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‘Star Trek’ actor George Takei is determined to keep telling his Japanese American story
A copy of “My Lost Freedom,” a children’s book by George Takei, is displayed at the section featuring in the “Being Asian in America” at a Kinokuniya bookstore specializing in selling books and magazines written in foreign languages in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
By YURI KAGEYAMA
Updated 11:40 PM CDT, May 29, 2024
TOKYO (AP) — The incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, including children, labeled enemies during World War II is an historical experience that has traumatized, and galvanized, the Japanese American community over the decades.
For George Takei, who portrayed Hikaru Sulu aboard the USS Enterprise in the “Star Trek” franchise, it’s a story he is determined to keep telling every opportunity he has.
“I consider it my mission in life to educate Americans on this chapter of American history,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
He fears the lesson about the failure of U.S. democracy hasn’t really been learned, even today, including among Japanese Americans.
“The shame of internment is the government’s. They’re the ones that did something unjust, cruel and inhuman. But so often the victims of the government actions take on the shame themselves,” he said.
Takei, 87, has a new picture book out for children ages 6 to 9 and their parents, called “My Lost Freedom.” It’s illustrated in soft watercolors by Michelle Lee.
A copy of “My Lost Freedom,” a children’s book by George Takei, is displayed at the section featuring in the “Being Asian in America” at a Kinokuniya bookstore specializing in selling books and magazines written in foreign languages in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Takei was 4 years old when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, declaring anyone of Japanese descent an enemy of the United States and forcibly removing them from their West Coast homes.
Takei spent the next three years behind barbed wires, guarded by soldiers with guns, in three camps: the Santa Anita racetrack, which stunk of manure; Camp Rohwer in a marshland; and, from 1943, Tule Lake, a high-security segregation center for the “disloyal.”
“We were seen as different from other Americans. This was unfair. We were Americans, who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. Yet we were imprisoned behind barbed wires,” Takei writes in the book.
Throughout it all, his parents are portrayed as enduring the hardships with a quiet dignity. His mother sewed clothes for the children. They made chairs out of scrap lumber. They played baseball. They danced to Benny Goodman. For Christmas, they got a Santa who looked Japanese.
Takei’s is a remarkable story of resilience and a pursuit of justice, repeated throughout the Japanese American experience.
It’s a story that’s been told and retold, in books like the 1973 “Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston; “Only What We Could Carry,” edited by Lawson Fusao Inada more than 20 years ago; and “The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration,” which just came out, compiled by Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung.
David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, headquartered in Washington, D.C., believes the message of Takei’s book remains relevant.
He said discrimination persists today, as seen in the anti-Asian attacks that flared with the COVID-19 pandemic. Inoue said his son has been taunted in school in the same way he was growing up.
“One of the important things about having books like this is that it humanizes us. It tells stories about us that show we’re just like any other family. We like to play baseball. We have pets,” Inoue said.
Takei and his family were sent to Tule Lake in northern California because his parents answered “No” to key questions in a so-called loyalty questionnaire.
Question No. 27 asked if they were willing to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Question No. 28 asked whether they swore allegiance to the U.S. and would forswear allegiance to the Japanese emperor. Both were controversial questions for people who had been stripped of their basic civil rights and labeled enemies.
“Daddy and Mama both thought that the two questions were stupid,” Takei writes in “My Lost Freedom.”
“The only honest answers were No and No.”
Takei said the questions did not explain what would become of families with young children. The second question was also a no-win, he said, because his parents felt there was no loyalty to Japan to denounce.
Tule Lake was the largest of the 10 camps, holding 18,000 people.
Young men who answered “Yes” became part of the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought in Europe while their families remained incarcerated. The 442, with their famous “Go for Broke” motto, is the most decorated unit of its size and length of service in U.S. military history.
“They were determined to prove themselves and get their families out of barbed wires,” Takei said. “They are our heroes. I know I owe so much to them.”
FILE - Actor George Takei, who played the role of helm officer Sulu in the original television series, “Star Trek,” gives a “live long and prosper” gesture in front of a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise space ship at an exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif., on Oct. 20, 2009. (
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
After Japan surrendered, Takei and his family, like all Japanese Americans freed from the camps, were each given $25 and a one-way ticket to anywhere in the U.S. Takei’s family chose to start all over again in Los Angeles.
