The forgotten comedy in which William Shatner parodied his Star Trek character

William Shatner began his career As a promising young actor with the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. But when Shatner, despite strong notices for his performance, failed to make the leap to stardom like fellow Canadian Christopher Plummer, he lowered his sights and embraced the working actor philosophy. This is not a hit. He starred in episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” and was great as a racist interloper who incites violence against the black residents of a small town in Roger Corman’s “The Intruder.” However, he has also done so many guest roles on television that he risks being devalued by his ubiquity.

Three seasons and several great episodes of “Star Trek.” This was fixed for Shatner, but throughout the 1970s he became closely associated with a kind of serious morality that was funny and easy to parody. The best part about Serious Shatner may be his portrayal of vet Rack Hansen in the stylish exploitation film “Kingdom of the Spiders” from 1977. The movie works as intended, but you’ll be laughing throughout the movie as Shatner does battle with the biblical deluge of tarantulas. (It’s like the tall version of Indiana Jones knocking the creepy crawlies off Satipo’s back in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”)

Eventually, Shatner realized he had indulged in self-parody, and decided he wanted to have fun. In 1982, he found the perfect project to scratch that silly itch.

“airplane!” It is one of the funniest and most quotable comedies of all timebut “Airplane II: The Sequel” is mostly remembered as a pale imitation if it’s remembered at all. Why is this? For starters, Paramount greenlighted the film without the involvement or approval of the original film’s creative team (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker). Secondly…it’s not very funny.

When “Airplane II: The Sequel” succeeds, which is rare, it’s usually when William Shatner appears on screen as Alpha Beta Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock. He’s this movie’s version of Robert Stack’s Rex Kramer. He hates Robert Hays’s Ted Stryker as well, and mercurially attempts to guide the protagonist’s crippled passenger space shuttle to a safe landing on the moon.

The primary purpose of Shatner’s presence in the film is to relentlessly motivate “Star Trek” (which is easy enough for Paramount since they own the property). There’s a running trick about sound-activated doors (base officers have to make a “Star Trek” door sound to open them), and a moment in which Shatner, inexplicably using a submarine’s periscope to monitor the progress of the shuttles, spies on the Starship Enterprise. But his biggest laugh has nothing to do with Star Trek. When he is notified that their base has no tower, only a bridge, he emerges from behind a video screen that is revealed to be a door. It’s funnier when you see it.

Doobie’s Law was a good fit for Shatner. This also led him to play for the ukes in TV shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Boston Legal,” as well as films like “Free Enterprise” and “Miss Congeniality.”