ORLANDO, Fla. — At 91 years old, William Shatner has seen entire eras of film come and go. But he still has his eyes on the future of science fiction.
Shatner was an honored guest at this year’s Florida Film Festival, which hosted a screening of 1986′s “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” followed by an audience Q&A on April 15.
“A great science fiction story has its roots in reality,” Shatner said ahead of the event. “The setting is futuristic and imaginative and is somebody’s view of what the future will be,” adding that “the roots of the story are always dealing with the human condition.”
According to him, these characteristics have all helped “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” continue to resonate with fans, 35 years after its initial release. Increased awareness about conservation and species extinction, specifically whales, also makes this film more relevant than ever to the modern world.
“The story of mankind’s relationship to the world could be told by its story about whales. And that’s the story that we’re telling [in the movie],” he said. “I think that having gone from indiscriminate whale killing to a pact among almost all the nations of the world that they would stop killing the whales … the slaughter of whales was stopped. And what a note of positivity.”
Last year Shatner made headlines as the oldest person to travel to space, taking a 10-minute flight to the edge of space almost 70 miles above Earth as part of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin project. However, when it comes to talking about his experiences seeing the Earth from above, he doesn’t want to say too much.
“It’s so meaningful, that I can’t just trot it out and talk about it,” he said. “I had this great love affair and you start talking about it again, it demeans it … when people [ask] what was space like? My answer is empty.”
Though he doesn’t want to divulge much about his space flight, Shatner is more than happy to talk about the future of sci-fi, and how Star Trek is influencing films today.
“Every so often, a show like Star Trek comes along, where people remember what they saw or where they were [when it came out],” he said. “Some of these films are really good and sustain the interest in Star Trek, which in turn is sustaining the interest in science and exploration.”
And as for the legacy of “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?” Shatner concedes that it is definitely one of the best films of the franchise, but he doesn’t count out the follow-up, “It seems to be a very passionate argument between 'Star Trek IV' and 'Star Trek V' as to which is the best film.”
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