{"id":630489,"date":"2026-04-26T20:27:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/630489\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:27:34","slug":"william-shatner-recalls-hijinks-with-star-trek-co-star-in-appearance-at-calgary-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/630489\/","title":{"rendered":"William Shatner recalls hijinks with Star Trek co-star in appearance at Calgary Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Actor William Shatner signs autographs at the Calgary Expo Comics and Entertainment show on Friday.Todd Korol\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

William Shatner, quickly gliding over questions that speculated about the future of Star Trek and his famous role as its captain, reminisced with a ballroom of fans about stories ranging from sabotaging co-star Leonard Nimoy\u2019s bike to rubbing former football player Terry Bradshaw\u2019s head with fermented fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shatner is well-known for spending nearly three decades wearing a Starfleet uniform at the helm of the starship Enterprise as Captain James Kirk as part of his long career.<\/p>\n

The 95-year-old wandered between stories about the mayhem on set, including on the 2016 reality television show Better Late Than Never, which followed Shatner along with four other celebrities as they travelled to different countries.<\/p>\n

He spoke at the BMO Centre during the Calgary Expo on Saturday afternoon, comfortably addressing hundreds from his seat atop the sprawling stage. Sometimes he received help from the audience in remembering some details, like the capital city of Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by a policeman in Stockholm that dead people, after two weeks, smells like fermented fish,\u201d Shatner said.<\/p>\n

The summer that William Shatner told ghost stories in the Laurentians<\/a><\/p>\n

He spoke about being sat with his Better Late Than Never co-stars around a distended can of fermented fish. Someone (he can\u2019t remember who) opened it, catalyzing a rancid explosion.<\/p>\n

One cameraman turned away to \u201cprojectile vomit.\u201d Shatner took the opportunity to one-up his co-star Terry Bradshaw in a friendly competition they\u2019d been having.<\/p>\n

Shatner said he chased down the four-time Superbowl champion quarterback with a piece of fermented fish in his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made an abrupt left-hand turn, thinking he was still a football player, but he came out of his shoes and fell to the ground,\u201d Shatner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped on him and wiped his bald pate with a fermented fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Shatner spoke about co-star Nimoy \u2013 famous for his role as the titular Star Trek character Spock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad he been a girl, I would have married him,\u201d Shatner said.<\/p>\n

While filming one of Star Trek\u2019s many productions, though Shatner was unsure which, the two started an unlikely competition of getting to the commissary quicker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shatner said Nimoy would often arrive last and, therefore, wouldn\u2019t eat. So, Nimoy bought a bike, outpacing Shatner\u2019s running speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the next day I brought chains and a padlock,\u201d Shatner said. When Nimoy arrived with bolt cutters the following day, Shatner hid the bike in his dressing room, guarded by his two Dobermans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the following day, I put my arm around his shoulders and I walked him onto the set and I said \u2019Leonard, turn your eyes to the sky.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he looked up there under the spotlight and the roof was his bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shatner\u2019s string of stories were largely driven by a question about his most \u201cunexpectedly chaotic moment\u201d from Haley Rushton, a Nova Scotian in the crowd who\u2019d had seeing Shatner in person on her bucket list.<\/p>\n

She felt somewhat bad, she said in an interview, that her one question drove the majority of Shatner\u2019s tales on stage, leaving a lineup of fans with unanswered queries.<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cwe feel like we\u2019ve got our (fill) already and we only got here this morning. So now I can die happy,\u201d she said outside the centre\u2019s Champions Ballroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her longtime friend and Expo partner who shares a matching space tattoo, Zach Whitney, wore a Starfleet uniform and considers himself a \u201cpretty die-hard\u201d Star Trek fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to hear the human sides because he\u2019s really funny, like, he\u2019s so charismatic,\u201d said Whitney, from Vancouver, B.C.<\/p>\n

Jeff Scheers, from Edmonton, Alta., said he missed Shatner\u2019s discussion, but often sees the star at conventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cStar Trek started in 1966 on TV and I was like seven years old, and every day after school would be Star Trek. Of course, my family didn\u2019t appreciate it but I certainly did,\u201d Scheers said, recalling the 19-inch television airing the show in black-and-white.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s passed that passion for the show onto his kids, bringing a new meaning to Star Trek: The Next Generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Kirk is one of the heroes,\u201d Scheers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always thought twice about everything he did. And he asked for opinions, and that\u2019s the way I\u2019ve lived my life,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Actor William Shatner signs autographs at the Calgary Expo Comics and Entertainment show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,2798,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-630489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-calgary","16":"tag-canada","17":"tag-canada-news","18":"tag-canada-sports","19":"tag-canada-sports-news","20":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","21":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","22":"tag-canadian-news","23":"tag-economy","24":"tag-education","25":"tag-environment","26":"tag-federal-government","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}