william shatner road trip

Road Trip! Henry Winkler and William Shatner Talk ‘Better Late Than Never’ Season 2

Better Late Than Never

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Never underestimate the power of geezers! The NBC reality series Better Late Than Never —featuring Henry Winkler, William Shatner, George Foreman, Terry Bradshaw and their young guide Jeff Dye on a road trip through Asia—was the unexpected ratings hit of summer 2016. Now the quibbling quintet is back for Season 2, and this time they’re taking on Europe, Russia and North Africa. There will be no end to the hijinks…or the pixilated nudity. We corralled those AARP-tastic icons Winkler and Shatner to give us an exclusive preview.

Shatner, Winkler, Bradshaw and Foreman Trek Through Asia in NBC's Better Late Than Never

You guys are rich. You have seen the world. Why did you put yourselves through this exhausting 40-day trek? Winkler: Sure, we’ve traveled, but not like this! We got to dance flamenco in the streets of Madrid. We rode camels in Marrakesh, then dropped them off at our hotel and got a valet ticket. I even rode a Vespa. Yes, the guy who played the Fonz has never ridden a motorcycle—until now! These are priceless experiences. Shatner: And all we have to do is breeze in and make fools of ourselves. The producers do everything for us. I don’t have to stand around an airport carousel with that frightened look on my face when my luggage doesn’t come out, wondering how many days I can stretch one pair of underpants. It’s somebody else’s problem!

Who’s the most recognized of the group when you’re overseas? Winkler: George, hands down. He was a hero everywhere. Shatner: Most countries don’t know about American football, so Terry was wandering around bereft…with the occasional tear in his eye.

William Shatner on Star Trek's 50th, Trekkers, and Being a Pain in the You-Know-Where

Why can’t you dudes keep your clothes on? Rare is the episode where one of you doesn’t find an excuse to go bottomless. Shatner: Terry is the worst. He loves getting naked. But Henry showed incredible courage in Spain. [To Winkler] Tell the story! Winkler: We go to an art class where the students are working with clay, and I am the nude model. Let’s face it, I am currently carrying the equivalent of another human being around my middle region, but there I am—flashing it all! [ Laughs ] And Bill is giving me instructions: “Pose like an angel! A sad angel!”

In Asia, you tried some pretty scary delicacies, like cow penis. Safe to say the cuisine this season required a lot less nerve? Shatner: Not at all! In Sweden, we ate the fermented herring. Winkler: Oh my God! It smells like they stuffed an entire village of dead people into a can. And then sprayed it with a skunk. And then left it out in the heat for two weeks. Shatner: It was so bad Terry was actually screaming! One of our cameramen projectile-vomited. But, hey, what’s the point of visiting a foreign land and not immersing yourself in the culture? Why go all that way only to eat at McDonald’s?

Better Late Than Never , Two-Hour Season Premiere Monday, Jan. 1, 9/8c, NBC

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Better Late Than Never

This hilarious comedy/reality show follows cultural icons Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman on their greatest adventure yet. This hilarious comedy/reality show follows cultural icons Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman on their greatest adventure yet. This hilarious comedy/reality show follows cultural icons Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman on their greatest adventure yet.

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William Shatner And Henry Winkler Travel Through Asia in NBC’s ‘Better Late Than Never’

In what might be called the best buddy road trip ever, William Shatner and Henry Winkler along with George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw went on an adventure of a lifetime in Asia and it’s all video documented. Billed as a fish-out-of-water comedy reality series for NBC, Better Late Than Never follows the four older celebrities on their one-of-a-kind trip lead by Comedian Jeff Dye. Together, they traveled all around Asia visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Hong Kong, Phuket, and Chiang Mai with comedic results.

Throughout the limited series, Dye is the one who leads Shatner and friends through six cities and four countries with no set agenda, but plenty opportunities to mark off many “bucket list” items as they go. Dye was in charge of picking out where the group would be sleeping each night as well including the Capsule Hotel in Tokyo featured during the show’s premiere. The “rooms” at the hotel are more like drawers where guests sleep closed off with see-through door.

Get ready to go on a travel adventure on @Global_TV with @WilliamShatner & @hwinkler4real https://t.co/tSRzzIOVAz https://t.co/aDhPLjU0p4 — ET Canada (@ETCanada) August 17, 2016

“It looks like a kennel,” says William Shatner.

“It’s Tokyo, it’s different here. It’s not like at home in your mansion,” says Jeff Dye.

It’s a very true statement as a naked man walks down the hallway and climbs up a ladder past Shatner’s capsule to get to his own.

“There’s a sight,” says William.

The Asian trip took place during the monsoon season which didn’t appeal to any of them.

“I will say to you that honestly, the worst memory of the show was that from morning to night it felt as if you were wrapped in plastic, head to toe, Winkler said during Better Late Than Never media day as reported by Variety Latino . “It was hotter than hot, wetter than wet all the time.”

“It was beyond anything we had experienced before in sunny California or Back East where some of us are from,” says Shatner. “It was beyond anything we’ve ever experienced; that humidity, those threatening thunderstorms and the sweat. Because there’s always sweat. You don’t want to sweat on camera.”

During the trip, the fivesome did amazing things like appear on a popular Japanese game show, take a karaoke bus trip to Mr. Fuji, visit a Geisha house, train at a Samurai warrior school, take a lesson at the K-pop school where they learned how to become a Korean pop star, and stay at a $6-a-night “spa.” Basically being uncomfortable the whole time.

“I learned being uncomfortable is how you grow, Dye said.” And I think every show I’ve done has just been fun and I just get to be a silly goofball. But for this, I was in a place I don’t know anything about. I didn’t know the language or any of that stuff, so that was uncomfortable. And then working with guys who I admire and look up to, but also I’m around them all day. Every time I was uncomfortable, it made me feel ?? I don’t know, I feel like I grew up a little bit, being in all this different stuff that made me really uncomfortable, but that’s why I liked it.”

Other highlights on the trip include Terry Bradshaw celebrating his 67 th birthday, getting talked into getting his first tattoo, and then being serenaded at a special birthday dinner. Then there’s the boxing match between Shatner and Foreman. Guess who wins?

