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The irreverent documentary How William Shatner Changed the World features the actor examining the ways Star Trek technology inspired real-life innovators, whose inventions include communicator-like flip phones and medical equipment reminiscent of the starship Enterprise's sick bay.

Airing Sunday on the History Channel in the U.S., the show kicks off the network's Out of This World week, featuring explorations of comets, meteors and UFOs. The channel is not available in Canada; the program, commissioned by Discovery Channel Canada, aired here a few months ago and garnered strong ratings.

The documentary studies how Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi series helped energize scientific explorers who created gadgets we could only dream about when Star Trek premiered in the 1960s.

[...]

"They were deadly serious about Star Trek," Shatner said in an interview after taping TV spots to promote the History Channel shows. "Scientists are a strange group in that they catch glimpses of something that is mysterious and wonderful. They can't quite put their finger on it, so they grasp at something.

"It's a step-by-step process. You climb on the backs of giants. Only rarely are there leaps. Scientific advances mostly are incremental. If enough time goes by, a decade goes by, suddenly, that increment, you take year one to year 10, looks like a giant leap. So here we are 30, 40 years after Star Trek, and it looks like it was extraordinary, the advances we've made.

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:

Somewhere, Gene Roddenberry's widow is weeping.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Was Roddenberry's wife an actress in the series? I didn't know that.

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[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: Clog-boy ]

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From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.

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I wouldn't look to it as a bombardment of factiods or information, but it's fun and entertaining.

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
If you're GOING to rent one of the movies, skdadl, make it Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It is by FAR the best of the lot. (Ricardo Montelban is sooooooo good as the evil Khan... )

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Originally posted by gunnar gunnarson:
Favourite Shatner moment: A mid-80s SNL sketch in which he plays himself appearing at a Star Trek convention and tells a roomful of nerds in Starfleet uniforms, fake Vulcan ears, etc. to "get a life, for Christ's sakes. It's just a TV show!"

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[edited to correct URL]

[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: rasmus raven ]

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Although, skdadl, may I suggest you rent a season or two of Deep Space 9? I actually think you'll enjoy the subtleties of the show. You silly solids!

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Cartman...

"Nemesis" blew chunks. I *literally* fell asleep during it...

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Actually, it is kinda sad, but Nimoy once came for a convention to help out the town's economy.

skdadl, you might actually like Rodenberry's humanism which is quite salient in most of the shows.

Oops, the site I used says Nimoy never came, though I was pretty sure that he did. More Star Trek historical facts to verify and dispute.

[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: Cartman ]

As it is Purim, he did a deliberately silly Purim show, featuring among other kitch numbers one in Yinglish featuring portrayals of Shatner and Nimoy...

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posted by Clog-boy: ... Have been searching on the net for an url linking to the sketch. Been searching for about half an hour ... Maybe somebody else can give it a go..?

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[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: deBeauxOs ]

Hated Deep Space 9-- though the boyf swears by it.... the freak.

Hated Voyager-- and I tried so hard to like it, too.

REALLY hated Enterprise-- especiallly the hillbilly engineer, whatever his name was. 'Course Porthos the doggie was cute.

And to be absolutely frank, the first couple of seasons of Next Generation don't hold up well. I don't know which season it was, but right aobut the time the uniforms went from 'leotards' to bulkier garments... the scripts did likewise.

[DRIFTING]
Hated Babylon 5-- Flounder from Animal House as an alien dude? Come on! Next you'll have Pinto Kroger playing, like, Mozart or something.

Hate the new Battlestar Galactica-- Wait, you made Starbuck a girl?! Why, that is an insult to the masturbatory fantasies of an entire generation of queers. (Dirk Benedict was soooo dreeeeamy, c. 1978.)

Hated Andromeda-- Just who thought that draping Kevin Sorbo with more clothing would make him more watchable?
[END DRIFT]

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Originally posted by Cartman:
Nemesis was a way better movie.

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
Yup. Mrs. Gene Roddenberry = Majel Barrett = "Nurse Chapel" = Deannna Troi's mother (from "The Next Generation" series.)

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:
REALLY hated Enterprise-- especiallly the hillbilly engineer, whatever his name was.

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And then there were the Arik Soong episodes. Plus my all-time favourite "In a Mirror, Darkly" ending with Empress Sato as the new ruler of the Terran Empire, which was worth the cost of the entire series.

[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

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posted by Michelle: I'm surprised that in a conversation about hated Star Trek characters, the horrid Wesley hasn't come up yet. Wesley saves the day! Every day!

