It would be interesting to see a similar list, but of non-bridge episode appearances.
Meaning I'm too lazy to put one together, would you mind?
Where Was Shatner At The Enterprise Shuttle Rollout?
- Thread starter dmcco01
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Meaning I'm too lazy to put one together, would you mind?
It would be interesting to see a similar list, but of non-bridge episode appearances.
Meaning I'm too lazy to put one together, would you mind?
I think it would be interesting to come up with a list of how many minutes in total each character appears in the show.
It probably looks like this:
Mr. Shatner: 79x48 minutes (TOS) 6x90 minutes (ST1-6)+20 minutes (ST7)+22x10 (TAS)
Mr. Nimoy: 80x25-30 minutes+6x30 minutes (ST1-6)+15 (STXI)
Mr. Kelley: 76x15-20 minutes+...
Mr. Doohan: 65x 5?
...
Poor Mr. Shatner. Spending 12-15 hours everyday on the set trying to memorize and recite lines after lines after lines after lines while doing all sorts of dangerous stunts, getting into fight after fight after fight after fight with very large men, Gorn, crazy green woman ... He must be physically and mentally exhausted.
Then he got blamed after all this work by just about everybody. Too bad.
While it is true that Shatner and Nimoy have become best friends, they weren't particularly close during the three years while making TOS. After reading Gene Roddenberry's biography and Herb Solow and Robert Justman's making of Star Trek book, it is clear that during the making of Star Trek, Shatner and Nimoy didn't like each other at all.
Shatner was jealous that Nimoy got more fan mail and more attention from the makeup and lighting people on set, even though Shatner was the star.
Nimoy was jealous that Shatner got more money and more screen time even though Spock was the more popular and unique character. And Nimoy felt that he put more effort into creating his character and performing while Shatner could barely remember his lines.
As time went on their relationship improved, to the point where they can joke about it now, and they are indeed quite good friends.
So both of them are fantastic actors!
Joking.
I did read an article stating that it is not true that Mr. Nimoy got more fan mails than Mr. Shatner, but certainly Spock was very popular. I am not sure whether what's said in the article is true or not, however.
And why should Mr. Nimoy be upset that Mr. Shatner couldn't remember his lines when Mr. Shatner had twice or three times as many lines and 20000 times more physical exertions than he did? Come on, that doesn't paint Mr. Nimoy in a good way. I don't believe it.
Mr. Nimoy himself said it was all much ado about nothing, that press loved to fabricate some kind of "feud" so that fans would be more interested. Just like one reporter lamented that Mr. Shatner had no "private scandals" to report on, therefore he was not interesting to the public!
I seem to recall in an interview of Bill Shatner in a Star Trek documentary that he said his father died while they were filming the Season 1 episode "Devil in the Dark" and he credited Leonard Nimoy for helping him get through the shoot. I don't remember exactly what Leonard did to help Bill get through it though. But, wouldn't that indicate some sort of friendship? Does anyone else remember this interview, was it in the 20 Anniversary documentary?
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Shatner and Nimoy are without a doubt best friends, if not as good as family. It's been documented that Nimoy was really supportive during Shatner's marriage to Nerine Kidd who suffered with alcohol problems. Nimoy would go along with Nerine to AA meetings and it's been mentioned that Nimoy supported Shatner following the death of Nerine.
Things like that are one of the many reasons I have a lot of respect for Leonard Nimoy. Despite being a household name and creating an influential character, he never lost site of being a respectful person. He went out of his way to help his best friend's wife out and provided the couple with an enormous amount of support. Nimoy is universally liked by TOS cast and even used his clout with the producers to ensure that they all got a decent amount of screen time and salary.
Things like that are one of the many reasons I have a lot of respect for Leonard Nimoy. Despite being a household name and creating an influential character, he never lost site of being a respectful person. He went out of his way to help his best friend's wife out and provided the couple with an enormous amount of support. Nimoy is universally liked by TOS cast and even used his clout with the producers to ensure that they all got a decent amount of screen time and salary.
Both Nimoy and cinematographer Gerry Finnerman, who lost his dad while he was on location, helped Shatner get through a rather unproductive day on the set after he got the news. They then shot around him for the next few days while he was in Florida taking care of things (the shots of Kirk and the Horta are a mishmash of shots of Shatner and Shatner's stand-in).
Of course, upon his return, Shatner felt the need to prove that he was fine, so he promptly set about setting up Nimoy for public humiliation. Under the auspices of going over what went on while he was gone, Shatner had Nimoy reenact the "Pain! Pain! PAAIN!!" bit, eventually get Nimoy to scream "PAAAAAAIINN!!", at which point Shatner calls out, "For chrissakes, someone get that man an aspirin!" Nimoy wanted to strangle Shatner at that point.
