The Captains (2011)

Director:

William Shatner

Writer:

William Shatner

Release Date:

22 July 2011 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

The final frontier is only the beginning

Plot:

The Captains is a feature length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors whom have portrayed Starship captains within the illustrious science-fiction franchise.

Plot Keywords:

Star Trek | Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

William Shatner	...	Himself
Patrick Stewart	...	Himself (as Sir Patrick Stewart)
Avery Brooks	...	Himself
Kate Mulgrew	...	Herself
Scott Bakula	...	Himself
Chris Pine	...	Himself
Christopher Plummer	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rene Auberjonois	...	Himself
Ira Steven Behr	...	Himself
John de Lancie	...	Himself
Paul Duraso	...	Arm Wrestling Referee
Jonathan Frakes	...	Himself
Sally Kellerman	...	Herself
Walter Koenig	...	Himself
Chase Masterson	...	Herself - Convention Guest
Robert Picardo	...	Himself
Jeri Ryan	...	Herself
Connor Trinneer	...	Himself
Nana Visitor	...	Herself
Grace Lee Whitney	...	Herself

Directed by
William Shatner

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
William Shatner

Produced by
Christopher T. Carley	....	associate producer
Emily Fischer	....	associate producer
Kevin Layne	....	co-executive producer
William Shatner	....	executive producer
J. Craig Thompson	....	executive producer
J. Craig Thompson	....	producer
David Zappone	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Andy Milne

Cinematography by
Decebal Dascau		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Decebal Dascau

Makeup Department
Leila Boyd	....	makeup artist
Natalia Bruschi	....	makeup artist
Andy Clement	....	makeup artist
Emily Fischer	....	makeup artist
Patricia Rocha	....	hair stylist
Bradley Stenson	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Sandi Charlebois	....	production manager
Aidan Dunstan	....	production manager
Michelle Gorski	....	production manager

Sound Department
Tony Carrison	....	sound recordist
Matthew Chan	....	sound re-recording mixer
Matthew Chan	....	supervising sound editor
Simon Elsbury	....	sound recordist
J.R. Fountain	....	sound designer
Christopher Guglick	....	assistant re-recording mixer
Jack Hutson	....	sound recordist
Tim Lue	....	sound recordist
Wes McLean	....	sound recordist
Daniel Pellerin	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jennifer Renaud	....	mix coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Mike Castro	....	key grip
Decebal Dascau	....	camera operator
Mark Davis	....	still photographer
Kristin Fieldhouse	....	assistant camera
Dominque Gorton	....	camera assistant
Seth Greenwald	....	key grip
Trish Herremans	....	grip
Mike Hodder	....	camera operator
Patrick King	....	assistant camera
Ant Leake	....	camera operator
Will Lodge	....	camera operator
Franklin Lori-Anne	....	still photographer
Jeffrey Neira	....	still photographer
Mike Nolan	....	camera operator
Walter Pacifico	....	director of photography: L.A. segment
Mike Parry	....	gaffer
Mike Roth	....	steadicam
Brad Rushing	....	additional camera
Bruce Schermer	....	additional camera
Jeremy Settles	....	assistant camera
Jeremy Settles	....	gaffer
Drew Seymour	....	camera operator
Stephen Sheridan	....	additional cinematographer
Eric W. Smith	....	first assistant camera
Mike Strange	....	camera operator
Adam Vardy	....	camera operator
Eric Vaterlaus	....	gaffer
Scott Wildfong	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Tim Bissell	....	assistant editor
Joachim Goetz	....	colorist
Ahamd Ismail	....	post-production coordinator
Steve McDonald	....	on-line editor
Gord Ventura	....	project manager

Music Department
Avery Brooks	....	music supervisor
Aaron Field	....	recording engineer
Grégoire Maret	....	musician
Andy Milne	....	musician
Christopher Tordini	....	musician
Jeremy Underwood	....	recording engineer

Transportation Department
Rich Buonagurio	....	driver
Brad Rickert	....	driver
Andrew Short	....	driver
Doug Zubenick	....	driver

Other crew
Richard Arnold	....	researcher
Tim Bissell	....	production assistant
Ted Boniface	....	researcher
Henry Carter	....	production assistant
Angela Cutrone	....	production coordinator
Arthur Evrensel	....	legal
Emily Fisher	....	production assistant
Anastasia Folorunso	....	production assistant
Nathan Gendzier	....	location manager
Nicholas Glitzer	....	production assistant
Richard Hanet	....	production counsel
Helene Jacobson Layne	....	researcher (as Helene Jacobson)
Cindy Jantzi	....	bookkeeper
Justin Pastryk	....	production assistant
Monica Penner	....	visual researcher
Perm Persaud	....	production accountant
Margo Raport	....	publicist
Nick Sewell	....	creative director
Claudia Stocker	....	production staff
Jen Temple	....	bookkeeping assistant
Eric Tschanz	....	epk production assistant
Greg White	....	first assistant: director
Scott Youdale	....	motion designer