In 1988, the Civil Liberties Act — after years of effort and testimonies by Japanese Americans, including Takei — granted redress of $20,000 and a formal presidential apology to every surviving U.S. citizen or legal resident immigrant of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during World War II.
Takei’s voice became choked when he recalled how his father did not live to see it.
He noted with pride the diversity depicted in “Star Trek,” a TV series that started in the mid-1960s and developed a devout following. There, the crew that flew together through the galaxies was of various backgrounds.
“Star Trek” writer, creator and producer Gene Roddenberry wanted to portray the turbulent times and the civil rights movement on a TV show but had to do it metaphorically to make it acceptable, Takei said.
“Different people, different ideas, different taste, different food. He wanted to make that statement. Each of the characters was supposed to represent a part of this planet,” Takei said.
Takei recalled how his father taught him how the government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” as Abraham Lincoln put it in his Gettysburg Address, could also prove a weakness.
“All people are fallible, even a great president like Roosevelt. He got stampeded by the hysteria of the time, the racism of the time. And he signed Executive Order 9066,” Takei said.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
https://apnews.com/article/george-takei-japanese-war-incarceration-book-07c2b803a951b766962ac029ce59da14
spaceexplored.com/2022/09/15/perseverance-rover-finds-organic-matter-in-rock-samples-on-mars/
Earth as seen from Mars!
Evil Wesley Crusher Is Coming To Star Trek
Jason Collins -- 9/8/2022 2:01 PM
In celebration of Star Trek Day, ... https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/?s=star%2Btrek .. Gearbox Publishing and Cryptic Studios have revealed that the famous ensign from Star Trek:
The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher, is Star Trek Online's next Terran Emperor.
Actor Wil Wheaton, who portrayed Wesley in the television show, will once again reprise his role, but this time he won't be the boy wonder with eidetic memory, but rather an evil tyrant from the Mirror Universe.
Evil Wesley Crusher Is Coming To Star Trek © Provided by Giant Freakin Robot
This is big news for the Star Trek Online fans since the true identity of the Terran emperor has been shrouded in mystery, though some have previously guessed that it was evil Wesley Crusher all along - basing their guesses on the clues hidden in the narrative's questlines.
As reported by Polygon, the Terran Emperor from the Mirror Universe apparently retains the powers of the original Wesley, which were granted to him during the show by The Traveler. .. https://www.polygon.com/23342629/star-trek-online-mirror-universe-wesley-crusher-terran-emperor
Emperor Wesley Crush in the Star Trek Online: Ascension teaser © Provided by Giant Freakin Robot
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/evil-wesley-crusher-is-coming-to-star-trek/ar-AA11Erf0?ocid=msedgdhp&cvid=3dcb1161df124d13afd8c39fea384a02
Another Star Trek Legend Honored With A Final Space Voyage
Michileen Martin - Yesterday 12:13 PM
Last month we learned that a portion of the ashes of Nichelle Nichols–who passed away at the end of July–would be joining the DNA of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Roddenberry’s wife as well as a Trek alum of multiple projects Majel Barrett, actor James Doohan, and visual effects master Douglas Trumbull on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur mission.
Today we learned another name has been added to those whose remains will soon start a fitting journey into deep space. The DNA of Star Trek: The Original Series star DeForest Kelley–who played Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy on the show and in many subsequent projects such as the first six Trek films–will be joining those of his late colleagues.
The press release from Celestis– .. https://www.celestis.com/participants-testimonials/jackson-deforest-kelley/ .. the Houston-based company that has been arranging similar space-bound memorials since the nineties–says that the DNA of Star Trek’s DeForest Kelley will join those of the other Trek alums on the upcoming space mission. While the primary goal of the mission is to deliver a robotic lander to The Moon, what’s being called the Enterprise Flight will also launch the partial remains of the Star Trek legends into deep space. A precise date for the mission hasn’t been announced, though it is expected to commence before the end of the year.
