As William Shatner prepares to (technically) go to space on the second flight of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket, the iconic TV actor entertained the crowd at New York Comic Con 2021 on Thursday with his apprehensions about the trip. While joking that he was initially going to turn down the space flight until he realized that he doesn’t have much going on these days, Shatner explained how he had hoped to be on the first Blue Origin mission, but he had to settle for the second launch instead. And while going to space is pretty amazing, the Star Trek actor didn’t quite appreciate how his participation was pitched to him. Via Mediaite:
“Then there was an old lady with them, and then there was a young lady,” he said as the crowd laughed. “So finally they came to me on the second thing, and they said, ‘Alright, how would you like to go up? You’ll be the oldest guy in space.’”
“I don’t want to be known as the oldest guy who went to space — I’m bloody Captain Kirk, for God’s sake!” Shatner, 90, exclaimed to a cheering crowd.
Jokes about his vanity aside, Shatner is looking forward to the mission. Although, he admitted to the crowd that he’s still trying to think of something profound to say during the flight. “I’ll try and think of something to suggest how deeply I feel about the experience of looking into the limitless distance,” he said.
Personally, we’d go with screaming “KHAN!” for the full 11 minutes, but you do you, Shatner.
(Via Mediaite)
