All language subtitles for The.Captains.2011.WEBRip.x264-ION10

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.

Phasers, fire, point blank!

The Original Series,

despite being canceled after
only three seasons in 1969,

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.

Wow!

Hey!

- Spock!
- How are you?

Spock?

I'm not Spock.

That guy called me Spock.

Oh!

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.

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

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,

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 started me on my acting
thing.

What about you?

I was 12 when I was first put
into a play with adults and...

How did that happen?
I mean, why 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,

Um, 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 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 I'll stay as long as
I can see the horizon moving.

- Oh, wait a minute.
- Yeah, okay.

12 miles away, the horizon sort
of disappeared,

they used to see
sailor ships by their sails.

- Sure. Sure.
- Right?

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

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.

Yeah, that's funny, too.

Yeah, into my head.

I went to Oberlin College.

And I wanted to audition
for the choir.

This world renowned choir,

the Conservatory.

And so I met these men, athletes
and stuff, I came early.

I said, 'I'm going on."

And, "I'm from Gary, Indiana,"
and, you know, the thing...

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, 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!

Oh!

What is...

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

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...
through New York University.

I wanted to study
with Stella Adler.

I have my sister to verify this.

College to me was
absolutely unimportant.

Absolutely unimportant.

And as it turns out,
I have had much less college

than I even thought.

I dropped out at
the end of my junior year.

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--
- To be an actress.

You know, what my father said
when I said I want to be an
actress?

- What?
- And I proved it to him.

He said, "You're gonna break
your neck out of the gate,

and I'll be goddamned
if I'm gonna subsidize that."

How did you feel about that?

I said, "Then I'll 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?
- Eighteen, 19.

They recognized your talent
from the beginning.

Yeah, they did, yes.

Poker face.

Shut up.

Scott Bakula.

Bill Shatner.

I have admired you for so long.

You are my hero.

Are you kidding me?

No, no, no, I'm not kidding.

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.

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 thing?

- What do you--
- A voice exercise.

A voice exercise?

Jesus, that's wild.

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 till 1:30.

And then you have to go.

Come on over here.

I'm... I'm, uh...

Here's the... I'll go wherever
Calvin takes me.

But when you say,
"Come on over here..."

- 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 her 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 fabulous.

Now here's what I want to do...

Scott Bakula played
Captain Jonathan Archer

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...

"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 an album from
Cabaret,

or How to Succeed in Business
Without Really...

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

You know, so I grew up
having it around me,

Did they encourage you to sing?

They did. 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?
- at fifth grade.

- Ten, eleven years old?
- Yeah, nine, ten, 11, 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 13.

And I started...
and I... then the acting,

the musical theater kinda came
out of that.

Yeah.

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."

And then I went on for radio,
more mature radio,

and then 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 "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,

The 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
were 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 see.

You sure about this?

I couldn't be more sure
about anything.

Give me that hand.
Let me feel a 30-year-old hand.

- Let's rumble. Let's party.
- Wait a minute.

You already know what to do,
right?

"Over the Top," baby.
Stallone.

Give me this hand here. Ready?

I know, let's party.

- One.
- Two, three, go.

Hey, wait!

Hey!

Feel 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?

See that? All right. That's two.

- Best out of--
- Best of three.

- Why not?
- Best out of three.

- 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.

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 Pine 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?

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.

How much of that did you
do on the thing?

I did a lot of it.
You 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.

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.

But it's not Tom Cruise
kinda stuff...

I did a cheap version of what
you did and I had to get up on
top of a train.

I said to the director,
"How are you gonna do this?"

He says, "I don't know,
maybe on a green screen."

"What if I got on top of the
train and you went ten miles an
hour,

could you speed it?"

"Yeah, let's 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 third generation.

My grand...

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 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 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 I wanted to be a baseball
player. I wanted to be
everything--

Were you good?

I was, I was...

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 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
many 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.

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.

- 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, and melt.

Sorry, we're filming.

Hey, man, how are you?

Your nephew.

- You're my nephew?
- Yes.

I don't even known you.

What the...

I am Locutus, a 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.

It was smart to
bring Kate in as a woman,

and then Scott had
an entire charm of his own.

I think it was a 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...