Star Trek wouldn’t be the same without DeForest Kelley. He’s jokingly remembered as the Enterprise’s doctor who utters the oft-repeated “He’s dead, Jim,” but his role was far more than the guy delivering the bad news. As an often emotional and fiercely opinionated member of the Enterprise crew, Bones played off the relatively cold stoicism and logic of Leonard Nimoy‘s Spock. As a result, while Bones consistently held to his ideals, he always played a different role depending on the story and his take on the events. He was sometimes the crew’s conscience, sometimes the voice of reason, sometimes a sober dose of reality, and other times an unwelcome element of chaos.
DeForest Kelley in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/another-star-trek-legend-honored-with-a-final-space-voyage/ar-AA11BPqn?ocid=msedgdhp&cvid=5713e92e899343b782d10b9b0d5469f4
Wow, very cool. I want that 
Nichelle Nichols' remains will go explore strange new worlds
August 29, 2022 10:09 AM ET
RACHEL TREISMAN, DUSTIN JONES
The remains of actress and singer Nichelle Nichols will be launched into deep space later this year, according to company Celestis.
Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images
More than five decades after the original Star Trek series ended, its beloved communications officer will venture into the unknown for real when Nichelle Nichols' ashes are launched into deep space later this year.
Nichols, the trailblazing actress who played Lt. Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series in the 1960s and in several of the franchise's feature films, died at age 89 in July. She is remembered as one of the first Black women featured in a major television series, as well as credited with inspiring women and people of color to join NASA.
And now her symbolic journey beyond the stratosphere continues. United Launch Alliance — an American spacecraft launch provider — announced last week that a portion of Nichols' ashes will travel to deep space aboard a Vulcan rocket with Celestis, a private company that sends peoples' cremated remains and DNA into space for memorial flights.
The first Celestis Voyager Service is set to launch later this year and will bear the name Enterprise Flight in honor of its passengers.
It will also carry the remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife,
actor Majel Barrett-Roddenberry,
as well as those of James Doohan, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the series and films.
"We're very pleased to be fulfilling, with this mission, a promise I made to Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 1997 that one day we would fly her and husband Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry together on a deep space memorial spaceflight," Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer said in a press release.
The flight is slated to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral and travel more than 250 miles into deep space, beyond the Earth-moon system and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, in what the company calls "a mission that is first of its kind."
Willing participants can pay to send their own DNA or a portion of their loved ones' cremated remains on the journey, with tickets starting at $125,000. Availability is limited, and reservations close on Wednesday.
Fans can also join from a distance by submitting a tribute message to Nichols online, which the company says will be sent into space too. Beam 'em up, Scotty!
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/29/1119824784/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-dead-space-memorial-flight
Actress Nichelle Nichols, 'Star Trek's' trail-blazing Uhura, dies at 89
By Will Dunham
July 31, 20226:52 PM CDT Last Updated an hour ago
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/KLLY5WS44ZIMVOQ2QITAKMDXXI.jpg)
Actor Nichelle Nichols, who played the character Uhura in the original "Star Trek" TV series,
poses at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calfiornia August 5, 2012.
REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo
July 31 (Reuters) - Nichelle Nichols, whose portrayal of starship communications officer Lieutenant Uhura in the 1960s sci-fi TV series "Star Trek" and subsequent movies broke color barriers and helped redefine roles for Black actors, has died at age 89, her family said.
Nichols, whose fans included Martin Luther King Jr. and a young Barack Obama, "succumbed to natural causes and passed away" on Saturday night, her son, Kyle Johnson, wrote on Facebook.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/actress-nichelle-nichols-star-treks-trail-blazing-uhura-dies-89-2022-07-31/
George Takei seems to really dislike William Shatner. I remember at the Shatner Roast on comedy central, I was surprised that Takei didn't seem to be joking. Now this:
rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/george-takei-mocks-william-shatner-space-flight-star-trek-beef-1242410/amp/
Whatever, don't make me choose, I'd choose Kirk 
Patrick Stewart's leading roles such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek.....and much more
A moment that changed me: Patrick Stewart on the teacher who spotted his talent – and saved him
I skipped the 11-plus and was failing at school. Then I met Cecil Dormand, the extraordinary English teacher who transformed my life for ever
Patrick Stewart, right, with the inspirational Cecil Dormand and his wife Mary. Photograph: Courtesy of Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell
Patrick Stewart
Wed 13 Oct 2021 02.00 EDT
I never sat my 11-plus. On the day of the test, I wandered around the hills near the golf club above my home town of Mirfield in West Yorkshire. I ate my lunch sitting against a dry stone wall, looking down on the town, where I could see my school pals in the playground during a break in the exams. I doubt if I would have passed, anyway. And, frankly, I just didn’t see myself as a grammar-school boy.