This is how you settle an argument!???????? @nbcbetterlate @GeorgeForeman pic.twitter.com/gliMdX00hU — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) August 16, 2016

“We had a great time,” William Shatner agrees. “We had an illuminating time. These were cultures that we had never visited before. [My castmates] were people that really didn’t know each other. Casual showbiz knowledge here and there; but not really intimately; not really under stress, whereby you’ve got to keep your good humor and your manners, and whether you’re on camera or off camera. Because you’re always on camera.”

Better Late Than Never premieres on Tuesday, August 23 rd at 10:00 p.m. on NBC. It is produced by Universal Television in association with Storyline Entertainment, Small World IFT and CJ E&M. Henry Winkler serves as one of the executive producers of the show as well.

[Image via NBC]

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William Shatner: My Trip to Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By William Shatner

William Shatner

• William Shatner on Working With Christopher Plummer: ‘I Admired Him Enormously’ 3 years ago

In this exclusive excerpt from William Shatner ‘s new book, “ Boldly Go : Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” the “ Star Trek ” actor reflects on his voyage into space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle on Oct. 13, 2021. Then 90 years old, Shatner became the oldest living person to travel into space , but as the actor and author details below, he was surprised by his own reaction to the experience.

So, I went to space.

Our group, consisting of me, tech mogul Glen de Vries, Blue Origin Vice President and former NASA International Space Station flight controller Audrey Powers, and former NASA engineer Dr. Chris Boshuizen, had done various simulations and training courses to prepare, but you can only prepare so much for a trip out of Earth’s atmosphere! As if sensing that feeling in our group, the ground crew kept reassuring us along the way. “Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry about anything. It’s all okay.” Sure, easy for them to say , I thought. They get to stay here on the ground.

“Oh, you guys will rush in here if the rocket explodes,” a Blue Origin fellow responded just as casually.

Uh-huh. A safe room. Eleven stories up. In case the rocket explodes.

Well, at least they’ve thought of it.

When the day finally arrived, I couldn’t get the Hindenburg out of my head. Not enough to cancel, of course—I hold myself to be a professional, and I was booked. The show had to go on.

We got ourselves situated inside the pod. You have to strap yourself in in a specific order. In the simulator, I didn’t nail it every time, so as I sat there, waiting to take off, the importance of navigating weightlessness to get back and strap into the seat correctly was at the forefront of my mind.

That, and the Hindenburg crash.

Then there was a delay.

“Sorry, folks, there’s a slight anomaly in the engine. It’ll just be a few moments.”

An anomaly in the engine?! That sounds kinda serious, doesn’t it?

An anomaly is something that does not belong . What is currently in the engine that doesn’t belong there?!

Apparently, the anomaly wasn’t too concerning, because thirty seconds later, we were cleared for launch and the countdown began. With all the attending noise, fire, and fury, we lifted off. I could see Earth disappearing. As we ascended, I was at once aware of pressure. Gravitational forces pulling at me. The g’s. There was an instrument that told us how many g’s we were experiencing. At two g’s, I tried to raise my arm, and could barely do so. At three g’s, I felt my face being pushed down into my seat. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, I thought. Will I pass out? Will my face melt into a pile of mush? How many g’s can my ninety-year-old body handle?

And then, suddenly, relief. No g’s. Zero. Weightlessness. We were floating.

We got out of our harnesses and began to float around. The other folks went straight into somersaults and enjoying all the effects of weightlessness. I wanted no part in that. I wanted, needed to get to the window as quickly as possible to see what was out there.

I looked down and I could see the hole that our spaceship had punched in the thin, blue-tinged layer of oxygen around Earth. It was as if there was a wake trailing behind where we had just been, and just as soon as I’d noticed it, it disappeared.

I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.

I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.

Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.

I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

I learned later that I was not alone in this feeling. It is called the “Overview Effect” and is not uncommon among astronauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins, Sally Ride, and many others. Essentially, when someone travels to space and views Earth from orbit, a sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner. Author Frank White first coined the term in 1987: “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”

It can change the way we look at the planet but also other things like countries, ethnicities, religions; it can prompt an instant reevaluation of our shared harmony and a shift in focus to all the wonderful things we have in common instead of what makes us different. It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware —not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance.

“Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” co-authored by Josh Brandon, was published by Atria Books on Oct. 4, 2022.

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‘It felt like a funeral’: William Shatner reflects on voyage to space

Recalling the experience almost one year later, the actor admits ‘everything I had expected to see was wrong’

William Shatner expected he would achieve the “ultimate catharsis” after his historic flight into space. Instead, the voyage left him filled with grief, an “overwhelming sadness” and a newfound appreciation for the beauty of Earth, the Star Trek actor has said.

“My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral,” an excerpt from his book Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, published by Variety , reads.

“I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses … but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold … all I saw was death,” Shatner wrote.

Images of the actor pressed up against the window of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket capsule were live-streamed back to Earth in October last year as the four-person crew approached the boundary of space, known as the Kármán Line, and continued on.

But for Shatner, recalling the view almost one year later, he describes “a cold, dark, black emptiness … deep, enveloping, all-encompassing”.

“Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong,” he wrote. “I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things – that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe.”

The Canadian, who captivated the world in his role as Captain James Kirk of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, broke down in tears upon landing, describing having had “the most profound experience I can imagine”. “I hope I never recover from this,” he said at the time. “I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary, extraordinary.”

But a year after touching down back to Earth, Shatner wrote in the excerpt: “I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.”

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.

“Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took 5bn years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread.

“My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”

He added in a recent interview with the Washington Post : “Everybody else was shaking bottles of champagne, and it was quite a sense of accomplishment. And I didn’t feel that way at all. I was not celebrating. I was, I don’t know, shaking my fists at the gods.”

• William Shatner
• Blue Origin

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‘It Moved Me to Tears.’ William Shatner On Briefly Going Where Some Men Have Gone Before

On Oct. 13, actor William Shatner, 90, best known for his role as Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk , went to space for real aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. He was aloft for only 10 minutes—but they were 10 minutes that forever transformed him. The day after his return, Shatner—now the oldest person to have ever traveled to space—sat down with TIME to talk about his experience.

TIME: I was struck, as were many people, by the degree of your emotion when you returned to Earth. You seemed especially moved by the sight of the thin onion skin of atmosphere that is all that protects us from the killing void of space. What affected you about that?

