A Night of Star Trek Featuring William Shatner

Event
Event:	A Night of Star Trek Featuring William Shatner
Participants:
Date(s):	around 1976
Type:
Fandom:	Star Trek
URL:
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A Night of Star Trek Featuring William Shatner was a for-profit series of events that took place in auditoriums of college/university campuses, and perhaps other venues.

Fan Comments

William Shatner recently completed a college tour, appearing in Long Island this past November [1976]. His appearance was advertised as "A Night of Star Trek featuring William Shatner", which it was not, and which disappointed a few people. Despite this, it was definitely worth seeing. It began with 20 minutes of highlights from the episode "Shore Leave", This had some technical difficulties; even William Shatner said that the film was enhanced by the mike on the podium coming out of his right nostril. Then he came out, and began with poetry. At one point during his performance, he asked the audience to close their eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine what he was saying. He tried to lead the audience from a green garden gradually out into space, an effect which worked for much of the audience.

In my opinion, the part the audience enjoyed the most was the question and answer, which dealt largely with Star Trek. At this time he gave the following movie news: The movie will be made during the summer of this year, and should be out about six months later, or shortly before the end of 1977. Paramount intends to invest $8,000,000 in the movie. It is his speculation that if the movie is a big success there would probably be more movies; if the movie is a failure - that would be the end of Star Trek; but if the movie is a moderate success, then he thinks it would return to TV, probably in an hour-and-a-half or two hour form.

He also told the story of how he supposedly found out about the movie: While filming the series "The Barbary Coast" he had a pang of nostalgia and walked past the now deserted offices of the series "Star Trek". As he walked by he heard the sound of a typewriter. He walked into that office to find Gene Roddenberry, at which point, according to him, he said, "Gene, the show's been cancelled.". Gene Roddenberry was actually working on a script for the movie, which would be rejected. Now they have writers working on a new script.

Among other stories William Shatner told included how he put Leonard Nimoy's bicycle up on the rafters on the set, and how he broke his leg while filming the Barbary Coast (or why actors should never do their own stunts).

Back to movie news, he also mentioned that the producer for the movie would be a man named Jerry Eisenberg. Another strange fact that came up is that people in Ashland, Kentucky can watch Star Trek 12 times a week. (Poor deprived people in the New York area can only watch it 6 times a week...)

All in all, it was worthwhile and entertaining, and I am looking forward to the next time William Shatner comes through this area.