William Shatner: the Lost Letter

WILLIAM SHATNER SIGNATURE

When I was 12 years old I lived in the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. I had only lived there about a year when I heard that William Shatner would be appearing to give a live concert. My family were avid Trekkies. The first time I saw William Shatner was on a Star Trek episode while I sat on the floor at 7 months old, still in diapers. I was three years old before I realized that William Shatner was NOT my father.  (my father’s name is also Bill and he wasn’t around very much – so I’m not as stupid as I sound).

When Bill Shatner was due to come to Vancouver my brother and I would have given anything to go but we simply were too poor. Between us we had $5. So we sat at home that night doing Star Trek trivia out of an old book my brother had.
The next day I heard on the news that the people who had attended the concert had “Booed” William Shatner off the stage. I was angry and embarrassed at the same time. Vancouver was my new home but I was disgusted with the lot of them. I would have given my right arm to be there and all those people who had the money to go didn’t even realize what a privilege they had been given. Apparently Bill Shatner had gone on stage and started quoting poetry and they started booing him. What did they expect him to do? He’s an actor. Did they expect him to sing, “Flashdance”?

I walked around for two days upset by the whole thing when my mother suggested I write a letter to Mr. Shatner. So I grabbed my pen and loose leaf paper and did just that. I apologized for the city of Vancouver, told him why I couldn’t go to the concert and asked him to not let that one episode stop him from returning to our city in the future. I got the address to Paramount in Los Angeles and mailed it on it’s way.

Fast forward about 7 months. I had completely forgotten about the concert and the letter until I came home from school to discover I had something from California in the mail for me. I couldn’t imagine what it might be. When I opened it I discovered a post-card promo for the Vancouver Shatner Concert and on the back someone had written: “Sorry you didn’t get to see the concert. There are no hard feelings. Maybe you’ll get to see one in the future. The letter you sent was wonderful and very appreciated. Thanks again for your encouragement.” It was signed with some sort of scribble I couldn’t read. I couldn’t even make out part of the name. I was rather annoyed and hurt that some Shatner-flunky had written me a few words on the back of an old, out dated post card. I’m sure William Shatner never even read my letter. He just has a bunch of people to answer mail for him. We moved a year later and I threw away the post card with a bunch of stuff that we weren’t taking with us.

Fast forward 8 years. I am 20 years old, still living in Vancouver and about to attend my very first Star Trek convention. Now, for those of you who have not had the experience of being to a Star Trek Convention, besides talking Trek, dressing up Trek, seeing one of the stars from Trek, there is a lot of SELLING TREK! Anything that has something to do with Star Trek was being sold there. And at that period in time “Star Trek: the Next Generation” was on TV and doing very well.
My brother and I were strolling around the selling tables. We had separated so each of us could look at what interested us most. I was looking to pick up a cassette tape (that’s what we listened to music on in the ‘olden days’) of Brent Spiner’s  “Old Yellow Eyes”. I passed a table that was selling copies of William Shatner’s new book “Tek War”. The proprietor actually had a few autographed copies he was selling too. I looked at the book with William Shatner’s signature at the bottom of the back cover and a chill ran right up my spine. You guessed it. It was the exact “scribble” that was on the post card I had received. William Shatner had actually written to me personally and I had thrown it away! I had assumed that he was too big and important to write to me personally and so his warm wishes in his own handwriting went out with the trash. Boy, howdy! Did I want to commit suicide right there on the spot. Or at least find someone to give me a good thrashing. So I went to seek out my brother and explain what had happened. (maybe he would help me with the thrashing task?)

Obviously it impacted me hugely. I’m 46 years old now and I still cringe at my stupidity. But I can now see an object lesson in it (I can usually see an object lesson in just about anything and everything).

OBJECT LESSON: We reach out to God and when He responds we are too blind to recognize Him. We think He surely has better things to do that listen to ‘tiny’ us. But if we show even the smallest interest in Him, He will respond. And unlike William Shatner, God can be right where you are at any moment of any day. He can love me without it diminishing His love for you. So I beg you to be wise enough to recognize the handwriting of God. If I had known more about Bill Shatner’s character, I would not have assumed he wouldn’t write to me personally. If you don’t know God’s character, then let me assure you that , “if something matters to you, it matters to Him”. Do throw Him out with the trash.

