Star Trek's William Shatner Admits He Hasn't Watched Any Spinoffs Since Original Series
Shatner says he doesn't really watch much television, including Star Trek.
William Shatner may be a Star Trek legend, but it turns out he hasn't really seen much of the franchise. Speaking with ET, Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series in 1966 and has appeared in various projects in the overall franchise throughout his career, revealed that not only has he not watched any of the Star Trek spinoffs, but he's only seen some of the Star Trek that he's actually in. Shatner said that while he loves Star Trek and thinks "it's great", he just doesn't watch television.
"I'm gonna tell you something that nobody knows," Shatner said. "I've never seen another Star Trek and I've seen as few Star Treks of the show I was on; I've seen as few as possible. I don't like to look at myself and I've never seen any other. I love it, I think it's great, I just don't, you know, I don't watch television per se. I'm watching documentaries. I'm watching the news. I'm watching sports, I'm watching things that were, documentaries that were made but I don't watch television for some reason. I've been urged to watch certain shows by my family, 'You'll love this,' and I just never get around to it."
Shatner Considers Star Trek V: The Final Frontier the Biggest Regret of His Career
When it comes to Star Trek, Shatner has been involved with more than just the original television series. He also both starred in and directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The film, released in 1989, was poorly received by critics and audiences alike and, for Shatner, is the biggest regret of his career.
"I wish that I'd had the backing and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do," Shatner explained to earlier this year. "My concept was, 'Star Trek goes in search of God,' and management said, 'Well, who's God? We'll alienate the nonbeliever, so, no, we can't do God.' And then somebody said, 'What about an alien who thinks they're God?' Then it was a series of my inabilities to deal with the management and the budget. I failed. In my mind, I failed horribly. When I'm asked, 'What do you regret the most?,' I regret not being equipped emotionally to deal with a large motion picture. So, in the absence of my power, the power vacuum filled with people that didn't make the decisions I would've made."
Shatner Has Said He'd Be Open to Returning to Star Trek With Digital De-Aging
While Shatner may not watch much in the way of Star Trek, he's said he's open to returning to the franchise through the use of digital de-aging to portray a younger version of Captain Kirk — as long as there's a good idea for it.
"It's an intriguing idea," he said. "It's almost impossible but it was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there and not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it."
Shatner also had some ideas for how Captain Kirk could make an appearance, considering that the character's last appearance was in 1994's Star Trek Generations where the character was killed off. Shatner said that he could potentially portray a younger version of the character, citing digital de-aging technology that "takes years off of your face, so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are." He also suggested that the character could be resurrected.
"A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it," he said. "We've got Captain Kirk's brain frozen here. There's a scenario. Let's see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!"
