'Star Trek Day' 2021: William Shatner looks back on Captain Kirk, poking fun at Trekkies on 'SNL'

William Shatner is best known for his portrayal of Captain Kirk in Star Trek and earlier this year, in advance of Star Trek Day, he spoke about some of his most memorable moments both on and off the Enterprise.

In 1986, Shatner hosted Saturday Night Live and starred in the memorable sketch "Trekkies" where he castigated a group of superfans to "get a life." Shatner spoke about how the sketch has lived on in pop culture and if he's felt any of the blowback from diehard fans.

"I'm sorry but it was meant in fun," he said. "I advise you to laugh!"

Watch more from Shatner in the above video interview.

Video transcript

- These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission; to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations.

ETHAN ALTER: Star Trek is turning 55 this September. The series premiered then. One of the big stories that everyone's always surprised to learn, is that Lucille Ball was behind producing it and helped save it at one point. Did you ever meet her and thank her for that? That she was behind it.

WILLIAM SHATNER: I don't, I don't know whether she did all of that. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz part of Paramount. They had gotten the section of Paramount, were producing their own shows. So they put the money behind the beginning of Star Trek. So they were peripherally involved in making Star Trek, but only on the side. But I don't think they were quite as functional as what you brought up.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[SCREAMING]

ETHAN ALTER: The first episode that aired, it wasn't the first that was shot. But the first that aired was The Mantrap with that great monster. One of the first great monsters in Star Trek history. Do you remember seeing that on set that day and acting opposite that creature?

WILLIAM SHATNER: We laughed at that one. [LAUGHS] Imagine, you know, yes I like to-- I was at Stratford and I've done-- And say what? It sucks the salt? OK. Sucks the salt out of your body.

ETHAN ALTER: You're like different world now. Different galaxy, now.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Different rules now, right?

[INAUCIBLE]

ETHAN ALTER: It's 35 years of Star Trek IV, which is my personal favorite entry in the franchise. There's a rumor that Eddie Murphy was originally considered for a part. Do you-- Did you ever meet with him?

WILLIAM SHATNER: I made an appearance on a movie he was in, and I got to meet him, talk to him. Delightful guy. But I don't know whether that's true or not. And if it was, I don't remember.

[MUSIC]

- Excuse me. Do you mind that damned noise?

ETHAN ALTER: There is that great scene on the bus in that one, with you and Leonard Nimoy with the punk.

WILLIAM SHATNER: That one I remember.

ETHAN ALTER: That's a classic. Did you know it was going to be that funny when you shot it on that day?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Well, it was written. I mean the proximity of him, me, and the music we didn't understand-- we understood it was meant to be humorous, yes.

- Having received all your letters over the years, and I've spoken to many of you. And some of you have traveled, you know, hundreds of miles to be here. I just like to say, get a life will ya, people?

ETHAN ALTER: In that fall, you did the classic SNL Star Trek, Get a Life sketch, that I think became a whole thing at the time. It was a little controversial, I think, for a little bit, too. Did you understand the humor of doing that?

WILLIAM SHATNER: I understood it. But I also understood it was so amusing that most people would laugh, which they did, and some people didn't. And I'm sorry, but it was meant in fun. And I advise you to laugh.

ETHAN ALTER: Did you have any input into that sketch? Like did you contribute ideas to them?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Probably not. They're so good at writing. What I did contribute was the performance of the words.

- I mean, it's just a TV show, dammit. It's just a TV show.

- To be or not to be that is the question, which preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk. We need breathing room.

- Earth, Hitler, 1938.

- I beg your pardon?

ETHAN ALTER: And then, 30 years ago was the final Star Trek film with the original crew, The Undiscovered Country, which is a really great sendoff. We just lost Christopher Plummer, who's terrific in that movie too. Did you enjoy working opposite him?

WILLIAM SHATNER: He was born in Montreal a few years before me. So I followed him through the channels of theater, radio, television, live television, and then I went to New York, and he went to London. So I was an admirer of his for the longest time. Then we met at Stratford. I think we both arrived at the second year of Stratford, Ontario. And I was his understudy for Henry V. And very shortly after the play opened, six days or so, before the play-- after the play opened, I went on for him as the understudy without any rehearsal, or anything like that. So it was quite a feat. And since then, we were good friends from a distance, because he was always somewhere else. I loved him. I admired him, I respected him. So much fun to finally meet him on this film that I was doing. That was great. Had a great time.

- Second star to the right and straight on til morning.

ETHAN ALTER: For that final scene in that film, where it's the crew, the original crew for the last time on the Enterprise bridge together, was that an emotional moment to film? Sort of, especially because it was coming after 25 years after the show debuted, you were saying goodbye on that day?

WILLIAM SHATNER: The words were there, but how emotional to say the words, was my choice. Choking back the emotion. Choking back and only letting it out once.

ETHAN ALTER: You came back for Generations, obviously. But did that feel like a kind of farewell, a summing up of everything you'd been through with the series?

WILLIAM SHATNER: He didn't die. He didn't die. They never told me. What? He's coming back, I thought he died.

ETHAN ALTER: Would you ever return if they asked to do one more?

WILLIAM SHATNER: I thought it was meaningful. Leonard was photographed in one of those-- two of them-- in one film. So when I saw the movie, I called him up and said, Leonard you know you're old when you go back in time and you're still old. He didn't laugh.

ETHAN ALTER: That's a shame. That's a good line, I think.

[MUSIC PLAYING]