The Captains (film)

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For the Japanese rock band, see The Captains (band).
The Captains
Epix (US)
  • Corus Entertainment
  • Ballinran Entertainment
    • Release dates
    • July 22, 2011 (2011-07-22) (United States)
    • October 1, 2011 (2011-10-01) (Canada)
    Running time
    		96 minutes
    CountryCanada
    LanguageEnglish

    The Captains is a 2011

    archival footage
    .

    Cast

    Main

    Short segments

    Brief appearances

    • Richard Arnold, the former assistant to Gene Roddenberry
    • Walter Koenig, who portrayed Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series
    • John de Lancie, who portrayed Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager
    • Leeta
      in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
    • The Doctor
      in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
    • Jeri Ryan, who portrayed Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager
    • Grace Lee Whitney, who portrayed Yeoman Rand in Star Trek: The Original Series
    • Craig Huxley, who appeared in two episodes of the original series and provided special music for the first four Star Trek movies. Shatner encountered him by chance and did not recognize him. Huxley is uncredited.
    • Garrett Wang, who portrayed Harry Kim in Star Trek: Voyager

    Synopsis

    The film consists of a series of interviews conducted by

    Stratford Shakespeare Festival and CBC Radio and CBC Television, to headlining Broadway shows, and eventually getting his break in Hollywood as the star of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek
    series.

    "My hope is to delve deeply into these actors' psyches, find out more about them so you can ... see what common denominator there is among us as actors that brought [us] to this worldwide renown as part of Star Trek."

    William Shatner on his hopes for The Captains.

    Shatner's travels take him from Los Angeles to Oxfordshire, England; to Toronto and Stratford, Ontario; Las Vegas, New York City, and Princeton, New Jersey. While in Stratford, Shatner sits down with his friend Christopher Plummer, who was instrumental in Shatner's young career, and who would eventually play the role of bloodthirsty Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.[2]

    The documentary also chronicles Shatner's own six-decade career and reveals the embarrassment he felt over his role within the Star Trek franchise. During the process of the film, with help from the other Captains, Shatner overcomes his disdain and learns to embrace his best known character,

    Captain James T. Kirk.[2]

    Production

    The Captains is produced by Le Big Boss Productions in association with

    Epix-HD, and in association with Ballinran Entertainment, 455 Films and Love Lake Productions with the participation of the Canada Media Fund
    , the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation Film and Television Tax Credit.

    Reception

    On July 21, 2011, Mike Hale of the

    New York Times wrote, "The Captains turns out to be largely about William Shatner. That's not a criticism. Mr. Shatner's genial, relaxed self-absorption is a large part of his charm, along with his odd cadences and his unparalleled knack for blurring the line between pomposity and sincerity. He has a kind of reverse Midas effect: everything he touches should turn creepy, but somehow it doesn't." Hale goes on to say in his review that the film is, "pretty tolerable as vanity projects go. And it should be catnip for Trekkers and Trekkies".[1]

    TrekMovie.com's reviewer Anthony Pascale had mixed feelings claiming, "The Captains is overly long, a bit self-indulgent, and possibly overly ambitious. The direction and editing are trying a bit too hard with Shatner not really letting the core content of his interviews stand out." Pascale concludes with saying that The Captains "is still a must-watch for any Trekkie. You will learn, you will laugh, and you may even cry watching The Captains. Sure there is an element of being an ego-trip for the director, but what else would you expect from The Shatner. It is still a delight to spend almost two hours with these six outstanding actors who have entertained us for decades."[3]

    Popular culture/Science fiction website UGO Networks reviewer Jordan Hoffman gave the film a B-rating declaring, if you like this film, "You recognize that William Shatner may be a fool, but he's our fool."[4]

    Gregory Weinkauff of

    The Huffington Post wrote of The Captains that the production was "elegant, enlightening, expansive, and, by turns, hilarious and moving."[5]

    See also

    References

    1. ^ a b Hale, Mike (July 21, 2011). "William Shatner in The Captains – Review". The New York Times.
    2. ^ a b c "William Shatner talks The Captains". TrekMovie.com.
    3. ^ "Review: William Shatner's The Captains". TrekMovie.com.
    4. ^ "William Shatner's The Captains Review". UGO.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-01. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
    5. ^ "William Shatner Salutes The Captains". The Huffington Post. 2011-07-31.

    External links

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