William Shatner Celebrity Ambassador For 'Star Trek: The Tour'

It has been over forty years, but Captain James T. Kirk is still in demand.

As reported at the OC Register, William Shatner may be a bit older, and has moved on from his Star Trek days, but he can't quite cut the ties to his past.

Shatner is the "celebrity ambassador" for Star Trek: The Tour both appearing at various points in the tour itself, and at various cities to where the tour will be traveling. He appeared for the first day of the Long Beach engagement of the tour.

When asked what he felt drew people to Star Trek after all of these years, he said, "I think that world that we do live in, the reality, it's fairly unsure as to how long the world will continue. There's some evidence that we're not all that permanent. And here's a show that says not only are we permanent three hundred years from now, but we're excelling – so there's a sense of hope for the future. Then there's the good action-adventure stuff. And there are the good characters, who have good character things to do, and who are vulnerable. That's a key thing I think – you're leading characters being vulnerable."

As reported at Sci Fi.com, appearing on the reconstructed Star Trek bridge brought back memories for Shatner. "I must tell you I walked in this morning and went to look at the bridge and felt this surge of nostalgia," he said. "It was quite incredible. I hadn't been on the bridge set, since I made the last movie."

Shatner will not be appearing in the next installation of Star Trek. When asked about it, he said "I think they're about halfway through shooting, something like that, or coming toward the end. They've got another three weeks to hire me," he said with a laugh. "I don't think you'll be seeing me, unfortunately. I would love to have been in it. For some reason, I'm not. I don't know the reason why. But I'm sure it'll be a wonderful film, and I wish them all the best. I only hope that Star Trek continues.

In an article posted at Trekweb, J.J. Abrams explained why Shatner had not been cast in Star Trek XI. "C'mon, Shatner is an icon, he is an amazing guy, I really wanted to put him in the movie, like I put Leonard Nimoy in. The truth is that Shatner died, his character died in the movie, he shot the scene in that movie in which Kirk dies. If I put him in... I just saying it was tricky." Abrams said that Chris Pine would not be mimicking Shatner's "hammy flourishes."

To read more, head to the articles located here, here, and here.

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