William Shatner kicked off his career as a promising young actor in the company of the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. But when, despite strong notices for his performances, he failed to springboard to stardom like his Canadian colleague Christopher Plummer, Shatner lowered his sights and embraced the philosophy of a working actor. This isn’t a knock. He shined in his “The Twilight Zone” episodes, and was superb as a racist interloper who stokes violence against the Black residents of a small town in Roger Corman’s “The Intruder.” However, he also took so many guest roles in television that he ran the risk of driving down his value by dint of his ubiquity.
Three seasons and several great episodes of “Star Trek” fixed that for Shatner, but throughout the 1970s he become closely associated with a kind of laughably serious, easily parodied manneredness. The ne plus ultra of Serious Shatner might be his portrayal of veterinarian Rack Hansen in the nifty 1977 exploitation flick “Kingdom of the Spiders.” The movie works as intended, but you’ll be snickering all the way through it as Shatner does battle with a biblical flood of tarantulas. (It’s like the feature length version of Indiana Jones knocking the creepy-crawlies off Satipo’s back in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”)
Eventually, Shatner realized he’d descended deep into self-parody, and decided he wanted in on the fun. In 1982, he found the perfect project to scratch that silly itch.
When Captain Kirk paid a visit to the Airplane! universe
“Airplane!” is one of the funniest and most quotable comedies ever made, but “Airplane II: The Sequel” is mostly remembered as a pale imitation if it’s remembered at all. Why is that? For starters, Paramount greenlit the movie without the involvement or approval of the original film’s creative team (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker). Secondly … it’s just not very funny.
When “Airplane II: The Sequel” does work, which is rarely, it’s usually when William Shatner is onscreen as Alpha Beta Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock. He’s this film’s version of Robert Stack’s Rex Kramer; he hates Robert Hays’ Ted Striker, too, and mercurially attempts to guide the protagonist’s malfunctioning passenger space shuttle to a safe landing on the moon.
The whole purpose of having Shatner in the film is to riff relentlessly on “Star Trek” (easy enough for Paramount since it owns the property). There’s a running gag about voice activated doors (the base’s officers have to make the “Star Trek” door sound to open them), and a moment where Shatner, inexplicably using a submarine periscope to eyeball the shuttles progress, spies the Starship Enterprise. His biggest laugh, however, has little to do with “Star Trek.” When he’s notified that their base doesn’t have a tower, only a bridge, he storms out from behind a video screen which has been revealed to be a door. It’s much funnier when you see it.
The dweeby act suited Shatner. It also led to him playing for yuks on TV shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Boston Legal,” as well as movies like “Free Enterprise” and “Miss Congeniality.”
