William Shatner has millions of fans. He is Star Trek’s legendary actor from the ’60s and ’70s. But, of course, he is much more than that. At age 90, he can reflect on decades of accomplishments and awards. He became famous for his role in Hollywood’s version of futuristic space exploration.
In Star Trek, Shatner was Captain James T. Kirk, the commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), a powerful interstellar spacecraft dispatched by Earth-based Starfleet Command to explore the galaxy. With a crew of 430 aboard his starship, they travelled at speeds surpassing the speed of light. Kirk’s five-year mission—and his mandate from Starfleet—was to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man had gone before. (1)
On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 90-year-old William Shatner blasted off into space for real. It was no Hollywood act. On top of a sixty-foot rocket that would reach a speed of 2235mph (3600 kph), Shatner took his place in the small space capsule – strapped into a seat.
“I’m terrified,” Shatner said just days before blast-off. “I’m Captain bloody Kirk, and I’m terrified!” (2)
As the countdown began, one former astronaut tried to describe the emotions he thought Shatner and the crew would be experiencing. “At this point, all you are thinking is – I have one minute left here on earth.”
The Blue Origin spacecraft would travel nine times higher than commercial jets fly at their highest altitude. Shatner became history’s first nonagenarian to cross the Karman Line. He described it this way:
Everybody in the world needs to do this.. but to see the blue colour just whip by and now you’re staring into blackness. That’s the thing — the covering of blue. This sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us. We think, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky.’ And then suddenly you shoot through it all of a sudden like you whip off a sheet, and you’re looking into blackness. Into black ugliness.”
“There is Mother Earth and comfort, and there — is there death? I don’t know. Is that the way death is? Whoa, and it’s gone. Geez. It was so moving to me.” (3)
Shatner said that going from the blue sky to the utter blackness of space was a moving experience: “In an instant, you go, `Whoa, that’s death.’ That’s what I saw.” (4)
It’s no secret – William Shatner has no peace looking forward to inevitable and unavoidable death. In numerous interviews, he speaks of his great fear of death.
Just days before his 90th birthday, Tom Power, CBC Radio q Show (5) interviewed the iconic and highly acclaimed Canadian actor. Shatner again used the word “terrified” as he spoke of his age. And then he added:
“I am no less fearful of death now than when I was younger.”
In that context, Tom Powers then asked: “What’s giving you hope – what gives you hope on a scary day?
Watching Shatner respond to such an existential question brought tears to my eyes. There was a long full ten-second pause as the master wordsmith pondered the question. Then he said so solemnly:
“A scary day is dying. I don’t know about hope,” he said. “The mystery of loneliness now comes in. The mystery — what’s going to happen? That’s scary.”
Do his words resonate with you?
q with Tom Power CBC Radio segment with William Shatner on death
As the crew of Blue Origin began their descent, the oldest astronaut in history was fearful he might even die returning to earth. Experiencing six times the force of Earth’s gravity as the capsule descended, Shatner said his return to Earth was more jolting than his training led him to expect and made him wonder whether he was going to make it back alive. (6)
“Everything is much more powerful,” he said. “Bang, this thing hits. That wasn’t anything like the simulator. … Am I going to be able to survive the G-forces?” (7))
Blue Origin Crew L-R Chris Boshuizen, Audrey Powers, William Shatner, Glen de Vries
Many of us were praying specifically for Mr. Shatner’s safe return – along with the rest of the crew. At 90, Mr. Shatner knows that his time on Earth is drawing to a close – even if he lives a few more years. There are enough interviews on record to know that Mr. Shatner is fearful of death and what awaits him beyond death. The man, known for being a word-artist, has never painted a picture of peace and light and calm serenity beyond the terminus of death.
Above the Karman Line for only a few brief seconds, the darkness gripped him as he peered out the capsule window. The darkness reminded him of death – “ugly death,” he called it.
Back on Earth, stepping outside the capsule, Mr. Shatner was overcome with emotions as he spoke to Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin. In tears, he called it the most “profound experience” he could ever imagine and reiterated how in awe he was of what he saw and how it prompted him to consider life and death. (8)
What hope do you have as you think about death? Besides the natural fear of the dying process itself, are you confident of awaits you on the other side or does fear grip your inner being? Is death the corridor to eternal light and peace or the vortex to eternal darkness and loneliness?
William Shatner has accomplished more and accumulated more awards than most of us ever will in our lives. But if those are the only markers of success in life and fulfillment as one faces death and stares at eternity, what a tragedy! How sadly lacking one’s life really is.
CBC Tom Power asked Mr. Shatner how he was coping with life as he turned 90 and whether he experienced “loneliness” during the pandemic. Keep in mind, Shatner has millions of fans, many friends and a loving family.
Power asked: “Are you lonely at all?”
Shatner answered:
“Tom, that is a really interesting question….. Loneliness is endemic to human beings. We are all essentially alone. As much as we are with other people, we are alone now. People who are religious say, ‘Well, there’s God. And God is with you and is the father figure.’ And I don’t happen to believe that. I envy those who do. I think we die, and our bodies are consumed, and we enter the universe. Is there something at the end of life, can you reach communion with someone or something that voids the loneliness that we all feel? I (pause) don’t know.”
