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How William Shatner Changed the World

For many Geeks, William Shatner is the iconic space hero. His exploits on the starship Enterprise generated a huge following in the late 1960s. The loyal fan base was much more than just a bunch of groupies - some of them, after being influenced by the show, grew up to become leaders in space exploration or computer technologies. How William Shatner Changed the World follows William Shatner as he describes (in his own special way) how our world has been influenced by Star Trek.

A few years ago, William Shatner discovered the joke that every one was laughing about, it was him and his singing. Instead of allowing this to hinder him, he turned this into something special. He took his singing one step further and turned it into an entire persona based on making fun of himself, and Star Trek. This brilliant sense of humor is what we get to enjoy from the very start of How William Shatner Changed the World. After all, even the name is a spoof. Shatner confesses in the opening sequence "Now don't tell me you think that [the technical revolution] all just sort of happened, that’s just dumb, all this inventiveness and technological wizbangery by accident? PUH-lease! There’s a much simpler and more convincing explanation; I made it happen, or rather Star Trek did..."

This documentary is both a synopsis of Star Trek and discussions of how the series changed the way people view the world its technology. The first hour of the show is dedicated solely to the original series, discussing the ideas Gene Roddenberry had about the future of space travel. The show was to be the ideal of what space travel should be in the future. All the while, we get to enjoy the witty remarks of Mr. Shatner; "As this insightful, compelling, and award winningly narrated documentary will prove, Star Trek HAS changed the world and influenced all our lives. I cannot believe I just said that." Looking directly at the camera he then states "How much am I getting paid again?"

The first stop the documentary makes is a discussion of the impact Star Trek had on the life of Dr. Marc D. Raymon, the chief propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Raymon became interested in physics and the science of propulsion because of Star Trek. Next year NASA will be launching their newest deep space probe with an engine that was influenced by... you guessed it, Star Trek. Dr. Raymon got the idea for an Ion Propulsion system from the episode "Spock’s Brain". (Take that, Star Wars punks - AD).

The second stop in the technological hall of fame is a conversation with Martin Cooper, the chief engineer at Motorola who invented the cell phone. Unless you have been a Luddite who has lived your life at football games and sports bars, you will recognize the similarities between the Star Trek communicators and modern day cell phones. Mr. Cooper happened to be watching an episode of Star Trek one day, and was fascinated by how the communicator worked. He states "that was not a fantasy to us, [...] to me that was an objective: voice recognition, instant communication, no dialing, and no wires."

Mr. Shatner then proceeds to discuss the transporter (and why it won't work), the impact of Trek on medical techniques and technologies, and how Trek helped lead to the first home computer. The Altair 6, named after a solar system in Star Trek, was the first home computer. Home of the ill-fated Kobayashi Maru; this computer influenced both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Once more, I hope that no geek really needs any introduction on what they have provided to our society. (Insert bad Microsoft jokes here)

The second half of the show turns towards the Next Generation. Their audience had grown up studying science and physics, so unlike the original series, where everything was all made up, the writers had their work cut out for them as they studied scientific disciplines so they could continue to create a show that was believable.

The second half of the show also goes a bit into Deep Space 9, Voyager, and Enterprise. However those shows have not had a lot of time to generate technology based on them, so instead the focus starts to move towards the differences between the original series. One difference is referenced by Mr. Shatner

"[Voyager had] a tough no nonsense female captain... wow, did they really have a female captain? Things really had changed, I mean in my day Star Trek women were in short skirts, and well... I remember one girl, she was... really in a short skirt... it was... in fact you would call them panties. They were really... it was like a thong really!"



Even though the show only has time to focus on a select few items that have changed the world, the time spent watching it was well worth it. Even the second and third times were still a hoot. William Shatner is able to mock Star Trek and the geeks who worship it, in the same breath that he shows his amazement, and pride in being a part of such an influential TV Show. For Shatner fans, if you are not able to catch the last couple of showings on the History Channel, I highly recommend purchasing the DVD when it arrives on History.com.

I give the show 5 out of 5 Critical Hits!