SHATNER BEFORE TREK - a series of capsule reviews
Here’s a recap of some of the early work of William Shatner in episodic television before landing the role of James T. Kirk. These are some of the ones I’ve seen anyway. One notable guest appearance I haven’t yet had the chance to see is his turn on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with Leonard Nimoy.
Probably everybody here is pretty much familiar with Shatner’s two Twilight Zone appearances – 1962’s “Nick of Time” and 1964’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", both scripted by future TOS writer Richard Matheson. In the former, Shatner plays a man who becomes obsessed with a cheap fortunetelling machine in a small-town roadside diner, convinced that it actually has the ability to predict the future. In the latter, he plays a man taking an airline trip after suffering a nervous breakdown. During the flight, he notices what appears to be a flying monster sabotaging one of the engines of the plane, but he appears to be the only one who witnesses this. Is the monster really there, or is he cracking up again? This latter show remains probably one of the most famous and iconic television episodes in history and probably would even if Shatner hadn’t later gone on to fame as Kirk.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS
“The Glass Eye” (1957) and “Mother May I Go Out to Swim?” (1960)
“The Glass Eye”, chosen as the third season premiere of AHP, is one of the best-remembered and most bizarre of that series’ many half-hour programs. Shatner plays basically a narrator in this one, a character by the name of James Whitley, as he relates the sad life of his spinster sister Julia (Jessica Tandy). Jessica fell in love with a handsome ventriloquist during a performance only to later discover that the “ventriloquist” was actually a dummy, and the “dummy” in the act was actually a hideously malformed dwarf (Billy Barty).
In “Mother”, Shatner plays John Crane, a character very much similar to the main character in the Twilight Zone episode “Young Man’s Fancy”. When John brings his fiancee to meet his domineering and overprotective mother, the two women take an instant dislike to each other. Later, John’s fiancee is killed when she falls off a cliff. John’s mother is suspected, but a court of inquiry rules the death an accident. However, we learn at the end that it was John, ever the mamas boy, who did the deed himself.
THE OUTER LIMITS
“Cold Hands, Warm Heart” (1963)
Fans of Star Trek will delight not only in seeing Shatner in a pre-Trek role as a space explorer, but also as a member of a space mission with the familiar name of Project Vulcan(!) Shatner is astronaut Jeff Barton, who has just returned from that interplanetary trip to Venus to testify before congress on the feasability of space travel. However, he soon begins to feel a decided chill in the weather as he begins to mutate into a Venusian monstrosity! Episode with some good special effects is brought down by kind of a lame denouement in which his wife saves him from turning into a BEM by the power of her love or some such rot. Episode also features an appearence from future Trek “Menagerie” guest Malachai Throne.
THRILLER
“The Hungry Glass” (1961) and “The Grim Reaper” (1961)
Shatner plays in two creepy similar-themed episodes both written by future Trek writer Robert Bloch. In the first, he plays a man taking residence in a haunted house whose mirror wants his soul. In the second, he comes into possession of a painting of death which has brought doom to all of its owners. Another trivia note of both episodes is that each features an appearance by a future Gilligan’s Island cast member: Russell Johnson in “Glass” and Natalie Schaefer in “Reaper”.
NAKED CITY
“Portrait of a Painter” (1962)
Shatner plays troubled young artist Roger Farmer, who awakes in his apartment after a blackout night to find his wife murdered. Roger is not sure whether or not he killed her, but there is a painting of her with disturbing overtones that he cannot remember painting. Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) has a hunch that Roger is innocent, and enlists a psychologist (Theodore Bikel) and an art analyst (Barry Morse) to get at the eventually shocking truth – Roger did indeed kill his wife, and did the painting of her after he killed her.
ROUTE 66
“Build Your Houses With Their Backs to the Sea” (1963)
Shatner plays Menemsha Faxon, the son of Maine lobster fisherman Thayer (Pat Hingle). Menemsha returns to his hometown after a year’s unexplained absence in an attempt to reconcile with his father and his wife (Louise Sorel, in her screen debut). However, when he discovers traveler Linc Case (Glenn Corbett) working on his father’s boat instead of his beloved brother Robbie, and learns that Robbie died on an earlier expedition, Menemsha loses it. He vows to kill his own father to avenge Robbie’s death. Shatner begins to sabotage his father’s traps, a crime punishable by death in the Maine lobster fishing community, forcing a confrontation between him and his old man. The two finally meet for a showdown on the beach, where each acknowledges his own complicity in Robbie’s death. They then take a small rowboat out into the ocean. At the end of the episode, a search helicopter finds the empty boat in the middle of the water.
THE FUGITIVE
“Stranger in the Mirror” (1965)
Shatner plays ex-cop Tony Burrell, who was forced out of the service because of a heart murmur. Tony now works as the director for a boys camp in remote Washington state. His new employee turns out to be none other than famous interstate fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen)! When a rash of cop killings occurs in the neighborhood, Shatner begins to suspect the new guy as the murderer of his ex-colleagues, and hence threatens to expose Kimble’s real identity. But the actual killer turns out to be Tony himself, who has developed a subconscious psychosis towards the institution that no longer needs him as a role. Look for Three’s Company’s Norman Fell in a small role as a police detective!
