![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/66b5eedc7c38a091f841e57f25e0e9e53f-ben-stiller-william-shatner-nycc-2026.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n No matter how many Gorn heads Ben Stiller brings out.
\n Photo: Craig Barritt\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
For a half-hour, Ben Stiller<\/a> tried to get William Shatner <\/a>to reflect on his Star Trek<\/a> role as Capt. James T. Kirk and the actor coyly refused \u2014 no matter how many times Stiller re-phrased the question or played classic Trek clips. \u201cBen! That\u2019s, like, 65 years ago,\u201d Shatner protested, to the laughter of a crowd of Trekkies. At one point, in a kind of twisted intimidation tactic, Stiller stood up from his chair without warning and dramatically pulled a black sheet off of a large box between them, revealing the preserved head of one of Kirk\u2019s dreaded nemeses, the Gorn that he fights to the death in the episode \u201cArena.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs that yours?\u201d Shatner asked incredulously.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I bought it at an auction!\u201d Stiller replied, his voice cracking ever so defensively. (He also owns the tunic Kirk wears in \u201cThe Enemy Within.\u201d)<\/p>\n Such was their shtick throughout their segment of New York Comic-Con\u2019s Star Trek panel, which teased season two of Starfleet Academy before making time for Shatner to thoughtfully look back on the franchise that has defined his career. When Stiller played him the clip from the Gorn fight, for example, Shatner elected not to go too deep on any personal choices behind Kirk\u2019s staccato, herky-jerky fighting style against the creature, and, instead, asked whether Stiller knew what regolith was<\/a>. He then launched into a several-minute tangent about how abrasive and regolith-like the terrain was at Vasquez Rocks, where \u201cArena\u201d was shot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt had all this shattered glass. And to fall!? Into that?\u201d Shatner asked not Stiller but, seemingly, the universe itself. \u201cIt was like: What have I done?\u201d<\/p>\n But Stiller persisted, and though Shatner said he doesn\u2019t typically rewatch Star Trek, his shell eventually did crack, especially once Stiller rolled the clip from Spock and Kirk\u2019s goodbye in The Wrath of Khan: \u201cI loved him,\u201d Shatner said of Leonard Nimoy, lamenting the emphysema that killed him. \u201cHe was my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n After Stiller played a clip from \u201cThe City of the Edge of Forever,\u201d he asked Shatner what choices he would make as an actor on an episode like that, widely considered not only great Trek but all-time great TV, period. Shatner, 95, told the room that while the episode\u2019s central question of what if? was a relatable one, he preferred not to overthink the past.<\/p>\n \u201cChoices in life are made with such accident. You don\u2019t know the exigencies life will visit,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to live with the choices you\u2019ve made, realizing they were done with knowledge you had at that moment. If you live with regret, you alter the joy of your life. Regret is spurious.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n