No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/SYNTAX/SPECIALPD1.MSA/KIRK.ART

Text File | 1994-10-25 | 7.9 KB | 161 lines

      Star Trek Profile (1) William Shatner / James T. Kirk

               Taken from the Public Domain

Captain (formally Admiral) James T. Kirk is, in the estimation of
the man who knows him best, "courageous, brave and acts in a
manner in which we all would like to act under duress."  Kirk,
accomplished at many skills, is a natural-born leader.  That's all
according to William Shatner, the man who has portrayed Kirk on
screens large and small since 1966.  The Canadian-born Shatner
resembles his celluloid alter-ego more and more each day.  With
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the skilful actor, champion
horsebreeder of American Saddlebreds and spokesman for charities
and the environment faces another challenge as he takes the helm
as director of his first feature-length motion picture.

Although a challenge, it's not an unfamiliar one. Shatner
directed several episodes of the TV series T.J.Hooker, in which he
starred. In 1981, he directed an acclaimed stage production of Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof in Los Angeles, which featured his wife, actress
Marcy Lafferty, as Maggie.

Shatner also has the distinct advantage of working with a troupe
of very familiar actors: Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James
Doohan and the rest of the Star Trek family.  His co-workers speak
of their director with a respect and admiration usually heard when
a loyal ship's crew speaks of their captain.

Even newcomers to the Star Trek saga give their leader high
praise.  According to British actor David Warner (St. John Talbot
- Star Trek V), Shatner is "an actor's director, enthusiastic,
easy to communicate with, and very considerate of his fellow
actors."

The on-set happiness, the director insists, is quite natural.
"After all, Star Trek is family," Shatner says.  "We've all worked
together for so long, we're all so close.  Every movie is like a
reunion."  Yet, the many-faceted Shatner was not content to merely
star in and direct Star Trek V.  He also shares story credit with
producer Harve Bennett.  "To act, direct and have a hand in the
writing of a major motion picture is almost unheard of."  Shatner
says.  "To have been given that opportunity was so profound for me
that I was determined to enjoy every moment."

Everyone involved with the making of Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier agrees that the director enjoyed himself.  After Star
Trek IV: The Voyage Home was filmed, Shatner told reporters of his
aspirations for the next filmed voyage of the Enterprise: "I have
two things that I would like to see.  They're contrasted and yet
unified.  One is that I would like to see romance in the stories
again.  The second is that I would like to see gritty realism.
You know, hand-held cameras, dirt under the finger-nails and real
steel clanging doors."

Shatner got his wish.  He was tapped to direct Star Trek V.  The
actor was eager for his new challenge.  "I've pushed the
characters in a slightly different direction in this film, with
things like tempo, vigor, animation, intention and truth.  But I
don't think there's any change in the relationships."

And Star Trek V: The Final Frontier did indeed offer gritty
realism, plus lots of action.  "The film has to move," Shatner
says.  "It's a motion picture, you have to make it move.  The
characters themselves have to be in motion, as well as the camera
being in motion.  I think of it in terms of what entertainment
balls I can keep in the air in a single shot."

His cast members concur.  "This is a Shatner film, which obviously
means there has been more running and jumping than in all the
previous Star Trek films put together," says Shatner's co-star
Leonard Nimoy.  "All the other films have been relatively
contained.  But in this, we're riding horses, stunt-flying on
wires and rigs, and climbing mountains."  Yes, climbing mountains.
But not just any old mountain.  Try the tallest unbroken cliff in
the world, the 3,000-foot granite face of El Capitan in Yosemite
National Park, California.  After all, the "Captain" of the U.S.S.
Enterprise could hardly settle for a second-rate mountain upon
which to risk his life and those of his friends Spock and Dr.
McCoy.

"When we were developing the story for The Final Frontier,"
Shatner says, "I envisioned Captain Kirk free-climbing a mountain,
aspiring to the top.  And the only place he could be, was
Yosemite, because this is the Mecca for climbers from all over the
world."

This sequence, which has the three Starfleet offices taking some
much needed shore leave, also includes the singing of a
traditional folk song in a decidedly untraditional fashion.  The
performance, which provoked a great deal of laughter from the
crew, caused Shatner to dub himself, Nimoy and Kelley "musically
dyslexic."

From the forests of Yosemite, Shatner takes his crew to the planet
Nimbus III and the desert city of Paradise, where Kirk gets
himself into a "knock-down, drag-out" fight with a feline, female
alien.  Later, director Shatner orders the group of motley
ragtags, stuntmen and actors to storm the city's walls.  Climbing
mountain faces, flying through space, attacking a fort, fighting
girls, singing, William Shatner has his work cut out for him and
that's just an actor.  Direction and writing chores added to the
mix, but Shatner relished and revelled in every challenge set in
front of him.

William Shatner has enjoyed every challenge he has encountered
during his climb to worldwide success.  Born in Montreal, the man
who would be Kirk always had his sights set on an acting career.
Through his teens, he worked professionally at the Canadian
Broadcasting Company.  After receiving a business degree from
McGill University, he took a job as assistant manager at
Montreal's Mountain Playhouse.

But Shatner quickly moved from the business office to the main
stage, where he spent three years with the Canadian Repertory
Company in Ottawa.  From there, he became an understudy at the
prestigious Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival, where his
performance in Tamburlaine caught the eye of New York critics.
These positive notices opened the door to several roles in New
York on Broadway and in that odd new medium called "television."

Shatner drew praise in memorable TV roles on Playhouse 90, The
Twilight Zone and Studio One.  On the stage , he starred in The
World of Suzie Wong, A Shot in the Dark and L'Idiote.  Hollywood
soon beckoned, and Shatner appeared in such films as The Brothers
Karamazov, Judgement at Nuremburg, The Intruder and The Explosive
Generation.

Then in 1965, Jeffery Hunter proved unavailable to reprise his
role as Captain Christopher Pike in the Star Trek TV series pilot.
The second tryout, with Shatner as Captain James Tiberius Kirk,
was tapped by NBC to become a weekly series.

After his initial stint at the helm of the Enterprise, Shatner
went on to appear in TV series (Barbary Coast, T.J.Hooker), films
(Kingdom of the Spiders, The Kidnapping of the President, The
Devil's Rain, Visiting Hours and Airplane II), and specials (the
critically acclaimed PBS drama Andersonville).  Yet, throughout it
all, Kirk was always on his mind.

"Regardless of what I was doing, or where my career was taking me
at the moment," he admits, "I knew Kirk was not behind me.  He
still would be very important in my future life and work."

Indeed he has been.  Shatner returned to the screen as Captain
Kirk in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and has played the
Starfleet legend in five films.  In Star Trek V, Shatner and Kirk
do it all; acting, writing, directing, action, romance, comedy,
thrills and excitement.

And now that they have done it all, will the adventure continue?
Will Shatner/Kirk and crew continue to excite and delight fans as
they travel where no man has gone before?  Or is the film's
subtitle, The Final Frontier an epitaph for the popular film
series?

William Shatner smiles.  "Don't worry," he says.

@~This article was written in 1990.
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