Shatner: I saw the spaceship coming through the blue, and an instant later it was through the blue; this bullet exploded into the blackness of space, so in that instant I saw the blue suddenly disappear, and suddenly space is smack up in my face. I saw death there. The suddenness with which I looked at that blackness, I thought, “whoa, suddenly you go out there and then you’re dead.”

Did you have those intimations of mortality before you left? Did you have any trepidation about the safety of making the journey?

No. I mean, you can be in jeopardy in front of an audience. My own family goes on these rides at the amusement park, and I don’t need to go on that. I’m going to sit here while you guys go up and down for the ride. I don’t need a ride up to give me a thrill. But when it came to going to space, I thought “what the hell, I’ve got this opportunity and why not go through with this experience?” Now, I know it’s safe. At the moment their business model depends on convincing people with money that it’s safe to up, and it is. But still, they’ve been up 17 times, and maybe it’s not gonna go right this time.

Read more: Why William Shatner’s history-making spaceflight is something to celebrate

But it did go right, and when you came home, you seemed transformed. Were you?

Yes I was. I was so besotted by what happened on that flight. It moved me to tears, so much so that … I couldn’t control my emotions for 15 to 20 minutes.

Tell me about the experience of weightlessness. One astronaut told me that while the view is magnificent from space, you never get tired of the ability to fly. Was that your experience?

It’s impossible to describe because the English language, any language doesn’t have a frame of reference, so you can only infer. You jump up in the air and weightlessness is so mysterious and frightening because your whole body reacts against that. You enter weightlessness and suddenly the whole thing occupies your whole being and your whole consciousness.

Many astronauts talk about experiencing the Overview Effect when they come back to Earth—a new appreciation of the need to protect the planet because you’ve seen its fragility, its destructibility from above. Did you come home with a new sense of the importance of saving the world from ourselves?

Yes. We need 7 billion people to be angry. We need to get in motion. This is a struggle against the dark forces of pollution. And I think the overview Overview Effect that people get when they’re in space can help.

For individual people the stakes can be different. [I’m] 90 years old. Oh my God, you know, what have I got? I’ve got a week, a year. Maybe 10 years, and it’s over so quickly. It’s over so quickly, man. But it’s different when you’re 12 years old and still in school, when you’re 20. You’re thinking about your life and the preciousness of this thing. The [politicians] who are making these decisions for us—having trouble getting some goddamn million dollars, billion dollars to fight pollution. Are they crazy? We should send everybody up into space to see what they’re voting against. It’s crazy. There’s nothing more important.

Do you really think the political system could ever be shaken out of its constant state of partisan warfare by that kind of change in perspective?

I don’t know. I think everybody knows how sick the political situation is, everybody fighting rather than being patriotic and doing what’s best for the country. Everybody’s doing what’s best for themselves. I know that American history is rife with that kind of historical antecedent, in the past it has worked itself out, and the pendulum has swung the other way. So maybe it will again.

Read more: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover found some boulders. That’s a much bigger deal than it seems

You’ve now been on a suborbital mission to space. Would you like to go back to space for a full orbital flight?

I don’t know. I’m calling you from my beautiful home, overlooking the San Fernando Valley. The sun comes up. I’ve had a lovely egg sandwich my wife made, my two dogs love me and I’m sitting in a comfortable chair, and I’ve just come from this thrilling thing of life. I’m going forward to entertain audiences tomorrow and all weekend. And I’m crying in the middle of this fulfilling life.

So that sounds like a hard no.

I’m happy petting my dogs. I don’t need any more of that stuff.

More Must-Reads From TIME

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• Stop Looking for Your Forever Home
• The Sympathizer Counters 50 Years of Hollywood Vietnam War Narratives
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• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Jeffrey Kluger at [email protected]

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William Shatner goes to space on Blue Origin mission

By Jackie Wattles , Meg Wagner , Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Melissa Mahtani and Veronica Rocha , CNN

"I’m overwhelmed," Shatner says after 11-minute trip into space 

Actor William Shatner, best known for playing Captain Kirk on "Star Trek," described his journey into space as overwhelming and something everybody should experience.

“I’m overwhelmed. I had no idea. We were talking earlier, yeah, it’s going to be different – whatever that phrase is that you have a different view of things, it doesn’t begin to explain, to describe what, for me," he said upon exiting his Blue Origin flight.

Shatner made history today, becoming the oldest person to travel to space at age 90.

"Maybe you could put it on 3D and wear the goggles to have that experience,” Shatner suggested to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

Blue Origin passengers given flight wings from Jeff Bezos

William Shatner , who at 90 years old just became the oldest person to travel to space, received flight wings from Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos alongside the three other passengers.

The wings are from Blue Origin and are not official wings from the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Astronaut Wings Program.

Bezos in July went to the edge of space with the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket.

An emotional William Shatner says "I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it."

Back on Earth, William Shatner grew emotional describing his experience launching into space

"I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It's extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it. It's so much larger than me and life."

Speaking to Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, the 90-year-old actor told him: "What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine." 

He continued: "It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death." 

William Shatner and crew emerge from Blue Origin capsule after space flight

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

After William Shatner and the rest of the crew landed back on Earth, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opened the capsule hatch and said, "Hello astronauts, welcome to Earth!"

Audrey Powers was the first to emerge out of the capsule, followed by Shatner.

Bezos welcomed the crew members back in his Blue Origin space suit along with the members' families.

William Shatner makes history as oldest person to go to space

From CNN's Jackie Wattles

Ninety-year-old William Shatner, who gained fame portraying Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek," just hitched a ride aboard a suborbital spacecraft that grazed the edge of outer space before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.

Shatner took off aboard a New Shepard spacecraft — the one developed by Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, and the same vehicle that took Bezos himself to space this summer — just before 10:50 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site.

Bezos, a lifelong "Star Trek" fan, flew Shatner as a comped guest. With him were three crewmates: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs, and software executive Glen de Vries, who are both paying customers, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations.

The trip took just 10 minutes from takeoff to landing. The crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of their flight path before their capsule deployed parachutes to slow their descent and touched back down near their Texas launch site.

Shanter's new record as the oldest person to fly to space one-ups the record set just three months ago by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was previously denied the opportunity to fly by NASA in the 1960s before she joined Bezos on his July flight.

