"How William Shatner Changed the World" on the History Channel Talkback

[zmanjz]

Although the concept that Shatner changed the world is extremely unsettling, the show does seem to ring true in it's claim. So for those History Channel fiends amongst us, what do you think of it?


Tune In:
Tuesday, March 13 @ Midnight, or Thursday, March 16 @ 8pm ET/PT

You've got a cell phone at one ear, an iPod at the other. You know that Blackberry is now a verb and Spam is not only canned meat. But just how did we get here? Blame William Shatner--yes, that William Shatner--Captain Kirk. We'll boldly go where few have gone before to reveal how scientists, inspired by the series, would revolutionize medicine and are surpassing the far-out vision of the future foreshadowed in Star Trek in the 1960s. From cell phones to computers to even leading-edge medical advancements, this 2-hour special explores how those sci-fi inventions have now permeated everyday life as we know it. Hosted and narrated by Shatner and based on his book, I'm Working on That, we'll meet the brightest minds of Silicon Valley and the Trek-inspired inventions that have help change the world.

[BlackoutCreature]

In all honesty, i think its safe to say that every single technological advance over the last 30 years is basically due to someone sitting down, watching and episode of Star Trek and saying "thats cool, how do i do that?".

I caught bits and pieces of the show, but i did tape the whole thing to watch later on because im that curious about it. I did however catch where they were talking about Deep Space Nine, claiming that it was losing ratings because it strayed away from Gene Roddenbury's vision of a perfect future. In my opinion Deep Space Nine was the best Trek show ever, and to make a claim such as this, to more or less say its the reason for the ratings downfall of the Star Trek franchise, is absolutely absurd.

[Undrave]

Personally I would be more enclined to agree about DS9 losing rating because it wasn't the same vision of the future but I wouldn't call the serie bad. In any case I don'T like the guy who invented the Borg :p


I saw that show a while back and it's pretty cool.

[The Weed Of Cri]

The documentary seemed negatively slanted toward the later Trek series. Deep Space Nine and Voyager last the same length of time as Next Generation (seven years) and, contrary to what they implied, Enterprise was not the first Star Trek series to be cancelled due to bad ratings. That would have been....um...the original Star Trek.

[Silly McGooses]

Agreed. And DS9 was a good show.

This special was very funny! Loved it loved it loved it. William Shatner was great.

[Beat]

I liked Deep Space 9. It had a war, and Sisko and the crew were pretty cool.

This special...well, it's funny.

[James]

The documentary seemed negatively slanted toward the later Trek series. Deep Space Nine and Voyager last the same length of time as Next Generation (seven years) and, contrary to what they implied, Enterprise was not the first Star Trek series to be cancelled due to bad ratings. That would have been....um...the original Star Trek.

Probably because the later series are more a reactive vision of the original show. The original show had a far harder market to break with no fanbase to start with. What it did was inovative rather than retread.

I don't doubt TNG will have inspired a new generation of people to get into science, but comparatively, practical cultural and scientific effects currently are more traceable to the original show than the re-visioned generation of Star Trek that followed.

From what I'm reading here anyhow. :)

[Undrave]

TNG is the origin of iPods :p

Without TNG Steve Jobs wouldn't have tried to design quicktime which later lead to Mp3s and iPods.

It was indeed funny, especially Shatner.

[langden alger]

i wish they're were more scientists who were fans of star wars...i'd love to cruise my real x-wing into town and own an authentic lightsaber.:evil:

[Rover_Wow]

Over here, we saw it on The Discovery Channel as "How Techies Changed The World", and it was aired as two one-hour eps. And yes, it was funny at parts (Shatner gradually distancing himself away from some guy explaining the physics of space warping, for example, and Shatner sitting in an outhouse).

[Undrave]

i wish they're were more scientists who were fans of star wars...i'd love to cruise my real x-wing into town and own an authentic lightsaber.:evil:

Meh.

Star-Wars is closer, literary speaking, to fantasy than it is to science-fiction.