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After turning into the oldest particular person to journey to house, William Shatner hears the identical query rather a lot when he’s chatting with followers: “What was it like?”

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The 91-year-old Canadian-born Star Trek actor is fast with a one-word reply. “I inform them, ‘Empty,’ after which we go on about our enterprise,” Shatner says with a smile in a video name from Los Angeles.

Shatner, whose decades-long profession contains Miss Congeniality, T.J. Hooker, Boston Authorized, $#*! My Dad Says, Higher Late Than By no means and The Unexplained, together with the unique Sixties Star Trek TV sequence and movies, took to the skies in billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin final October.

The thespian — who introduced Captain James Kirk to life 56 years in the past alongside Leonard Nimoy (Spock), DeForest Kelley (Bones), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), James Doohan (Scotty) and George Takei (Sulu) on the USS Enterprise — was certainly one of 4 passengers to journey for 10 minutes and 17 seconds to the sting of house aboard the 60-foot-tall New Shepard spacecraft.

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As he returned to Earth, Shatner skilled a variety of feelings, a few of which he’ll expound upon when he visits Fan Expo in Toronto this week for an onstage Q&A and photograph op with passionate Trekkers and Trekkies.

However we caught up with him first, for a energetic chat about why his house mission introduced him to tears and ruminate on Kirk’s demise in 1994’s Star Trek Generations — and the inescapable destiny that awaits us all.

What’s it like so that you can be again on the highway assembly followers once more after slightly little bit of a hiatus?

Effectively, I haven’t had a hiatus. I’m working arduous, however it’s going to be a pleasure to come back again to Toronto. I find it irresistible there. Now Toronto is altering quickly, as you realize. All these residence buildings going up downtown are disconcerting. I haven’t been there in rush hour, however I think about rush hour in downtown Toronto is worse than Los Angeles.

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Final fall, you grew to become the oldest particular person to journey to house. What was that have like for you?

I used to be conscious that hydrogen was within the rocket, and I used to be conscious that the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg burned due to the hydrogen. I used to be additionally conscious of human error. The countdown stopped about 15 seconds earlier than takeoff due to some anomaly. So there have been a variety of tension-making components that went into the precise takeoff.

Then there have been the (G forces) on my physique and people had been disconcerting. Then I lastly acquired up. We had practised weightlessness, however you possibly can’t practise weightlessness. So I used to be baffled by that. However I knew I wished to get to the window and see outdoors. I seemed over my left shoulder, again at from the place we got here, and I might see the Earth and in addition the blue of the air that we had been passing by way of … Then I turned and seemed ahead on the blackness of house.

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What I noticed in that blackness was demise and what I noticed wanting behind me was life … After I acquired off that rocket, I discovered myself weeping. I used to be in grief for the Earth and the planet. Issues are going extinct at an unlimited fee and I used to be weeping on the situation of the Earth … We’re these insignificant beings on this insignificant planet and we’re conscious of how insignificant we’re on this huge universe. Is there some other being as conscious of that as we’re? I don’t suppose so. What a marvellous present that’s once we pays tribute to the awesomeness of nature. We confirmed a documentary about that journey to a gaggle of scientists, and on the finish of that documentary Bezos hugged me and I had a revelation on the finish of that hug. We’ve got love on Earth — that was my remaining revelation of that entire journey.

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We’ve spoken a number of occasions, and I’ve requested you about coming again as Kirk, which you advised me you received’t do. However I’ve by no means requested you about Kirk’s demise and his final line, ‘Oh my,’ in Star Trek Generations.

As you become old, as I’m certain you possibly can think about, you consider demise — it turns into an increasing number of current … So when this character was dying, I assumed, ‘How do you die?’ I’ve heard of individuals weeping, my father was incapacitated, he had had a stroke and he had tears in his eyes and I ponder very often what he was crying about. Was he crying about leaving? I liked him very a lot and he liked me. Was he weeping due to me and leaving this world? … So I assumed, ‘How would Captain Kirk die?’ Captain Kirk, who has confronted demise so usually. I assumed he would have a look at demise approaching with the identical awe and marvel that he checked out these unusual beings that he confronted within the years I performed him. I wished him to have a look at demise as one thing crammed with the awe and marvel that he seemed on the universe. So the, ‘Oh my,’ was imagined to be a ‘wow.’ What got here out had a component of dread, and I didn’t need that. I didn’t play it precisely the best way I wished to, which was, ‘Oh my, the gorgeousness of demise. What’s going to occur?’ That’s the best way I really feel about it. That’s the best way I wish to really feel about it. I don’t wish to really feel worry, however I’m afraid I really feel worry (laughing).

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Why do you suppose Star Trek has endured?

The allure and the fascination of Star Trek is within the tales. It’s tales about human beings dealing with these totally different, however actually acquainted challenges … It’s the writing. The great thing about how the writers had been in a position to seize the human situation — that’s the fascination of Star Trek.

William Shatner seems at Fan Expo in Toronto Thursday, Aug. 25 and Friday, Aug. 26. For tickets and information, go to fanexpohq.com/fanexpocanada.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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