162-464: STG may refer to: Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Star Trek Generations , a 1995 sci-fi film Strike Gunner S.T.G , a 1991 arcade video game Military [ edit ] Sonar Technician surface, a United States Navy rating Sturmgewehr (StG), a German assault rifle Sturzkampfgeschwader (StG), in Organization of
324-580: A B'nai B'rith camp in the Laurentians . Over 6 weeks, Shatner helped teenage Holocaust survivor Fred Bild learn English. In 2011, McGill University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters . He was granted the same accolade by the New England Institute of Technology in May 2018. Shatner's movie career began while he was still attending college. In 1951, he had a small role in
486-508: A Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule. At age 90, he became the oldest person to fly in space and one of the first 600 to do so. Minutes after the flight, he described experiencing the overview effect . Shatner was born on March 22, 1931, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood of Montreal , Quebec , Canada, to a Conservative Jewish household. His parents were Ann ( née Garmaise; 1905–1992) and Joseph Shatner (1898–1967),
648-407: A Jet Propulsion Laboratory simulation. The airfoil-shaped core of the undulating ribbon was enhanced with electrical tendrils. To sell the ribbon's vastness in space shots where no sense of scale would be available, Seiden and George created a debris field of embers that trailed the ribbon. The inside of the ribbon was conceptualized as similar to a dense electrical storm, with electricity fogging
810-534: A kiss that Captain Kirk planted on the lips of Lieutenant Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ) is often cited as the first example of a white man kissing a black woman on scripted television in the United States. In 1973, Shatner returned to the role of Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the animated Star Trek series , which ran for two seasons and twenty-two episodes. In the early 1970s, in the immediate aftermath of
972-555: A poetry slam inspired recitation of the speech in which she had resigned the governorship of Alaska . Two days later, he ridiculed some of the tweets that she and Levi Johnston, the father of her grandchild, had published on Twitter. On December 11, 2009, he returned to Palin once more to read excerpts from her autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life , and she, taking his teasing in good part, responded by reciting extracts from his own memoir, Up Till Now . (Co-written with David Fisher, later to collaborate with Shatner on
1134-460: A 1966 episode of The Big Valley , "Time to Kill". In 1968, he starred in the little known Spaghetti Western White Comanche , playing both a white-hat character and his black-hat evil twin: Johnny Moon, a virtuous half-Comanche gunslinger, and Notah, a bloodthirsty warlord. Shatner was cast as Captain James T. Kirk for the second pilot of Star Trek , titled " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". He
1296-476: A 1977 episode, he perpetrated a blunder that has been preserved on YouTube: at the climax of the show, attempting to guide his partner to the phrase "things that are blessed", he blurted out the word "blessed" instead of, as he had intended, citing the Virgin Mary . His mistake meant that the contestant paired with him was automatically disqualified from receiving what would have been a prize of $ 20,000. Shatner
1458-622: A British band Symphony Technology Group , an American private equity firm Science, technology and mathematics [ edit ] Superior temporal gyrus in the human brain Stomatogastric ganglion in arthropods Steam turbine generator, an electric generator Spineless Tagless G-machine in the Glasgow Haskell Compiler Signal Transition Graph, a special type of Petri net Other uses [ edit ] Sterling ,
1620-1020: A Canadian comedy drama, The Butler's Night Off : its credits list him as Bill Shatner, and describe his role simply as "a crook". After graduating, he worked as an assistant manager and actor at both the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal and the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa before joining the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. His roles at the Festival included a part in Marlowe 's Tamburlaine , in which he made his Broadway debut in 1956. His brief appearance in
1782-480: A Klingon bat'leth to a painting of his Enterprise . Carson wanted a suitably remote and alien mountain location for the film's climax at Soran's compound. The scenes were filmed over eight days on an elevated plateau in the " Valley of Fire ", north-east of Las Vegas , Nevada . The rise's height and sloped sides required cast and crew to climb 160 feet (49 m) using safety ropes and carry all provisions and equipment with them. The 110 °F (43 °C) heat
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#17327656420961944-419: A Life! , a documentary film about Star Trek fandom developed from the 1999 book about Trekkies that he had written in the aftermath of his Saturday Night Live rebuke to them. On September 25, he revisited the music video genre, appearing as a home plate umpire in the crooner Brian Evans's baseball-themed "At Fenway". On April 24, 2014, Shatner performed an autobiographical one-man show on Broadway, which
2106-573: A Roman tax collector in Bethlehem on the day of Jesus's birth in a Hallmark Hall of Fame live television production entitled The Christmas Tree , the cast list of which included Jessica Tandy , Margaret Hamilton , Bernadette Peters , Richard Thomas , Cyril Ritchard , and Carol Channing . His US television profile was heightened further when he had a leading role in an episode in the third (1957–58) season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents , "The Glass Eye". In 1959, Shatner received good reviews in
2268-572: A bird feeder and other garden store supplies for its interior elements. The stellar observatory set was filled with props from The Next Generation , with some added in deliberate nods to past episodes. Other reused sets included the Klingon bridge built for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and ribbed plastic walls in the Jefferies tubes , repurposed from the sets of The Hunt for Red October . Original set pieces and props included paintings for
2430-452: A book about Leonard Nimoy and Shatner's relationship with him, Up Till Now had been published in 2008.) Shatner also contributed to O'Brien's recurring " In the Year 3000 " feature, which began with Shatner's disembodied head floating in space and delivering the segment's portentous tag line: "And so we take a cosmic ride into that new millennium; that far off reality that is the year 3000. It's
2592-463: A broken walkway to retrieve Soran's control pad and de-cloak the probe. Paramount allowed the film to go over budget to $ 35 million for the re-shoots. As the production crew had already spent weeks removing traces of their shoot from the Valley of Fire, the set had to be rebuilt under a very tight schedule, followed by effects work to remove wires and rigging in time for the footage to be included in
2754-462: A clothing manufacturer. He is the middle of three children; his older sister was Joy Rutenberg (1928–2023) and his younger sister is Farla Cohen (1940–). His patrilineal family name was Schattner; it was his grandfather, Wolf Schattner, who anglicized the spelling. All four of Shatner's grandparents were Jewish immigrants: they came from settlements in Ukraine and Lithuania , which were then under
2916-560: A comic television actor reached its zenith in a CBS sitcom based on Justin Halpern 's Twitter feed Shit My Dad Says , $ #*! My Dad Says , which was cancelled in May 2011 three months after the first broadcast of its final episode. 2011 also saw him guest-starring in one episode of the USA Network's Psych , "In for a Penny", playing the estranged father of Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara ( Maggie Lawson ) (a role that he reprised in
3078-571: A conversation between Shatner and his Star Trek VI co-star Christopher Plummer, a sequence celebrating a friendship that began when the two actors both took part in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and reflecting Shatner's profound admiration for his colleague. Shatner's 2012 began with his return to his roots in theatre. In February, he appeared on Broadway in a one-man show called Shatner's World: We Just Live in It . After
3240-493: A distress call from a stellar observatory, where an El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, launches a probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the star to implode, creating a shockwave that destroys its planetary system. Soran kidnaps Enterprise engineer Geordi La Forge and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters . Enterprise crewmember Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among
3402-567: A few new models were physically built; these included the observatory, built by model shop foreman John Goodson. The climactic battle between the Enterprise and the Klingons over Veridian III was accomplished using traditional motion control, but without the budget for practical explosions and special breakaway models, impacts and battle damage were simulated with practical compositing tricks and computer-generated effects. The destruction of
