Bill Shatner: "Did you say 'To baldly go'?"

The Captain's Summit is a DVD/Blu-Ray extra made specially for the release of the Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. It features a 70-minute discussion between William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes. Whoopi Goldberg serves as the moderator.

Many Trek-related subjects come up, including the issue of how the TNG cast felt about succeeding their illustrious predecessors. Discussing this issue, Patrick Stewart (alias Captain Jean-Luc Picard) suddenly mentions a joke made at him by his fourteen-year-old daughter: "To baldly go..." Bill Shatner can hardly believe his ears - "Did you say 'To baldly go'?":

Whoopi Goldberg then mutters something to Bill Shatner, which he evidently finds very amusing. Unfortunately, what she says is all but inaudible on the recording. Was it "Like you, Bill?" or "See, he should have worn a toup like you!"? Rest assured, our toupologists are working night and day trying to decipher Goldberg's comment - much like Gene Hackman's efforts in the classic 1974 movie The Conversation:

UPDATE: Reader "eldreth" has deduced that Whoopi Goldberg simply repeats the phrase "To baldly go".

A little later, Bill Shatner reveals - much to the shock of Stewart and Frakes - that he has never seen an episode of TNG. He doesn't watch TV at all, he explains. After some probing from Frakes, he adds that he particularly does not like watching himself on TV. Why?


The therapy group (it really feels like that) senses a momentous revelation could be forthcoming. "Because I don't like looking at my toupee," is what appears (at least we think so) to be on the group's mind, and possibly Bill Shatner's too. They urge their friend to unburden himself. Say it, Bill!


Bill Shatner struggles for a moment. It's on the tip of his tongue...but he isn't yet ready to do it - at least not on camera. He withdraws. His friends are all noticeably disappointed. It's over. A potentially highly cathartic moment has been lost:

The weight that could have been lifted from Bill Shatner's heart! Patrick Stewart of all people would know. He has been at ease with talk of his baldness for years - he likely wished that his friend Bill could come to feel the same way:

The entire conversation is, at present, up on YouTube, starting here. We really can't recommend watching this fascinating program enough. There's the group therapy aspect, the reflections on Star Trek, shadows of Bill Shatner's evident demons and the group's fascination with them, but mostly it's seeing a bunch of interesting individuals talking and often giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls (see below). The latter of these should certainly raise almost anyone's spirits:

Shatner's toupee in pop-culture: Mad magazine.

A 1994 issue of Mad magazine published around the time of the release of the movie Star Trek: Generations. Two bald captains, one captain's chair and one toupee that Patrick Stewart, alias Captain Jean-Luc Picard, is apparently attempting to tear off his predecessor's head!


On a related note, reader "Toup-eh?" pointed to this YouTube clip, in which, at around 3:55, actor Jonathan Frakes describes Generations as "The story of two captains in search of one good hairpiece."

Poll result.

An interesting set of results - the largest number of voters believed that Bill Shatner thought that the casting of the bald Patrick Stewart in ST:TNG was actually some sort of dig at him. Yes, our readers know that Bill Shatner can indeed be a very sensitive soul, particularly when it comes to the hair! Only 6% of voters thought that Bill Shatner wondered why he went to the effort of wearing a toupee in the first place.

Thanks for voting!

Gene Roddenberry: "I don't want a bald man."

A revealing comment made by Gene Roddenberry in an interview shortly before his death. In the December 1991 issue of Cinefantastique magazine (which also provided us with this) the Star Trek creator recalled how in 1986 producer Robert Justman had found a British actor called Patrick Stewart whom he believed could be the new captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation:

Gene Roddenberry with Robert Justman

"[Bob Justman] had gone to UCLA and had seen this man he wanted as Picard. He presented him to me, and my first reaction was 'Jesus Christ, Bob. I don't want bald man. In his wisdom, Justman kept his mouth shut and let me grow accustomed to him."

In fact, Roddenberry asked Patrick Stewart to wear a toupee in his audition for Star Trek: The Next Generation. He did, but in the end, balder heads prevailed.

Yet, Roddenberry's comments reveal how at odds Hollywood realities pertaining to image were with the utopian world of Star Trek he had created. In 1986, the problem may have been overcome eventually, but in 1965, there was no way that a bald Bill Shatner would have been considered acceptable as the star of a major television series. Had Shatner said he wanted to appear bald (there is no evidence at all that he even considered this) then the producers would simply have hired someone else.

