Review: "The Captains" PG
William Shatner hosts and directs the special for the 45th anniversary of Star Trek , 'The Captains', a documentary style road trip where he goes and meets up with the various Star Trek captains, those who have played the starship or station commander during an incarnation of the Star Trek series.
Shatner spends most of this time trying to draw attention to himself and mugging for the camera in a parody of his Boston Legal persona, Denny Crane, and possibly of himself, as he goes through the motions of meeting each one. He played the first Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise from the 1960s to the infamous 1994 film where his character was killed and not resurrected. (He does do a nod to Jeffrey Hunter from the pilot).
He completely ignores Leonard Nimoy because he had appeared in a scene in the new Star Trek 2009 movie but not as a captain. Also ignored is George Takei who played Casptain Sulu after being the helmsman on the old ship for years. (He is mentioned at least).
Shatner also attends a Las Vegas convention with Patrick Stewart, in the town a few years post the closing of the Experience attraction. Nice to know they are still doing that big convention there.
Patrick Stewart played Captain Picard of the Enterprise D on a new series called The Next Generation from 1987 to 2002. Oddly though the interview with some of his cast is sparse and even Jonathan Frakes who played his first officer, Riker, isn't given a credit but he is interviewed.
Avery Brooks played Captain Ben Sisko of edgy station Deep Space Nine from 1993 to 1999, a different toned fan favorite series.
Kate Mulgrew played the first official female captain, as an on screen movie cameo one didn't count in 1986 in the film Star Trek IV. She commanded Voyager in another part of the galaxy. Voyager ran from 1995 to 2001.
Scott Bacula played not just in Quantum Leap but in Enterprise, the prequel to the original series, from 2001 to 2005 and is the second commander to have his show cancelled. Shanter's had been first, but it came back and made movies.
Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk in the reimagined prequel to Kirk's story, set a dozen years before the 5 year mission, was in the 2009 movie (and will be in the sequel), although Shatner apparently didn't see any footage from it. He did see Unstoppable which starred Pine.
Shatner has a lot of fun trying to play jazz with a very spaced out Brooks, since both were captains that got killed off on a show, and it was fun to pretend they were in the afterlife.
Then he has fun with Chris Pine arm wrestling and talking about his movies.
He also enjoys pretending to be a 'captain inside' a box in New York, to Mulgrew and then both discuss the theater, where she has apparently been spending her time since Voyager ended.
Sr. Patrick Stewart and Shatner talk about how working hard on Star Trek ruined their marriages, and also this is something Mulgrew did too, but not so much Brooks. It is one of the more poigniant moments in the drama. Acting is hard. It is not easy to be on TV for 12 to 16 hours a day.
Scott Bacula tended to be more relaxed in his interview session and talked of the craft also and great people he worked with.
Chris Pine is too new to the thing to really know where he has been going in terms of an interview.
Shatner kisses up to the ladies of Trek at the convention also and does a few touching scenes with a severely disabled young male fan.
The documentary though is very Shatner, if you like that, and he is very full of himself. It is funny when Mulgrew pulls him down to Earth a few times and Stewart also pines for the camera and pulls him back a bit too.
This was probably meant to have come out for the 40th year but Paramount was sitting on its hands about the making of that new movie.
Star Trek lives! Shatner's head is bigger than ever. Ha.
Review by Adam Browne
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