William Shatner is an underrated actor

What’s often overlooked about his performance as Kirk is that almost all of his really cringe-y stuff came from the third season, which notoriously had much weaker writing.

It sounds like a joke, but his guest appearance on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic may just be the best performance he’s ever done. He captures such a poignant level of loss and regret in just a few lines.

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I thought his voice work in Over the Hedge was pretty good. He killed it as the possum.

Killed it. Playing possum. My aunt didn’t get that joke either.

Anyway, William Shatner said these days the voice work is the best. He could ride to the studio on his motorcycle. Didn’t have to spend time in a makeup chair. Nobody cared what he looked or dressed like. Then he had that motorcycle accident and people (probably his wife and children) said no more motorcycle.

William Shatner ranks in one of the top spots in my list of people I would invite to dinner. Just to listen to him tell stories. I do require slightly more than reading the telephone book.

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Agreed, total clickbait, but I’ll bite. At this point Shatner is less an actor and more a force of nature. Any of us should be fortunate enough to have such a legacy. Only a few other people have stamped their own dialect into popular culture; Christopher Walken comes to mind. I say good, on you, Mr. Shatner.

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You might even say he is a hamdinger!

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Yep! A big bald hamdinger with the dad-gut to match!

I would like to see him use a hamdinger as bait, trawling for some muskies, but uita beuis, ars longa.

No, that was a bit cruel, but in my defense, he was kind of asking for it.

And we all love the Shat, pretty sure.

It comes from a place of love!

And, yes, I heard about the mysterious “disappearing” toupées from one of the movies: I actually approve! Quality headgear is hard to come by!

And who could argue: Hooker was a good cop!

And, more seriously, the Shat is old as dirt, and he’s still killing it! Not just Boston Legal, which was quite a while ago, but he’s still got it and by all accounts he has a pretty tranquil home life, with his horses and his being Canadian and all that.

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Star Trek was on the air in its initial run about the time I was l learning to walk. I’ve never been more than a casual fan of the show (I’m mostly familiar with the '80s films), but I’m fairly certain I knew William Shatner by the time I started school in the mid-'70s. It makes me see him as William Shatner first in most everything I’ve seen him in.

(did he show up on a lot of talk shows in the years after Star Trek?)

I agree with much of what McCloud said. To me, he seems like a good guy with a lot of enthusiasm for what he does. He’s had a long career and had an iconic role for which he will be remembered long after he and I are gone.

And, he seems to be doing what he wants and quite content with who he is. It seems to me that he’s done well.

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During the height of the lockdown last year, we stumbled across a 2019 film, Devil’s Revenge starring one Mr. Shatner and also Jeri Ryan. Actually the lead was a “Days of our Lives” regular named Jason Brooks (“Romulan Helmsman” in the 2009 Star Trek) but we all know how the low-budget name game is played: For the price of a used car (Betsy Palmer) or maybe a bottle of booze (any of the Carradines) an aging actor sleepwalks through a few lines—sitting down if possible, preferably in his own living room (James Doohan’s final role).

I think none of us blame anyone for this, and it’s a tradition going back to at least Edward D. Wood, Jr., filming Bela Lugosi outside his house for two minutes, then shoehorning that into his sci-fi-horror masterpiece three years later. So, when Jeri Ryan maybe looks a little confused or not wholly invested, we don’t fault her for that: The movie is confusing and kinda dull to watch, too.

But then The Shat comes on, and he freaking owns it. It’s like he’s back on the “Star Trek” sets, with the papier-mâché rocks and the dubious rubber-suited creatures, and by God, the universe isn’t coming to an end on HIS watch.

Yeah, you can tell when the stunt double comes in, and yeah, this looks like a lot of it was filmed at his ranch, but he’s making sure that if you’re bored watching this thing, it’s not gonna be because he lacked conviction.

Gotta respect that. Dude turned 90 this year.

(Devil’s Revenge would actually make a good riffing vehicle, btw.)

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See Shatner in The Andersonville Trial (available on Amazon) for a great performance amongst many actors notorious for their scenery chewing (Jack Cassidy and “Santa” Cameron Mitchell, to name two). Excellent performance to point to for those who don’t think he (or the others mentioned) can pull it off.

Some find the movie cheesy, but I would also recommend Pray for the Wildcats, a TV movie from the early 1970s, with Shatner playing a suicidal businessman who realizes his business associates on a motorcycle trip are willing to cover-up the death of a stranger by one of them. Very sedate role for him.

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I just loved him in Incubus.

(No I didn’t.)

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Shatner in the movie The Intruder is an incredible performance, and still relevant. Early in his career he had intensity, and he was in a show with Steve McQueen in which he held his own. He started as a stage performer, playing larger than life Shakespearian characters. First and second season Star Trek, he could command a scene with a glance. He bounced off Nimoy and Kelley perfectly. The third season was rough for the entire cast, and they knew the show was getting ill treatment from NBC, so fatigue set in. The Andersonville Trial and Wrath of Khan showed he could be poignant.

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Don’t forget his second turn on the show years later, when he was portraying a Rush Limbaugh pastiche.

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The only movie Roger Corman ever lost money on.* Its failure convinced him people wanted more It Conquered The World instead.

* According to him**

** Because he’s ignoring Cockfight.***

*** But also, The Intruder finally did turn a profit about 40 years later.

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The People (1972) was just posted to Prime. Neat little sci-fi film that holds up well.

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I absolutely love Shatner. A lot of respect for him, but two things bug me about Mr William Shatner: He acts like he doesn’t get impersonations of him and berates the talented people who do it, but it’s a very Shatnery thing to do so that’s cool, but what’s not cool is he blocked me on Twitter and I have no earthly reason why. I commented once that i really enjoyed the body of his work and have really enjoyed the recent docuseries, and (my bad I had the wrong movie)The Captains and then went to see if I got a response or like from him hoping he read it, and then I noticed I wasn’t following him and I thought it was a twitter hiccup, and when I searched him out I found I was blocked…
morty

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Frank Conniff blocked me on FaceBook, so let’s start our own club of weird blockages.

Oh, I said that wrong.

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I watched that when it first aired (why, yes, I am old!)

Take Zenna Henderson’s stories and stir them with a spoon so very little matches up (especially upset over what they did to Karen)

But all in all, it’s not too bad. Probably more enjoyable if you haven’t read the books.

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I quit that place almost four years ago. (Saving the event that sealed the deal for my memoirs.) However, similar confusing blocks happened to me a few times. I think sometimes our tone is misread. Or context gets et because of the way the place is set up. Also, a lot of more famous folks employ blocklists, I guess. That means you may be blocked only because you’re a mutual with someone else the blocker (or at least their social media manager) doesn’t like, for whatever reason.

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That tracks.

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I think Shatner also works so great in that role because he’s basically playing himself, but much more likeable. (And considering how much of a scuzzball Denny Crane is…)

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Agree 100%. Zenna Henderson is one of my favorite authors, and I adore the People stories, so I also wasn’t too happy about what they did to them in the movie.

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