And they said, it's... you're
gonna be the first captain,

And then I was done.

You're gonna be 100 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 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!"

- You know, as against...
- Right!

"We're turning right."

So 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
on board 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."

And 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,

and 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, Patrick and me,
Avery,

they were thinking,
constitutionally,
"Is she up to it?"

Then, "Can she speak
the language?"

Which is... 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.

I'm 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.
- I'll 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.

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 Miserables, 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?

Yeah, I love it, yeah!
I did, yeah!

Did it change your life at all?

Well, it's still changing.

And you...

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.

Why are you called Apple Annie?

Well, it's like
a "Bigfoot George."

That's what the Italians do,
they have a lead-in.

I loves you, you look so nice.

- Oh, thank you.
- I'll take you.

In Jewish,
you say you're a bargain.

Bye-bye, Annie.

That's... And that's New York.

He's a bargain!

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

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.

- 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 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

in some manner...

Means something.

- 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
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 o'clock at night.

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."

And this, 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...

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...

is you open up a maternity ward.

What's interesting about it is
that 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 prequel,

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...

like...

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 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, can
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.

Imagine finding you here!

- 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...

- 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.

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...

Apparently...

This is very exciting news
for you, Bill.

You're sold out.

During the shooting, you know,

the audience doesn't... Isn't
quite aware as you and I are,

that the hours are so
overwhelming.

Yeah.

Minimal 12-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 and a half years

when I wasn't on the set,
from first shot to last shot.

Did it affect your
relationships?

- 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 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,
saying, I gotta get home for
6:30

- and they say you can't leave."
- Yeah.

What... Tell me, describe...

Did you have kids during...

- Yeah, I had...
- Did you have kids?

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.

"I'm there,
whenever you need me,
I'm there."

-You're an actor trying to
make a living...
-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.

Can't retire.

- Yes?
- Yes, right there.

- Exact same history.
- Really?

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."

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,

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
16, 18 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...

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" is nebulous.

Isn't it impossible
to have the same objectivity

that a man has?

Yes, of course it is.

Wow, you admitted that.

It's impossible
to have the same gender.

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,

is quite different
from a man leader.

There's no question about it.

Now, I'll sit back
and look at Mrs. Albright

and Secretary Clinton

and I'll say to myself,
"How do they do it?"

But I asked myself the same
question.

It's just diabolically
difficult.

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 women.

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 till
the end of shooting.

- Right.
- That could be...

8:00, 9:00, 10:00...

You and I have worked
till 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 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.

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, doesn't she?

- That's right.
- I don't have anyone.

My wife looks after me,
you don't have anybody
looking after you.

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.

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 I'll have to
live with that myself.

but I did the very best...

The excellence with the children
or with the role?

- 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 95%.

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 two o'clock 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.

- That's it. It's true, baby.
- That was terrible.

That was terrible.

Well, it's not terrible
or not terrible.

- Well, you suffered...
- It's true.

It's true, they suffered.

- You suffered.
- It's true.

But you suffered as well.
Didn't you?

Now, 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.

I'll move.

Whether we survive it
is still extant, isn't it?

Whether we survive
all of the sum...

The cumulative 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 any reaction you had?

Yes, I wanted to keep it quiet.

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.

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,
100 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,

which just happened
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.
- 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 been certified,

and it's been recognized
as a language.

- Dead or alive.
- Oh, my gosh.

And so I got a lot of flak.

A lot of people were saying,
"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,

"No, 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.

"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.

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.

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.

He finally did a convention in
New York in 1976.

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.

I'm doing a documentary called
The Captains,

Avery Brooks,

what a great guy.

But he's kinda out there.

He's doing jazz things
in his head.

"Captain."

"Avery, are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here"

And that phony accent that
Patrick Stewart puts on.

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.

"Spock!"

Okay.

Now scream Khan like I did.

"Khan!"

That's pretty good, kid.

Which is my favorite scream?

Screams of ecstasy, but you
wouldn't know about that.

Goodbye, goodbye.

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?

Mr. 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.

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...

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,

saying, "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.

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 III?

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,

in 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?

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?
- 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,

- we'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.

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.

You see?

No.

Yeah.

Yes!

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
I'll 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.

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.

Forty-five 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!