one is sure of rain #
Yes!
# All we know #
# But my love #
_ For t/ou _
# Will always #
# Be there #
# Will linger #
.\ On .\
# And on #
# And on # #
All I know is that...
I have found...
a greater peace,
a greater tranquility,
a truer sense of who I am and why I'm here
on stage or in front of a camera
than I find in life,
Not fame, not money,
not even the craft itself is more important to me
than the people that I love,
And that's where I've come to,
I suppose that was always me,
but it takes some years
of feeling...
the deep strains of love,
It's the only mystery that...
That is infinitely important,
No, it's this thing about the freedom
of how we conceive,
how we perceive each other,
the world, the possibility of things,
I've always wanted to believe,
so when they present something like
"Quantum Leap" to me, or time travel,
I want to believe that,
I want to believe that we can do that,
because I know that we can split the atom
and move it from one side of a cement block
to the other side of it and put it back together again,
so theoretically, we can do that,
So I'm on board, I'm there,
And when I see...
When your guys' show is on and I'm looking at you guys flying,
I'm thinking, we're gonna be able to do that someday,
It was one of the best experiences of my life,
I met some of the closest friends
that I think Ill ever have,
It certainly changed the trajectory of my career,
but fundamentally,
and I think what acting is all about and what you've shown
a great deal of,
especially with "Boston Legal," is a sense of humor,
There's a fun, there's a joy,
I know...
that if it were all to end...
this evening, everything,
I would be largely known
for my work on "Star Trek,"
I would be Captain Picard,
Not Macbeth, not King Lear,
not Shakespeare, any of those things,
but Captain Picard,
And I am absolutely fine with that,
Wow,
fine,
In this instant, for you to have said that,
here's the gift you've given me,
I've made this long journey from Los Angeles to London
to talk to you
and the gift I've got
is my realization
that I too would feel the same way
if they say, "That was Captain Kirk,"
All of the sudden,
I've suddenly had a release to say,
I'm happy with that, why not?
Great character, long-lived,
45 years later, people are still talking about Captain...
Who does that?
- Unprecedented, - Unprecedented,
So what if they say, "Beam me up, Scotty"?
Yeah, yeah,
"If I could I would," should be my answer,
So, Scotty, wherever you are,
it's okay to beam me up,
But not yet!