“Shatner in Space” Review: Amazon Turns William Shatner’s Journey to the Last Frontier into a Take for Blue Origin
Bezos and de Vries made it clear in their conversations with Shatner that they were “Star Trek” nerds growing up, and as a bonus, the producers attend a convention with the actor, where there is a lot of excitement. about Captain Kirk going into space. The only real warning comes naturally from Shatner’s children, to whom he announces the news of his plans on camera.
Still, most of it comes down to dress-up – as well as a very effective infomercial for Blue Origin – leading up to the main event, and footage of Shatner finally taking off and looking down at Earth from above. Moved to tears, he continues to repeat “Oh wow” while floating in zero gravity, and later thanks Bezos for what he calls “the deepest experience I can imagine”.
The value of Shatner’s involvement to public relations may be obvious, but the peculiarity underscores the number of levels that encompassed. Shatner linked Blue Origin to the sci-fi-informed vision of space, the exhilarating future of “Star Trek” and the reassuring idea that a nonagenarian could take the brief trip and return without getting worse.
Listening to Shatner’s exultation after landing, however, it was hard not to be moved, at least a little. After pretending to be “out there,” he seemed to really relish his chance to go where, so far, so few have gone before.
“Shatner in Space†is available on Amazon Prime.
Comments are closed.