Never-Before-Seen Interviews With William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy Detail Wild Behind-The-Scenes Tales From 'Star Trek,' 'The Twilight Zone' & 'Lost In Space'
Oct. 21 2021, Published 1:41 p.m. ET
The fascinating backstories of our favorite sci-fi television shows and their stars take the spotlight in a tantalizing new documentary, and Breaking Celebrity News has your exclusive sneak peek.
William Shatner, who portrayed "Captain Kirk" in Star Trek, and Leonard Nimoy, who played "Mr. Spock" in successful series, are among the on- and off-screen legends who appear in REELZ's forthcoming special, Star Trek to Twilight Zone: TV's Favorite Sci-Fi.
"Bill Shatner was hired as the star of Star Trek," says his late co-star, Nimoy, who died in 2015 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) despite having quit smoking 30 years prior. "And we all understood that. He was the captain. Not only the commander of the ship, but he was hired as the name. He had some reputation, he had some background."
And Shatner did not miss an opportunity to expand his character and fight for his vision of the James T. Kirk.
As the now-90-year-old actor explains, "The only one who's validating the character, mostly, is the actor. So, yeah, it's in my opinion requisite to make a fuss up to a certain point about retaining the characteristics of the character."
Despite Shatner's efforts, it wasn't Captain Kirk who was considered the show's breakout character -- it was Nimoy's Mr. Spock.
Still, Shatner can say he was able to do one thing his co-star was not, and that's travel to outerspace.
Just last week, the actor hoisted himself up into outer space aboard Amazon founder Jeff Be