Latest news with #WilliamShatner
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Video: Paul Wesley Calls This Week's Shatner-Esque Performance ‘A Wink to the True Fans' — Watch
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday's . This week's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds introduced us to the cast of a fictional 1960s sci-fi TV show… and the star of that show sounded very familiar. More from TVLine The Challenge Premiere: Cara Maria Sorbello Breaks Down That 'Wild' First Challenge, Why [Spoiler] Was Eliminated Leanne Morgan Tees Up Her Netflix Comedy From EP Chuck Lorre, Reveals How Her Real-Life Husband Feels About TV Hubby Ryan Stiles The Challenge 41's Cara Maria Sorbello Names the One 'New Threat' Who Was 'Built for Destruction' Paul Wesley — who plays James T. Kirk on Strange New Worlds — played frustrated actor Maxwell Saint, the star of the very Trek-like TV show The Last Frontier, and Saint's preening, halting delivery was quite reminiscent of William Shatner's infamous acting style on the original Star Trek series. (Any Trekkie would recognize that cadence anywhere.) Wesley's Kirk is generally a different, more grounded take than Shatner's was, but when Wesley read this week's script, 'I realized immediately what an opportunity it was to give the viewers a satirical, more humorous version of what I could have done,' Wesley tells TVLine in the video above. He lists 'the pause in the cadence,' 'the gesturing' and the 'Shakespearean elements' as hallmarks of the 'James T. Kirk that we all know from the '60s. And I thought, 'Well, here it is. Let me do it for you now.' And I had an absolute blast doing it… I didn't want to overdo it, but I also wanted to do enough where it was a wink to the true fans.' Speaking of overdoing it, Wesley admits with a laugh that he had to dial back the Shatner-isms at times: 'We did, obviously, a bunch of takes. And so there were variations in the pauses, where the pause is like, 'Is he gonna say his next line?' And then we settled on sort of the moderate one.' The Last Frontier's flimsy sets and rubber-masked aliens were a tribute to the analog glories of the original Trek, too, Wesley adds: 'If you watch [the original Star Trek], the Gorn episode, for example [Season 1's 'Arena'], they're throwing Styrofoam rocks at each other, right?… Obviously, in the '60s, they didn't have special effects or VFX, and they couldn't digitize things, and so we wanted to have fun with making the sets so clearly a set, and just sort of like that absurdity, yet imagination and beauty, of something that is a 1960s futuristic set for television.' So Trekkies, what'd you think of Wesley's… … … performance? Beam down to the comments to give us your thoughts on this week's episode. Best of TVLine Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa' Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)
CBS News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Paul Wesley talks honoring William Shatner without imitation in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"
Actor Paul Wesley said he made a conscious decision to develop his own interpretation of James T. Kirk rather than imitate William Shatner's iconic portrayal when he joined "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" as the younger version of the legendary captain. "I watched, I rewatched every episode of T.O.S. prior to getting onset," Wesley said Tuesday. "I made a conscious decision. I thought about should I imitate or try to emulate William Shatner in any way. I thought, god, he did such an amazing job. He was so iconic, why not do my own spin?" Wesley plays Lt. Kirk in the Paramount Plus series, portraying the character before his promotion to captain of the USS Enterprise. He said he approached the role by considering Kirk's earlier development. "This is pre-captain so maybe he is still sort of figuring it out," Wesley explained. The actor received Shatner's blessing before taking on the role. Wesley said Shatner tweeted him: "Take care of my crew and my ship." "It was such a beautiful moment for me," Wesley said of the endorsement. Wesley described "Star Trek" as one of his favorite projects. "What I love about this show, first of all, it is incredibly optimistic and it is sort of an escapist playground," he said. "We get to watch this imaginative world filled with hope and positivity, inclusivity." He said that each episode presents different challenges for actors. "Every episode is its own movie. You get to play a different character in a weird way or experience a different world in every episode. So as an actor it is thrilling." Season three of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is currently streaming on Paramount+.