And to William Shatner: thanks for the letter and for being the sweet and warm person you are. And for taking the time to write to a little girl all those years ago. I may not have been smart enough to recognize you then, but I know you are precious now.

EXECUTIVE DECISION kills Steven Seagal

Now I am not exactly a big Steven Seagal fan, but a rip off is a rip off and it gets me steamed. About 8 years ago, I turned on a movie on TV called, “Executive Decision” with  Steven Seagal as the main starring actor. The only other two actors in the film that I had heard of was Kurt Russell and Halle Berry (BEFORE she was an academy award winning actress).

The basic plot of the movie is an American airplane is high-jacked by Arab terrorists who say they will crash the plane unless their leader is released from being held in an American prison . If he isn’t released, the terrorists are going to blow up the plane with it’s 400 + passengers and crash it into the continental United States in an attempt to kill as many Americans as they can.
  Since Americans NEVER negotiate with terrorists, they have to come up with a Plan ‘B’ very quickly. In walks Steven Seagal, who is the military expert and Kurt Russell, who is an expert in international politics and the intelligence community. Several “head-honchos” around a table dream up an idea to rescue the people on the plane and neutralize the terrorist threat. They attempt to take a prototype stealth plane, secretly fly it under the belly of the big jet, hook up the two planes with a type of pressurized tube and then have a bunch of soldiers crawl onto the passenger plane and rescue everyone and capture or kill the terrorists. Simple, right?  Of course you know that it isn’t going to play out that smoothly. While Steven’s character is crawling from one plane to the other, all manner of chaos ensues and he sacrifices his life in order to get all the other soldiers onto the passenger plane. Steven gets sucked into the atmosphere and it’s “good-bye, Steven”.
  I found it most upsetting that Seagal apparently dies less than 15 minutes into the movie.  I immediately thought, “He must be coming back later. He’s got top billing. He’s probably grabbed onto the wing of the plane and he’ll burst into the main cabin of the plane and save everybody right at the moment when we viewers think all hope is gone and we have totally forgotten about poor Steven who's hanging onto the plane’s tail at 600 mph,  10,000 feet up in the sky”.
Well, I must warn you that when Steven is whisked away into the clouds, that is the last we see of him for the remaining 2 hours and 10 minutes of the movie. HOWEVER, … after about 5 minutes of pouting and feeling completely cheated, I was so sucked into the story that I forgot all about Steven Seagal. (Sorry, Steve).

I’m not going to tell you anything more about what happens in the film after those first 15 minutes, because I don’t want to wreck even the smallest part of it’s plot line. “Executive Decision” is one of the most compelling, thrilling and interesting movies I have every seen. (and I’ve probably seen thousands of movies so far). At the end of the film when the credits rolled by it was the first time I even thought of Steven Seagal since his unfortunate-unexpected-freak stealth jet accident.
 
If you want a movie that has Steven Seagal kicking EVERYONE’S butt for a couple of hours, then this is NOT the movie for you! However, if you are seeking a recipe for a truly exceptional story, with intelligent writing, filled with suspense and  thrills, peppered liberally with great dialogue and wonderful acting, all melted into a tight and clever story, then this is the movie just right for your emotional and mental taste buds. (CAUTION: This would probably be defined as a ‘guy’ movie, but don’t let that scare you off ladies. A good story is a good story. Case closed!.) Kudos to the creators of the film, “Executive Decision” who not only created 2 1/2 hours of fascinating story-telling, but who also made me think that it’s worth sitting through 90% of crappy films for the mere hope of seeing a good movie like this one.  I was left wishing and begging  for more. MORE!

If you have some free time and you don’t want to simply vegetate into a summer movie coma,  you couldn’t do better than watching the film, “Executive Decision”. As for Steven Seagal leaving the movie and nobody caring or even noticing all I can say is, “Sorry, Charlie”.

Link:  EXECUTIVE DECISION: Film Theatrical Trailer

Executive Decision(1996)

133 min - Action | Adventure | Thriller - 15 March 1996 (USA)
When terrorists seize control of an airliner, an intelligence analyst accompanies a commando unit for a midair boarding operation.

Director:

Stuart Baird

Writers:

Jim Thomas, John Thomas

Stars:

Kurt Russell, Halle Berry and Steven Seagal