Capsule carrying crew returns to Earth

The capsule carrying the crew aboard the Blue Origin flight has returned and just landed on Earth.

Actor William Shatner could be heard saying, "That was unlike anything they described."

Shatner became the oldest person to travel to space.

Shatner tweeted an Isaac Newton quote as he arrived in space

William Shatner's official Twitter account sent out a quote from Sir Isaac Newton as the 90-year-old crossed into space.

The tweet read: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore,  diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

See the tweet:

The booster has landed

The New Shepard's booster has now landed. We're still waiting for the capsule, carrying the crew, to land.

Crew will start feeling weightlessness

The crew abroad the Blue Origin flight should now start feeling weightlessness.

They will be allowed to unstrap from their seats and float in the capsule.

The crew capsule soared past the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, and has now reached the top of its flight path.

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“If they wrote an interesting role...”

William Shatner reveals the 1 way he'd return to Star Trek as Kirk

Ahead of his 'Ancient Aliens' debut, the legendary actor talks Star Trek, his latest documentary, and why he thinks we're not alone in the universe.

Captain's log, stardate February 12, 2021. This Friday, the man behind Captain James Tiberius Kirk will grapple with aliens once more, but it won't be in a Star Trek reunion or even a high-concept cable commercial . Instead, William Shatner is joining the "experts" of Ancient Aliens for a crossover special interrogating the far-out theories that History Channel stars like Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and David Childress have defended for years.

"I had some spirited discussions with these experts who believe aliens were here, and like most people, I was dubious about the whole thing," Shatner tells Inverse. "They intrigued me enough to think something's going on."

Despite some disagreements, Shatner and Ancient Aliens are a match made in sci-fi heaven. The 89-year-old actor also has his own History Channel docu-series, The UnXplained , which explores unsolved mysteries ranging from UFOs to mummies. In recent years Shatner has rebranded himself as a documentarian, from his Star Trek-focused The Captains to The Ride , an upcoming film documenting his eight-day motorcycle trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.

William Shatner with the stars of Ancient Aliens .

When asked if he'd ever considering making a new version of Captains featuring interviews with the stars of more recent Star Trek shows, Shatner demurred. "That subject is long gone for me," he says. However, the actor would consider a cameo similar to Mark Hamill's surprise appearance in The Mandalorian — with one big condition.

"If they wrote an interesting role and they could explain the 55-year difference I might consider it," Shatner says, "but at the moment, I'm really busy and Star Trek is in my past."

Read on for the full interview, in which Shatner shares his thoughts on alien life, his recent road trip across America, and why he blocked Inverse on Twitter back in 2018.

The following interview has been edited for clarity .

But first: How did TV and movies get you through the pandemic? We want to hear from you! Take this quick Inverse survey.

"That subject is long gone for me."

Inverse: I watched a few clips from your Ancient Aliens episode and you seemed pretty unconvinced. Did those guys say anything to change your mind?

William Shatner: Well, I had some spirited discussions with these experts who believe aliens were here, and like most people, I was dubious about the whole thing — except the mathematics of the existence of life elsewhere. But in the two hours that I spent with these people who believe that aliens have been here, they intrigued me enough to think something's going on.

You know, we're a small planet around the small sun in a smallish galaxy in this giant universe that has billions upon billions upon billions of planets. All the sand in the ocean would be equal to how many planets are out there.

“Time itself is suspect .”

So I believe that there is life out there. The universe is something like 11 billion years old and our galaxy is something like 5 billion years old. All those numbers seem to indicate to me that there's life. It's sophisticated, in many cases, and surely they've solved problems of flying through space.

Time itself is suspect, we don't quite know what time is. And given that mystery and the mystery of energy. You know, maybe they've solved things that we can only think about.

Well, I hope you're right. Tell me about your show UnXplained . Are there any mysteries you still want to cover?

The UnXplained deals with inexplicable things, things that exist with no explanation. Some of those things are aliens themselves. Some are how the Polynesians navigate. Why do we mummify our bodies? Are we so intent on staying alive?

You know, recently they extracted DNA from a mummified body of 5000 years old and were able to restore the vocal cords. They ran air through the vocal cords and the vocal cords hummed. So this ancient monk had a sound. There are so many unexplained mysteries that we are partially aware of that require dramatizing.

The power of gold is the next one on The UnXplained, the week after this week. Why does gold have special properties? One civilization after another sought gold and made it into things that adorn their bodies. Why?

In 2011, you made a great documentary called The Captains in which you interviewed all the various Star Trek captains. We've had a lot of new captains since then. Are you thinking of doing another Captains documentary?

No, I haven't. I've been making documentaries. I've got a wonderful documentary out there right now that I'm having meetings for about a motorcycle ride I took from Chicago to Los Angeles and shot eight hours of footage. But no, that subject is long gone for me.

Did you see that Mark Hamill returned to Star Wars in a digitally de-aged cameo? Would you consider doing something similar with Captain Kirk?

Oh, I don't know, if they wrote an interesting role and they could explain the 55-year difference I might consider it [laughs], but at the moment I'm really busy and Star Trek is in my past.

Tell me more about your motorcycle road trip. That sounds amazing.

Yes, I built a new motorcycle and it's about the adventures of making our way from Chicago to Los Angeles, which took eight days. I shot the documentary on it.

William Shatner and his wife Elizabeth in June 2015.

Did anything out of the ordinary happen?

The heat in Las Vegas was such that several people fainted. I walked into the cooling room and on camera, you can see me lose consciousness. I regained it instantly. Yeah. All kinds of amazing things happened. It's called The Ride ... What a pleasure it is to talk to you.

Let's do it again sometime.

Oh, do you have to go? I wasn't sure how much time we had.

No, I thought you were busy.

Oh no, I'm free. You're the busy one. I can talk forever.

I can't. [Laughs.]

Well, before you go, I just want to ask one more question. A few years ago, you blocked me and everyone else at Inverse on Twitter. Do you remember why you did that?

What did you do? I've forgotten now, but what did you do that I felt badly about?

I didn't do anything personally, but I think someone wrote an article about something you put on the internet that people were a little upset about.

Well, enough time has passed. Let's get upset about something else. I'll look into it.