Geek Girl Authority
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
5 Spooky STAR TREK Episodes
Cover zombie image photo credit: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ On last week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 'Shuttle to Kenfori,' Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) encounter zombies! But that isn't the first time horror elements have worked their way into the Franchise. For this week's Trek Tuesday, we're covering five Star Trek episodes where things get spooky. Did we include your favorite? 'Catspaw' Did you know the Franchise has a Halloween episode? The honor goes to Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2's 'Catspaw.' It originally aired on October 27, 1967, just in time for the holidays. And in addition to mentioning the objectively best Earth holiday in dialogue, the vibe of the episode is also idea for spooky season. The episode sees the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk (William Shatner) visiting a planet called Payris VII. There, they encounter a series of locations, props and characters who are straight out of an Earth horror movie. These include a spooktacular castle, cobwebs, witches, wizards, skeletons and black cats. RELATED: Star Trek and Halloween: In Defense of 'Catspaw' At one point, Kirk and Leonard 'Bones' McCoy (DeForest Kelley) wonder how aliens could know about Halloween. But by the end of the episode, they've discovered the answer. The aliens didn't know about the holiday. However, they do possess a transmuter that can pull information from the heads of humans. Ultimately the aliens are revealed not to be natives of Payris VII, but instead to be creatures from a galaxy that's further away. Interestingly, this episode was written by Psycho author Robert Bloch, and based on his short story 'Broomstick Ride' (1957). 'Masks' Another spooky episode is Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7's 'Masks.' In this episode, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D discovers a cultural archive hidden inside a rogue comet. The comet, which originated in the D'Arsay system, has been traveling for nearly 90 million years. As the Enterprise-D investigates the comet, strange things happen aboard the ship. An unidentified object appears in Deanna Troi's (Marina Sirtis) quarters. Soon, inscrutable symbols are appearing on the ship's computer monitors. Eventually, the crew discovers the ancient archive hidden within the comet. RELATED: Star Trek : Worst First Contacts As the episode progresses, the crew begins investigating the objects found in the archive. But then Data (Brent Spiner) effectively becomes possessed by 'Ihat' and several other D'Arsay personalities. Things only get stranger as the ship begins transforming into a form that resembles ancient Earth temples and landscapes. Ultimately, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) dons a D'Arsay mask and assumes the role of one of the personalities himself. This allows for the personality inhabiting Data to complete her emotional arc. Satisfied, she goes back to sleep, returning the Enterprise-D to its traditional form. 'Move Along Home' Remember Jumanji? Well it's back, in Star Trek form! While some might consider Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 'Move Along Home' to have a silly premise, it's actually quite creepy, if you think about experiencing it for yourself. Wadi visitors from the Gamma Quadrant transform four of our heroes into 'game pieces' in a strange board game called 'chula.' Soon Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) and Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) find themselves trapped with the Wadi chula game. RELATED: Present Tense: On the Eve of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Bell Riots At first, Bashir believes he is trapped in a dream from which he cannot awaken. But our heroes soon discover that the only way to escape the game is to play through. However, there's an especially disturbing element: their pieces are being manipulated by an unwitting Quark (Armin Shimerman), who is always willing to double the danger for a chance at doubling his winnings. Inside the game, our heroes face disturbing challenges, like a room filling with toxic gas and a creepy singing child. And at the end of the game, all four of our heroes must fall off of a cliff before reappearing in Quark's Bar. Later, in Star Trek: Lower Decks' 'In the Cradle of Vexilon,' Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) is forced to undertake the game after a prank on a senior officer goes horribly wrong. 'The Thaw' On Star Trek: Voyager, Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crew faced some pretty daunting circumstances. But if you suffer from coulrophobia, Voyager Season 2's 'The Thaw' is really going to mess with your head! In the episode, the U.S.S. Voyager visits a planet where they discover three aliens trapped in hibernation pods. Soon they discover that their minds are inside a kind of 'Matrix.' In order to help them escape, Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) volunteer to enter the program as well. RELATED: 4 Freaky Star Trek Voyager Episodes But when they get there, they learn why the alien survivors are unable to escape. The simulation is presided over by a sadistic clown (Michael McKean). It seems that the simulation requires living brains in order to continue to run, so the clown has taken the organic lifeforms hostage. And at one point, the clown even attempts to torture Kim. At the end of the episode, Kim escapes thanks to some clever conniving by the crew. While Janeway seemingly offers herself in exchange for the freedom of the other characters, it turns out a simulation of Janeway is sent in instead. With no remaining organic brains, the clown's reality fades around him in a spooky final scene. 