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Question: Who is our primary audience?
Answer:Stuck in an adolescence time warp science fiction male geeks.
Thus Wesley was created.

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100% Whole Wheaton

[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: rasmus raven ]

Janeway's bun: Didn't mind her character but the bun was a definite drag on the first few seasons.

Riker's John Wayne walk.

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Janeway's bun: Didn't mind her character but the bun was a definite drag on the first few seasons.

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Nah, that didn't affect me either way. Janeway's voice probably irritated me more than anything else.

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Riker's John Wayne walk.

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Have to disagree here. I love Riker...he's maybe my favourite Trek character.

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Geordi - Levar Burton is a brutal actor.

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You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.

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IMDB

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Yossarian ]

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Clog-boy ]

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Originally posted by rasmus raven:
No way dude. That does not hold a candle to the sublime nuances of Shatner's Rocket Man.

[edited to correct URL]

[ 11 March 2006: Message edited by: rasmus raven ]

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Ohmygod! Ohmygod! NOW I know where the Family Guy people got that bit from.

Same web site, but Stewie!

Now its twice as funny!

Ah, Janeway. You know she's an Iowan (Dubuque) right?

I loved "The Voyage Home."

"too much LDS"

and the whales. Oh, my!

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posted by arborman: I always wondered why they never installed seatbelts in the bridge.

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fans of new trek: in star trek "generations", captain kirk dies twice!

boston legal:

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Originally posted by Jimmy Brogan:

Most hated Star Trek characters

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Originally posted by arborman:
I always wondered why they never installed seatbelts in the bridge. Every time they got into some kind of fight there would be bodies flying back and forth.
...
Same problem on the later Star Treks too.

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I seem to recall that aboard one the many versions of the Enterprise-- may have just been in a time travel episode-- the handrests of the Captain's chair sort of folded over his or her thighs to hold the Captain in place. Did I hallucinate that?

Each series was able to produce 3 or 4 great episodes a season, to mix in with all the chaff.

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Wouldn't you think that about the second time the thing threatened reality as we know it, they'd simply jettison the bloody thing into space?

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No one's shutting down my "New York Jets Lockeroom Orgy" program without a fight.

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It's amazing the cultural impact of that one show, hey?

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In lieu of an actual human presence in space we've had to settle for the fantasy version.

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Jimmy Brogan ]

How about that leader of the Borg?

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Cartman ]

Presenting you: Alice Krige

[ 13 March 2006: Message edited by: Clog-boy ]

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:

Forget, "most hated" (there was nothing wrong with Janeway, thou foul poltroons!) How about faves?

Of course, there was Montelban as "Khan" (fie upon your "rich Corinthian leather", Cartman!), but two of my other big-time faves were Plummer as "Admiral Kang" (sp?), and John Delancey as "Q" -- partly because Plummer and Delancey were soooo over-the-top, in a restrained sort of way. For Star trek, that is.

(It's amazing the cultural impact of that one show, hey?)

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Star Trek actors that never were:
Too bad they couldn't have tried out Christopher Walken as a Ferengi.

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Cartman ]

While all the other crew members seemed to be carved out of marble ("Gee, you were first in your class at the Academy? So was I!"), she was the most 'human'.

My second pick: Guinan

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Jimmy Brogan:

My favorite episode ever was the one where Picard lives a whole life in twenty minutes. Great sci-fi writing.

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No one's shutting down my "New York Jets Lockeroom Orgy" program without a fight.

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[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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Originally posted by Krago:
I can't stand anything else Whoopi Goldberg has ever done, but I thought she was awesome on ST:TNG.

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I would'a dialed up Chokotai (sp?)

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Yeah however you spell it he was hot. So reasonable and self-assured. Glad he got the girl in the end.

Being the Star Trek universe the 'girl' was a half cyborg with comic book breasts.

[ 12 March 2006: Message edited by: Jimmy Brogan ]

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Originally posted by Krago:
Favourite character: Ensign Ro Laren.

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Originally posted by Jimmy Brogan:
My favorite episode ever was the one where Picard lives a whole life in twenty minutes.

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
I especially liked the little detail that Picard learned to play a small wooden flute during his "lifetime" in that episode, and then in subsequent episodes they would sometimes show him playing it quietly to himself and reminiscing with a sad look, but they never made a big deal about it, or even referenced the original program.

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My favorite episode ever was the one where Picard lives a whole life in twenty minutes.

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If we're talking about the same one, I always thought it was a nice touch that in later eps, he retained the ability to play that little musical instrument.