Had I sat that test, I might never have met Cecil Dormand, a teacher at the secondary modern where I ended up, who would change my life when I was 12, by putting Shakespeare into my hands for the very first time. It was The Merchant of Venice. He gave copies to most of us and told us to look up Act 4 Scene 1 (or the famous trial scene, as I was to learn). He cast all the speaking roles and told us to start reading. We all did, but silently. “No, no, you idiots, not to yourselves!” he yelled. “Out loud! This is a play, not a poem. It’s life. It’s real.”
The first words – “I have possessed your grace of what I purpose” – was the first line of Shakespeare I ever read. I barely understood a word, but I loved the feel of the words and sounds in my mouth. A 400-year-old writer reached out a hand in invitation to me that morning. I felt a sense of an internal, private me being released and connecting with something mysterious, alien and exciting. I was hooked.
“Cec”, as we called him, was my form master and my English teacher. I liked him at once, as did most of the children he taught. His style was very relaxed, funny and provocative, but when it came to teaching he was articulate, interesting, engaging and, most of all, passionate.
I suspect Cec had already intuited that I loved to escape into the world of fiction and out of my dull, uncomfortable and sometimes scary home life, living with an abusive father. But he made literature and language feel like a part of our lives, too.
The same year as he gave us The Merchant of Venice, he cast me in a play with adults – mostly my teachers. I had never acted before. The play was the wartime farce The Happiest Days of Your Life. I played a young pupil named Hopcroft Minor. There were 100 or more people in the audience, which should have been unnerving and intimidating, but I felt fearless and entirely at home. I felt safe on stage and I always have since. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t being Patrick Stewart but Hopcroft Minor.
Not long afterwards, Cec called me to the headmaster’s office, where I met another influencer of my youth, Gerald Tyler, the county drama adviser. He told me that the council was going to run an eight-day residential drama course at Calder high school, in Mytholmroyd, during the Easter break. The head said I could go as a representative of the school. This was where I first had formal acting lessons. Many years later, I learned that Cec must have paid for me to go on the course himself.
I was not the only person in my one-up, one-down house who benefited from Cec’s encouragement and kindness. He persuaded my older brother, Trevor, to have a go at getting into Dewsbury technical college, which he did, to great success. He also encouraged my father to become chair of the PTA. He had been a superstar in the British army – regimental sergeant major of the parachute regiment. But, by this point in his life, he was nobody. The role gave him importance and some dignity back.
A few days before I left school, at the age of 15, Cec asked me if I had ever thought of taking up acting as a career. It made me laugh, because it was a ridiculous idea, but two years later I was offered a place at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, paid for by a scholarship. Usually the recipients were exclusively Oxbridge students, but they believed I had something that, perhaps, fitted in with other young people they encountered – although from a very different background.
Patrick Stewart and Cecil Dormand in 2004 at the University of Huddersfield graduation ceremony, when the retired headteacher was made an honorary Doctor of Letters.
Photograph: Courtesy of the University of Huddersfield
It took me years to find a way to thank Cecil Dormand, but, when I did, I was in my first of 12 years as chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, where I presented him with an honorary degree. A few years later, I made him a second thank-you when I invited him to the luncheon celebrating my knighthood, presented by the Queen that same morning. The host invited everyone to say a few words. Cec said: “What the heck am I going to call him now? For decades he called me Sir!”
Cec passed away a few weeks ago, at the age of 96. He saved me when I was a boy and my education was failing – and has without doubt been the most significant person in my life. If I had not met Cec, what would have happened to me? I am so grateful for his belief in me. Rest in peace, Sir.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/13/a-moment-that-changed-me-patrick-stewart-on-the-teacher-who-spotted-his-talent-and-saved-him?utm_source=pocket-newtab
============================================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart
[...]
