continued from page To seek ….

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To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Some episodes were a little cheesy, but others were deep. In “The City on the Edge of Forever,” I was introduced to the concept of time travel. Doctor Mc-Coy (aka Bones) jumps through a time portal on an abandoned planet and travels back to 1930s-era earth, where he inadvertently changes history which allows the Nazis to conquer the world (and the starship Enterprise, once orbiting the planet, ceases to exist and disappears). Captain Kirk and Spock follow Bones through the portal and eventually correct the mistake. At the end of the episode, they are forced to allow an innocent woman (played by the beautiful Joan Collins) to die to ensure that the world’s history timeline remains unaltered.

Star Trek was fresh. It was thought-provoking. It was my childhood. And handsome William Shatner was front and center of every episode.

But I realize that Star Trek isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I think it is important to note that William Shatner has also appeared in dozens of films and television shows, too. He was also the actor in one of the most famous Twilight Zone episodes from the early 1960s. He played a nervous passenger on an airline flight coming home from a stint in a mental health facility recovering from a nervous breakdown. At some point in the flight, he sees a creature wandering around the wing of the plane while it is in flight. No one believes him. He goes crazy, or was he already crazy? Was the creature really there? Or was it a figment of his imagination?

Shatner has made cameo appearances here and there and is always himself — fun, loving, and kind of a cornball. So the possibility that William Shatner may actually launch into space like a “rocket man” in his Golden years has brought me a little unexpected joy. If it’s true, it will make Shatner the oldest person to hurl through space, behind 82-year-old space pioneering superwoman Wally Funk. It will allow the actor, William Shatner, to actually do what Captain Kirk did on the show — go on the voyage of a lifetime, minus the beautiful, busty space aliens Kirk was always loving on.

And it could happen as early as October 12. He will be one of a few who will view earth from high in the heavens and see our planet as the fragile blue orb that it is.

I hope the news is more than a rumor. It will be science fiction come to life. He will have an opportunity to actually “boldly go” where few men and women have gone before. Godspeed, Will Shatner. Godspeed.