Welland Tribune e-edition

Comic Con’s Rocketman returns to Niagara Falls

JOHN LAW

It was an offer only a select few people in history have ever received — the chance to go into space.

Real space. Not the theme park kind.

And when he was asked last year, William Shatner’s initial response was … no thanks?

To hear the sci-fi icon explain, he had made the trip to Seattle last summer with the hope of being among the first passengers of New Shepard 4, the rocket that’s part of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ privately funded spaceflight company Blue Origin. But Bezos reserved the inaugural flight in July for himself and family members.

Shatner returned home but was then invited to go on the second trip in October. He hemmed and hawed and eventually turned it down.

“Then I was thinking about it,” he says, on the line from his southern California home. “About the thrill. A lot of my life has been about the thrill of whatever it is I’m going to do.”

The rest is literal history — on Oct. 13, Shatner became the oldest person to fly to space at 90 years old.

And whatever the legendary “Star Trek” star expected before the trip, he was overcome with emotion

once he was actually up there. A lifetime surrounded by special effects couldn’t prepare him for what he saw.

“I was crying uncontrollably,” he recalls. “I was thinking, ‘What’s the matter with me?’ Then I began to understand that I was in grief for this beautiful thing I saw — this mote of dust that I saw in comparison to the vastness of space.

“We’re insignificant. The Earth is insignificant. Everything we’re attached to is insignificant compared to the grandeur of the universe. We’re making all this fuss and I thought about all that. It was a very profound time. I apparently said, ‘I don’t want to ever forget the way I feel.’ And I haven’t.”

The flight triggered a new urgency in Shatner regarding climate change. A huge part of his grief, he realized, is that the planet he saw outside the window won’t be the same one his grandchildren live in.

“The only way it’s going to get better is for humankind to have a Manhattan Project with all the scientists,” he says. “Forget about working on anything else, work on getting the carbon dioxide and methane out of the air.”

It’s a topic Shatner finds himself discussing a lot these past seven months. Alas, even more than “Star Trek.”

But the two are intrinsically linked — the beloved franchise was built on the idea that the future is optimistic for humans, that cultures (and alien races) can work together for the common good.

The difference now is that the man who played Captain James T. Kirk — across 30 years in the original TV series and seven movies — has seen his home with a whole new perspective.

It has also given Shatner plenty more to discuss during his Comic Con appearances, including June 3 and 4 at Niagara Falls Comic Con. It will be his second appearance at the show after his 2014 visit.

Shatner does the Niagara Falls show shortly after doing Motor City Comic Con in Detroit. Now 91, he says the fan conventions serve a whole new purpose for him — they keep him sharp.

“In doing these comic cons and standing in front of an audience … I’m tuned in to the questions,” he says. “My brain has been sharpened by all these experience in front of an audience.”

He’s also faced with more job offers than he can ever recall — or even realistically do.

“They’re really coming at me,” he says. “I have to choose. I’ve chosen to be with several futuristic companies, I’m on an advisory board, I’m doing commercials … I’m filled with things and ideas, perhaps more than ever in my life.

“I’m at the age that I’m thinking, God, I better do them now because I never know when I’m going to fall over.”

In addition to Shatner, the 10th edition of Niagara Falls Comic Con — being held June 3 to 5 at Niagara Falls Convention Centre — includes appearances by Ron Perlman, Kevin Nash and Erik Estrada.

For the full Comic Con lineup, visit nfcomiccon.com.

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2022-05-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://wellandtribune.pressreader.com/article/281483575001670

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