From the 1980s onward, Stewart began working in American television and film, with prominent leading roles such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, its subsequent films, and 2020's Star Trek: Picard; as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men series of superhero films; the lead of the Starz TV series Blunt Talk; and voice roles such as CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock in American Dad! and the narrator in Ted. Having remained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 2008 Stewart played King Claudius in Hamlet in the West End and won a second Olivier Award.
In 1993, TV Guide named Stewart the Best Dramatic Television Actor of the 1980s.[1] He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 16 December 1996. In 2010, Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.
[...]
William Shatner, TV’s Capt. Kirk, blasts into space
By MARCIA DUNN and RICK TABER 18 minutes ago
This undated photo made available by Blue Origin in October 2021 shows, from left, Chris Boshuizen, William Shatner, Audrey Powers and Glen de Vries.
Their launch scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will be Blue Origin’s second passenger flight, using the same capsule and rocket that Jeff Bezos used for his own trup three months earlier. (Blue Origin via AP)
VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Hollywood’s Captain Kirk, 90-year-old William Shatner, blasted into space Wednesday in a convergence of science fiction and science reality, reaching the final frontier aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company.
The “Star Trek” hero and three fellow passengers soared to an estimated 66 miles (106 kilometers) over the West Texas desert in the fully automated capsule and then safely parachuted to the desert floor in a flight that lasted just over 10 minutes.
Shatner became the oldest person in space, eclipsing the previous record — set by a passenger on a similar jaunt on a Bezos spaceship in July — by eight years.
“That was unlike anything they described,” Shatner said at the capsule descended toward Earth.
Sci-fi fans reveled in the opportunity to see the man best known as the stalwart Capt. James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise boldly go where no star of American TV has gone before.
Shatner said ahead of the countdown that he planned to spend his approximately three minutes of weightlessness gazing down at Earth, his nose pressed against the capsule’s windows.
“The only thing I don’t want to see is a little gremlin looking back at me,” he joked, referring to the plot of his 1963 “Twilight Zone” episode titled “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
Bezos is a huge “Star Trek” fan — the Amazon founder had a cameo as an alien in one of the later “Star Trek” movies — and Shatner rode free as his invited guest.
The blastoff brought priceless star power to Bezos’ spaceship company, given its built-in appeal to baby boomers, celebrity watchers and space enthusiasts. Shatner starred in TV’s original “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969, back when the U.S. was racing for the moon, and went on to appear in a string of “Star Trek” movies.
Bezos himself drove the four to the pad, accompanied them to the platform high above the ground and cranked the hatch shut after they climbed aboard the 60-foot rocket. The capsule, New Shepard, was named for first American in space, Alan Shepard.
“This is a pinch-me moment for all of us to see Capt. James Tiberius Kirk go to space,” Blue Origin launch commentator Jacki Cortese said before liftoff. She said she, like so many others, was drawn to the space business by shows like “Star Trek.”
The flight comes as the space tourism industry finally takes off, with passengers joyriding aboard ships built and operated by some of the richest men in the world.
Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson led the way by riding into space in his own rocket ship in July, followed by Bezos nine days later on Blue Origin’s first flight with a crew. Elon Musk’s SpaceX made its first private voyage in mid-September, though without Musk aboard.
Last week, the Russians launched an actor and a film director to the International Space Station for a movie-making project.
“We’re just at the beginning, but how miraculous that beginning is. How extraordinary it is to be part of that beginning,” Shatner said in a Blue Origin video posted on the eve of his flight.
MORE ON BLUE ORIGIN FLIGHT
– To oldly go: Shatner, 90, inspires with real-life space trip
https://apnews.com/article/william-shatner-entertainment-science-jeff-bezos-texas-ef96638c75b2b0c294bfe053176f3e18
– As Shatner heads toward the stars, visions of space collide
https://apnews.com/article/shatner-blue-origin-2f300ec9fc37e5625d56bbc6de3f42b7
Shatner strapped in alongside Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president and former space station flight controller for NASA, and two paying customers: Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer who co-founded a satellite company, and Glen de Vries of a 3D software company. Blue Origin would not divulge the cost of their tickets.
Shatner milked his upcoming flight for laughs last week at New York Comic Con. The actor said Blue Origin informed him he would be the oldest guy in space.
