ohmigod. This is amazing. People discount Shatner as an actor but I think this pretty much proves the man was ahead of his time.
He tasks me! He tasks me and I shall have him! I’ll chase him round the moons of Nibia, through Antares maelstrom and round Perdition’s flames before I give him up! — Khan
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It’s often difficult for me to talk about William Shatner for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I think it’s fun to join in the lampooning, but I also, genuinely, believe he is a tremendously talented man. Although if I say that I get accused of being a hopeless Star Trek geek who has some sort of Captain Kirk fetish. Which is also difficult because I DID grow up watching and loving Star Trek as a kid and thus Kirk is embedded permanently as an icon in my psyche. But that doesn’t change my analysis.
The truth is that Shatner came up doing very serious dramatic work on stage. Shakespearian, actually, not at all unlike the sainted Patrick Stewart (of whom I am also a fan by the way, for different reasons and in different ways). What we think of as overacting is partly just the difference between actors trained for the stage and those not, and also, partly a function of the times: television acting in the 1950s and 1960s was, stylistically, intentionally different from what is typical for actors today.
Shatner himself has also enjoyed, and profited from, going ahead and lampooning himself. And done himself tremendous good by doing so.
But in truth, he really is a tremendously talented man, and when he’s got the right script and right director, he turns in simply dazzling performances. There’s no question that as far as the Star Trek films go, his finest moment was The Wrath of Kahn, wherein he was just about perfect from the beginning to the end of that film. But this is nothing new; he’s always shown a far greater subtlety, and mastery of his craft, than those who make fun of him seem to be able to acknowledge.
His performances on Boston Legal, and many of the television performances he gave before Star Trek, have long demonstrated that this man is, truly, a very good actor. Like a lot of TV celebrities, he’s both benefited from and been hampered by having a hugely successful role that made him iconic. Fortunately for him, it’s clear from interviews that he really is at peace with all of this, and realizes something most important: unlike most people in Hollywood, he’s managed to have a successful career his entire life, and if he’s turned in some work he’s not all that proud of, he’s also turned in work that any actor would be envious of.
Hats off to him. The man’s not a joke, and he’s most definitely not a Has-Been.
I’ve been a Shatner fan for a long time. I love pointing out to people that William Shatner is in the company of very, very few people in having won or at least been nominated for the highest awards in acting, directing and writing. I read his first Tekwar book and while it was not brilliant, it was definitely well above average for the genre.
Compared to his peers on the show, I think Shatner had the most difficult role and showed more range than any of them. Outside of Star Trek no other member of the cast has remotely demonstrated the long-term success that Shatner has had. The fashionable thing is to laud Nimoy’s Spock and deride Shatner’s Kirk, but frankly I think Spock as a role is among the easiest I could imagine playing. And can someone remind me again how many Emmy award winning TV shows Nimoy was in after Star Trek?
The last time I had a “discussion” with someone about Shatner, I just ended it by saying “OK, when you’ve won a couple of Emmy awards and a Golden Globe or two, come back and remind me how much Shatner sucks.”
As I recall he has even had some successful albums.
And anyone… ANYONE who films a nude love scene with Angie Dickenson in her prime deserves nothing but admiration.
ok i have that video on repeat and its mesmerizing. this is seriously going to mess me up.
I wouldn’t want to get into a Shatner vs. Nimoy debate, because I think Spock was a very difficult role and in the hands of the wrong actor it would have been a tremendous flop rather than the iconic character it became. The best thing about Spock was that you could tell at almost all times that he was doing his best to repress his emotions, and not honestly failing to have them. Very tough stuff to pull off.
And worse, that leaves us discussing both men as if their lives are Star Trek. That’s just not right. In speaking of his acting career, Nimoy’s done some some great stuff; the most impressive thing I ever saw him in was his one-man show on Vincent Van Gogh, which just plain knocked me out. But Nimoy never had a career where all he ever wanted was to be an actor; he was pursuing professional photography and other things all during his career, and quit acting more than once not because he couldn’t find other work but because he HAD found other work that wasn’t acting. In fact, he was going to school studying professional photography BEFORE he got into acting, and continued to pursue that (with some success, by the way) WHILE acting.
Anyway, I otherwise agree with you Cosmic. And by the way, yes, Shatner’s album Has Been was a critical, artistic, and commercial success. Ben Folds, the producer, obviously was able to pull the best out of Shatner musically–and there is, it turns out, more to his best than most people would ever suspect. It’s a real gem of an album, a genuine treat for anyone interested in experimental pop music (which is what it is). If you see it, you can usually pick it up cheap and I recommend it wholeheartedly, as do people I know who are definitely NOT Star Trek fans in particular.
