With the first four Star Trek movies arriving on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray tomorrow in celebration of Star Trek’s 55th anniversary, I recently got to speak with William Shatner about being part of one of the most important series of all time. While Star Trek only lasted three seasons when it originally aired in the 1960’s, its impact on our planet cannot be fully measured. Think about how many people watched the series on television, or in syndication, and heard the words “to boldly go where no man has gone before” and were inspired.
Unlike most series airing at the time, Star Trek dealt with moral and social issues like discrimination and slavery, while addressing those and other topics with an interracial cast and a multi-ethnic crew. In addition, Star Trek was one of the first series to feature a Black actress (Nichelle Nichols) in a position of power as the ship's communications officer. These are just some of the examples of Star Trek’s positive vision of the future. And while I can point out the many ways it impacted our society, Star Trek was my first entry to the world of science-fiction, and it absolutely changed my life for the better.
During my interview with William Shatner, he talked about working with director Robert Wise on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, if he knew during the making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that it would be such a special film, what he remembers about making director Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and the films powerful message about our environment, how Star Trek IV incorporated whales, and more. He also shared his thoughts on going back and redoing older VFX and fixing mistakes with modern technology.
Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and more information on the Star Trek 4K movies. For a detailed list of all the extras on the 4K Star Trek movies you can read them here.
William Shatner
- He asks where the name Collider comes from.
- Is he working on a 4K remaster of Star Trek V?
- How does he feel about new VFX being added to older series like Star Trek and fixing mistakes that were noticed after release?
- What were his thoughts on Robert Wise helming the first Star Trek movie?
- Why the first Star Trek film ran out of time in the editing room.
- Has he seen the new 4K remastered editions of the first four Star Trek movies?
- At what point during the making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan did he realize this might be a special film?
- Why he always performs like what he’s about to do is going to be the best thing he’s ever done.
- What he remembers about making Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and how the film incorporated whales to talk about what humanity was doing to our environment.
- What it was like after Star Trek ended after the 3rd season.
STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL 4 MOVIES 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY COLLECTION
For the first time ever, experience the original four Star Trek films in stunning 4K Ultra HD. Newly remastered from original elements for optimal picture quality, each film is presented with Dolby Vision and HDR-10. This exceptional collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (both the theatrical and director’s cut), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home are presented on both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Discs, along with access to digital copies of the theatrical version of each film.