Captain's Log ST-CHI: Sushi, Stunts and the Real Final Frontier with William Shatner
- Antal Bokor
- 7 minutes ago
- 5 min read
I think this panel writeup might need a preface: William Shatner is legendary, especially to the Star Trek fandom, because he was Captain James T. Kirk. THE Captain Kirk. One of the most iconic characters in our modern culture. William Shatner himself is a treasure, and I just need to clarify that we’re never laughing at the man. Okay, maybe a little bit. But it’s from a place of love. And he’s certainly getting up there in years, and I can’t tell if that’s making him genuinely stranger, or if that his advanced years is is making his mask slip a little bit easier–because Shatner has always had a bit of a reputation, especially for his acerbic come backs.
Shatner arrives in the panel room carrying a bag of sushi. He tells the story:
“They said to me today, ‘what would you like to have for lunch? You got some sushi.’
"That would be nice."
‘We'll go get you Sushi.’
"So, I'm sitting at a table reading about the condition of the world (and there’s no) sushi. So, now I come in here (to the panel room). And as I'm coming in here, ‘here's your sushi.’
"So, if any of you know about sushi, it has a limited taste like, you know, the moment it's out of the sushi maker's hands it's already decaying. So I said, how am I gonna eat this? They said, ‘eat it after (the panel)’ and I said "it'll decay! So, you're going to have to forgive me. I'm going to talk to you. We're going to talk about anything and everything. And while we're talking I'm going to eat my sushi.”
So we all had a chance to have lunch with William Shatner. Or, rather, he ate sushi while taking questions from the audience.
It was delightful in a way that only Bill Shatner can delight. One of the standout stories was when an audience member asked him about Jimmy Darren, who not only played as Vic Fontaine in Deep Space Nine, but also starred in TJ Hooker alongside Shatner. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. Did he die?"
Once an audience member confirmed Darren’s passing, Shatner replied cheekily “I’ll see him soon" before continuing with the story:
“So Jimmy (Darren) and I did this police show together. So we jump from one roof to another–the whole thing. We were running up and down roofs in Los Angeles, chasing the bad guy… Jimmy one day says to me, ‘Bill, I’m afraid of birds. I have a thing about birds. They’ve frightened me.’
"Yes, but Jimmy, we’re jumping from roof to roof." The birds are all over the place. He says, ‘I know, I’m frightened to death.’
"Jimmy, my loving, beautiful, singing, Italian friend. Was afraid of birds. He would deny it. But he’s in no position (to complain.)”
Shatner then went on to talk about stunts, and how he didn’t believe Tom Cruise could possibly do his own stunts because of how much money any injury could cost the studio.
Shatner said, “Millions of dollars (in lost revenue). The insurance company is not going to insure you…. If Tom Cruise you know” [Shatner mimics getting an injury, and continues] “ I'll be back in an hour an hour. Tens of thousands of dollars (of money wasted). What are you talking about? I don't give a shit about your little toe. Seriously, and there he is flying off motorcycles into space. He's not going to hurt his toe, he’ll split open, like a melon!"
Shatner then told a story about when he wanted to do his own motorcycle stunt. Shatner, a self proclaimed motorcycle “aficionado”, argued for doing a risky motorcycle stunt that involved jumping sand dunes.
“I can do (the stunt). I’ve got it. I’m really good (at riding a motorcycle.)” [Shatner mimics arguing with a studio exec]
“No no, listen, I can do it, ‘’No Bill, because the insurance company won't insure us. If you do, we're going to get a stuntman to do it.’ Ah, jeez, man, I've could have done it. I'm telling you, I could have done it! And they do the (stunt.) The stuntman’s on the motorcycle. It leaps up and lands everybody's great. He's lying on the ground. He broke his back. And then somebody who's watching the filming comes running down. ‘I'm his girlfriend, I'm his girlfriend, I'm his girlfriend,’ and I'm standing, looking at him, saying, what's the matter and his girlfriend comes running down, and she looks up and says, can I have your autograph? And sand is falling off his face. And I took him back to Vancouver. He was a Canadian stuntman, and he remained a paraplegic for the rest of his life.”
And of course a fan asked about his time in space. Shatner went into low earth orbit on the second flight of Blue Origin back in 2021. Back then, he was practically in tears relaying the feelings he had while experiencing earth from orbit for the first time. That feeling has evidently since faded.
“(Have I been) to real space? Yeah. There’s no sushi there.” Shatner said before giving a long rambling answer about hydrogen gas, the Hindenburg disaster, and how he lamented being on the second Blue Origin flight, instead of the first, and what it was like being weightless. Shatner also commented on the utter blackness of space, comparing the black of space he saw with absolute darkness in experienced while spelunking:
“I've been in Kentucky to a cave. In Kentucky, where they shut the door. And so there's no light at all. No itinerant light at all. Pure blackness is not what you see when you pull the drapes down. You're seeing little bits of light somewhere. In a cave with an airtight door shut–that's black. It's so black that you feel you.can put your fingers in it. It's palpable. Not only that–it's so surrounding that you lose your balance. You have nothing to balance you. You lose your sense of balance. I look up into that blackness, and I see the blackness of space now."
"Since you're all here, obviously interested in science fiction and science fiction involves space: the final frontier. Uh, it's not the final frontier. I'm here to tell you death is the final frontier. (Space) is one of the Frontiers, but it's not the final -- Look at this beautiful piece of fish.”
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