I appreciate it, and I apologize for my colleagues.

Not at all.

Thank you so much. It was really nice talking to you. Have a great day.

Pleasure talking to you. Bye-bye.

William Shatner Meets Ancient Aliens airs Friday, February 12 at 9 p.m. Eastern on the HISTORY Channel.

This article was originally published on Feb. 10, 2021

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William Shatner’s Space Trip Now the Subject of a Documentary

Shatner in space , documenting the actor’s blue origin spaceflight, is now available on amazon's prime video service..

William Shatner was joined by, from left, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and Chris Boshuizen [Courtesy: Blue Origin]

In October 2021, actor William Shatner, then 90, became the oldest person to travel to space, breaking the previous record held by famed pilot Wally Fuk. Now you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the journey with the release of Shatner in Space , a documentary produced by Amazon Prime that’s now available on its streaming service. 

The actual flight lasted 10 minutes, 17 seconds. The video runs 46:16 and begins years before the flight, with how Shatner came to be one of four astronauts aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard, named for astronaut Alan Shepard. 

The documentary includes video clips from Shatner’s early career in black-and-white science fiction television anthologies combined with scenes from his time as Captain Kirk on Star Trek and highlights his astronaut training.

In the new film, Amazon founder and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, 58, says he was inspired by Captain Kirk so much that he invited Shatner to visit Blue Origin headquarters in Kent, Washington, in 2019. 

Bezos escorts Shatner on the tour, explaining how they are building New Shepard, a reusable space tourism vehicle, with the idea of enabling persons to travel to space. It’s fun to watch Bezos, a self-described Trek fan, share his story with Shatner, who realizes that a great many of the people who are working at Blue Origin were, in some fashion, inspired by Captain Kirk. During the tour, Bezos asks Shatner if he would like to be one of the space tourists and Shatner says, “Yes.”

The video takes viewers through Shatner’s decision to take up Bezos’ offer to travel to space. There’s an awkward scene where he tells his family about his decision. The rest of the video documents the preparation of the astronauts on the mission. 

The purpose of these space tourism flights, says Bezos, is to show people how fragile the Earth is, and perhaps, once that is realized, people will work to protect the environment.

“I think it’s essential,” he says. “That’s what needs to happen. That’s what Blue Origin is working on, that will change everything. You have to be stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details. That’s how you build a road to space.”

Shatner, clad in the blue-and-black Blue Origin astronaut flight suit and wearing two pilot watches on his left wrist, appears to be enjoying the astronaut classes.

The New Shepard is an autonomous vehicle—the astronauts/tourists do not have to do anything, no button pushing, lever flipping, no flying—they are strapped into astronaut couches for launch and recovery. Approximately 20 seconds after launch, New Shepard released from the rocket, and there was a period of weightlessness as it continued its climb to approximately 300,000 feet, to the so-called Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The astronauts float around for a bit then are given a one-minute warning when it is time to strap back in for the return to earth. The capsule lands with the help of drag chutes on the desert floor in Texas.

Shatner was joined on his flight by Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president who oversees New Shepard operations, and two paying customers—Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of a company that builds software. 

There are interviews with each of the other participants. Powers, Boshuizen, and de Vries describe how traveling to space has been a desire since childhood. Powers also talks about her career at NASA and Boshuizen shows a Lego spaceman from his childhood he intends to carry with him on the trip. Watching de Vries talk is bittersweet, as he died about a month after the flight in a small airplane crash.

There is a poignant moment when Bezos asks Shatner to carry a paper tricorder and communicator Bezos made as a child with him into space.

The video follows the Blue Origin astronauts through their few days of training from their ground school to a tour of the New Shepard capsule where they are assigned seats. Shatner pointedly remarks that he is trying not to have any expectations about the flight as he doesn’t really know what to expect.

The combination of the video, the music, and the expressions of joy on the faces of the launch team, the crowd in attendance and the astronauts during the launch sequence will give you chills.

Shatner, upon landing is emotional and visibly moved, and thanks Bezos for giving the life-changing opportunity, saying the view of the Earth showed its fragility and he drives home the point that it must be protected and healed from pollution.

Bezos, in the after-flight commentary sums it up. 

“Bill Shatner is not Captain Kirk. Captain Kirk is this amazing fictional character that inspired  millions of people. It turns out that Captain Kirk is an incredible character. Bill Shatner is an incredible man. He became one of my heroes all over again, but this time as the real man.”

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‘what you’re seeing there is ominous’ - william shatner recalls space trip at wizard world chicago.

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Actor William Shatner looks back on his experience aboard Blue Orbit's New Shepard, telling his tale ... [+] of space travel on stage at Wizard World Chicago. Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois

“So, here’s what I’ve been doing, OK?” joked William Shatner , kicking off a 40 minute performance on stage at the Wizard World comic con that was equal parts ad-lib and masterful stream of consciousness storytelling. 

Shatner, 90, famously became the oldest person ever to travel to space last Wednesday following a quick trip aboard New Shepard, the suborbital space capsule operated by Blue Origin, the aerospace arm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Moved by his experience, the actor took to the stage Sunday at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, ahead of a photo opportunity with fans, to recount his experience in humorous, moving and often stunning detail. 

“I said, ‘Nobody is interested in me going to space…’” recalled Shatner of his initial response to the space travel overture. “We get in there and there’s Jeff Bezos…” 

Actor William Shatner spoke of space for 40 minutes on stage at the Wizard World comic con just ... [+] outside Chicago. Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

As Shatner attempted to explain his initial encounter with the e-commerce billionaire, his microphone squealed with feedback. “You see, I try to say something nice about Jeff Bezos… that was Elon Musk that did that,” quipped the quick-witted actor, referencing Bezos’ nemesis in the for hire space travel game.

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“We left there but then the COVID thing happened and suddenly that was a year,” the actor said, setting the table for discussions that began prior to the pandemic, ultimately sidelining his trip to October 2021. “But then they start talking again about Blue Origin. I guess I’m gonna go? But then Jeff Bezos announces he’s gonna go [first] - with his brother! Well, the second trip is like being Vice President! But they said, ‘Would you like to do the second trip?’”

