PLANET EARTH — Decades after playing the iconic role of Capt. James T. Kirk in the Star Trek television shows and movies, William Shatner got to actually travel to space aboard the Blue Origin rocket in 2021.
Now the actor-turned-space-traveler will boldly go to Bloomington on total-eclipse day, April 8, to take part in Indiana University's Hoosier Cosmic Celebration at Memorial Stadium.
Shatner will deliver a spoken-word performance during a four-hour show celebrating the total solar eclipse over Indiana. Afterwards, he headlines a screening of his new documentary “William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill” at the IU Cinema.
In 2021 at age 90, Shatner journeyed to space aboard Amazon owner Jeff Bezos's ship, Blue Orgin. He remains the oldest person to leave Earth's orbit.
Shatner celebrated his 93rd birthday on March 22 and seemingly has no plans to retire anytime soon.
So WRTV enlisted the aid of its most-veteran nerd to join a handful of Indiana reporters on a zoom call with the legendary actor, arranged by IU's media relations department.
Here's what Shatner said about space, the eclipse and good science fiction.
WATCH | THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW
Question: What should we expect on April 8, from you at the Hoosier Cosmic Celebration?
Shatner: Darkness. Oh, the sun is going to be eclipsed. That alone is a monumental event... So the next one over Indiana will be like 100 years from now. We'll all be dead. I might not be, but you guys are going to be dead the next time.
Question: What's it like going from playing an astronaut to actually traveling to space?
Shatner: It's one thing to say, "Let's beam out to that distant thing and make sure that peace is there," as against having felt the type of G forces I did, and then looking at death in the blackness of space and looking at the face of life on the planet, and being so filled with sorrow with, with ineffable sorrow about what we're doing to the beauty of the Earth... I saw so dramatically what we've done and how imperative it is to immediately do something about it. Otherwise, it's going to be really bad here on Earth.
Question: With the eclipse seeming to capture the public's attention, are you hopeful that this will lead to a renewed focus on space exploration?
Shatner: I think that's happening without the eclipse. All the countries that are trying to land on the moon and get a survey of the moon and how far advanced America is, at at this point. We will land on the moon. We will make a colony on the moon, there's apparently water there and that's everything.
Question: After your experiences in space, what do you think people should be contemplating as they watch the eclipse?
Shatner: To me the magic of the eclipse, the extraordinary events that all took in the heavenly bodies to cause this eclipse, should make us ponder the mystery of existence, of our own existence of the existence of everything else, and how unified everything is.
Question: You celebrated your 93rd birthday last week. How do you keep your energy and productivity so high at this stage of your career and life?
Shatner: Well, my health is good. It was not so good while ago, but I'm better now. And I saw firsthand how this energy force that you have inside your body is so particular to a good life. There were a couple of moments where I thought am I dying?... I ask myself every day is this the day I die? And seeing that I'm not, I try to accomplish as much as possible. And by accomplishing, I mean thinking about your life and your loved ones and and the environment that you're in, thinking about it and doing something with it, I guess, and certainly enjoying it.
Question: What was it about the original Star Trek series that keeps it interesting and relevant to so many past and then future generations of fans?
Shatner: Well science fiction, at its best, is the human story told in imaginative, futuristic terms... So good science fiction will make you think all about the human condition. And then if it's done in imaginative terms, about what that writer thinks the future will be, then people today are looking at what could be the future. I mean, it's anybody's guess, right? Is there a future? That alone is going to be good news. And that's why science fiction is popular, because 100 years from now exists in the writer's mind.
Hoosier Cosmic Celebration at Memorial Stadium
What: William Shatner, singer Janelle Monáe and NASA astonaut Mae Jemison appear during a four-hour show celebrating the total solar eclipse.
When: April 8, 1- 4 p.m.
Where: Memorial Stadium, 701 E. 17th St., Bloomington.
Cost: $19 - $59.
Tickets: www.iuauditorium.com/events/detail/hoosier-cosmic-celebration.
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on X/Twitter: @vicryc.
