Tuesday, January 10, 2006

New Poll - What Was William Shatner's Greatest Star Trek Performance?

This is apropos of virtually nothing, except that Mark Evanier mentioned the William Shatner DVD Club (no I'm not kidding) as one club he won't be joining, and they had a poll about the grand old man's greatest Star Trek performance. Of course they missed some so I've decided to do my own poll.

This of course is not to be disrepsectful of Shatner's other work. Who can forget his emotional work on TJ Hooker? Or indeed his self-referential scenes in Showtime where he tries to show Robert DeNiro how to slide gracefully across the hood of a car? DeNiro and Shatner - with Eddie Murphy - how is even the silver screen able to handle all that greatness? Not to mention the character of Walter H. Bascomb in the Tekwar series - a concept so great it could only have sprung from the pen of William Shatner. Or how about that early episode of Man From U.N.C.L.E. which not only featured Shatner as a guest star but also Werner Klemperer and Leonard Nimoy. Classic. And how can we possibly forget his performance in Big Bad Mama which featured Shatner in all his naked glory - something to which Angie Dickinson can attest (although anyone who has ever seen the film will state that he definitely got the best of that deal). Even his small work is memorable; how can anyone forget his Priceline commercials - heaven knows I've tried.

(Okay that paragraph was mocking. The fact is that William Shatner has done some good acting. "Denny Crane" is a great comedic part, and a lot of his best acting was early in his career - before he went to Hollywood and was working on the stage. He played a memorable "Romeo" at the Stratford Festival in its early years for example.)

Anyway, here are the performances that the William Shatner DVD Club mentions along with a couple of additional options to round the list out.

Post any other suggestions in the comments please.

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