Bad Form, Old Man

God I hate to be the person to say this, because 99 percent of the time I feel the exact opposite way, but here it goes: William Shatner needs to shut up.

And let me first say I legitimately like William Shatner and his work. He's easy to rip on but I admire him for the same reason people say they admire athletes: Every time he gets the crap knocked out of him he stands up, dusts himself off and keeps moving. In the mean time, I think he's learned some things and has developed into a fun little character actor and musician. In other words, I like Shatner legitimately. "Has Been," is a fantastic album if you haven't heard it.

He asserted recently that he's disappointed in the makers of the "Star Trek" reboot because he's not in it. Read for yourself here, among many other places. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_11/news/1684364/

I take issue with the cheesy iconoclast on two issues.

1) The box office thing. Sorry, that's just arrogant, especially from someone like William Shatner. The guy is a draw in the same way Bruce Campbell is a draw - to wit, they have a small but fanatical fan base and a lot of people know who they are. They won't necessarily plunk down $8 bucks to see Shatner, but if he's part of the mix it only helps.

I realize what he was saying, though, and he has a point. People see Star Trek partly for Captain Kirk and William Shatner is Captain Kirk. I respect that. What I don't respect is the automatic "people will come to see it because I'm Captain Kirk" thing. I don't think he's a great prognosticator if that's the conclusion he's come to. It's like saying people see "Star Wars" because of Harrison Ford playing Han Solo. It's great, but it's not the main reason.

2) It's a sign of maturity to let the movie go in it's own direction and from what I understand of the artists making it and the script leaks, this "Trek" is taking a big fat turn from what it's dwindling fan base knows. If an old Captain Kirk isn't part of that, but an old Spock is, que serra, I say.

I know I said two points but I've got one more - Shatner had to have his death scene in "Generations." He went in without the full cast. We all know that when you're dead in sci-fi you're never really dead, but after "Generations" I might not want to put on the officer's uniform again.