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:

Also, what about that damned Holo-deck dealie that caused so much trouble for Next Generation? Wouldn't you think that about the second time the thing threatened reality as we know it, they'd simply jettison the bloody thing into space?

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Closest they ever got was when a couple of characters were busted for some of their more, er, "self-indulgent" programs.

Actually I think DS9 was the best of the spin-off series...had the best theme song too

I could never get into Babylon 5.

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:

I seem to recall that aboard one the many versions of the Enterprise-- may have just been in a time travel episode-- the handrests of the Captain's chair sort of folded over his or her thighs to hold the Captain in place. Did I hallucinate that?

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You are right. In the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the seats on the bridge did have restraints to keep crew members at their stations instead of flying all over the bridge.

[ 13 March 2006: Message edited by: Bobolink ]

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Originally posted by radiorahim:
Actually I think DS9 was the best of the spin-off series...had the best theme song too

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Speaking of theme songs: who decided to go with that awful, awful power-ballad as the theme for Enterprise?

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:

Speaking of theme songs: who decided to go with that awful, awful power-ballad as the theme for Enterprise?

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Originally posted by NWOntarian:
If the theme song was the worst problem that show had, it would have been very lucky.

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I admired their faithfulness to the concept. I just DIDN'T. LIKE. IT.

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:
REALLY hated Enterprise-- especiallly the hillbilly engineer, whatever his name was.

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Evertime he speaks he reminds me of a way smarter version of Dubya.

[ 13 March 2006: Message edited by: scott ]

If "Enterprise" had been more like the new BSG, then it would never have been cancelled.

I just watched the last season of Enterprise and it wasn't too bad, I especially like the episode where the Kirk era reliant came back in time from the other dimension and the Enterprise crew got to wear the TOS outfits. That being said there were too many previously used themes used in Enterprise, the show was simply not applying "to boldy go where no one has gone before" motto. BSG is applying this to a significant degree.

BSG is filmed in Vancouver, lots of the original Caprica was right here at SFU.

Between the new Dr Who and BSG there is no better time to be a sci-fi geek with a hi speed net connection.

Richard Hatch is in the new BSG also, if that is any consolation CN. Starbuck and Boomer are female in the new series.

I would have thought the whole political angle of BSG would interest many babblers.

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Originally posted by Crippled_Newsie:
Hate the new Battlestar Galactica-- Wait, you made Starbuck a girl?! Why, that is an insult to the masturbatory fantasies of an entire generation of queers. (Dirk Benedict was soooo dreeeeamy, c. 1978.)

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Originally posted by scott:

Evertime he speaks he reminds me of a way smarter version of Dubya.

[ 13 March 2006: Message edited by: scott ]

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originally posted by skdadl: How has this thread got this far without mention of the split infinitive heard 'round the world?

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posted by Yossarian: Not to mention (to not mention??) the way that, when they changed it from "no MAN" to "no ONE", the phrase went from being debatably sexist (from debatably being sexist?) to being at best meaningless and at worst colonialist.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
How has this thread got this far without mention of the split infinitive heard 'round the world?

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[ 14 March 2006: Message edited by: Cartman ]

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posted by Cartman: ... Well done. And, it has the bonus of changing the discussion from wet dreams to anything else (even grammatical debates).

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Originally posted by deBeauxOs:
Ick. Trekker wetdreams.

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posted by Makwa: Oh, I'm sorry - did someone mention T'Pol?

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Originally posted by deBeauxOs:
Mmmmmm, T'Pol ...

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[ 14 March 2006: Message edited by: Makwa ]

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BSG is filmed in Vancouver, lots of the original Caprica was right here at SFU.

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Yeah kind of bizarre that the programme is shot in Canada and probably half the performers are Canadian and we have to wait so long before it airs here.

This is not a joke, Corso was a respected officer (a member of President Eisenhower's National Security Council and former head of the Foreign Technology Desk at the U.S. Army's Research & Development department) who could have had access to such things, if you believe such things do in fact exist.

From one review: "Colonel Philip Corso, USA, (Ret.) was a key Army intelligence officer who served on General MacArthur's staff in Korea, and later on President's Dwight D. Eisenhower's National Security Council as a Lt. Colonel. During his twenty-one-year military career, he was honored with 19 medals, decorations and ribbons for meritorious service. He retired from the army in 1963, and went on to serve Senator James Eastland and Strom Thurmond as a staff member specializing in national security."

See the amazon.com page here, or the editorial reviews (non-customer) here.

[ 08 April 2006: Message edited by: Mr. Anonymous ]