William Shatner thinks original Star Trek creator is "twirling in his grave" over new series

As of this writing, there are at least four ongoing Star Trek TV shows, including Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy, and that's not counting completed series like Star Trek: Picard or upcoming movies like Section 31. The final frontier is so crowded it's a wonder any part of it remains unexplored.

That's a far cry from the days when Star Trek: The Original Series was the only game in town. Back in the 1960s, William Shatner played the daring Captain Kirk under the watchful eye of series creator Gene Roddenberry, who reportedly ran a tight ship. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about his career, Shatner laughed about how he doubts Roddenberry would approve on how informal some of the characters act on modern Trek shows, especially when it comes to romance.

"He was in the military, and he was a policeman," Shatner said of Roddenberry. "So there was this militaristic vision of 'You don’t make out with a fellow soldier.' There are strict rules and you abide by the rules. Around that, [the writers] had to write the drama. But within that was the discipline of 'This is the way a ship works.' Well, as Star Trek progressed, that ethos has been forgotten [in more recent shows]. I sometimes laugh and talk about the fact that I think Gene is twirling in his grave. 'No, no, you can’t make out with the lady soldier!'"

It's true that characters on modern Trek shows date each other pretty freely, something that started as early as Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show on which Roddenberry clashed with producers. "The difficulty in the beginning, between management, was all about Gene’s rules and obeying or not obeying those rules," Shatner offered.

That said, it feels odd that Roddenberry would be put off by romance in modern Trek since The Original Series was full of scenes where Kirk got it on with woman from across the galaxy, human and alien alike. True, they weren't part of the Enterprise crew, but that seems like a quibbling distinction. It was still, at minimum, himbo behavior unbecoming an officer. Think of the space STDs.

And there was one famous scene where Kirk kissed fellow Enterprise crewmate Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols. That kiss got a ton of attention, as it was very uncommon to see an interracial kiss on TV in 1968.

"I do remember saying, 'Maybe they’ll try and edit it. What can I do to try and discourage the editing of the kiss itself?'” Shatner recalled about the moment. "I don’t remember quite what I did because it’s difficult to cut away [from the kiss in an edit]. But yeah, I remember thinking that."

That said, even this moment adhered to Roddenberry's rules about crew members not getting romantically involved, because Kirk and Uhura kissed under the influence of ancient Greece-themed aliens who used their telekinetic abilities to force the Enterprise crew to cavort for their entertainment. It was a weird show, okay?

And again, that brings up the absurdity of the prohibition on inter-crew romances in the first place. Clearly The Original Series team didn't have a problem featuring steamy romance scenes, they just had to find ways around Roddenberry's rule to make them happen. I don't think it's a huge problem if future series just did away with the block.

William Shatner would appear in Star Trek again if it "wasn't a stunt"

As for whether the 92-year-old Shatner would ever appear in a Star Trek movie or show again, he sounded open to the idea so long as a number of conditions were met. He referenced Leonard Nimoy's appearance as Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie as the kind of scene he wouldn't do.

"Leonard [Nimoy] made his own decision on doing a cameo [in J.J. Abrams’ 2009Star Trek]. He’s there for a moment, and it’s more a stunt that Spock appears in a future. If they wrote something that wasn’t a stunt that involved Kirk, who’s 50 years older now, and it was something that was genuinely added to the lore ofStar Trek, I would definitely consider it," Shatner said.

Nimoy died in 2015, but Shatner is still getting in minor digs about his choices. If the executives at Paramount+ ever want Shatner to feature in another Star Trek thing, they have options. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery, for the record, premieres on April 4.

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