No toup, no Shatner.

Bill Shatner has often credited much of his future career and personal wealth to the opportunities afforded him by Star Trek. Since he wouldn't have secured his most famous role without the hair (wrong though that may be), is it fair to say that he really owes everything to his toupee? We think so!

Bill Shatner with Gene Roddenberry, circa 1979 (see here), but possibly earlier.

Shatner: "Why is there a bald guy called Jean-Luc Picard sitting in my captain's chair?!?"

Bill Shatner in How William Shatner Changed the World (2005).

Since we're on the subject of Patrick Stewart mentioning Bill Shatner's baldness (see previous post), it turns out that the "toup wars" - for want of a better phrase - were actually raging both ways at around this time. In the feature-length 2005 documentary How William Shatner Changed the World, which looks at Star Trek's impact on real world technology, Bill Shatner, referring to The Next Generation's Patrick Stewart, jokingly asked "Why is there a bald guy called Jean-Luc Picard sitting in my captain's chair?!?" See the clip below:

So now, in addition to Bill Shatner asking "Do I wear a toupee?", "How's the hair?", "The hair. I just envy the hair. Is it a dominant gene?" and saying "Fear of losing my hair..." we have this latest addition of the world "bald" to our Shatner's Toupee audiovisual toupclopedia. The inherent irony of this newest phrase is, of course, entirely self-explanatory! Bill, you continue to surprise and amaze us...

And that isn't all. In another section of How William Shatner Changed the World, we also see Bill Shatner, this time referring to the world famous physicist Albert Einstein, saying "Someone with such cool hair" and seemingly contrasting this with his own lack of (real) hair. Clip below:

How William Shatner Changed the World is a very entertaining documentary, mainly thanks to Bill Shatner's overtly crazy style of presentation. After decades and decades of talking about Star Trek in all the serious ways possible, Bill Shatner has evidently decided that enough is enough - it is time to unleash his inner Shatner on Star Trek! You can buy the DVD here.

Patrick Stewart's toupee faux pas!

Shatner's Toupee fan and regular commenter "RM" (we are delighted that our commenters are starting to sign themselves with user names) recently took it upon himself to use a professional media search tool to dig up some interesting tidbits related to Bill Shatner's toup - the first of which we present to you today. It is a 2004 report from the UK Daily Star, which chronicles Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Patrick Stewart's interview with Frank Skinner of The Frank Skinner Show that same year.

While recalling working with the actor on Star Trek: Generations (1994), Stewart makes the ultimate mistake of mentioning Bill Shatner's toupee - "I guess I am in trouble now" he says. We should add that while Shatner foes like the late James Doohan or George Takei have used the toupee as a blunt instrument to try to hurt or humiliate Shats, here the revelation is entirely innocent - Shatner and Stewart, as far as we understand, got on very well during Star Trek: Generations and have remained friends.

Our thanks to "RM" for this great piece of toupological research. Our honorary degree department is...well, we can't say anymore! Here's the article:

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The Daily Star, December 28, 2004 - page 22.

TO BALDLY GO; STAR TREK KIRK'S WIG SECRET REVEALED

by Peter Dyke

CAPTAIN Kirk really does baldly go where no-one has gone before - because he wears a wig.

Star Trek icon William Shatner's embarrassing secret is revealed in a telly interview tonight.

Fellow Trekkie Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in The Next Generation, is grilled about 73-year-old Shatner's barnet on The Frank Skinner Show.

Frank Skinner

Skinner quizzes Stewart - himself a domehead - about rumours James T Kirk wears a "rug".

He teases: "You have worked in wigs. And I have heard rumours about Bill Shatner that he's got a bit of help up top."

Stewart, 64, reveals he sussed Shatner wore a "syrup" while working together on the movie Star Trek: Generations.

He tells Skinner, 47: "The poster that advertised the film said: 'Two captains. One mission.' I thought it might be fun to fix that caption and for it to say: 'Two captains. One hairpiece.'" But he admits his revelation may land him in hot water with Shatner.

He adds: "I never discussed this with Bill. I guess I am in trouble now."

Shatner has always brushed aside questions about wigs.
He has said: "It's like asking somebody: 'Do you have breast implants?'"

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Naturally, there is a video of this exchange somewhere, which hopefully we will be able to track down eventually.