Aziz: Go ahead and just watch The Wrath of Kahn through. Tell me that you’re watching a hammy, scenery-chewing hack of an actor there. I’m sorry, but you’re just not.
Well, I will get into a Nimoy vs. Shatner debate on a couple of levels.
First I don’t agree with you that it’s that hard to appear to be repressing emotions. It’s much harder to effectively EMOTE, which is why actors who are able to pull it off are generally the most successful ones. I didn’t see the Van Gogh thing so I can’t really adress that.
Also, in my opinion, while Shatner was willing to move on with his life and laugh with his critics, Nimoy bottled up his resentment of all things Spock and let them eat at him until he felt it necessary to publish a book called “I am not Spock.” Such a thing reveals, to me, a desperate self image problem that it took Nimoy years to overcome. Years, I might point out, where Shatner was doing a dozen movies, and moved on to another successful TV show as well. And while Nimoy was taking pictures, Shatner was writing books. So I don’t buy the whole “he was busy pursuing other things” argument either.
For a few decades after Star Trek I think Nimoy was self-indulgent and self-absorbed, while Shatner was self-effacing and self-sufficient. It was Shatner, after all, who told a group of fanboy nutcases “it was just a TV SHOW!”
Now I like Leonard Nimoy too, but I must have seen a couple dozen interviews of each of them over time, and my general impression of the two is that Shatner is basically a fun, engaging and intelligeng guy, while Nimoy is more than a little self-important and condescending. Between the two, I’d much rather spend a day palling around with Shatner, I think.
… and it doesn’t help that I’ve seen more than a few truly DEPLORABLE documentaries narrated by Nimoy, the result of which is that I can barely hear him without flashing back to “In Search Of…” where Nimoy’s voice lugubriously attempted to force some level of credibility into new age nonsense ranging from Atlantis to alien visitation revealed in the carvings of Lake Titicaca….
I couldn’t have forced some of that crap out without choking on the words.
Dangit, this post made me dig deep into my pocket and buy “Wrath of Khan” on Blu Ray so I can watch it on my, somewhat modest (42″ 1080 LCD, blu ray, 5.1 surround), system. Good thing it qualifies for super-saver shipping.
AZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZ!!
Cosmic: On Nimoy, all I can say is that, having done some stage acting myself, I don’t agree with you at all on the difficulty of portraying that character in a compelling and interesting way. Indeed, Martin Landau–who’s been treated very well by the Emmies and the Golden Globes and even nabbed himself an Oscar–was offered the role first and turned it down because he didn’t see how as an actor you could do it effectively, and had nothing but praise for what he considered Nimoy’s remarkable work of subtlety and grace in a role that he thought was nearly impossible to pull off well for any actor.
As for Nimoy’s supposed anger and resentment over Spock: I think the Wikipedia entry covers that pretty well, and matches everything I’ve heard him say about it, and it also gives a pretty good background on his accomplishments as an actor, a writer, a director, a photographer, and a musician. I think it’s a fine body of work, myself, and I don’t see any point in his career when he wasn’t busy doing something interesting.
You can check out his photography here by the way.
I just don’t see the point in a “Nimoy vs. Shatner” debate anyway. There is no rivalry between the two men, they’re the best of friends (Nimoy was even Shatner’s Best Man at one point if I recall right). they aren’t in competition, and on screen they had wonderful chemistry when they worked together (which wasn’t, really, all that often).
I was more interested in appreciating an often-underappreciated actor named Shatner than trying to bash a man with a very different career playing quite different roles and doing rather different things. But I think Nimoy’s been quite successful in his life, all things considered. ;-)
Fair enough Dean. But I am not one who considers Wikipedia the end all be all of things. And you don’t write a book called “I am not Spock” if you don’t have some deep unresolved issues about it. Yes he’s mellowed and has come to terms with it now
Back to strictly Shatner… I am sure that he will be appreciated much more posthumously than he is today. And to be fair, both “Kirk” and “Spock” are timeless characters who will continue to be referenced by historians and artists for centuries to come. As I’ve said before, an actor can do a whole lot worse than to create a character that defines a central role in a major genre. Kirk rules. Kirk will be as well-known and famous in two hundred years as Captain Ahab or Sherlock Holmes. Spock will too.
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