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#17327656420963564-469: A grand tour around Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Shatner joked that Bradshaw, famous as a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers , was "putty in my hands". Another new enterprise that he launched that year was Shatner Singularity, a publisher of comic-books, which has a list including the graphic novel Stan Lee's "God Woke" by Lee and Mariano and Fabian Nicieza . The book won
3726-468: A higher level of polish to stand up on the big screen. Zimmerman felt obliged to improve the sets fans had watched for seven seasons, especially the bridge. Zimmerman repainted the set, added computer consoles, raised the captain's chair for a more commanding presence, and reworked the bridge's ceiling struts; he had always been unhappy with how the ceiling looked, but never had the time or money to rework it. The script called for an entirely new location on
3888-545: A knight riding a golden goose). A running gag is that the golden goose that "Knight" rides keeps trying to attack Nick Cannon . He was eliminated in the first episode alongside Eric Idle as "Hedgehog" and Chris Kirkpatrick as "Hummingbird". Shatner hosted and executive-produced The UnXplained on History from 2019 to 2023. Since its premiere the show has received very negative reviews from critics. Writing in Irish Film Critic , Thomas Tunstall reported that
4050-438: A major motion picture. The film opened at the top of the United States box office its first week of release and grossed a total of $ 118 million worldwide. Critical reception was mixed, with critics divided on the film's characters and comprehensibility to a casual viewer. It was followed by Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. In 2293, retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk , Montgomery Scott , and Pavel Chekov attend
4212-474: A martial art: he was taught American Kenpo karate by the black belt Tom Bleecker, who had in turn been trained by the founder of American Kenpo, Ed Parker . To supplement his income from acting, Shatner performed as a celebrity guest in a multitude of television game shows, among them Beat the Clock , Celebrity Bowling , The Hollywood Squares , Match Game , Tattletales and Mike Stokey 's Stump
4374-416: A project with several required elements. Berman felt that having the original cast of the previous Star Trek films felt like a "good way to pass the baton" to the next series. The studio wanted the original cast to only appear in the first minutes and Kirk only recurring at the end of the film. Other requests included a Khan Noonien Singh -like antagonist, Klingons, and a humorous Data plot. At one point,
4536-585: A prologue, and Guinan served as the bridge between the two generations. The opening shot would have been the entire cast crammed into an elevator, happy to be back together. The Enterprise -D's destruction also appeared—the saucer crash had first been proposed by Moore as the conclusion to part one of a sixth-season cliffhanger story that was scrapped. Kirk's death was developed in Braga, Moore, and Berman's story sessions. Moore recalled that "we wanted to aim high, do something different and big... We knew we had to have
4698-765: A recording artist, beginning in 1968 with his album The Transformed Man . His cover versions of songs are dramatic recitations of their lyrics rather than musical performances: the most notable are his versions of the Beatles ' " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", Bob Dylan 's " Mr. Tambourine Man ", and Elton John 's " Rocket Man ". His most successful album was his third, Seeking Major Tom (2011), which includes covers of Pink Floyd 's " Learning to Fly ", David Bowie 's " Space Oddity " and Queen 's " Bohemian Rhapsody ". In 2021, Shatner flew into space aboard Blue Origin NS-18 ,
4860-503: A recurring cast member of the third live-action Star Trek show, Deep Space Nine . The success of T. J. Hooker led to Shatner's hosting the popular dramatic re-enactment series Rescue 911 from 1989 to 1996. His career diversified further in the 1980s when he began working as a director, taking charge of many episodes of T. J. Hooker . A clause in his Star Trek contract giving him parity with Leonard Nimoy meant that after Nimoy's directing of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Shatner
5022-576: A series of books chronicling his experiences before, during and after his time in a Starfleet uniform. He has also co-written several novels set in the Star Trek universe and a series of science fiction novels, the TekWar sequence, that were adapted for television. Outside Star Trek, Shatner played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in T. J. Hooker (1982–1986), hosted the reality-based television series Rescue 911 (1989–1996), guest starred on
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5184-459: A special effects studio that operated from 1994 to 2010. In May 1999, Simon & Schuster published Shatner's book Get a Life! , a memoir of his experiences with Trekkies. As well as anecdotes about Star Trek conventions, the book features interviews with some of the most devoted fans of the Star Trek franchise, including conversations with several Trekkies who regard the show not just as entertainment but as philosophically significant. In
5346-400: A starring role too in the western-themed secret agent series Barbary Coast during 1975 and 1976, and appeared as a guest of the week in many popular shows of that decade, including Columbo , Ironside , Kung Fu , Mission: Impossible , The Rookies and The Six Million Dollar Man . One of the special skills that Shatner was able to offer to casting directors was an expertise in
5508-404: A story that culminated in the captain's self-sacrificial death— Star Trek Generations (1994). His final appearances as James Tiberius were in the movie sequences of the video game Starfleet Academy (1997), in a 2006 DirecTV advertisement that used footage from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and at the 2013 Academy Awards , in which he reprised the role for a comedic interlude with
5670-493: A striking manifestation of initiative and potential. Plummer later appeared as a Klingon adversary of Captain Kirk's in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Guthrie too rated the young Shatner very highly, later recalling him as the most promising actor that his Festival employed, and for a time, he was seen as a potential peer of Steve McQueen , Paul Newman and Robert Redford . In
5832-402: A strong Picard story arc, so what are the profound things in a man's life he has to face? Mortality tops the list." After the idea of killing off a Next Generation cast member was vetoed, someone suggested that Kirk die instead. "We all sorta looked around and said, 'That might be it,' " Moore said. The studio and Shatner had few concerns about the plot point. Refining the script meant facing
5994-631: A supporting role in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). In the 1963–64 season, he appeared in an episode of the ABC series Channing . In 1963, he starred in the Family Theater production called "The Soldier" and received credits in other programs of The Psalms series. That same year, he guest-starred in Route 66 , in the episode "Build Your Houses with Their Backs to
6156-463: A supporting role in the comedy DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004), which starred Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn . In the October 2004 issue of Star Trek Communicator , Manny Coto , one of the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise , revealed that he was planning a three-episode story arc guest-starring Shatner, but the cancellation of the series shortly afterwards meant that Shatner was denied
6318-645: A television miniseries shot in New Zealand A Twist in the Tale (1998). In the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun , Shatner appeared in several 1999–2000 episodes as the " Big Giant Head ", a high-ranking officer from the same alien planet as the Solomon family who becomes a womanizing party-animal on Earth. The role earned Shatner an Emmy Award nomination. In the late 1990s, Shatner became closely associated with
6480-611: A terrorist in " Starship Mine " and a Klingon in " Invasive Procedures ", and later joined the cast of Star Trek: Voyager as the Vulcan Tuvok . Various background roles were played by the main cast's stunt doubles. In 1992, months before the official announcement of a followup to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Paramount Pictures executives approached The Next Generation producer Rick Berman about creating another feature film. Berman informed writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga that Paramount had approved
