Page 46 - SHARP September 2022

MAN WORTH LISTENING TO
THE FINAL FRONTIER
WILLIAM SHATNER ON SPACE TRAVEL, LIVING UP TO CAPTAIN KIRK, AND FORGETTING HIS AGE
By Angelo Muredda
WHEN WILLIAM SHATNER BECAME THE OLDEST PERSON
to go out into space last fall as part of a Blue Origin suborbital mission, he wasn’t struck by the grandeur of it all, as you might expect from a long-time film and TV star captain. Rather, he was struck by the emptiness of space in contrast to the teeming life on the little blue rock he had just left behind. Taking stock of a rare experience he shares with only the few hundred privileged people who have also boldly gone beyond terra firma, he notes that the beauty wasn’t out there in the vastness of the stars but in the flawed and increasingly vulnerable planet below.
That’s some of the melancholy wisdom offered up in the nonagenarian Canadian actor, director, author, and (unlikely) musician’s new memoir, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder. A whimsical, amiably digressive tour through his many entanglements both creative and interplanetary, the book is a profile of a working actor whose Captain Kirk–like thirst for knowledge about the natural world — and its resilience in spite of humanity’s numerous efforts to destroy it — is inextricably linked to his drive to keep exploring new projects.
SHARP recently spoke to Shatner about learning to appreciate (and mourn) life on Earth, the cosmic coincidences of his friendship with Leonard Nimoy, and showing up for work no matter the job or one’s age.
I’m struck by how much of your new memoir sounds like utopian science fiction. You say the weeds are made out of the same star stuff as we are. You’re fascinated by the secrets mushrooms hold about communication. But that’s established scientific fact, not utopia.
What is it about these scientific facts that com- mands your attention?
We’ve walked around as ignorant entities for so long, thinking we’re unique and we’re separate, and that the world belongs to us, that we have dominion over it. That’s been pumped into us for so long that we’ve become this arrogant species who’ve destroyed the world. Not only have we destroyed it — we’re continuing with a greater aggression to destroy it even now that we know we’re destroying it.
My devotion to nature is one of awe and wonder. We develop better instruments, and we begin to realize things about which we had no idea before. We learn that we’re more alike to trees than we are unalike. It’s an increasing appreciation of the natural world and how bound up everything is.
As for whether that’s utopian, you want the book to be entertaining. You want to talk in utopian terms and not these dystopian ones so people will read it. But the future is very hazy.
Do you think we indulge in science fiction or fantasies about space travel to avoid some of these dystopian realities about climate change? No question. That’s a very human thing. Let’s not think about the mortgage: let’s go to the movies. Kicking the can down the road is a very democratic thing to do. In a more authoritarian form of govern- ment, they might say, “Let’s ignore it completely.” It’s so much easier to say, “Let the next guy do it.” Miami comes to mind, with people spending millions on seaside property. They’re building 20-foot walls in anticipation of the oceans rising. The world is
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PHOTO BY GARY MARSCHKA.