Here’s a recap of some of the early work of William Shatner in episodic television before landing the role of James T. Kirk. These are some of the ones I’ve seen anyway. One notable guest appearance I haven’t yet had the chance to see is his turn on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with Leonard Nimoy.
Probably everybody here is pretty much familiar with Shatner’s two Twilight Zone appearances – 1962’s “Nick of Time” and 1964’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", both scripted by future TOS writer Richard Matheson. In the former, Shatner plays a man who becomes obsessed with a cheap fortunetelling machine in a small-town roadside diner, convinced that it actually has the ability to predict the future. In the latter, he plays a man taking an airline trip after suffering a nervous breakdown. During the flight, he notices what appears to be a flying monster sabotaging one of the engines of the plane, but he appears to be the only one who witnesses this. Is the monster really there, or is he cracking up again? This latter show remains probably one of the most famous and iconic television episodes in history and probably would even if Shatner hadn’t later gone on to fame as Kirk.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS
“The Glass Eye” (1957) and “Mother May I Go Out to Swim?” (1960)
“The Glass Eye”, chosen as the third season premiere of AHP, is one of the best-remembered and most bizarre of that series’ many half-hour programs. Shatner plays basically a narrator in this one, a character by the name of James Whitley, as he relates the sad life of his spinster sister Julia (Jessica Tandy). Jessica fell in love with a handsome ventriloquist during a performance only to later discover that the “ventriloquist” was actually a dummy, and the “dummy” in the act was actually a hideously malformed dwarf (Billy Barty).
In “Mother”, Shatner plays John Crane, a character very much similar to the main character in the Twilight Zone episode “Young Man’s Fancy”. When John brings his fiancee to meet his domineering and overprotective mother, the two women take an instant dislike to each other. Later, John’s fiancee is killed when she falls off a cliff. John’s mother is suspected, but a court of inquiry rules the death an accident. However, we learn at the end that it was John, ever the mamas boy, who did the deed himself.
THE OUTER LIMITS
“Cold Hands, Warm Heart” (1963)
Fans of Star Trek will delight not only in seeing Shatner in a pre-Trek role as a space explorer, but also as a member of a space mission with the familiar name of Project Vulcan(!) Shatner is astronaut Jeff Barton, who has just returned from that interplanetary trip to Venus to testify before congress on the feasability of space travel. However, he soon begins to feel a decided chill in the weather as he begins to mutate into a Venusian monstrosity! Episode with some good special effects is brought down by kind of a lame denouement in which his wife saves him from turning into a BEM by the power of her love or some such rot. Episode also features an appearence from future Trek “Menagerie” guest Malachai Throne.
THRILLER
“The Hungry Glass” (1961) and “The Grim Reaper” (1961)
Shatner plays in two creepy similar-themed episodes both written by future Trek writer Robert Bloch. In the first, he plays a man taking residence in a haunted house whose mirror wants his soul. In the second, he comes into possession of a painting of death which has brought doom to all of its owners. Another trivia note of both episodes is that each features an appearance by a future Gilligan’s Island cast member: Russell Johnson in “Glass” and Natalie Schaefer in “Reaper”.
NAKED CITY
“Portrait of a Painter” (1962)
Shatner plays troubled young artist Roger Farmer, who awakes in his apartment after a blackout night to find his wife murdered. Roger is not sure whether or not he killed her, but there is a painting of her with disturbing overtones that he cannot remember painting. Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) has a hunch that Roger is innocent, and enlists a psychologist (Theodore Bikel) and an art analyst (Barry Morse) to get at the eventually shocking truth – Roger did indeed kill his wife, and did the painting of her after he killed her.
ROUTE 66
“Build Your Houses With Their Backs to the Sea” (1963)
Shatner plays Menemsha Faxon, the son of Maine lobster fisherman Thayer (Pat Hingle). Menemsha returns to his hometown after a year’s unexplained absence in an attempt to reconcile with his father and his wife (Louise Sorel, in her screen debut). However, when he discovers traveler Linc Case (Glenn Corbett) working on his father’s boat instead of his beloved brother Robbie, and learns that Robbie died on an earlier expedition, Menemsha loses it. He vows to kill his own father to avenge Robbie’s death. Shatner begins to sabotage his father’s traps, a crime punishable by death in the Maine lobster fishing community, forcing a confrontation between him and his old man. The two finally meet for a showdown on the beach, where each acknowledges his own complicity in Robbie’s death. They then take a small rowboat out into the ocean. At the end of the episode, a search helicopter finds the empty boat in the middle of the water.
THE FUGITIVE
“Stranger in the Mirror” (1965)
Shatner plays ex-cop Tony Burrell, who was forced out of the service because of a heart murmur. Tony now works as the director for a boys camp in remote Washington state. His new employee turns out to be none other than famous interstate fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen)! When a rash of cop killings occurs in the neighborhood, Shatner begins to suspect the new guy as the murderer of his ex-colleagues, and hence threatens to expose Kimble’s real identity. But the actual killer turns out to be Tony himself, who has developed a subconscious psychosis towards the institution that no longer needs him as a role. Look for Three’s Company’s Norman Fell in a small role as a police detective!