'All Those Who Wander' Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Strange New Worlds is no stranger to horror genre elements. In addition to Season 3's 'Shuttle to Kenfori,' there is also the penultimate episode of Season 1, 'All Those Who Wander.' In this episode, Pike and his crew must investigate the wreckage of the U.S.S. Peregrine. The Peregrine crashed on the icy planet Valeo Beta V under mysterious circumstances. No sooner does the Enterprise away team arrive then do they discover the dismembered remains of Starfleet officers. Entering the ship, they begin to gather clues on the fate of the crew, who have seemingly all perished. But they do discover two survivors: a child and her alien traveling companion. RELATED: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Pays Homage to Alien Franchise But things go from bad to worse when it turns out the alien is host to a trio of Gorn embryos. After these explode out of his body like Alien's chestburster, the Enterprise crew must face the swiftly growing and extremely dangerous Gorn in order to survive. This episode establishes the Gorn as a menacing and recurring antagonist for Strange New Worlds after their debut in Season 1's 'Memento Mori.' But after this episode, it isn't just La'An Noonien-Singh who has been traumatized by the reptilian aliens. Who knows what horrible things they will do to the Enterprise crew in the remaining episodes of the series? The Star Trek episodes discussed in this article are currently available for streaming on Paramount+. Double Double: 6 STAR TREK Episodes With Duplicates Avery Kaplan (she/her) is the author of several books and the Features Editor at Comics Beat. With her spouse Ollie Kaplan, Avery co-authored the middle school textbook on intersectionality Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority. She was honored to serve as a judge for the 2021 - 2024 Cartoonist Studio Prize Awards and the 2021 Prism Awards. She lives in the mountains of Southern California with her partner and a pile of cats, and her favorite place to visit is the cemetery. You can also find her writing on Comics Bookcase, the Gutter Review, Shelfdust, the Mary Sue, in the Comics Courier and in many issues of PanelxPanel, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Star Trek legend William Shatner discovers powerful new way to live forever
A groundbreaking program has now made it possible to preserve your life stories and wisdom, allowing you to speak to loved ones decades into the future. StoryFile, an innovative AI company, has developed lifelike, interactive 3D avatars that allow people to 'live on' after death, sharing memories and answering questions in the same natural and conversational manner of a real person. Individuals like philanthropist Michael Staenberg, 71, and Star Trek star William Shatner, 94, have used StoryFile to immortalize both their experiences and personalities. Staenberg, a property developer and philanthropist who has given away more than $850 million, said: 'I hope to pass my knowledge on, and the good I've created.' The technology captures video interviews, transforming them into hologram-style avatars that use generative AI, similar to ChatGPT, to respond dynamically to questions. StoryFile's avatars have been employed in museums since 2021 to preserve the voices of historical figures like WWII veterans and Holocaust survivors, and by terminally ill individuals to connect with family after death. Until now, the company has offered a premium service costing tens of thousands of dollars, but a new, affordable app launching this summer will allow everyday people to record their own AI avatars for less than the cost of a monthly cellphone plan. Staenberg added that he'd like to imagine other business people and family members still having a chance to interact with him 30 years from now. 'It's important to get my version so the details aren't forgotten. I've had quite a crazy life, so I'd have a lot of stories that I don't want people to forget,' Staenberg said. More than 2,000 users have used the previous version. However, the new Storyfile app will allow users to interview themselves on video and create an intelligent avatar they can keep adding chapters to as they answer more questions about their lives. Previously, the Storyfile avatars could understand the intent of people talking to them, but could only respond with pre-recorded video answers. Storyfile's newer AI avatars will be able to generate an answer based on the persona from the recorded interviews, and it will be able to approximate an answer to any question. The company has gotten a huge number of daily queries from people who have been diagnosed with terminal illness and who hope to preserve their legacy in an avatar. Storyfile CEO Alex Quinn said: 'Every day we'll get very sad and heart-wrenching emails, saying things like "My