William Shatner boldly captained the Starship Enterprise for decades as Captain Kirk and the Star Trek franchise has continued to endure for decades more. Others have now put their spin on the character, but Shatner is willing to return to the franchise, but only under two very specific conditions.
Originally, actor Jeffrey Hunter was fronting NBC’s first vision of Star Trek in the show’s proof-of-concept pilot. The network was intrigued but not ready to buy it yet, so the crew went looking for a new captain. Shatner was in just the right place at the right time to put his lighter spin on the role, and Star Trek was able to not only get off the ground but to live long and prosper. Now, what two conditions might get Shatner to return?
Two very important conditions would get William Shatner to return to ‘Star Trek’
Trekkies were treated to a blast from the past in the future when Leonard Nimoy reprised his role as the Vulcan Spock in J. J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek. In it, he played an older version of the character portrayed primarily by Zachary Quinto in the film. Similarly, Patrick Stewart returned to the role of Jean-Luc Picard for Star Trek: Picard. Can the same be expected for Shatner?
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Well, Shatner was asked exactly that when speaking with The Hollywood Reporter back in March 2024.
“Leonard [Nimoy] made his own decision on doing a cameo [in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek],” Shatner mused in response. “He’s there for a moment, and it’s more a stunt that Spock appears in a future. If they wrote something that wasn’t a stunt that involved Kirk, who’s 50 years older now, and it was something that was genuinely added to the lore of Star Trek, I would definitely consider it.”
Similarly, Stewart had three conditions for his return to Picard. He did not want it to be a The Next Generation revival or for his former his co-stars to be central figures.
“This was not at all a mark of disrespect for my beloved fellow actors,” he insisted in his memoir, Making It So. “Rather, I simply felt it was essential to place Picard in entirely new settings with entirely new characters. Perhaps Picard might encounter Riker or Dr. Crusher in the second season, but such encounters were not to be the series’ raison d’être.”
He also hoped it would explore Picard’s relationship to Starfleet; however, at the same time, Stewart did not want Picard to be formally tied to Starfleet, and thus not obligated to don a uniform of affiliation. Finally, Stewart was insistent that the show only run for three seasons.
Where it all began
Star Trek led, as originally intended, by Hunter’s Pike, presented a different approach to its lead, as seen in “The Cage.”
“Jeffrey Hunter, good-looking guy, he was quite a name,” recounted Shatner of his serendipitous trek to becoming Kirk. “They presented the pilot to NBC and then there’s that moment when the gods — and, in this case, NBC executives — decide to buy or not to buy. To buy, or not to buy, that is the question! They said, ‘No, we’re not going to buy it, because we don’t like it. But we like the idea. So rewrite, recast and we’ll give you the money to do it.’ I’ve never heard of that happening before or since.”
“So they went around looking for a new captain,” he continued. “I was in New York doing some work. They called me and said, ‘Would you come and see the pilot?’ With the idea of me being the captain. And I watched the pilot [and thought], ‘Oh my God, that’s really good. Why didn’t they buy it?’ Yet [the actors] were a little ponderous. Like, [soberly] ‘Helmsman, turn to the Starboard.’ You’ve been out five years in the middle of space, wouldn’t you say, [casually] ‘Hey, George, turn left’? ‘There’s a meteor coming!’… ‘Well, get out of the way!’ So I added a little lightness. Then it sold.”
Would you want to see any Star Trek veterans return to the Starship Enterprise?