For Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary We Look At The Acting Genius Of William Shatner

 

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek first airing in 1966. Since then, Star Trek has become a global phenomenon. Countless TV spin-offs, movies, books, comics, and lonely sexless nights have followed the show about a group of space explorers boldly going where no one has gone before. While I really like the Next Generation series I have to say that nothing beats the original. They had a phenomenal cast with Deforest Kelly, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, and all the rest helming the Starship Enterprise. But no one stole the show more than its captain, James Tiberius Kirk played by the one and only William Shatner. Over the years a lot of fun has been poked at Shatner's overwrought acting style. He is the very definition of an overactor. That reputation is not without merit.

But think about it, who else could have done it? Have you seen the pilot with captain Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter? It lacked pizzaz. Shatner was perfect for Kirk who is an overwrought character to begin with. There is something to the immediacy that Shatner brings to a performance that I think really pushed the show forward. You believed that Kirk could get out of any situation because of Shatner's blinding arrogance that seeped through his performance. I studied acting in college and he does a lot of the stuff they tell you not to do. And yet, doesn't that make him an iconoclast rather than a bad actor? Isn't it the roll of the artist to break the rules? If that's true then Shatner is the king of doing that.