Shatner famously portrayed Captain James T. Kirk during three seasons of the late-60s NBC sci-fi sitcom Star Trek and seven films which followed. The irony of the man who fictitiously commanded the starship Enterprise actually going to space was not lost on Shatner, who set the table for his outer space tale by looking back at his July appearance during Discovery’s DISCA Shark Week . 

Fresh off a suborbital trip to space, William Shatner entertains fans on stage at the Wizard World ... [+] comic con just outside Chicago. Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

“A lot of people here have seen Shark Week !” exclaimed the actor to the response from suburban Chicago fans in attendance at Wizard World. “Sharks?! They’re waiting for me to jump in - I’m chum! I don’t need to go to space, OK?” said Shatner with a chuckle. “Actors exaggerate, right? This is not an exaggeration. Their mouths were 18 inches wide! Sharks are ambush predators! I’m watching these four tiger sharks…” 

The actor recalled a handler placing a five foot long great white shark in his lap as he sat down underwater. “If you turn it upside down and stroke its belly, it goes into a catatonic state. I inadvertently put my finger in its gill and it swam away.” 

Even at 90, Shatner remains extraordinarily busy. In addition to his dalliances with oceanic predators and the cosmos, he released a new album just three weeks ago, featuring musical contributions from artists like Joe Jonas, Eagle Joe Walsh and pedal steel savant Robert Randolph.

The new record’s 14 tracks look back on Shatner’s life, telling stories in almost autobiographical fashion.

William Shatner took to the Wizard World stage Sunday just outside Chicago telling stories about ... [+] 'Shark Week,' 'Star Trek,' space travel and more. Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

“I have an album out there called Bill right now. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. On the album is a song called ‘So Far From the Moon,’” he said, noting a new tune which features country superstar Brad Paisley. “The album is based on things that have happened to me. ‘So Far From the Moon’ is about a trip to Cape Canaveral… When you’re so far from anything you expect, that’s the song,” said Shatner, drawing to a whisper as he described it during a poignant moment. 

Getting into the new song sent the actor down an emotional road as he detailed the rigorous and physically painful process of preparing to experience weightlessness in space. While he dubbed the actual experience “indescribable,” he did his best to elaborate Sunday on the Wizard World stage. 

“Weightlessness is so weird and antithetical to anything we’ve experienced. I don’t want to turn somersaults or fly through the air, I want to look out the window!” said Shatner. “So I’m looking out the window and all of the sudden we burst through the blue sky! And then there’s weightlessness. So I look out this window and I see the hole in space that this ship has punched - the magnificence of the mystery of space. What you’re seeing there is ominous. It looked like death. But then I looked down to the earth and I saw warmth and beauty - nurturing,” he continued, drawing again to a whisper. “It’s all miraculous. We take everything for granted. I got chills thinking about how connected we are with nature. It’s wholly and profoundly mystical.”

Actor William Shatner interacts with a fan during a performance on stage at Wizard World Chicago. ... [+] Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

Shatner warned of the dangers of global warming and the extinction of crucial creatures. Singling out a female fan seated near the front holding a baby, the actor expressed both his fear and hope for the future as he interacted with both, ultimately drawing parallels to his recent experience.

“Wow. She’s three months old. She came out of the womb - out of total blackness - into this light. To see this child looking around for the first time - I think that’s what I felt. And it’s a beautiful thing.” 

With Chicago roots dating back to the 70s, Wizard World has operated under its current name in the Windy City since 1998. Expanding to additional cities in the early 2000s, the pop culture convention, which was sold to Fan Expo this past August, now stands as one of the biggest in the United States. 

Actor and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno takes part in a panel at the Wizard World comic con. Friday, ... [+] October 15, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

Friday afternoon just outside Chicago, celebrities like actor/bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno ( The Incredible Hulk ) appeared at Wizard World, taking part in panels, autograph sessions, photo ops and more, with pop culture fixtures like Stephen Amell and Robert Patrick rounding out the weekend. 

Actor Michael Rooker was a weekend highlight.

Rooker, 66, jumped down from the stage to run around the room interacting with fans while answering questions at hyper speed, looking back on roles in films like JFK , Mallrats and Guardians of the Galaxy . 

Actor Michael Rooker mixes it up with fans during a panel discussion at the Wizard World comic con. ... [+] Sunday, October 17, 2021 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL

Taking as many questions as he could, Rooker was hilarious in his brisk but friendly exchanges.

“Who’s your favorite character in all of the movies you’ve been in?” asked a fan. “Me!” said the actor with a smile.

Freaks and Geeks star, and Park Ridge, Illinois native, Samm Levine attempted to reign in the conversation during an on stage Q&A session. But crowd participation was key as Rooker asked a young fan in masked cosplay to stand up on his chair and address him face-to-face.

“Do you wanna be an actor when you grow up?” he asked the child. “No thank you,” came the polite response. “Smart kid!” Rooker replied.

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Blue Origin Space Trip With William Shatner On Board Was A Success

Barb Anguiano

Star Trek actor William Shatner got to visit the edge of space on a trip aboard a Blue Origin rocket. Shatner was humbled and wowed by the experience to see Earth in a new way.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The second successful launch into space for Blue Origin did not have a pilot but did have a captain.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK")

WILLIAM SHATNER: (As Captain Kirk) Risk is our business. That's what the starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her.

INSKEEP: William Shatner, known as Captain Kirk on the TV show "Star Trek," made it to space for real. He is 90 years old and broke Blue Origin's own record for the oldest person to make the suborbital trip.

Marfa Public Radio's Barb Anguiano has more.

BARB ANGUIANO, BYLINE: The man most synonymous with the final frontier is now the oldest person to travel to the edge of space.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Captain Kirk himself, the great William Shatner.

ANGUIANO: An emotional Shatner exited New Shepard's crew capsule after the short suborbital trip and embraced Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos.

SHATNER: What you have given me is the most profound (crying) experience I can imagine. It's...

JEFF BEZOS: Bill.

SHATNER: I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just - it's extraordinary, extraordinary.

ANGUIANO: Speaking to Bezos - while everyone around them celebrated the successful trip, Shatner tried to put his experience into words. He says he was struck not only by the colors he saw as the capsule sped toward space but also by how vulnerable Earth looked from that altitude of about 66 miles up.

SHATNER: I hope I never recover from this.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Laughter).

SHATNER: I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it.