He mentions that he became conscious of loneliness going to school in Montreal, and it has never left him – then he added:
‘Loneliness has been a huge factor in my life.” (9)
q with TomPower CBC Radio segment with William Shatner on Loneliness
Mr. Shatner, with his new appreciation of the fragility of Planet Earth, will become an even more effective advocate for sound environmental policies and interventions to protect our favoured planet. And that’s good! But ultimately, the best personal outcome of his ten-minute trip to space would be finally finding the answer to the two things that have always plagued him in life, despite all his success:
- His life-long loneliness, and
- His life-long fear of death.
Check this out: Star Trek Captain Kirk – William Shatner and the AfterLife – 2017 Post
Loneliness
Separation causes loneliness. A relationship that should exist does not exist. Throughout his life, Mr. Shatner has been connected to a vast web of horizontal relationships, but the connection is absent vertically. He says he envies people who have a relationship with God. He wonders if there is a possibility of having communion with some one or some thing. “Communion” is a beautiful word that speaks of loving acceptance and rich intimacy. Yes, he envies those who have God with them, but personally, he confesses he does not believe.
This kind of loneliness is not something one should choose to live with. Not only is it a miserable way to live, the consequences are eternal.
Such deep-seated persistent and pervasive loneliness results from being estranged from God, our Creator and Owner. Keeping God out of one’s life means to be separated from the most fundamental and essential relationship we were designed to enjoy. Such loneliness is not a mystery. The cause is obvious.
The Bible teaches that God honoured humans with the intelligent capacity to enjoy a relationship of communion with Himself. Sin has broken that fundamental vertical relationship. Human self-will and obstinacy in taking our own way and a determination to pursue whatever our heart desires have alienated us from God.
Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is His ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God…” Isaiah 59:1-2
Despite our snubs and refusals, God continues to lean into those who have no time for Him. He still reaches out to them. His overtures of love towards us are many. The fact that you are reading this post just now is not a coincidence. God loves you and wants to bring you into a relationship with Himself in this life and forever.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8
Your acknowledgment of the broken relationship caused by your sin and your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your own Saviour will instantly bring you into that essential relationship with God. God continues to extend the same offer of eternal life and full forgiveness to not only Mr. Shatner but to you as well. 
The problem of innate spiritual loneliness will be solved.
He [God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2Peter 3:9
A Christian may suffer the loss of family members and close friends. So naturally, their loneliness will be intense when human relationships can no longer be enjoyed. But speak to any genuine follower of Jesus Christ, and through their tears, they will tell you about the one relationship that endures all the storms of life and provides inner sustenance and strength. Do you have that beautiful and essential relationship?
Fear of Death
A Christian enjoys a relationship with God that even death itself can not break. Of all the difficult things one could experience in life – those who know Christ can never be separated from His love.
Here is the reality for a Christian:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39
Jesus said about those who follow Him:
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:28-30
One of the best-known verses in the Bible issues a beautiful but conditional guarantee of you never perishing in your sins at death. If you comply with the one condition in this verse, what happens after death will no longer haunt you.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
The big story of the Bible is that God loves us – despite our sins and waywardness against Him. That love brought Jesus to earth to pay the penalty for our sins by experiencing death itself by suffering on the cross. Yes, Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). By the GRACE of God, Jesus tasted death for every single person. (Hebrews 2:9) Amazing! He triumphed over death. His resurrection!
Those who trust the Risen Saviour no longer fear death and what awaits them in the afterlife. They are no longer afraid to meet God after death. For a Christian, death is not a dark alleyway that leads to more darkness. Death is a corridor that brings Christians to their ‘home’ in Heaven to be with the Lord forever.
Read this well-known Bible poem written by one who experienced the reality of a relationship with God. Would you like this ancient poem to be a description of your relationship with the Lord?
Psalms 23
(1) A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. [I lack nothing.]
(2) He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
(3) He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
(4) Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
(5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
(6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Dear Mr. Shatner, if you happen to be reading this post, my prayer is that you will change your mind about spiritual realities and turn to God for salvation and eternal life. God is waiting to accept you. Jesus Christ is waiting to embrace you.
This is the Bible’s message to every single person on our fragile Planet Earth:
Jesus said:
Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29
Whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out. John 6:37
One minute after you leave this earth for the last time will be too late to change your mind.
Sources:
- https://ca.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-the-original-series-synopsis
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/10/13/william-shatner-blue-origin-launch-star-trek-actor-oldest-space/8434551002/
- https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/shatner-overwhelmed-seeing-earth-from-space-everybody-in-the-world-should-do-this/
- https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/william-shatner-tv-s-capt-kirk-blasts-into-space-1.5621043
- https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/tuesday-april-6-2021-william-shatner-maria-bakalova-and-more-1.5974825/getting-older-is-terrifying-william-shatner-on-turning-90-loneliness-and-what-keeps-him-going-1.5974827
- https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/william-shatner-tv-s-capt-kirk-blasts-into-space-1.5621043
- https://www.11alive.com/amp/article/news/nation-world/star-trek-william-shatner-blast-space/507-e8cd12ae-3d59-4bb0-adc5-8b7c2cce600f
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/10/13/william-shatner-blue-origin-launch-star-trek-actor-oldest-space/8434551002/
- https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/tuesday-april-6-2021-william-shatner-maria-bakalova-and-more-1.5974825/getting-older-is-terrifying-william-shatner-on-turning-90-loneliness-and-what-keeps-him-going-1.5974827