6642-523: A three-week run at the Music Box , the show toured throughout the United States. In May, he was the guest presenter on the British satirical television quiz show Have I Got News for You , earning a footnote in the history of neologisms by melding "pioneer" and "pensioner" into the portmanteau coinage "pensioneer". On July 28, he appeared on the premium cable TV channel Epix as the star of Get
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6804-609: A time when fewer than a million Americans had internet access. Paramount also promoted the film on the Prodigy online service. Tie-in merchandise released to promote the film included collectible cups and calendars from Jack in the Box , promotional kiosks at Kmart stores, and action figures. Due to production timelines, these figures wore the Blackman-designed Starfleet uniforms that were ultimately unused in
6966-475: A two-picture deal approximately midway through The Next Generation ' s sixth season. Moore and Braga, convinced Berman had called them into his office to tell them The Next Generation was cancelled and they were out of a job, were instead given the task of writing the film. Berman also worked with former Next Generation producer Maurice Hurley to develop possible story ideas, intending to develop two film scripts simultaneously and prioritize whichever
7128-483: A vision of the future was to take existing designs and use them in a different manner to express living in the future. Taking cues from director Nicholas Meyer 's approach to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Zimmerman noted that future humanity will still have the same furniture needs, so a logical approach was to start with what would remain the same and work from there. Transitioning from television to film meant that sets and designs needed to be more detailed, with
7290-469: A week later, to allow time for the deflector room to be suitably distressed to visualize the damage. Stage 7 was where the Enterprise -B's bridge, deflector room, and corridors were built and filmed. The jolts and shocks of the ship in the hold of the energy ribbon were created by camera bumps and motors to shake the set. Filming of the scenes took place in April 1994, while residents were still skittish from
7452-631: Is Magic , where in the seventh season episode " The Perfect Pear " he supplied the voice of Grand Pear, the estranged maternal grandfather of Applejack and her siblings. 2017 also saw him appearing in a second music video with Brian Evans, this time promoting Evans's cover of the Dolly Parton song "Here You Come Again". "My prayers are with the people of the Ukraine, as I watch events unfolding on TV with such brave people fighting an overwhelming force, I am reminded ironically enough of Stalingrad, when
7614-408: Is a choral piece that plays while a floating champagne bottle tumbles through space. For the action scenes with the Enterprise -B, McCarthy used low brass chords. Kirk was given a brass motif accented by snare drums (a sound not used on The Next Generation ), while the scene ends with dissonant notes as Scott and Chekov discover Kirk has been blown into space. McCarthy expanded his brassy style for
7776-499: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Star Trek Generations Star Trek Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film and the seventh film in the Star Trek film series . Malcolm McDowell joins cast members from the 1960s television show Star Trek and the 1987 sequel series The Next Generation , including William Shatner and Patrick Stewart . In
7938-622: Is freed, Kirk is presumed lost in space and dead after the trailing end of the ribbon tears open the ship's hull. In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise -D is in a holodeck computer simulation, celebrating the promotion of shipmate Worf to lieutenant commander. Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire and is distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. Enterprise receives
8100-448: The Enterprise -B's operation after Shatner felt the scene's joke went too far. Picard's personal tragedy was written as his brother Robert's heart attack, but Stewart suggested the loss of his entire family to add emotional impact. The opening sequence took place on the solar observatory with two Rosencrantz and Guildenstern -influenced characters talking shortly before an enemy attack; Next Generation writer Jeri Taylor suggested that
8262-413: The Enterprise -D: stellar cartography. The script described the location as a small room with maps on one wall. Finding the concept uninteresting, Zimmerman designed a three-story circular set to give the impression the actors were inside a star map dominated by screens. Zimmerman's previous work designing a crisis management center influenced the design. The backlit starmaps that covered three-quarters of
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#17327656420968424-672: The Sandra Bullock comedy movie Miss Congeniality (2000), Shatner played the supporting role of Stan Fields, the co-host of the Miss United States Pageant; his future Boston Legal co-star Candice Bergen took part in the film too. Shatner also appeared in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2004), in which Stan Fields is kidnapped in Las Vegas together with the winner of the pageant of
8586-500: The anthology film The Twilight Zone: The Movie was produced twenty years later, it was with a remake of the latter episode that the movie climaxed. He appeared twice as Wayne Gorham in NBC 's Outlaws (1960), a Western series with Barton MacLane , and then returned to Alfred Hitchcock Presents for a 5th-season episode, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?". In 1961, co-starring with Julie Harris , he appeared on Broadway in A Shot in
8748-561: The 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards ' Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award. Shatner's most notable television work in 2017 was in the second season of Better Late Than Never : a preview episode of December 11, 2017, was followed by an official season premiere on the New Year's Day of 2018. His equestrian enthusiasm found an outlet in the animated children's show My Little Pony: Friendship
8910-649: The August of that year, Trekkies were treated to a sequel to The Captains which he produced, scripted and directed and in which he starred: William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge, a behind-the-scenes documentary film about Star Trek: The Next Generation . Premiering on August 23, 2016, the NBC reality miniseries Better Late Than Never followed Shatner and a quartet of other aging celebrities— Terry Bradshaw , Jeff Dye , George Foreman and Henry Winkler —as they took
9072-456: The Bird of Prey by triggering its cloaking device, and firing photon torpedoes when its shields drop. When La Forge reports that the starship is about to suffer a warp-core breach as a result of the attack, Commander William Riker evacuates everyone to the forward saucer-section of the starship, which separates from the engineering section just before the breach occurs. The resulting shockwave sends
9234-424: The Bird of Prey was a reuse of footage from The Undiscovered Country . Weapons fire and energy bolts were hand-animated, but Knoll had a different idea for the photon torpedoes . A fan of the impressive, arcing look of the torpedoes from The Motion Picture , Knoll scanned in footage from the film and turned to computer-generated effects. A simulator program created a similar look that could be animated from any point
9396-621: The Dark , directed by Harold Clurman ; Gene Saks and Walter Matthau took part in the play too, Matthau winning a Tony Award for his performance. Shatner was featured in two episodes of the NBC television series Thriller ("The Grim Reaper" and "The Hungry Glass") and the film The Explosive Generation (1961). He took the lead role in Roger Corman 's movie The Intruder (1962). which Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic described as Shatner's first interesting performance, and had
9558-525: The El-Aurians rescued in 2293. Soran—who lost his family when their homeworld was destroyed—is obsessed with returning to the energy ribbon to reach the "Nexus", an extra-dimensional realm of wish fulfillment that exists outside of normal space-time. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to safely fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering its path by removing the gravitational effects of nearby stars. Soran plans to destroy another star to bring
9720-583: The Hedge , he voiced Ozzie, an opossum; in Walt Disney 's The Wild , he had the role of the movie's villain, Kazar, a megalomaniacal wildebeest. In January 2007, he began posting daily autobiographical vlogs on the LiveVideo platform in a project that he named ShatnerVision ; rebranded as The Shatner Project , his vlogging migrated to YouTube the following year. In December 2008, he experimented with
9882-581: The Luftwaffe (1933–45) Organizations [ edit ] School of Transnational Governance , of the European University Institute Security Threat Group , a prison gang Somali Telecom Group , a Somalian telecommunications company Scandinavian Tobacco Group , a Danish cigar and tobacco company Special Tactics Group , a New Zealand Police counter-terrorism unit Slaves to Gravity ,
