Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Happy Birthday, William Shatner

Unbelievably, today marks the 92nd birthday of William Shatner, whom I – and likely everyone else – will forever remember for his portrayal of James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise during the original run of the science fiction series Star Trek and its subsequent spin-offs. 

As I have mentioned before, Star Trek was my original fandom. I was introduced to it in the mid-1970s through the influence of my paternal aunt and godmother, who was a teenager when Star Trek was first broadcast. Indeed, I attribute many of my earliest interests, whether it be science fiction or cryptozoology, to the time she spent with me as a child. Every Saturday, I used to visit my grandparents, where my aunt still lived before she married, and we'd watch reruns of Star Trek on a local independent TV station. These are among my most cherished childhood memories and William Shatner is a big part of why.

Being a bookish and generally nerdy kid, you'd have thought that Leonard Nimoy's Spock would have been my role model. While I loved Spock, Captain Kirk was who I wanted to be, probably because he was so different from myself – courageous, self-assured, decisive, and, above all, protective of his friends and crew. Kirk was everything I hoped I might someday be and Shatner breathed life into him in a way no one could have.

Nowadays, I know it's more or less required that we sneer at Shatner as a big, fat ham of an actor, but, even with the benefit of an adult's perspective, I still think his portrayal of Jim Kirk is phenomenal. Shatner imbued Kirk with the fundamental decency and indeed humanity that are vital to the character's appeal. Far from being the swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood of many people's imaginations, Shatner gave Kirk a degree of thoughtfulness and sensitivity that is often underappreciated. I didn't fully recognize this as a child; I only knew that I liked Kirk and wanted to be more like him, which I think would be high praise for any actor.

Happy Birthday, Mr Shatner! My younger self owes you a lot.

14 comments:

  1. Shatner's Kirk is indeed awesome. "What would Kirk do?" is often a valid question in deciding what to do. Kirk is the 23rd-century reincarnation of Conan the Cimmerian.

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  2. To my shame, I can't find it now, but the late, great Greg Hatcher once pointed out that, far from the rebel-without-a-cause-post-reboot version of Captain Kirk, the original Kirk was a by-the-book, tough-as-nails Starfleet officer, one who carefully balanced (and agonized over) the theoretical Prime Directive vs the real needs of his crew. One who cared not only for his crew, but about the greater good that Starfleet Command demanded from its representatives.

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    1. Not an essay, but this podcast has Greg Hatcher talking about Kirk and what he was really like in the show. Is this what you were thinking of? http://radiovsthemartians.com/blog/tag/greg-hatcher/

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    2. It isn't (I never listened to the podcast), but I can't find the essay on Atomic Junk Shop. Nonetheless he does a good job of debunking the Kirk-the-Rebel in several places. Even in Star Trek II, where he is shown to have cheated on a test (gasp!), he still had an apparent encyclopedic knowledge of Starfleet regulations and how to apply them to real situations.

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  3. Shatner could be a big ham and overact, but if you go back and watch the original series he's better than you remember. He plays a lot of dramatic scenes low key and well and also was a surprisingly good comedy straight man. Of course the original series was darker and a bit more tragic than people remember.

    There's a good essay called "Kirk Drift" that dissects the "Zap Brannigan" version of Kirk versus the one actually on the show. With the bonus of a brief discussion about miniskirts on the original show. http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/

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    1. The miniskirts I just accepted as a factor of 1960's costuming. If you see pictures from when it was produced, miniskirts were everywhere.

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    2. That essay is fantastic! She is spot on about bad parties, and "This Guy". I feel like I've been to that same dinner party with the same guests!

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  4. Kirk is one of the best characters from TV. There's a real depth to the writing and character that we sometimes lose in memory. Happy birthday, Mr. Shatner!

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  5. Yes, there has definitely been a mythological version of Kirk that has evolved over the years of a swaggering, overbearing womanizer, but I think the character of James Kirk and Shatner's original portrayal is just fantastic. Every so often I'll find time to watch an episode of the original series, and I'm mostly through the second season and there's very little of the womanizing Kirk is supposedly famous for. There have been a couple of "old flame" encounters, but this notion of Kirk shagging all the alien women isn't supported by the actual show.

    Kirk is consistently portrayed as being thoughtful, brave, and above all, loyal to and protective of his ship and his crew. I very much agree with you that Kirk was in most ways a great role model; in many ways he is a paragon of a certain type of masculinity (perhaps old-fashioned these days but not without worth IMO).

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  6. I see that quote you slid by, there.

    Seconding Shatner's performance as Kirk. Most people imitating Shatner are actually imitating Belushi.

    Not endorsing the rest of Shatner. No further comment.

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  7. That's a good photo you've selected. William Shatner in Star Trek TV series is a very good looking man. Watching Star Trek on the BBC in the late 70s I was always struck by how colourful it was and how much the sound effects played a big role in generating atmosphere of technology. Shatner was a big part of that colour and he was always entertaining to watch.

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  8. No mention of Kingdom of the Spider?

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  9. Shatner's Kirk managed to perfectly incarnate all the virtues of a hero from the golden age of science fiction.

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