ANGUIANO: Bezos was present for both the launch and to greet the crew back after the close to 10-minute voyage to the edge of space, where the passengers were able to get out of their seats and experience weightlessness for a few minutes before strapping back in for the ride back home.

For NPR News, I'm Barb Anguiano in Marfa, Texas.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDER COURAGE'S "THEME FROM 'STAR TREK'")

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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William Shatner says he got emotional about ‘fragility of this planet’ during trip to space

William Shatner has been beamed up. Now, he’s just beaming.

The actor, 90, became the oldest person to fly to space Wednesday when he flew aboard a rocket developed by Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and he joined TODAY live on Thursday to describe the experience and why it made him so aware of “the fragility of this planet.”

“I was trying to think of something clever to say and then we get up and when I was there, everything I thought might be clever to say went out the window,” he told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. “All of a sudden the blue is down below and the blackness of space — and space is interesting, the universe lies there — but in that moment, in that window, it was only black and ominous.

“I was overwhelmed with the experience, with the sensation of looking at death and looking at life and what’s become a cliché of how we need to take care of the planet,” he added. “I was struck so profoundly by it.”

The trip aboard the New Shepard rocket had been bumped back one day due to high winds in West Texas, where the flight originated, and then for another hour on Wednesday before going off without a hitch, with the rocket launching at more than 2,000 miles per hour.

“No description can equal this,” the “Star Trek” legend can be heard saying in video from inside the rocket.

Shatner boldly went where only a few people have gone before. He was joined on his flight by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, as well as two paying customers, Glen de Vries and Chris Boshuizen, who reportedly paid $250,000 apiece to take part in the adventure. The trip lasted about 10 minutes after lifting off around 10:50 a.m. ET.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine,” Shatner told Bezos through tears after returning to Earth. “I am overwhelmed. I had no idea.”

This is the second time Blue Origin has sent people into space. In July, Wally Funk, 82, one of several pioneering women who trained to become astronauts in the ’60s before their program was canceled, rode the first flight along with Bezos.

Last month, SpaceX, the spaceflight company founded by Elon Musk, sent four private citizens into orbit around Earth on a three-day trip, becoming the  first orbital launch with an all-civilian crew .

While many people are cheering on these missions by billionaires, others such as Prince William say the effort to send humans into space takes away from the threat of climate change.

“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” he said Wednesday on the BBC.

Blue Origin will be back at it with another flight scheduled in a few weeks, while a Japanese fashion mogul is expected to fly to the International Space Station. A Russian actor also recently filmed a movie there.

SpaceX will also carry three private passengers next February for another ride with a price tag of $55 million each. Virgin Galactic will also carry three people for a flight for research.

Drew Weisholtz is a reporter for TODAY Digital, focusing on pop culture, nostalgia and trending stories. He has seen every episode of “Saved by the Bell” at least 50 times, longs to perfect the crane kick from “The Karate Kid” and performs stand-up comedy, while also cheering on the New York Yankees and New York Giants. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is the married father of two kids who believe he is ridiculous.

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William Shatner’s Next ‘Bold’ Adventure: Facing Death

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William Shatner has spent a lifetime “boldly going” where maybe not no man, but few have gone before.

The phrase—“to boldly go where no man has gone before”—was, of course, popularized in the original Star Trek series, which debuted in 1966 and starred Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, the principled shepherd of the starship Enterprise. Shatner narrated the famous line during each episode’s opening credits, indelibly tying his voice not just to pop-culture iconography, but to an ethos that has inspired generations of fans.

A new documentary, William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill , which is now in theaters, charts Shatner’s career and the philosophies he’s developed about life and the world over the course of his 93 years on Earth—and a short spell in a spaceship above it . In the film, we learn that the phrase has also given him marching orders as he navigated a lifetime’s triumphs and tragedies. It served him well in a career spanning seven decades, including studio-system films of the ’50s and ’60s, rebounding from joblessness after starring on Star Trek , and rebranding as one of Hollywood’s most self-aware—and self-effacing—celebrities, always in on the joke of what it means to be William Shatner. (There’s a reason so many of us have booked trips through Priceline.com.)

You Can Call Me Bill features Shatner recalling that experience going where, truly, few men have gone: his 2021 spaceflight where, at age 90, he became the oldest human to fly into space. Shatner’s sense of wonder mixes with melancholy as he looks back at that feat in the film, in which he is startlingly, profoundly candid about his mixed feelings about a life well-led and his inevitable next bold adventure: death, and what that might mean.

William Shatner, circa 1988

“I’m 93, so there’s an end of the road there,” Shatner told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed in a Zoom interview about You Can Call Me Bill . He recounted a scene from a movie he had watched recently. He couldn’t remember the title, but he remembered the sequence: A car is speeding down a Florida causeway that connects its southern islands. A plane had blown up a part of the road miles ahead of the car. “The car is racing towards the hole in the causeway. We know they’re going to go over, unless they see it. And they’re not going to see it.”

“That’s what I’m thinking of in my life,” he added, looking wistful. “There’s a hole in my causeway, and I don’t know when it’s going to hit, but I haven’t got that long.”

‘Civil War’ Director Alex Garland Isn’t Shocked by the Discourse

A nonagenarian with a prodigious career and pop-culture legacy, this is obviously not the first time Shatner has been approached to participate in a documentary about his life. He’s always turned the offers down. “It seems so final,” he said. “It seems like you make it, and then you die.”

William Shatner in Star Trek

The difference this time was how the film was made. Production company Legion M financed much of the documentary through crowdfunding, allowing fans to receive a percentage of any profits the film makes. “I’ve never crowdfunded anything,” Shatner said. “It seemed like begging.” But he found something innovative and intimate about this being a shared project with the fans, those who have invested in his career and to whom he can now return that investment by giving them access to his story and beliefs through his interviews in the film.

There was another convincing factor: “This documentary is my love letter to my family,” he said. If he ever was going to do a project like this, he didn’t want it to be one of those superficial pop documentaries where the subject gate-keeps any deep or dark anecdotes or thoughts. “I wanted to be honest with them about how I felt about what I did, and answer the questions from my soul. I’m not sure that other people who do this have that attitude. This came from deep within me. It’s kind of like I’m naked in a way, but I thought that was the best way to go.”