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#173276564209610044-600: The Nazis, on their way to Moscow, thought they could overwhelm that city. The people of Stalingrad & the army defending Stalingrad fought the Nazis to a standstill. History CAN repeat itself." Shatner became the focus of political controversy in 2021, when it was revealed that a popular science documentary show that he would host, I Don't Understand with William Shatner , was scheduled to be aired on RT , formerly known as Russia Today, from July 12. RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan , said that "Captain Kirk has come over to
10206-620: The Nexus was a private home in Pasadena, California ; almost all the furnishings were custom props or outside items. Portions of the scene were shot in May 1994, followed by new shoots five months later. The revisions included adding Picard's nephew René to his imagined Christmas celebration with his family. The house of Kirk's Nexus recollections was located in Lone Pine, California , with the cabin filled with props to represent Kirk's career, from
10368-477: The Nexus. Guinan sends him to meet James T. Kirk, safe in the Nexus. Though Kirk is initially entranced by the opportunity the Nexus offers to atone for past regrets, he realizes it lacks danger and excitement. Having learned that they can travel whenever and wherever desired through the Nexus, Picard convinces Kirk to return with him to Veridian III, shortly before Soran launches the probe. Working together, Kirk and Picard distract Soran long enough for Picard to lock
10530-905: The Sea". In 1964, Shatner guest-starred in the second episode of the second season of the ABC science fiction anthology series The Outer Limits , " Cold Hands, Warm Heart ". Also that year, he appeared in an episode of the CBS drama The Reporter , "He Stuck in His Thumb", and played a supporting role in the Western feature film The Outrage , a remake of Akira Kurosawa 's Rashomon starring Paul Newman , Laurence Harvey , Claire Bloom and Edward G. Robinson . 1964 also saw Shatner cast in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that featured Leonard Nimoy , later to be his co-star in Star Trek . 1964 saw him too as
10692-508: The Stars . His curriculum vitae in this genre included several visits to The $ 10,000 Pyramid and its more generous sequels, shows in which contestants attempted to guess a word or phrase with the help of hints from a famous partner. Shatner's contributions to the Pyramid series included a week-long match-up that pitted him against Leonard Nimoy in an event billed as "Kirk versus Spock". In
10854-622: The Ukrainians in the resistance that they were mounting against their assailants. On March 2, he withdrew from his show, citing the invasion as his reason for doing so. RT America ceased transmitting altogether on March 3. Also in 2021, Shatner starred in the film Senior Moment , which co-starred Jean Smart and Christopher Lloyd . The movie was released in March 2021 on the same week Shatner turned 90. In 2022, Shatner competed in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Knight" (depicted as
11016-501: The United States and Canada and $ 42,400,000 internationally, making $ 118 million worldwide against a $ 35 million budget. In the United Kingdom, Generations opened on February 10, 1995, at number one with £2,040,000. In Japan, the film grossed $ 1.2 million its opening weekend, a large amount considering the franchise's usual poor performance in that market. Given its moderate budget, Generations ' s gross
11178-415: The beginning of his time as Captain Kirk; as early as April 1968, a group of them attempted to tear his clothes from him as he left 30 Rockefeller Plaza . His amusement at the behaviour of the lunatic fringe of his admirers was reflected in the romantic comedy movie Free Enterprise (1998), in which he contributed a caricature of himself to a film that satirized some Trekkies' Kirk idolatry. He also mocked
11340-621: The cancellation of Star Trek in 1969, Shatner experienced difficulty in finding employment, having become somewhat typecast as James Tiberius Kirk. With very little money and few acting prospects, he lost his home and was for a time so poor that he was reduced to living in a truck-bed camper in the San Fernando Valley . He refers to this part of his life as "that period", a humbling time during which he would take any odd job, including small party appearances, in order to support his family. Shatner's film work in this phase of his career
11502-472: The cavalier, almost superhuman, persona of Captain Kirk in the films Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993). In 1982, Shatner was once again the leading character of a high-profile television show when he was cast as a veteran Los Angeles police sergeant in T. J. Hooker . Running for five seasons and ninety-one episodes until 1986, the series partnered Shatner with Heather Locklear and James Darren , later to be
11664-532: The characters of the original series of Star Trek might have come together was published in his novel Star Trek: Academy – Collision Course. In April 2010, Shatner began hosting the Discovery Channel show Weird or What , which aired until August 2012. Each episode of the series supplied lovers of arcana with several segments exploring news reports relating to left-field topics such as UFOs and cryptozoology . Later that year, his career as
11826-487: The chat show genre in the humorous Shatner's Raw Nerve , which aired until March 2011. He expanded his work on YouTube in 2009, supplying the voice of Don Salmonella to the animated series The Gavones . Shatner made several guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien , including in cameos in which he made fun of the Republican politician Sarah Palin . He opened mock-hostilities on July 27, 2009, with
11988-638: The currency of the United Kingdom St. George Airport (Alaska) , US, by IATA code Stirling railway station, Scotland , by station code Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title STG . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=STG&oldid=1218260789 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
12150-416: The detective series Columbo , and acted in the comedy film Miss Congeniality (2000). Shatner's television career after his last appearance as Captain Kirk has embraced comedy, drama and reality shows. In seasons 4 and 5 of the NBC series 3rd Rock from the Sun , he played the alien " Big Giant Head " to which the main characters reported. From 2004 until 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in
12312-412: The effects artists wanted, without the expense and tedium required—shining lasers through a crystal in a smoky environment—to recreate the look optically. Carson described the Nexus energy ribbon as the true villain of the film; ILM was responsible for conceiving what the ribbon would look like with no natural frame of reference. "When creating something from scratch, it's always important to rough out
12474-453: The film as divisive, and Tor.com noted the film had been picked apart for years by fans and the film's own writers. In 2001, the BBC gave it 2 of 5 stars, summarizing, "Devotees may find it necessary (if depressing) viewing." Critics complained the film felt like an overly-long episode of the television series. The Orlando Sentinel 's Jay Boyar agreed, but said the film minimized
12636-469: The film itself. Other collectibles included a 600,000-run special issue of Entertainment Weekly dedicated to the film, and stamps and souvenir sheets produced by Guyana . A novelization of the film written by J. M. Dillard spent three weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list . Paramount's licensing group estimated promotional partners could add up to $ 15 million in the film's support. Several tie-in video games were released to tie in with
12798-413: The film's action sequences, such as the battle over Veridian III and the crash-landing of the Enterprise -D. For Picard's trip to the Nexus, more choral music and synthesizers accompany Picard's discovery of his family. A broad fanfare—the film's only distinct theme—first plays when Picard and Kirk meet. This theme blends McCarthy's theme for Picard from The Next Generation 's first season, notes from
12960-400: The film's initial script, the entire principal cast of The Original Series was featured, but only three members appear in the film: William Shatner as Kirk, James Doohan as Scott, and Walter Koenig as Chekov. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley declined to appear as their characters Spock and Leonard McCoy . Nimoy felt there were story problems with the script and that Spock's role
13122-527: The film's release. Absolute Entertainment published Star Trek VII: Generations: Beyond the Nexus for the Game Boy and the Game Gear handheld devices. Three years after the film, MicroProse produced Star Trek VII: Generations , which featured the film's cast as voice actors. The game roughly followed the plot of the film with most of the game played in a first-person perspective . Versions of
