When Nicholas Meyer was brought on to direct “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” he delivered to the franchise a needed diploma of irreverence. He’d by no means seen an episode of the sequence, however instantly noticed potential in taking part in the battle between the Captain James T. Kirk-helmed USS Enterprise and the Khan Noonien Singh-commandeered USS Reliant as a grand Naval battle. Imbuing Gene Roddenberry’s creation with the seafaring spirit of a traditional swashbuckler yarn like “Captain Blood” or “The Crimson Pirate” proved to be a masterstroke sequence — and, evidently, simpler to tug off than getting an honest efficiency out of Shatner.
To be truthful, William Shatner is not a terrible actor. He impressed his friends throughout his time on the Stratford Shakespeare Competition in Ontario, Canada (a type of being Christopher Plummer), and was wonderful in Roger Corman’s racially charged 1962 drama “The Intruder.” However as soon as he turned a tv star by way of “Star Trek,” he turned a inflexible, predictable performer. His histrionics felt studied and performed as camp. Kirk was an enchanting character, primarily because of his raging ego and appreciable (if pissy) mind, however that shtick wanted shading.
Principally, Meyer wanted to search out out if Shatner had a second observe when he was taking part in Kirk. He did. Getting him there, nevertheless, required driving him into intense boredom.
Shatner’s a reasonably good actor when he isn’t posturing
Throughout a panel dialogue organized by sci-fi writer-producer Marc Zicree (aka Mr. Sci-Fi), Meyer mentioned that the important thing to getting real emotion out of Shatner as Kirk was sporting him down. Per Meyer:
“One of many issues I came upon working with William Shatner on ‘Star Trek,’ is that he was all the time type of placing attitudes. He’d gotten into all these habits on Captain Kirk, and I assumed ‘How do I bust by that.’ I spotted that if I tackled that head-on he would grow to be very, very defensive … however I did perceive that he bought higher when he stopped doing that. The way to cease him from doing that was getting him to be tired of what he was doing. And when he was bored he let down his guard, and different issues got here to the fore as a result of he wasn’t posturing.”
Shatner is phenomenal in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” significantly in his closing scene with Spock and within the denouement with the crew, where Kirk confesses, “I feel young.” If that great response emerged from the depths of boredom, then Shatner must be bored extra usually. As a result of he is by no means been higher in entrance of a digicam.
