William Shatner

William Shatner turned 80 last week.  That’s right, Captain Kirk has entered his ninth decade, fearlessly going where few Canadian hams have gone before.  Perhaps the revelation might be less surprising if you knew him first as the senile pervert Denny Crane from “Boston Legal” but for those born either side of the summer of love it’s a bit of a shock.  He’s actually older than my mum.

There are some who still believe that Shatner isn’t much of an actor.  A few misguided fools are hung up on the fact that he cannot actually sing.  Students of prose have been known to despair over his literary style (which is, admittedly, a little adjective heavy).

All of these things are irrelevant.  The world is full of merely good actors, singers and writers yet there is only one Shatner.  I can think of no contemporary performer who has so turned weakness into strength, who has made a career out of limitations with such joyful, self-deprecating aplomb.  Yes, his acting technique is mannered in the extreme -  based, particularly in his “Star Trek” heyday, on a series of pregnant pauses and hesitations – but it’s uniquely his own.

If Shatner the actor is primarily an entertainer - albeit one whose discovery of comedy has led to subtle shadings seldom evident in the Kirkian prime - Shatner the musician is an artist.  Two albums released 36 years apart are both masterpieces.  “A Transformed Man”, nominally recorded to cash in on “Star Trek”’s success, defies easy description.  An avant garde project open to easy misinterpretation and outright ridicule, it sees Bill screaming out the lyrics to classics like “Mr Tambourine Man” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as though he’s possessed by the devil or at least a half a ton of cocaine.

The world had to wait over three and a half decades for the follow-up.  It was worth it.  “Has Been” opens with a magnificent cover of Pulp’s “Common People” but thereafter all tracks are co-written by Shatner and/or inspired by his life and career.  Comic, satirical and surprisingly moving, the spoken word pieces reference everything from Bill finding his wife dead in a swimming pool to his estrangement from his daughter to the ironic annoyance of being mistaken for the world’s savior.

The strongest song talks about the inevitability of death.  Even at 80 Shatner need not worry about that.  He’s immortal.