13284-404: The film's script leaked out in advance of the film. A bootleg script revealed the energy ribbon and Kirk's death; James Doohan confirmed the script's authenticity at a fan convention in March 1994, but his agent denied he had seen the finished script. In September, another copy of the film's script leaked onto the internet. As a result, news of Kirk's death was widespread. Star Trek Generations
13446-493: The film, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise -D joins forces with Captain James T. Kirk to stop the villain Tolian Soran from destroying a planetary system in his attempt to return to an extra-dimensional realm known as the Nexus. Generations was conceived as a transition from the original cast of the Star Trek films to the cast of The Next Generation . After developing several film ideas concurrently,
13608-409: The final cut. Generations ' special effects tasks were split between the television series' effects vendors and ILM. ILM CG Supervisor John Schlag recalled that it was easy to recruit staff who wanted to work on Star Trek ; working on the film "gave me a chance to be a part of the whole Trek thing ... ILM is practically an entire company filled with Trek geeks". The screenwriters filled
13770-401: The final season of the legal show The Practice and in its spinoff Boston Legal , a role that earned him two Emmy Awards , one for his contribution to each series. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, he starred in both seasons of NBC's Better Late Than Never , a comical travel series in which a band of elderly celebrities toured east Asia and Europe. Aside from acting, Shatner has had a career as
13932-500: The first appearance of the starship Enterprise -B. The ship was a modification of the Excelsior , a model designed and built by Bill George and effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock a decade earlier. Co-producer Peter Lauritson, illustrator John Eaves, and Zimmerman designed the Enterprise -B with additions to its hull, some of which were added so that they could depict damage to
14094-497: The former hero of Starfleet reassuring them that "At Loblaws, more than the price is right. But, by gosh, the price is right." After Star Trek was cancelled, it acquired a cult following among people watching syndicated reruns of the series, and Captain Kirk became a cultural icon . Fans of the show—so-called Trekkies —began organizing conventions where they could meet like-minded enthusiasts, buy Star Trek merchandise and enjoy question and answer sessions with members of
14256-499: The future, man". Shatner was not "offered or suggested" a role in the 2009 film Star Trek . Director J. J. Abrams said in July 2007 that the production was "desperately trying to figure out a way to put him in" but that to "shove him in ... would be a disaster", an opinion echoed by Shatner in several interviews. At a convention held in 2010, Shatner described the film as "wonderful". Two years before its release, his own tale of how
14418-490: The good side." Criticized by a Russian journalist for his involvement with the government-controlled outlet, Shatner branded his accuser a hypocrite and compared his contract with RT to the arrangement through which the channel had acquired the right to broadcast American football games. Four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Shatner issued a statement via Twitter expressing unqualified support for
14580-471: The holodeck was filmed on Lady Washington , a full-scale replica of the first American sailing ship to visit Japan. Carson fought hard to keep the shoot during budget trims, deciding to sacrifice other days in the schedule to keep the scene. Lady Washington was anchored at Marina del Rey and sailed out a few miles from shore over five days of shooting. Some of Lady Washington 's crew appeared amongst Enterprise crew members. Picard's house in
14742-602: The idea of developing a television show in which he would play a character that would be a hybrid of Hooker and Kirk—a hard-boiled former police officer working as a private investigator in a dystopian future. When the production of Star Trek V was delayed by a Writer's Guild strike, Shatner began transforming his initial concept into a novel, assisted by an established author of pulp science fiction, Ron Goulart . Goulart described his contribution to Shatner's endeavour as merely that of an adviser, but Shatner credits him with rewriting. The first fruit of their collaboration, TekWar ,
14904-470: The initial drafts with exciting—and expensive—effects. Effects supervisor John Knoll 's team then storyboarded the effects sequences, figuring out how to best service the script as cheaply as possible. When even those estimates proved too costly, ILM continued cutting shots. "[We had] nothing left to cut, and we still had to cut stuff out," Knoll recalled. Previous Star Trek films had used conventional motion control techniques to record multiple passes of
15066-433: The lack of surprises was a benefit. William Shatner William Shatner OC (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship Enterprise in the second pilot of the first Star Trek television series to his final appearance as Captain Kirk in
15228-405: The maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise -B . During the shakedown cruise , the starship is pressed into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian refugee ships that have been snared by a massive energy ribbon. Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but becomes trapped by the ribbon, and Kirk goes to a control room to help the ship escape. While Enterprise
15390-411: The model created for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), refurbished and modified to better fit the film's anamorphic screen frame. Like Zimmerman, George took the opportunity of the Enterprise -D's screen debut to touch up the model. Because Generations featured the Enterprise -D separating into its saucer and engineering sections, the original 6-foot (1.8 m) model built by ILM for
15552-563: The murderer-of-the-week in the episode " Butterfly in Shades of Grey ". In 1995, he narrated Peter Kuran's documentary film Trinity and Beyond : The Atomic Bomb Movie , and his TekWar franchise expanded into the world of computer games with a first-person shooter release, William Shatner's TekWar . In 1996, an episode entitled Eye, Tooth saw him guest-starring in Will Smith 's television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air . He narrated
15714-543: The opening scene of a high-profile production of Sophocles 's Oedipus Rex by Tyrone Guthrie introduced him to television viewers across the whole of Canada. In Henry V , he combined playing the minor role of the Duke of Gloucester with understudying Christopher Plummer as the king: when a kidney stone obliged Plummer to withdraw from a performance, Shatner's decision to present a distinctive interpretation of his role rather than imitating his senior's impressed Plummer as
15876-695: The opening should be something "fun", leading to the switch to the holodeck scene. Nimoy turned down the chance to direct the feature. The producers chose David Carson . The British director had no feature film experience, but had directed several episodes of Star Trek , including the Next Generation episode " Yesterday's Enterprise " and the Deep Space Nine pilot " Emissary ". Star Trek veteran Herman Zimmerman served as production designer , collaborating with illustrator John Eaves for many designs. Zimmerman's approach to realizing
16038-405: The opportunity to take part in it. After David E. Kelley saw Shatner's commercials, he brought Shatner on to the final season of the legal drama The Practice . According to Pat Jordan, Shatner's Emmy Award-winning role, the eccentric but highly capable attorney Denny Crane, was essentially "William Shatner the man ... playing William Shatner the character playing the character Denny Crane, who
16200-433: The original feature film Enterprise . While Generations made use of new sets and props, set decorator John M. Dwyer reused existing props or made new ones out of premade materials where possible, rather than spend money on new items: a torture device was created from a birthing chair, nose hair clippers, and flashlights; packing materials formed the shapes of set walls for the Bird of Prey bridge; and Soran's missile used
16362-532: The physical model, shot in flat light with a long lens. The tendril strike that sends Kirk into the Nexus was simulated with the layering of multiple pieces of animation, including CG explosions Knoll rendered on his personal computer and a recycled explosion effect from The Empire Strikes Back . The Enterprise -D crash sequence was filmed in a 40-by-80-foot (12 by 24 m) forest floor set extended by matte paintings, built outside so ILM could use natural light. A 12-foot (3.7 m) model Enterprise saucer
16524-519: The pilot for "one of the worst scripts I have ever read" and recalling it as "one of the worst things I've ever done." In 1965, Shatner guest-starred in 12 O'Clock High as Major Curt Brown in the episode "I Am the Enemy". In the same year, he had the lead role in a legal drama, For the People , starring as an assistant district attorney married to a woman played by Jessica Walter ; ironically, it
