The William Shatner Hall of Shame is a chronological listing of things that Mr. Shatner has done over the years that we feel he should be ashamed of or at the very least embarrassed. William Shatner was fortunate enough to land the part of Captain Kirk on the television show Star Trek. In this role he was the captain of the Enterprise. The flagship of the Federation. Kirk's exploits as the captain of the Enterprise became legendary in the Alpha Quadrant. The character of Captain Kirk was the Marco Polo of the last frontier, the Casanova of the Milky Way, the George Washington of outer space. Shatner is identified with one of the most famous and beloved icons of American pop culture. You would think being bestowed this honor he would carry himself with a certain level of dignity to preserve the persona of Captain Kirk. Instead, there seems to be no limit to the depths his shameful exploits would take him over the years. Here for all to see is a listing of those shameful exploits. 

1968 - Recorded the album The Transformed Man (available from CDNOW) on which he performs popular tunes including a few Frank Sinatra standards, The Beatles Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and the most popular of all Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man.  Someone must have told Shatner he can't sing. Instead of singing the lyrics to these songs he talks his way through the songs to some cheesy music with some lousy backup singers.  The album is so bad it is funny and has developed a cult following.  For more information check out The Captain James T. Kirk Singalong Site.  A website dedicated to Mr. Shatner's singing career as well as those of other members of the Star Trek cast.

1974 - Appeared in the film Impulse, a.k.a. I Love To Kill, a.k.a. Want A Ride Little Girl?  playing a child molester and murderer. This was a very bad super low budget film.  What was he thinking?

1975 - Appears in the film The Devil's Rain where he is crucified and has his eyes removed by a Satanic cult lead by Ernest Borgnine.  This is another very bad movie which ends with John Travolta (also eyeless) and other members of the cult melting in the rain.

1982 - Appeared in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.  This film is regarded by many Trekkies as the best out of all the Star Trek films.  Despite this, there is a scene Mr. Shatner should be very embarrassed over.  In the scene, Captain Kirk realizes he has been imprisoned miles below the surface of a planet by the evil Kahn. In a fit of rage Kirk shakes his fist and yells out the word "Kahn" which echoes throughout the underground chamber he is trapped in.  This may be the hammiest bits of acting the world has ever seen. Shatner has a reputation of being a bit of a ham but this hog of a performance takes the blue ribbon at the county fair.

1997 - The novel Star Trek: The Return written by Shatner is published.  It seems to me that Shatner writes this book as a way of getting revenge for Kirk's character being killed off in the movie Star Trek: Generations released in 1994.  In the book, Kirk's body is resurrected by a Romulan commander using Borg technology under a very dumb premise.  The re-animated Kirk is under mind control by the Romulans and sets out to kill Captain Picard.  In the process of searching for Picard, Kirk gets to beat the crap out of several members of the Star Trek Generations crew.  In the end Kirk breaks out of the Romulans control and saves the day. I can understand Shatner being upset that Kirk was killed off  in the movie but this poor excuse of a storyline was no way to get even.

 2000 - Appears in a series of television commercials for Priceline.com.  In these commercials Shatner speaks the lyrics of popular Rock n' Roll songs while inserting pitches for Priceline.com.  All this while performing at a fake concert with a fake band playing to a fake audience. After seeing the one where he sings/talks the song Convoy I thought things looked kind of hokey.  In the next commercial I saw, he is singing the 60's song We Gotta Get Out of This Place by the Animals. I started thinking this seems familiar. Then I saw the commercial with Shatner singing Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird.  There was Shatner waving his arms as if he were flying like a bird, speaking the lyrics to the song.  At that point it hit me. It's The Transformed Man all over again! 

If there are any other shameful acts Mr. Shatner has done that you would like to see included in the William Shatner Hall of Shame submit them to:  shs@scifitimes.com

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