“He’s worthy of worship”: The “genius” that William Shatner called his greatest collaborator
There will likely never be another celebrity like William Shatner, someone who transformed from a geek icon into a comedy legend, an award-winning actor, a successful documentarian, and a musician whose interests continue to get stranger.
The success of Star Trek can be derived from how popular a celebrity Shatner is, as his unpredictable public persona has continued to generate interest in the franchise long after its ‘glory days’, but when he tried to take acting roles outside of the franchise, it became challenging for anyone to take him seriously.
His co-star Leonard Nimoy managed to transition into a successful director, helming Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, both well-received by fans and financially successful, but Shatner had a disastrous time writing and directing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which was such a disappointment that he never directed another film, so it seemed that he would spend the rest of his career being a joke.
Shatner had done many cameos and smaller roles where he appeared as a fictionalised version of himself, but as he filmed his final performance as Captain Kirk for 1994’s Star Trek: Generations, the first of the films to feature the cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation, that fate seemed to change. He finally got an opportunity to take on another iconic part as he was cast by showrunner David E Kelley to play the attorney Denny Crane in The Practice.
Shatner’s role became such a fan favourite that he was brought on to the cast of Boston Legal, a spinoff show of The Practice that starred James Spader, with the former universally praised for his performance, and winning several Primetime Emmy Awards for ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series’.
Naturally, he has continued to cite Kelley as one of the best collaborators he’s ever had, gushing to the LA Times, “David Kelley is a genius. He won an Emmy for comedy and an Emmy for drama one year, and he’d written all 48, 40 shows, whatever it was. So he would write a script, and it was pretty much there when he presented it. He barely ever turned up on the set, I mean, half a dozen times over five years, but he wrote these marvellous, funny scripts, and he’s worthy of worship. He is an icon.”
Even though Shatner had been parodied for years for his work on Star Trek, which was often seen as being cheesy and over-the-top, he proved that he could do legitimately great work when paired with a talented showrunner.
While the production of the original Star Trek series was infamously difficult because of the various feuds between cast members, Shatner never had anything bad to say about any of his co-stars on The Practice or Boston Legal.
Shatner still makes public appearances at the age of 95, but Kelley has been more active than ever, currently serving as the executive producer and creator of the Apple TV shows Presumed Innocent and Margot’s Got Money Problems, and is also returning with a third season of Big Little Lies.