16686-549: The position to Dawson by a threat from Dawson's agent. Advertising agencies also played a part in helping Shatner through his post-Kirk doldrums. Among the television commercials for which he was hired were spots promoting General Motors ' Oldsmobile brand, Promise margarine , the British Columbia -based supermarket chain SuperValu and its Ontarian equivalent, Loblaws ; Canadian viewers became familiar with
16848-598: The previous year. (Life imitated art in Gary, Indiana in 2001, when Shatner visited the town to host the Miss USA Pageant for real). In Osmosis Jones (2001), a high-concept satirical movie that blended live action with animation, Shatner voiced Mayor Phlegmming; the film depicted the cells and microbiota of a human body as the citizens of a community, the city of Frank, governed by an egoistic politician who prioritizes his convenience and political self-interest over
17010-974: The probe in place; it explodes on the launchpad and kills Soran. Kirk is fatally injured in the effort and Picard buries him at the site. Three Federation starships arrive to retrieve the Enterprise survivors from Veridian III. Picard muses that given the ship's legacy, the Enterprise -D will not be the last vessel to carry the name. The main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reprise their roles in Generations : Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, LeVar Burton as Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data, Gates McFadden as Chief Medical Officer Commander Beverly Crusher , Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf , and Marina Sirtis as ship's counselor Commander Deanna Troi . Recurring characters from
17172-583: The producers chose a script written by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga . Production began while the final season of the television series was being made. The director was David Carson , who previously directed episodes of the television series; photography was by franchise newcomer John A. Alonzo . Filming took place on the Paramount Studios lots, and on location in Valley of Fire State Park , Nevada , and Lone Pine, California . The film's climax
17334-545: The production moved at a "TV-like" pace; principal photography concluded after 51 days. Filming commenced on March 28, 1994. Generations and The Next Generation were filmed simultaneously on different soundstages on the Paramount Studios lot. Scenes that did not feature the television series regulars were filmed first, starting with those in the Enterprise -B deflector room. The scenes of Harriman, Chekov, and Scott reacting to Kirk's apparent death were filmed
17496-572: The realities of budget constraints. The initial proposal included location shooting in Hawaii, Idaho, and the Midwestern United States , and the total budget was over $ 30 million. The budget dropped to $ 25 million after negotiations. A revised version of the script from March 1994 incorporated feedback from the producers, studio, actors, and director. The writers changed one sequence where Harriman trained his predecessors in
17658-514: The recent 1994 Northridge earthquake ; the effects staff deliberately hid the set shakers until cameras were rolling to elicit more genuine reactions. The stellar observatory set was an elaborate redress of the Enterprise -B's bridge, with added levels and swapped walls changing the layout. Control panels styled after those in the original Star Trek series helped suggest the age of the station. The cast of The Next Generation started filming their scenes for Generations four days after wrapping on
17820-595: The ribbon to the planet Veridian III, consequently killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet. Upon entering the Veridian system, Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters in exchange for La Forge but insists on being transported to Soran directly. La Forge is returned to Enterprise , but unwittingly exposes the ship's defense details through the transmitter installed in his VISOR device. The Duras sisters attack, and Enterprise sustains critical damage before destroying
17982-502: The role of Lomax in The World of Suzie Wong on Broadway. In the March of that year, while still performing in that production, he also played detective Archie Goodwin in what would have been television's first Nero Wolfe series, had it not been aborted by CBS after shooting a pilot and a few episodes. Shatner appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone , " Nick of Time " (1960) and " Nightmare at 20,000 Feet " (1963); when
18144-560: The role of Ranger Bob, co-starring with a cast of puppets and Clarabell the Clown , whose dialogue with Shatner consisted entirely of honks on a bicycle horn. It was four years before he won his first role in a major Hollywood movie, appearing in the MGM film The Brothers Karamazov as Alexei, the youngest of the brothers, in a cast that included Yul Brynner . In December 1958, directed by Kirk Browning , he appeared opposite Ralph Bellamy as
18306-474: The role, Ruck assumed he would play an alien, saying, "Look, when I shave every day, I don't look in the mirror and say, 'Hey! There's a starship commander.'" Berman informed him that the character was from a wealthy and connected family, and was placed in command as a stepping stone to a political career. Jacqueline Kim plays Enterprise -B helmsman Demora Sulu . Kim consulted with art supervisor Michael Okuda to make sure her hand movements and manipulations of
18468-691: The rule of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire . Shatner attended two schools in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Willingdon Elementary School and West Hill High School , and is an alumnus of the Montreal Children's Theatre . He studied economics at the McGill University Faculty of Management in Montreal, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1952. Shatner was a camp counselor at
18630-458: The saucer section. Dennis McCarthy , the principal composer for The Next Generation , was given the task of writing Generations ' score. McCarthy became the first Star Trek composer to work on both television and film projects. Critic Jeff Bond wrote that while McCarthy's score was "tasked with straddling the styles of both series", it offered the opportunity for the composer to produce stronger dramatic writing. The film's opening music
18792-423: The saucer-section crashing onto the surface of Veridian III. Picard fails to stop Soran from launching another probe. The resulting destruction of the Veridian star alters the course of the ribbon and Picard and Soran enter the Nexus before the shockwave destroys Veridian III. Picard finds himself surrounded by an idealized family, but realizes it is an illusion. He is confronted by an "echo" of Guinan left behind in
18954-604: The scene was cut from the film, the costume was used in the Voyager episode " Extreme Risk ". Berman backed Carson's choice to hire John A. Alonzo , the director of photography for Chinatown and Scarface . Alonzo was shown more than a dozen Star Trek episodes to familiarize himself with the franchise. He favored lighting scenes as much as possible from within the sets rather than staging lights and flags for each shot. Carson credited this approach with saving time and allowing more freedom when shooting. He later wrote that
19116-415: The screen. Because of the complex interplay of the ribbon elements with the ships that would be trapped within it, ILM decided the refugee ships and Enterprise -B should be CG models. To make the switch between computer-generated and motion-control passes of the physical model appear seamless, ILM created a wireframe of the physical model, with the computer-generated model's textures taken from photos of
19278-552: The series return, including Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh as the villainous Klingon sisters Lursa and B'Etor Duras, Patti Yasutake as Enterprise nurse Lieutenant Alyssa Ogawa , and Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan. Malcolm McDowell plays Tolian Soran, the film's antagonist. McDowell had worked with Stewart on stage decades earlier, and relished the chance to kill Shatner's character. He liked his character's spiked hair and black ensemble, and requested that his character not have alien features to avoid lengthy makeup sessions. In
19440-547: The series' run. Despite the budget cuts, Generations shot many scenes on location. The rushed pace of filming meant that not all locations had been selected before the start of principal photography, and the production was still scouting locations until two weeks before the final scenes. The production exhausted possible options within Los Angeles' studio zone and looked up to 150 miles (240 km) away for suitable locations. The Enterprise -D promotion ceremony on
19602-459: The settings in the Nexus. Robert Blackman , The Next Generation 's long-serving costume designer re-designed the Starfleet uniforms which the Enterprise -D crew would wear in the film. Blackman crafted militaristic-looking uniforms with rank sleeves inspired by The Original Series , high collars, and jackets reminiscent of the uniforms developed for The Wrath of Khan . The redesign