son was just diagnosed with terminal cancer."' Others have expressed fear over their parents aging, asking for a way to keep their memories intact for the future. Quinn added that Storyfile would never be able to accommodate all those requests if they had to send their video production team to all of those customers. The solution was to make a 'DIY' version, where people record their own answers to an AI 'interviewer' using the app - answering questions on everything from their career to their family to their tastes in food. The app will come with 'permanent cold storage' so that avatars remain safe once recorded, and users can keep adding new video and new information. Quinn admitted that because Storyfile avatars use generative AI there is a possibility it could initially say 'crazy' stuff, but noted that the replica of the person will become more and more realistic the more users speak to the program. 'It's almost like an AI FaceTime where you're interviewed by an AI interviewer, and it's able to probe and go deep on certain topics,' the CEO said. 'If you've got a couple days, or you've got free time, and you want to understand your question every now and then, you're just going to keep on adding to your digital memories, and it's going to get more and more sophisticated, more and more personalized,' he continued. Tech pioneers such as inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil have already used AI to recreate lost relatives. Kurzweil created a 'dad bot' based on information about his father Fred in 2016. The 'Fredbot' could converse with Kurzweil, revealing that what his father loved about topics like gardening. It even remembered his father's belief that the meaning of life was love. 'I actually had a conversation with him, which felt a lot like talking to him,' Kurzweil told Rolling Stone Magazine in 2023. He believed that some form of his dad bot AI would be released to the public one day, enabling everyone to stay in touch with their dead relatives from beyond the grave. 'We'll be able to actually create something like a large language model that really represents somebody else by having enough information,' he predicted.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Star Trek' Actress: 'William Shatner Was Interesting, Let's Put It That Way'
'Star Trek' Actress: 'William Shatner Was Interesting, Let's Put It That Way' originally appeared on Parade. The original Star Trek TV series ran for just three seasons between 1966 and 1969 on NBC, though it spawned dozens of TV shows and films that followed. But the original still holds a special place in fans' hearts. The original series starred Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and as the crew of the USS Enterprise, but it also welcomed many memorable guest stars over its three seasons. One such notable guest star is of Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show and The Odd Couple. She appeared in the season 2 episode "Metamorphosis," in which she played Assistant Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford on a peacekeeping mission. In the episode, Hedford has contracted Sukaro's disease, which will eventually kill her, but the team discovers a man named Zefram Cochrane (Glenn Corbett) marooned on an unknown planet with an entity made up of electrical energy that restored his youth and keeps him young. In the end, Hedford ends up merging with the entity and remaining with Cochrane on the planet where they can have a life and live out their remaining years together. In a new interview with Woman's World, Donahue, 88, reflects on her memorable Star Trek appearance, including what it was like working with Shatner, with whom she shared most of her scenes. 'I went to a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas a few years ago, and that was quite amazing, although Star Trek certainly became a phenomenon very early on. You could see that that was going to have legs for a long time. And William Shatner was interesting, let's put it that way," said goes on to say that he was "a little tough" on her because she was nervous in the dress rehearsal. "He was a little tough on me in the beginning, because, like I said, I'm not good at rehearsals, I think I scare people or used to scare people in rehearsals, 'cause it always seemed to me as though they thought that I wasn't going to be able to do it right. I guess I kind of pull that out of the fire at the last minute. "He got a little annoyed with me during the table read, and the director said, 'Just leave her alone, will you?' But it was fine. He saw that I was professional about my work and giving my best. That's all you can ask somebody, is to do their best, and it's what I've always tried to do," said also added that she and Shatner "ended up getting along fine." Donahue also reflected on her decades-long career in show business, saying that her life "sounds quite unbelievable" at times. "If I were hearing it from someone, I'd say, 'Oh come on, that can't possibly be true.' But all told, it was all just so magical. Honestly, I've had a lot of fun," said Donahue. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 'Star Trek' Actress: 'William Shatner Was Interesting, Let's Put It That Way' first appeared on Parade on Jul 26, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 26, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