“I don’t want to be known as the oldest guy in space. I’m bloody Captain Kirk!” he exclaimed. Then he stammered in a faux-panicky voice: “Captain Kirk, going where no man ... I’m going what? Where am I going?”
He confessed: “I’m Captain Kirk and I’m terrified.”
Jokes aside, Blue Origin said Shatner and the rest of the crew met all the medical and physical requirements, including the ability to hustle up and down several flights of steps at the launch tower. Passengers are subjected to nearly 6 G’s, or six times the force of Earth’s gravity, as the capsule returns to Earth.
Shatner shooting into space is “the most badass thing I think I’ve ever seen,” said Joseph Barra, a bartender flown in from Los Angeles to help cater Blue Origin’s launch week festivities. “William Shatner is setting the bar for what a 90-year-old man can do.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
___
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Associated Press video journalist Cody Jackson contributed to this story.
https://apnews.com/article/shatner-blue-origin-launch-09705724072c0ecad2674c8511f0fcab
Star Trek’s Captain Kirk rocketing into space next week
By MARCIA DUNN 58 minutes ago
1 of 2
FILE - In this May 6, 2018 file photo, actor William Shatner takes questions from reporters after delivering the commencement address at New England Institute of Technology graduation ceremonies, in Providence, R.I. Star Trek’s Captain Kirk is rocketing into space this month — boldly going where no other sci-fi actors have gone. Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 that Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne, file)
2 of 2
FILE - In this 1988 file photo, William Shatner, who portrays Capt. James T. Kirk, attends a photo opportunity for the film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." Star Trek’s Captain Kirk is rocketing into space this month — boldly going where no other sci-fi actors have gone. Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday, Oct. 4, 2021 that Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Star Trek’s Captain Kirk is rocketing into space this month — boldly going where no other sci-fi actors have gone.
Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday that William Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12.
At age 90, Shatner will become the oldest person in space. He’ll join three others — two of them paying customers — aboard a Blue Origin capsule. It will be the company’s second launch with a crew.
Bezos was on the debut flight in July, along with his brother and the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by six years.
“I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” Shatner said in a statement.
Also flying with Shatner: a former NASA engineer who founded a nanosatellite company; the co-founder of a software company specializing in clinical research; and a Blue Origin employee. The up-and-down space hop will last 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometers).
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
https://apnews.com/article/william-shatner-star-trek-blue-origin-space-jeff-bezos-e10877d624a4cc0be9385585c2647cdd
I forgot to mention that the interviews with the creators, hosted by Wil Wheaton, are also great! It's Wesley Crusher approved
Thanks for your Trekker info. I wasn't as devoted as you tho.
MrMike241 -- SORRY ABOUT THE VERY LATE RESPONSE
I was very interested in watching the original Star Trek, starring Shatner, when it was a TV series in the late 60's and later. Now those old programs may seem a little crude and unrealistic at times, but I understand they had a limited budget then. I still like watching the re-runs sometimes, usually remembering the plot and ending. I watch the version with Picard occasionally,
Fast Forward to the Present Day World, regarding William Shatner:
The UnXplained': William Shatner's History Channel series tackles the deepest mysteries of the world
July 19, 2019
"The eight-part anthology series tackles topics that have mystified mankind for ages, including cursed ancient cities, mysterious structures, bizarre rituals, and extraterrestrial sightings."
https://meaww.com/william-shatner-latest-nonfiction-series-unravels-deepest-mysteries-world
I've watched about 3 of Shatner's History Channel programs as I stumbled upon them while browsing.
The last one I watched weeks ago was called The Ancient Aliens. Maybe all 8 have been shown.
And there is a lot more Shatner info:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Are+Shatners+history+channel+programs+re-broadcsast&qpvt=Are+Shatners+history+channel+programs+re-broadcsast&FORM=VDRE
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%2bAre+Shatners+history+channel+programs+re-broadcsast&qpvt=Are+Shatners+history+channel+programs+re-broadcsast&FORM=RCVR
90 Year Old William Shatner's life in pictures
Updated 4:12 PM ET, Mon March 22, 2021
William Shatner plays Captain James T. Kirk in a 1968 "Star Trek" episode. He starred on the show from 1966-1969 and played Kirk in many of the "Star Trek" movies.
