How William Shatner Changed The World

[matrixman]

Shatner explores strange new world of real-life Trek technology

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Capt. James Kirk's alter-ego, William Shatner, really did shake up the cosmos.

The irreverent documentary How William Shatner Changed the World features the actor examining the ways Star Trek technology inspired real-life innovators, whose inventions include communicator-like flip phones and medical equipment reminiscent of the starship Enterprise's sick bay. Airing Sunday on the History Channel in the U.S., the show kicks off the network's Out of This World week, featuring explorations of comets, meteors and UFOs. The channel is not available in Canada; the program, commissioned by Discovery Channel Canada, aired here a few months ago and garnered strong ratings.

The documentary studies how Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi series helped energize scientific explorers who created gadgets we could only dream about when Star Trek premiered in the 1960s. Shatner chats up researchers who, to quote Kirk's Vulcan sidekick Spock, found fascinating the tricorders, communicators, medical scanners and other devices Roddenberry and his collaborators put in the hands of the 23rd century Star Trek gang. Viewing this brave new world of technology, then staring around a real world where clunky computers filled entire rooms and talking long-distance meant tethering yourself to a rotary phone, these impressionable young minds set out to make what they saw on Star Trek a reality.

"They were deadly serious about Star Trek," Shatner said in an interview after taping TV spots to promote the History Channel shows. "Scientists are a strange group in that they catch glimpses of something that is mysterious and wonderful. They can't quite put their finger on it, so they grasp at something. It's a step-by-step process. You climb on the backs of giants. Only rarely are there leaps. Scientific advances mostly are incremental. If enough time goes by, a decade goes by, suddenly, that increment, you take year one to year 10, looks like a giant leap. So here we are 30, 40 years after Star Trek, and it looks like it was extraordinary, the advances we've made."

While we're not yet having our scrambled molecules beamed from place to place, the documentary reviews Trek-like technology that has come into being, including cellphones resembling the show's communicators, laser scalpels and other non-invasive medical equipment. The show also features interviews with researchers inspired by Star Trek to miniaturize computers, study time travel and search for alien life.

Based on Shatner's book I'm Working on That, in which he explored the connections between Star Trek technology and real science, How William Shatner Changed the World takes the tongue-in-cheek approach the actor often applies to what he considers the over-serious fandom of the TV shows and movies. As scientists recount the ideas and inspiration they gained from Star Trek, Shatner struts, blusters and soliloquizes about the impact of the show, hamming it up as much as he ever did as the melodramatic Kirk. Shatner balances respect and ridicule for Star Trek, which he famously mocked in a Saturday Night Live skit in the 1980s, when he told costumed fans at a Trek convention to "get a life."

"I've always had sort of an ironic view of life," the 75-year-old Shatner said. "My belief system is that when this is over, it's over. That you don't look down from heaven and wait for your loved ones to join you. There may be some soul activity, but I'm not sure about that. But what I am sure about is that your molecules continue and in due time become something else. That's science. And that works for me. So that if this is it, you better take it at its right proportion. That there are serious things, but most things are temporal and ephemeral, and you should cultivate that attitude. That joy and love and all the verities are what counts. So I try not to take too many things seriously, and if I find myself caught up in the seriousness of the moment, within a period of time, I'm able to cajole myself out of it."

While best known as the fearless Capt. Kirk, Shatner does not share the rosy view of technology and humanity's future that motivated Star Trek creator Roddenberry. "Technology has brought us to this point of self-destruction," Shatner said. "It's the dichotomy of our curiosity and greed, which are hardwired - greed, because we had to survive because we were always hungry, so we had to gather things, and curiosity, which brought us out of the trees. In small amounts, they're the difference between us and the rest of the animal world. In large amounts, they're causing the destruction of everything. And I think technology has put us in a position of destroying the planet as we know it, and us along with it. I'm very pessimistic about the future of mankind based on all the things that are going on now and our lack of will to correct it."

© The Canadian Press, 2006 (article by David Germain)

[Loredoctor]

Based on Shatner's book I'm Working on That, in which he explored the connections between Star Trek technology and real science, How William Shatner Changed the World takes the tongue-in-cheek approach the actor often applies to what he considers the over-serious fandom of the TV shows and movies. As scientists recount the ideas and inspiration they gained from Star Trek, Shatner struts, blusters and soliloquizes about the impact of the show, hamming it up as much as he ever did as the melodramatic Kirk. Shatner balances respect and ridicule for Star Trek, which he famously mocked in a Saturday Night Live skit in the 1980s, when he told costumed fans at a Trek convention to "get a life."

