Star Trek: A Captain's Log (1994)

William Shatner takes us on a trip through original series.

Director:

Michael Mahler

Writers:

Michael Mahler, Harry Werksman (co-writer)

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Cast

Credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Himself
Leonard Nimoy	...	Himself
DeForest Kelley	...	Himself
James Doohan	...	Himself
Walter Koenig	...	Himself
Nichelle Nichols	...	Herself
George Takei	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Scott Crossfield	...	Himself (archive footage) (as A. Scott Crossfield)
Marj Dusay	...	(archive footage)
John Glenn	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Lt. Col. John Glenn)
Robert H. Goddard	...	Himself (archive footage)
John F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles A. Lindbergh	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alan Shepard	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Alan B. Shepard Jr.)

Storyline

This documentary is a trip through the original series. The whole movie is composed of short fragments showing the high points of original series. Between them we can listen to comments of actors. They talk how they felt during shooting, how they feel the series now and what is the meaning of series for the mankind. The original series is full of allegories and in this documentary they are all presented to us with straight words. All leading characters are presented, decribed and we found out what do they really represent. In last third the movies with original crew are presented and, ofcourse, what is the future of Star Trek. This documentary is full of quotes with which we get impression what Star Trek really is.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 November 1994 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television, Zaloom Mayfield Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Captain Kirk: Risk is our business. That is what a starship is all about.

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Connections

Features Star Trek (1966)

User Reviews

A fluffy retrospective

In the 1980s and '90s, it was pretty common for the TV networks to roll out retrospective specials to boost ratings during November and February "sweeps" periods, and this is one of the dozens of Star Trek retrospectives produced over the years. William Shatner hosts from a mock-up of the ship's bridge, introducing a myriad of clips from the show/movies, punctuated by cast interviews.

I watched the original show in syndication when I was a kid, but don't consider myself a Trekker - however, there's virtually nothing in this special that I didn't know already. It's light and fluffy, with remembrances of things such as Nichols' encounter with Martin Luther King, a look at how fictional technology was later actualized, clips, clips and more clips. Also of note, Shatner's segments are nauseating to watch on a large HD TV, with a shaky-cam that rivals the ones used in The Blair Witch Project. Clearly there was some sort of technical problem but they inexplicably used the footage anyway.

I recently caught a rerun of this on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek's debut. For what it is, this isn't a bad special at all - but unless you're a die-hard fan who has to have everything, there isn't much here to warrant seeking out a copy.