CBS/Getty Images
Believe it or not, William Shatner is now 90 years old.
-- William Shatner bio.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=William+Shatnerbio --
The award-winning actor, best known for his iconic role as "Star Trek" captain James T. Kirk, is celebrating his milestone birthday on Monday, March 22.
"I must say that the reaction to a 90th birthday is overwhelming. Don't you people have better things to do?" he joked on Twitter. "Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and love!"
[...]
Shatner accepts the Governors Award on behalf of the cast and crew of "Star Trek" during the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys.Phil McCarten/Invision/AP
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/entertainment/gallery/william-shatner/index.html
Why Patrick Stewart agreed to reboard the 'Star Trek' enterprise
The latest "Star Trek" series keeps both feet on the ground before reaching for the stars.
By Neal Justin Star Tribune
January 22, 2020 — 5:15am
Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: Picard” on CBS All Access.
LOS ANGELES – Jean-Luc Picard is boldly going where no USS Enterprise captain has gone before: on a massive guilt trip.
In “Star Trek: Picard,” one of the year’s most highly anticipated TV voyages, the usually unflappable commander is wrestling with his conscience, failing to fully come to terms with how the Federation abandoned his highly controversial mission to rescue residents of the destroyed enemy planet Romulus two decades earlier.
He spends his days wandering his French vineyard, walking his dog, sipping decaffeinated tea and seething over his tainted legacy.
“I haven’t been living,” he says in the first episode, which drops Thursday on CBS All Access. “I’ve been waiting to die.”
Don’t panic, Trekkies. Picard eventually blasts into space. But the show’s writers were in no hurry to set the action on stun. Our hero doesn’t even utter the order “Engage” until the end of the third hour.
“This feels more grounded,” said creator Alex Kurtzman. “It’s very rare that you see a lot of time spent on the planet Earth in the world of ‘Star Trek,’ and we did not want to rush past that. We wanted to take the time to show the condition of Picard’s life, and to watch him evolve before taking off into the stars. We are always leading with character first. The look and the tone and the feel of the show is different by design.”
Star Trek: Picard
When: Starts streaming Thursday; new episodes drop every Thursday.
Where: CBS All Access.
That approach suited actor Patrick Stewart, who returns to the title role more than 25 years after the conclusion of the TV series, “The Next Generation,” and 18 years after the feature film, “Star Trek: Nemesis.”
“I only appear very briefly in my uniform, and this was another one of the rather presumptuous conditions that I laid down, that I didn’t want to wear a uniform in this,” said the knighted actor last week at the Television Critics Association press tour. “I felt it very important that we put a lot of distance between ‘Next Generation’ and what we are seeking to do here in this. Picard’s life has changed. He’s troubled, disturbed, lonely and with feelings of strange, unnatural guilt.”
What hasn’t changed is the beloved franchise’s use of futuristic story lines to reflect modern-day issues. In this case, synthetic life-forms — the most famous of which was Data — have been banned, a clear reference to current anti-immigration sentiments and hate crimes.
“?‘Star Trek’ stories have a tendency to reflect the fractures in our world,” said Akiva Goldsman, who won an Oscar for writing “A Beautiful Mind” and is an executive producer on the new series. “The stratification of people and opportunity, when it comes to the marginalization of others, not being openhearted or seeing with empathetic eyes, these seem to be pervasive problems that we all saw as rife for healing, and ‘Star Trek’ does this small little bit in trying to heal social ills.”
Stewart never stopped appreciating the franchise’s lofty ambitions.
“As I look around the world today, there has never been a more important moment when entertainment and show business can address some of the issues that are potentially damaging our world,” he said. “Now, I’m not saying we are turning ‘Star Trek’ into a political show. Not remotely. What we are making is entertainment, but it should reflect, perhaps in a subtle and gentle way, the world that we are living in. That’s what “Star Trek” has always done, and I think it’s important.”
Still, there was a time when he harbored some resentment toward the character.
“I found quite soon after we wrapped the fourth of our movies, ‘Nemesis,’ that I had hung a kind of albatross around my neck,” Stewart said. “I got an interview with a director who I was passionate to meet with because there was a role in his next movie, a small role, I wanted to play. And he was very nice to me and saw me and said, ‘I think you do terrific work, but why would I want Jean-Luc Picard in my movie?’ That was a savage blow for quite a long time.”