19764-490: The seventh Star Trek feature film, Star Trek Generations (1994). Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions before moving into guest-starring roles in various U.S. television shows. He appeared as James Kirk in all the episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , 21 of the 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series , and the first seven Star Trek movies . He has written
19926-409: The ship without harming the underlying model's surface, and to improve the look of the ship when it was filmed from angles called for in the script. The ship's bridge was based on previous designs for the Enterprise -A and Excelsior sets Zimmerman had created for The Undiscovered Country , using pieces from each. The surrounding spacedock for Enterprise 's maiden voyage was a modification of
20088-439: The ships' controls were consistent and accurate. Glenn Morshower played an Enterprise -B navigator; he apologized to the director for a poor first rehearsal, because as a Star Trek fan he was unused to performing along with actors he had idolized for years. Many of the minor characters throughout the film appeared in different roles in the television series. Tim Russ , who appears as an Enterprise -B bridge officer, played
20250-646: The show's 2012 season). For Trekkies, his most notable project of the year was the first Star Trek film that he had directed since Star Trek V . The Captains , which he also wrote and presented, was a feature-length documentary in which he interviewed all five of the actors who had played the principal role in the Star Trek sequels that had been created up to that point— Patrick Stewart of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Avery Brooks of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek: Voyager , Scott Bakula of Star Trek: Enterprise and Chris Pine of J. J. Abrams 's 2009 movie. The film also included
20412-497: The show's host, Seth MacFarlane . Although the resurrection of Star Trek from oblivion only came about because of the enthusiasm of Trekkies, Shatner's attitude towards them is not uncritical. In a much-discussed 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch about a Star Trek convention, he advised a room full of Trekkies to "get a life". The comment was an apt summary of the view of his fans that he had expressed in several interviews. Their adoration of him took unwelcome forms almost from
20574-470: The show's regular cast. Many of the actors who had crewed the Enterprise became frequent guests at these events, Shatner included. In the mid-1970s, noting the growing appetite for Star Trek , Paramount began pre-producing a sequel show, Star Trek: Phase II , in which they planned to present new, younger actors alongside the stars of the original series. However, astounded by the enormous success that George Lucas 's film Star Wars achieved in 1977,
20736-425: The show. After the filming of the series was complete, there were only six months remaining before the film's release date. The Enterprise -D crash scenes were filmed mid-May 1994, and were among the last remaining shots before the existing Next Generation sets were demolished to make way for Star Trek: Voyager . As a result, the crew distressed the sets for the crash damage more than would have been normal during
20898-509: The solar collapses and the Veridian III planet. Knoll used a digital version of the Enterprise -D for the warp effect; the limitations of the motion-control programming and slitscan effect for the original meant that the effect "barely holds up", Knoll said, whereas the CG recreation could keep consistent lighting throughout. While digital techniques were used for many sequences and ships,
21060-421: The starship models and miniatures. For Generations , the effects artists began using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and models for certain shots. No physical shooting models were built for the refugee ships, although George recalled that he created a quick physical miniature for CG modeler Rob Coleman to develop his ideas from, rather than try to articulate his feedback without it. Other CG elements included
21222-604: The studio decided that Star Trek would earn them more money if the next adventure of the Enterprise took place not on television but in theatres. Shatner and all the other original Star Trek cast members returned to their roles when Paramount produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture , released in 1979. He went on to play Kirk in six further Star Trek films: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and—in
21384-401: The television series was removed from storage. The model was stripped, rewired, and its surface detailed to stand up to scrutiny. George changed the paint job, as he recalled they had been in a rush to prepare the model for television and its green-and-blue color scheme did not properly read on film. The paint scheme was shifted towards a "battleship grey", with glossy tiled areas reminiscent of
21546-417: The television series' tendency to "bog down" by moving to the next scene before boredom could set in. Kenneth Turan called the film safe, and said that it relied heavily on viewers' appreciation for the Star Trek television series. Jay Carr of The Boston Globe described the film as "reassuringly predictable", saying that it featured elements that would be recognizable by the fans of both series but that
21708-496: The theme for Deep Space Nine , and Alexander Courage 's Star Trek theme . For the final battle of Kirk and Picard against Soran, McCarthy used staccato music to accentuate the fistfight. For Kirk's death, McCarthy mated lyrical strings with another statement of the Courage theme, while a shot of Picard standing over Kirk's grave is scored with more pomp. The Courage theme plays again at the film's close. The original soundtrack
21870-497: The titular Alexander in the pilot for a proposed series called Alexander the Great alongside Adam West as Cleander . The series was not picked up, and the pilot remained unaired until 1968, when it was repackaged as a TV movie to capitalize on the fame that West and Shatner had won in the interim. Shatner hoped that the series would be a major success, but West was apparently unsurprised by its failure to proceed, later castigating
22032-458: The travel website priceline.com , appearing in many television commercials for the company as a pompous caricature of himself. He has said that while it is true that his work for priceline earned him stock options , reports that they are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars are exaggerated. He was also the chief executive officer of the Toronto , Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures ,
22194-417: The view of Pat Jordan, author of an in-depth profile of Shatner for The New York Times , his subsequent failure to achieve the acclaim accorded to his starrier contemporaries was attributable to his professional philosophy of "work equals work", and his consequent participation in many "forgettable" projects that probably did his career more harm than good. On the eve of his momentous casting as James Kirk, he
22356-401: The wall would have been infeasible to create in the years before the rise of large-format inkjet printers and computer graphics software. The starmaps were replaced with a bluescreen for scenes where the static images would be replaced by computer-animated star maps by Santa Barbara Studios. Stellar cartography was one of the largest sets ever constructed on a Paramount lot. The film marked
22518-636: The welfare of his public. In Groom Lake , released the following year, Shatner repeated his Star Trek V feat of directing and starring in a movie based on a story of his own invention—a film exploiting the interest in Area 51 kindled by The X-Files , and co-starring a young Amy Acker , later best known as a regular colleague of Joss Whedon . In 2003, Shatner appeared in Brad Paisley 's Celebrity and Online music videos along with Little Jimmy Dickens , Jason Alexander and Trista Rehn . He also had
22680-418: The whole thing... because there are so many paths you can explore, it's easy to get bogged down," recalled effects co-supervisor Alex Seiden, who had worked as a technical director on the planetary explosion of Praxis from The Undiscovered Country . Knoll decided the ribbon was a rip through universes, filled with chaotic energy, taking inspiration from images he had seen of magnetic fields around Uranus from
22842-403: The writers toyed with the idea of pitting the two crews against each other. "We were obsessed with the poster image of the two Enterprises locked in combat: Kirk vs. Picard, One Must Die! " said Moore. Ultimately, the writers could not come up with a plausible explanation for such a conflict, and abandoned the idea. In the initial draft of the screenplay, the original series cast appeared in