[soap box]I wasn't aware that there were connections between science and Star Trek. The show has some of the worst science errors ever made in science fiction. And it pisses me off that books get written about ST being ahead of its time when literary greats like Asimov, Clarke and Wells get pushed to the side.[/soap box]

[The Laughing Man]

there's a smily for that, LM....

[Loredoctor]

there's a smily for that, LM....

[Avatar]

Well, I will agree that some golden agers don't get the recognition they deserve about their suggestions that contributed to science, I don't doubt that Star Trek reached a wider audience than Asimov ever did.

Give ST their due as well. I've long said that society imitates sci-fi for that very reason. People say, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that?" And then go on to figure out how to do it.

--A

[High Lord Tolkien]

I saw about a 1/2 hour of that last night.
It was pretty good.
Very entertaining.
Some of the video inserts from the TV show responding to present day very very funny!

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Can't wait to see this. Alas, no cable, no satellite. Hopefully I'll get to see it eventually. I just about died laughing when I saw an ad for it at a friend's house.

[onewyteduck]

I missed about the first 15 minutes of it but it was informative, funny and entertaining. And Shatner, as usual, has absolutely no problem poking fun at himself first and foremost!

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Finally got to see it. Very funny, very nostalgia-inducing for me, but a bit heavy on the Trek, light on the info. And they didn't mention the two coolest things that were inspired by or similar to Trek tech: the scientists who beamed the photon from place to place and the blind guy who had a VISOR-like device implanted that let him see a black dotted representation of the environment around him.

Heh, good to see that Shatner's taking care of himself.

[dANdeLION]

It pisses me off that books get written about ST being ahead of its time when literary greats like Asimov, Clarke and Wells get pushed to the side.

Amen. Though I do have three little comments to add: 1) part of why ST theoretically reached more is due to the medium of tv (which could easily been a sci-fi device from some book written during the mid-1800's), 2) there were quite a few literary greats (Ellison & Sturgeon come to mind) who wrote ST episodes, and 3) I know personally that ST did not distract me from Asimov, Clarke, Wells, Heinlein, Herbert, or any of the other guys I read, and if I remember correctly, I've seen movies based on the works of all these guys. Roddenburry was just a genius of marketing, and his original show still was cancelled after 3 seasons.

[Loredoctor]

Good post, dAN.

[matrixman]

Don't know if ST/SW fans generally stick to reading ST/SW books, or if they embrace other things. One of those useless statistics I'd like to know. I would think they also enjoy other stuff.

I can understand people's annoyance at the pervasiveness of ST and SW. It is a bit disheartening to walk into a bookstore and see the sf/fantasy section dominated by ST and SW books.

[Avatar]

Well, speaking for myself of course, I enjoy other stuff, and often prefer it. Of course, I've only ever read one ST book, and I enjoy the SW books a great deal usually, but variety is the spice of life.

--A

[Loredoctor]

Someone has sense in Australian book stores: they place the ST & SW books on the bottom shelves or in their own section.

[Worm of Despite]

Dunno how Shatner's changed my world, but I know he's made me change the channel a lot.

[Loredoctor]

Dunno how Shatner's changed my world, but I know he's made me change the channel a lot.

LOL!

[matrixman]

Dunno how Shatner's changed my world, but I know he's made me change the channel a lot.

The quote of the day!

[sgt.null]

a rant.

i am really tired of people telling me how advanced Star Trek was in the 60's. let's see, the black woman is the phone operator. the russina guy drives the ship. and the chinese guy is also a driver. the scotsman, the one possible Catholic, is down in the engine room. the three heroes are white guys. the captain, the doctor and the science guy. so only white guys can get degrees and run the ship?

[Usivius]

it's all about perspective. At the time, this was unseen! In retropect it seems small, but for the time... it is a baby step...
...the same can be said of moving forward from Moses saying, "an eye for an eye", and Jesus saying, "turn the other cheek"..

[Loredoctor]

a rant.

i am really tired of people telling me how advanced Star Trek was in the 60's. let's see, the black woman is the phone operator. the russina guy drives the ship. and the chinese guy is also a driver. the scotsman, the one possible Catholic, is down in the engine room. the three heroes are white guys. the captain, the doctor and the science guy. so only white guys can get degrees and run the ship?

True and they were very stereotypical - the Scotsman with his speech, the Russian as well, and the fact that the Asian guy knew martial arts.