Of course, upon his return, Shatner felt the need to prove that he was fine, so he promptly set about setting up Nimoy for public humiliation. Under the auspices of going over what went on while he was gone, Shatner had Nimoy reenact the "Pain! Pain! PAAIN!!" bit, eventually get Nimoy to scream "PAAAAAAIINN!!", at which point Shatner calls out, "For chrissakes, someone get that man an aspirin!" Nimoy wanted to strangle Shatner at that point.
Thanks CRA. Where did you get that info from?
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As to the original topic...
Filming... "Kingdom of the Spiders"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Spiders
Filming... "Kingdom of the Spiders"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Spiders
Just curious: Mr. Nimoy mentioned that while making one of ST movies he came across a regular cast member on the way home after a day of work so he said Good Night to that person politely but was totally ignored. The next day he asked that person why he was ignored and the said person lashed out and said "what do you expect!" He was kinda taken aback by that response. Who could that person be? Not Mr. Shatner for sure, but who else could it be?
Mr. Nimoy also acknowledged that he was angry a lot, not at Mr. Shatner, but at the studios and the producers during the making of ST:TOS. I am glad that he found success in playing Spock and later on became a successful director, writer, producer, and photographer. Now he doesn't have to be angry at anyone anymore.
Perhaps, success does help alleviate anger and hatred. Lack of success on the other hand...
From Star Trek Memories, written by Mr. Shatner. He also mentioned it in Up Till Now and in numerous convention appearances and numerous taped interviews. He appreciates Mr. Nimoy's support and friendship so much that he considers "Devil in the Dark" his most favorite TOS episode.
I did a little math and figured out he made quite a handsome amount of money from this project. Over a million dollars I believe. Not bad for a movie made for half a million dollars. He is rather delightful in this movie.
Thanks jk82.
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Shatner pretty much admitted it in his autobiography; during TOS, they were rivals, sometimes friendly rivals, but rivals nonetheless. They became best friends after the show had wrapped.
It's in the official Gene Roddenberry biography. And the book written by Herb Solow and Robert Justman. I don't have them in front of me at the moment so I can't quote the exact lines and pages. But Gene, Herb and Rob all talk at various points about the problems between Nimoy and Shatner.
Some of the arguments were pretty immature. Especially about Shatner sometimes forgetting his lines, because the scripts to most episodes weren't finished while they were filming them. And lines were often being written or re written right up until the actors had to speak them. Not allowing anytime to memorize lines, especially for Shatner who always had the most.
And then there was the amount of attention that Nimoy got on set for makeup and lighting. Shatner felt that they were fawning over Nimoy and leaving him out. As well, Nimoy, because of his extra makeup requirements had to be on set earlier and leave later than everyone else. The third season episode "The Enterprise Incident" came about partly to slightly remedy this. By having Shatner wear Vulcan ears (or in this case Romulan ears) he could see what Nimoy had to go through, though just briefly. And try something different, and get the attention he felt he was missing out on, on set.
But compared to the rest of the cast, Shatner and Nimoy weren't really that much of a problem. In fact the only person who seemed like a total professional, and nobody ever had a single problem with during the three year run was DeForest Kelley.
But after it was all said and done Shatner and Nimoy both agreed that their attitudes were pretty immature, and they have even said so in interviews. And often joke about the early days of their relationship. An exchange in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" sort of touches on this and spoofs how egotistical Shatner was or is perceived to be:
So they didn't hate each other while making TOS but they weren't particularly close. But they got better after, and are now best friends as seen in numerous interviews.
Someone told me not to believe everything Gene Roddenberry said, so I will take this with a grain of salt.
I don't know exactly what happened between him and Mr. Shatner, but certainly Mr. Shatner said he did not try to get close to Roddenberry, while Mr. Nimoy and Mr. Roddenberry mutually disdained each other. Since Mr. Roddenberry also had a reputation of being very creative about generating publicity for Star Trek as well as making profits from Star Trek, I suspect he might not be the best person to examine the relationship between Mr. Shatner and Mr. Nimoy.
Mr. Shatner said he only needed 15 minutes for makeup. He joked Mr. Nimoy needed 3 hours because he was "uglier" than the rest of the cast. LOL I don't know if he actually was missing all the attention Mr. Nimoy was getting for makeups. He does not seem like a person who can sit still for 5 minutes anyway.
LOL. This is hilarious.
Didn't he make fun of himself in SNL by showing off his physique in front of a mirror? And I always wondered where "I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" came from.
"I wasn't so much acting as I was reacting, using my own internal makeup as the spine upon which I was able to build the character of Jim Kirk. We were bascially one and the same, although Jim was just about perfect, and of course, I am perfect!" LOL
Yes, it's about people's perception of him too. As a result, he has always been interesting to the public. That reporter was correct, a Shatner without controversies would have been boring.
He was on the wing checking for gremlins.
He won't arrive till Tuesday.
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