(Credits: Far Out / Mubi)
Sat 18 October 2025 6:30, UK
William Shatner might have appeared in many, many films and TV shows, but there’s still one role, decades on, that defines his career: Captain Kirk of Star Trek.
It’s understandable given he appeared in all three seasons of the Original Series, 21/22 episodes of the Animated Series and the original seven films. He also wrote several books about his experiences during and after the show, as well as several novels set in the universe and the TekWars books, so it’s safe to say he was invested.
Otherwise, he’s been an actor in the likes of TJ Hooker, Miss Congeniality and Columbo, and the man’s even had something of a music career, but still, Star Trek will always remain the main force of his trajectory and will be what he’s truly remembered for.
Despite the space this franchise has occupied in his life and how much it has accounted for his success, Shatner openly admits that he’s watched virtually none of it. “I have never watched Star Trek,” he told People, “There are many episodes I don’t know, there are some movies I don’t know”.
To be fair to him, that’s a lot of TV and movies to get through, but given he’s 94 years old, he’s certainly had the time to give it a go. But like many other actors, he struggles to watch himself act, confessing, “It’s all painful because I don’t like the way I look and what I do”.
Most of us struggle to listen to the sound of our own voice or watch ourselves onscreen—well, maybe not so many of us anymore, given social media—but for Shatner, it seems to go even deeper. There’s something incredibly sad about his statement, especially given the fact he’s lent his life to a career that is all about what he finds so disheartening.
This attitude seems to speak to the nature of the job, though. It’s one that seems from the outside to be incredibly self-involved and takes some incredible self-confidence, but at the end of the day, even actors are human, subject to the standards, whims and harsh criticisms of the world, probably even more so given their livelihoods depend on it.
However, there is one movie in the Star Trek franchise he has watched, but only out of necessity, noting, “I directed one of the movies, number five, I had to watch that one”. It might be okay for an actor to never watch themselves, but it’s something else entirely for a director to neglect this job, given they have to edit, yet he still didn’t seem overly pleased with that.
There are those who say Shatner can’t act, as he’s prone to a bit of overacting as Captain Kirk, but I would say, it was the ’60s, and I can’t say I’ve ever described an acting performance from that era as ‘subtle’. And given the fact the man sustained not only his career in the franchise but beyond, it goes without saying that he has something going for him.
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