23004-439: Was abandoned, and the cast wore combinations of the uniforms from The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine ; the only new addition was an Eaves-designed angular communications badge that replaced the previous oval shape. Time was so short that Jonathan Frakes and Levar Burton borrowed the costumes from Deep Space Nine actors Avery Brooks and Colm Meaney . Also created by Blackman was a skydiving outfit worn by Shatner; though
23166-594: Was brief. In December 1989, Shatner took part in the British television series This Is Your Life , a show in which a celebrity is ambushed by the host and then taken to a studio for the story of his life to be told in a stream of anecdotes related by his acquaintances: Shatner's episode began with Michael Aspel taking him by surprise on the set of the Starship Enterprise at Universal Studios in Hollywood. In 1994, Shatner revisited Columbo to play
23328-434: Was considered a success. Star Trek Generations earned mixed reviews from critics and fans. The film holds a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. On Metacritic , the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating average reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+. Writing about the film decades later, Den of Geek described
23490-399: Was constructed specifically for the shots; the model's size gave it the right sense of scale for flying dirt and debris, an illusion enhanced by shooting with a high-speed camera to give the saucer the expected slow movement of a massive object. ILM shot its crew members walking about their parking lot and matted the footage onto the top of the saucer to represent Starfleet personnel evacuating
23652-430: Was difficult for all involved, especially Shatner, who wore a wool costume. Safety harnesses and wires used to keep performers safe from tumbling off a precipice were removed digitally in postproduction. As originally filmed, Kirk was shot in the back and killed by Soran. Test audiences reacted negatively to the death, so the scene was rewritten and reshot over two weeks so that Kirk sacrifices himself by leaping across
23814-522: Was endorsed by him both on television and in print. On May 19, 1983, the iconic status of Captain Kirk was acknowledged with a ceremony celebrating Shatner's being awarded the 1,762nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Shatner also has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame , granted to him in recognition of his being the first Canadian actor to star in major series on three U.S. networks—NBC, CBS and ABC. Working on T. J. Hooker inspired Shatner with
23976-516: Was entitled to direct a Star Trek movie too: he exercised his right in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , although many Trekkies were disappointed by the film that he delivered, something that he attributed principally to the weakness of the movie's visual effects. His growing success on television and in movie theatres in the 1980s did not lead him to stop working for advertisers. The VIC-20 home computer , for example,
24138-655: Was extraneous. Producer Rick Berman told the press, "Both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley felt they made a proper goodbye in the last movie." Nimoy and Kelley's lines were subsequently modified for Doohan and Koenig. The news that not all of the Original Series cast was in the film was not passed to all of The Next Generation actors. When Goldberg arrived on set on her first day, she immediately asked to see Nichelle Nichols , who portrayed Nyota Uhura in The Original Series . When told that Nichols
24300-461: Was filmed for subsequent screening in more than 700 theatres across Australia, Canada and the United States. A large portion of the revenue of the project went to charity. In 2015, he played Mark Twain in an episode of the Canadian historical crime drama series Murdoch Mysteries , and Croatoan – the dangerous, interdimensional father of Audrey Parker – in the last episodes of the fifth and final season of SyFy channel's fantasy series Haven . In
24462-522: Was in Jordan's opinion seen merely as an actor who "showed up on time, knew his lines, worked cheap and always answered his phone". In 1954, Shatner decided to leave Stratford and move to New York City in the hope of building a career on the Broadway stage. He was soon offered the chance to make his first appearance on American television: in a children's program called The Howdy Doody Show , he created
24624-479: Was limited to such B-movies as Roger Corman's Big Bad Mama (1974), the horror film The Devil's Rain (1975) and Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). On television, he made a critically praised appearance as a prosecutor in a 1971 PBS adaptation of Saul Levitt 's play The Andersonville Trial , and was also seen in major parts in the movies The People (1972) and The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973). He had
24786-403: Was most promising. Executive producer Michael Piller turned down the opportunity to develop ideas, objecting to what he saw as a competition for the job. Moore and Braga's script was ultimately chosen. The writers spent weeks developing the story with Berman, before taking a working vacation in May 1993 to write the first-draft screenplay, completed June 1. Moore described Generations as
24948-468: Was not in the film, she said to Koenig, "The fans have been waiting for years to see Nichelle and me and Uhura and Guinan on screen together." Patrick Stewart said that he had made an effort to ensure the original cast's involvement in the film: "I didn't want us to sail into the future just as The Next Generation cast." Alan Ruck plays Enterprise -B captain John Harriman. When approached for
25110-517: Was only the show's cancellation after its 13-episode first season that allowed him to walk onto the bridge of the Enterprise the following year. Shatner starred in the 1966 gothic horror film Incubus (Esperanto: Inkubo ) the second feature-length movie ever made with all dialogue spoken in Esperanto . He also starred in an episode of Gunsmoke in 1966 as the character Fred Bateman. He appeared as attorney-turned-counterfeiter Brett Skyler in
25272-663: Was playing the character William Shatner." Shatner took the Crane role to Boston Legal and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2005, and was Emmy nominated again in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. With his 2005 Emmy accolade, he became one of the few actors (along with co-star James Spader as Alan Shore ) to win an Emmy Award while playing the same character in two different shows. Shatner remained with Boston Legal until, after five seasons and one hundred and one episodes, it ended in 2008. Two high-profile animated pictures released in 2006 featured Shatner in their cast. In DreamWorks ' Over
25434-461: Was previewed in the United States and Canada on November 17, 1994, and grossed $ 3 million from 1,525 theaters. The film opened to a wide release in 2,659 theaters the following day and grossed $ 23.1 million during the opening weekend, averaging $ 8,694 per theatre. It was the highest-grossing film during the first week of its release in the United States, staying in the top ten for a further four weeks. The film went on to gross $ 75,671,125 in
25596-464: Was published in 1989, and launched a sequence of books that sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The novels led to four TekWar television movies, in which Shatner played not the lead character but his boss, Walter Bascom. Shatner reprised the role in a television series that followed, as well as directing several episodes of it himself, but its run on the USA Network , Syfy and Canada's CTV
25758-404: Was released in 1994 on cassette tape and CD. In 2013, GNP Crescendo Records rereleased the soundtrack as a two-disc, expanded collector's edition including previously unheard tracks. The marketing of Generations included a website, the first to officially publicize a motion picture. The site was a success, being viewed millions of times worldwide in the weeks leading to the film's release, at
25920-420: Was revised and reshot following poor reception from test audiences. The film uses a mix of traditional optical effects alongside computer-generated imagery and was scored by regular Star Trek composer Dennis McCarthy . Star Trek Generations was released in the United States on November 18, 1994. Paramount promoted the film with merchandising tie-ins, including toys, books, games, and a website—a first for
26082-401: Was so furious at himself over his error that he leapt out of his chair, picked it up and threw it out of the show's iconic Winner's Circle. During an Archive of American Television interview, Richard Dawson disclosed that when Mark Goodson was considering whom to employ as the host of the pilot of Family Feud (1976), he would have chosen Shatner if had not been intimidated into awarding
26244-470: Was then contracted to play Kirk for the remainder of the show, and he sat in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise from 1966 to 1969. During its original run on NBC, the series achieved only modest ratings, and it was cancelled after three seasons and seventy-nine episodes. Plato's Stepchildren , aired on November 22, 1968, earned Shatner a footnote in the history of American race relations:
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