Thanks
Rene Auberjonois	....	the producers wish to thank
Scott Bakula	....	very special thanks
Robert Beltran	....	special thanks
Gary Berman	....	the producers wish to thank
Jolene Blalock	....	special thanks
Nathaie Bourdon	....	the producers wish to thank
Avery Brooks	....	very special thanks
Christopher T. Carley	....	the producers wish to thank
Teresa Crites	....	special thanks
Joseph D'Agosta	....	the producers wish to thank
John de Lancie	....	the producers wish to thank
Michael Dorn	....	special thanks
Andrea Eisen	....	the producers wish to thank
Terry Farrell	....	special thanks
Alexander Field	....	special thanks
Melissa Fonzino	....	the producers wish to thank
Beth Fraikorn	....	the producers wish to thank
Jonathan Frakes	....	the producers wish to thank
Kyle Fritz	....	the producers wish to thank
Anita Gaffney	....	the producers wish to thank
Danny Girardi	....	the producers wish to thank
Richard Herd	....	the producers wish to thank
Helene Jacobson Layne	....	thanks (as Helene Jacobson)
Jeff Kaplan	....	special thanks
Melissa Kates	....	the producers wish to thank
Dominic Keating	....	special thanks
Sally Kellerman	....	the producers wish to thank
Walter Koenig	....	the producers wish to thank
Tanya Lemani	....	the producers wish to thank
Sarah Levithan	....	special thanks
Gary Lockwood	....	the producers wish to thank
Adam Malin	....	the producers wish to thank
Chase Masterson	....	the producers wish to thank
Kate Mulgrew	....	very special thanks
Nichelle Nichols	....	special thanks
Linda Park	....	special thanks
Dan Peel	....	the producers wish to thank
Robert Picardo	....	the producers wish to thank
Chris Pine	....	very special thanks
Christopher Plummer	....	very special thanks
Zachary Quinto	....	special thanks
Steve Ridolfi	....	grateful acknowledgment
Jeri Ryan	....	special thanks
Jeri Ryan	....	the producers wish to thank
Bria Schreiber	....	the producers wish to thank
Jay D. Schwartz	....	the producers wish to thank
Aaron Segal	....	special thanks
Elizabeth Shatner	....	special thanks
Armin Shimerman	....	special thanks
Alexander Siddig	....	special thanks
Jane Singer	....	the producers wish to thank
Brent Spiner	....	special thanks
Daniel Stewart	....	the producers wish to thank
Patrick Stewart	....	very special thanks
Ann Swerdfager	....	the producers wish to thank
Larry A. Thompson	....	special thanks
Connor Trinneer	....	the producers wish to thank
Nana Visitor	....	the producers wish to thank
Grace Lee Whitney	....	the producers wish to thank

Production Companies

• Le Big Boss Productions
• Ballinran Productions (in association with)
• 455 Films (in association with)
• Ballinran Entertainment

Distributors

• Movie Central Network (2011) (Canada) (TV)
• Movie Network, The (TMN) (2011) (Canada) (TV)
• Canal D (2011) (Canada) (TV)
• Epix (I) (2011) (USA) (TV)
• Ballinran Entertainment (2011) (worldwide) (all media)
• Entertainment One (2012) (worldwide) (all media)

Other Companies

• Adrenalin Communications  media relations
• Bombardier Business Aircraft  special thanks
• Creative Post  post-production facilities
• David J. Woods Productions  camera equipment provided by
• Firehouse Recording Studio  special thanks
• Got Films  production crewing services
• Paramount Studios  special thanks
• Sim Video  camera equipment provided by
• Theatre D Digital  sound post-production

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Le Big Boss Productions

Goofs:

Factual errors: Right after the scene showing Captain Sisco on the bridge of the original Enterprise, there's a shot of Voyager dropping out of warp speed. The shot must be running backwards as no ship has even been shown to warp aft end forward.

Movie Connections:

References Top Gun (1986)

Candid Conversations Among the Star Trek Captains

This documentary is a series of interviews, actually conversations, between iconic actor William Shatner and the other actors who have played Star Trek captains. Jetting around the country, Shatner talked with Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Avery Brooks, Captain Sisco from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, Scott Bakula, Captain Archer from Enterprise, and Chris Pike, Captain Kirk from the 2009 Star Trek movie.

Interspersed with the interviews were clips from a Star Trek convention Shatner appeared at in Las Vegas, where he met other Star Trek actors, including Rene Auberjonois, Jonathan Frakes, Robert Picardo, Connor Trinneer, and Nana Visitor, among others. Shatner also had a short interview with his old friend Christopher Plummer for whom he understudied at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario early in his career and who played the villainous Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). The only really obvious omission was Leonard Nimoy.

This documentary was fascinating in how it revealed as much about Shatner as his subjects. Topics ranged from how they got started acting, to how each actor got their Star Trek role, to how the Star Trek experience changed their lives and affected their families, to philosophical musings on death, and many things in between. Most of the captains are classically trained stage actors who weren't necessarily immediately onboard with playing a science fiction character for TV. Bakula and Brooks both have extensive musical backgrounds, Bakula as a singer and Brooks as a jazz pianist. In fact, Brooks provided the documentary with a pleasing smooth jazz score.

All of the captains came off as intelligent, hard working, and frank. It was nice to see that they all still took their roles seriously and were truly humbled by the fan reactions to their work. Shatner, especially, seemed genuinely moved when he found out that the Canadian head of Bombardier Aerospace was inspired to take up aerospace engineering from watching Shatner on Star Trek. There was also a poignant scene at the convention where Shatner greeted a young wheelchair-bound man whose devotion to Star Trek seemed to be about the only thing that kept him going.

The interview with Stewart seemed to have the most resonance. It was obvious that there was genuine rapport between him and Shatner. When they talked about how the long hours playing their roles negatively impacted their marriages, it was heartbreaking. Mulgrew's take on being a single mother during her tenure as captain was also touching.

Shatner turned out to be an excellent interviewer. He kept things light and often humorous, such as when he conducted Pine's interview at a card table on a busy intersection or when he met Mulgrew sitting in a cardboard box. This allowed him to get his subjects relaxed and able to open up about some of the deeper questions. Shatner used his personal experiences to draw out measured responses from the other captains. Shatner has a reputation for being egotistical and antagonistic, but none of that was evident here. Maybe time has mellowed him out.

The Captains is a journey of discovery for Shatner that is an enjoyable look at the world of acting in general and the Star Trek universe in particular. It is a sincere glimpse into the heart and soul of Star Trek.