Stewart quickly re-established his versatility, from playing Macbeth in a West End production to voicing a pile of feces in “The Emoji Movie.” The reprisal of X-Men mentor Charles Xavier, his other iconic role, in 2017’s “Logan,” deserved serious Oscar consideration.
But he never quite shook Picard. At some point, he didn’t want to.
“It has taken a while for me to truly absorb the impact of this work,” he said. “I’m not the leader, but in a sense, I’m a kind of symbol. I’m very content to be that because I think it’s all about the quality of the work. So there was actually nothing that strange to be stepping into ‘Star Trek: Picard,’ because he’s never actually left me. He has always been there, and it’s a relationship that I am happy to continue with. That’s an understatement. I’m absolutely thrilled to continue.”
Santiago Cabrera is just starting to comprehend the show’s popularity, both as a viewer and as one of the new actors to be invited into the “Star Trek” universe.
“I moved around a lot as a kid. So I feel like I missed it,” said Cabrera, who plays a former Starfleet pilot who is skeptical of Picard’s intentions when he decides to embark on one last mission. “Now that I got into it and have watched so many episodes, the first thing I did was ring my folks and go, ‘Why didn’t we ever watch this at home?’ It’s fantastic, and I immediately understood why it has that cultural impact and the phenomenon of it. And what I’ve loved in meeting the fans in the few Comic Cons we’ve done is their innate curiosity. We’re not only telling stories and reflecting the world today but also just, kind of, sparking their intellect.”
But few “Star Trek” fans whip up as much hysteria as Stewart.
Is he now comfortable with being the face of one of sci-fi’s most enduring franchises?
“No, it doesn’t bother me that I’m identified in that way, partly because there are some people who might take a little offense to that. I won’t name any names, but their initials are Bill Shatner,” he said, referring to the actor who’s known almost as much for his blowhard ego as he is for playing Captain Kirk.
“But I am very content to stand in Bill’s shadow.”
http://www.startribune.com/why-patrick-stewart-agreed-to-reboard-the-star-trek-enterprise/567163642/
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Patrick Stewart BIO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart
Aside from the obvious, lol, we do not want that character to live long, and especially not prosper.
Merry Christmas
Astronomers just discovered Spock's home planet, Vulcan
Newfound exoplanet orbits a star identified with the famed science officer from "Star Trek."
by David Freeman / Sep.19.2018 / 1:55 PM CDT
Planet Vulcan
Artist's concept of a "super-Earth" orbiting the star HD 26965.Don Davis / University of Florida
No one is saying that any pointy-eared aliens live there, but astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting 40 Eridani A, a star known to "Star Trek" fans as the host star of Spock's home planet, Vulcan.
The newfound exoplanet is 16 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Eridanus. It orbits its host star — a sunlike star with the formal designation of HD 26965 — just inside the habitable zone, where water could exist in liquid form and where life as we know it could be possible.
"It came as a total surprise to us," Jian Ge, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and co-author of a new paper about the discovery, told NBC News MACH in an email. "We did not have an intention to look for Vulcan orbiting HD 26965."
Image: Star Trek: The Original Series
Leonard Nimoy as Spock in "Star Trek."CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images
The exoplanet is about twice the size of Earth and is considered the closest "super-Earth" orbiting a sunlike star. For now, it's known as HD 26965b, in keeping with naming guidelines set forth by the International Astronomical Union. But Ge said he planned to contact the Union to ask that the exoplanet be named Vulcan.
It might be fun to name a real-life planet after a fictional world, but is it — as Spock might ask — logical? "Absolutely yes!" Sara Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at MIT, said in an email. "'Star Trek' (and other science fiction) paved the way for people to get excited about real exoplanets."
Leonard Nimoy as Spock in "Star Trek."CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images
...
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/astronomers-just-discovered-spock-s-home-planet-vulcan-ncna911136
The Orville has gotten better with each episode. Better than the new Star Trek Discovery, I am sad to say.
William Shatner attending the Europe conventions next year.
He may actually live long enough to be a futuristic character...
Didn't watch it as it will now air only on the CBS Pay Channel, only the first two episodes will be free 
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