Celebrating William Shatner at 78

Congrats to the great W. Shatner. He has given us many years of enjoyment and what more can you ask of an entertainer?

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William Shatner and I have always been close and I explain that with the fact that we share the same birthday. This being out big day, it saddens me that I cannot watch his greatest work (Wrath of Khan obviously) on BluRay since it's not being released until the movie is.

The great thing about Shatner is his ability to play the campy when needed, or to attempt to be downright serious in the campy. Most of the folks I know love him in Miss Congeniality, love him as Denny Crane, and thought he was perfect in Over The Hedge. Personally, my favorite non-Trek piece is the notorious Kingdom Of The Spiders.

As for Star Trek V, leave it to its fate and let it die alone.

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One of my favorite Shat-products is...believe it or not...his 2007 musical album 'Has Been'. The album isn't a joke album or a cash-in like his 'Rocket Man'... it's produced by Ben Folds and features people like Folds, Aimee Mann, and Henry Rollins. It's shockingly good. Check it out if you're a Shatner fan.

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Star Trek V will always be the worst in the original cast movies, and deservedly so. Not all of that can be blamed on Shatner, of course, but directors invariably get most blame since they make most of the decisions.

Kingdom of the Spider was a great schlocky movie from the 70s, but for me Shatner achieved real acting success with the character of Denny Crane. All the trademark Shatnerisms were there, but he also showed some real acting abilitiy.

You got to give Shatner some credit. Of all the original series actors he really is the only one who worked solidy and had the later successes outside of Star Trek. Even more so than Leonard Nimoy. It's not always easy to do that when you're on a series, even a short lived one, that is so ingrained in pop culture.

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William Shatner is an entertainment phenomenon. Is he serious, satirical, awful, brilliant? YES.

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Sorry, I couldn't get past the first couple of sentences--Edward James Olmos acted his ass off on Battlestar. Yeah, he cried, but that's what separated Battlestar Galactica from other sci-fi, it was about characters.

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Jason you miss the point, Adama was a good commander but he doesn't even begin to compare to Admiral James T. Kirk. Adama was routinely beaten by a bunch of frackin toasters, Kirk never stayed beaten. Kirk routinely saved Earth, sometimes even in a beaten up Klingon POS. Adama let two different planets fall.

To put it simply, Adama never defeated anyone on the level of Khan (who Kirk beat twice).

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I didn't miss the point.....I made a new one. You can't really compare the two because Battlestar Galactica set out to be a different kind of science fiction. Ronald D. Moore has made that clear many times over. They didn't want it to be about fighting cylon's every week. Some of the shows didn't even have anything to do with fighting cylons. Again, I just don't think that you can compare the two, and I was pointing out that to say Adama cried too much in a character driven show was kind of lame.

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Bizarrely, Shatner is also a very good interviewer. His "Raw Nerve" show on the Biography Channel is quite good. He really does try to dig and ask what makes his guest tick. Not many episodes have aired, but they have been good to magnificent. Hope he keeps it up!

Captain Kirk DID cry ... twice I think. Once was because of a woman (!). He was still macho when he did it, of course, unlike Bill Adama.

And the Who Would You Want as Your Captain question has kicked around for years, especially with the new Star Treks (Jean Luc Picard, Kathryn Janeway, Benjamin Sisko, whoever Bakula played on the Enterprise show) - Kirk always has the edge because he didn't lose.

Ya gotta give it to the guy: how much of a cultural force is someone who has The Daily Show AND Colbert Report copy their schtick?!

: P

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Personally, I felt that Captain Sheridan of Babylon 5 was the best of all...

I think Shatner's performance in Wrath of Khan is his best. There's this wall of Admiral that gets knocked down by past decisions throughout the show, and it's rounded out by him losing his best friend. Still my favorite Trek.

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If you want to risk your health reevaluating Star Trek V feel free. Worst Star Trek movie of them all. It makes Star Trek: Insurrection (the second worst Star Trek movie ever) look like a masterpiece by comparison.

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Let it not be forgotten that (in addition to his director's credit) Shatner shares story credit for Trek V with its screenwriter, one David Loughery. What a terrible script. Not even Nick Meyer (director of II and VI) could have done much with it.

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Best line he ever spoke: "Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most ... human." Gets me every time.

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