William Shatner and Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality

So You Can Call Me Bill doesn’t just have Shatner waxing poetic on a rundown of his IMDb page . The opening moments find him marveling at the “preciousness” of a world that has evolved over billions of years, then decrying its “extinction” that is happening “by mankind’s own hands.” He talks almost immediately about death: “The occasion of your death is meaningless. You’re one of billions upon billions who lived and died on earth.” And, perhaps of most interest to Star Trek enthusiasts, we quickly learn his thoughts about whether we’re alone in this universe: “Our ignorance is so profound. And the more we know the more we realize how stupid and how egotistical human beings are thinking we’re the only ones.”

It’s not that the documentary eschews biography, the stories of how he was cast in Star Trek , or how he feels about people imitating his speaking voice: “People’s supposed imitation of me… I don’t hear it.” (He still, though, has a sense of humor about it.) But these are plot details, bullet points onto which he colors his most intense thoughts about mortality—musings that are almost brutal in their bluntness, yet also refreshingly sage in their honesty about what it means to have lived a life.

William Shatner, circa 1975

“If we consider that we’re born all alone, we all die alone.” Shatner told Obsessed. “Do we ever find a partner in life that is so close and meaningful that you’re not alone? Or is our condition to be alone and to endure it, because that’s part of the pain of life? There are enjoyments, which abound: good food, good company, good work. I mean, there’s so much joy waiting for us. Can we mix the two together and participate in all of it? Can we participate in the sadness and loneliness that we all feel and still vibrate to the magic of life?”

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We stare at each other quietly for a beat—stunned silence on my end, and him understanding that questions like these need time for rumination. After a few seconds, he looks out the bright window over his left shoulder and looks back into the camera, smiling.

“I’m looking out a window right now as I talk to you,” he said. “I see green trees. I see a city. I see mountains. I see the sky with the birds, that the Earth is throbbing with life, and it’s waiting to be discovered. What makes me so sad, which was brought to mind when I came off of the spaceship that I went on, was the absolute realization. I’ve known this, but it was dramatically shown to me when I looked down at the planet [from space]: how intricately connected everything is.”

Blue Origin vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, William Shatner, Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen and Medidata Solutions co-founder Glen de Vries wave on the landing pad of Blue Origin’s New Shepard after they flew into space on October 13, 202.

So what does “to boldly go” mean now, then? What does it mean for someone who has been saying it for over half his life—someone who has legitimately been where none of us will ever dream to go? Now, as Shatner faces down the last stretch of the causeway, does it mean something new?

“I always meant to go boldly into life as best you can,” he said.

There are so many people “that you and I know,” he said, that face disappointment, tragedy, or heartbreak, and wallow in the negativity, stalling their lives. “It’s so easy to hide in your bed and not participate in life.”

What a waste.

“I don’t think you come back,” he said. “I don’t think there’s life after death. I think this is it. This is the journey you take. This is the sadness, the joy, the ecstasy, the love that you feel in this one participation in life. So you have to take the bad with the good. Let the bad wash over you. And I’m saying this theoretically, because so many times in the bad parts, it’s awful. It’s hard to do. But if you keep that in mind—I will do this; I will participate in life and not hide; I will boldly go into that hurt locker again—that’s the only way to do it. The only way to live.”

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William Shatner Planning Cross-Country Trip With The Rivet One Trike

Somewhere in his Bat Cave, Batman’s probably wondering why Captain Kirk, of all people, gets to drive this monstrosity of a motorcycle . This singularly spectacular three-wheeled machine of destruction->ke2807 is called the Rivet One, a creation that comes by way of Illinois-based American Wrench, a motorcycle fabrication company that specializes in creating oddities like this one. Ok, the company also provides parts and materials to aftermarket bike makers like Orange County Choppers, but that’s not as important right now as the work it's doing on the Rivet One.

The machine itself looks exceptionally neurotic, especially if you’re the kind who enjoys riding vehicles that would make Bruce Wayne feel jealous. According to Motor Trend, the idea to build the Rivet One happened when Shatner met an American Wrench employee at an autograph session. The two got talking about the latter building Captain Kirk a bike and here we are.

The bike is still in the process of being built but Shatner, who is a self-obsessed bike nut, has promised to ride the Rivet One from Chicago to Los Angeles this summer to help drum up hype in time for the public launch of the vehicle. That’s a sight we’d love to see, particularly the amount of bewildered looks he’ll receive during the road trip.

Over/under on 3,000 stares sounds like a fair number, right?

American Wrench also said that it plans to build a few more Rivet Ones in the future with the possibility of a cheaper alternative for those who don’t have the financial cache of Captain Kirk.

Click past the jump to read more about the Rivet One.

Like we said, the Rivet One is still under construction so it’s hard to say what kind of machine Shatner will use during his (almost) cross-country trek this summer.

That said, Kevin Sirotek, vice president of marketing for Illinois Auto Electric, the parent company of American Wrench, told Motor Trend that the Rivet One will feature a handful of unique design elements created by Shatner’s rather enterprising mind. See what I did there?

Essentially, the Rivet One will be a three-wheeled bike that will have a front wheel that can be steered with a single-sided swing-arm, linking it to some rather unusual handlebars. According to Sirotek, the bike will carry a single-sided front suspension and steering system in the front. The single-sided nature of the bike allows it to use a hood, which Sirotek says will be “where the gas tank would be on a traditional motorcycle.”

A traditional V-8 engine is likely going to make its way just behind the front wheel, although Sirotek says that the Rivet One is going to be built to accommodate a plethora of other engine options, including “a hybrid, a mix of a Corvette, a Harley and a hot rod.”

Work is also being done to include an independent rear suspension for the two rear wheels whereas the body itself is expected to be made up of a hand-formed aluminum, creating that industrial look that these renderings of the three-wheeled bike proudly show off. At Shatner’s behest, a full canopy and trunk space at the back are also expected to be part of the Rivet One.

It should be noted that once it's built, the Rivet One will in a truly unique class of its own as far as three-wheeled vehicles are concerned. Think of it as a demented and supremely more powerful Morgan Three-Wheeler. That or you can just wait for American Wrench to finish construction of the bike before deciding on whether you like it or not.

But based on these renderings, Shatner's Rivet One could end up becoming even more aesthetically nutty than we imagined.