William Shatner Thinks A Star Trek: TNG Detail Went Against Gene Roddenberry's Vision

William Shatner has some very strange opinions on "Star Trek," a show he helped make a household name. Despite being best known as Captain James T. Kirk, the rhythmically talking actor hasn't really engaged with the franchise since he left. However, in a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shatner claimed that "Star Trek"s successor show, "The Next Generation", missed the mark on one aspect of creator Gene Roddenberry's vision.

The first "Star Trek" movie, "The Motion Picture", failed critically due to its slow, plodding pace. It didn't help that it was released two years after the original "Star Wars," which changed the sci-fi game with its flashy effects and speedy progression. It was still commercially successful at the box office, with a $139 million gross against a $44 million budget, but wasn't to the audience's or critics' evolving tastes. After this, Roddenberry lost control of the franchise for a while, as the rest of the original Enterprise crew's movies went to different creative teams.

When Roddenberry got "The Next Generation" onto TV, it came with a far stricter hand in control. Roddenberry was notorious for scrapping scripts and placing rules that no '80s show looking for success could operate under. The ill-fated Season 1 of "The Next Generation" (TNG) is seen as a bizarre start to the show and was poorly received by fans. One episode is Michael Dorn's, who played Worf, pick for worst episode. Among the rules that Roddenberry imposed was no conflicts between characters, and no romance between those aboard the Enterprise D. Watching season one of "TNG" feels like a weird transitional phase between the original series and what "TNG" would eventually become. Shatner, in another interview with Cinema Blend, expressed that "TNG" having romance between the crew was against Roddenberry's vision and would have him "turn in his grave."

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" is set in the 24th century, with the idea that the characters were far beyond the present day idea of a human. An episode that highlights this is from the first season, "The Neutral Zone", wherein people from the past are revived. One of those is an ex-financier, who's shocked to learn that money has no meaning in the 24th century. 

"TNG's" action was also different to other shows, with episodes dealing with diplomacy and discovery, with most violence confined to Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, threatening to do something. Once Roddenberry took a major step back after the second season, storylines about romantic entanglements between "Number One", Commander William Riker, and Counselor Deanna Troi, started to become more prominent. Even the crew itself began to butt heads at times over certain situations as the show progressed.

This is what Shatner takes umbrage with. In the Hollywood Reporter interview, he states that as Roddenberry was part of the military and a policeman before entering TV, he knew how officers aboard a military vessel should behave. Shatner said, "There was this militaristic vision of 'You don't make out with a fellow soldier' ... There are strict rules, and you abide by the rules." He also added that the "ethos has been forgotten ... what I've seen with glimpses of 'The Next Generation' is yes, the difficulty in the beginning, between management, was all about Gene's rules and obeying or not obeying those rules."

When Shatner clarified his claims in the Cinema Blend interview, he doubled down on this thought: "I don't know about the latest things, but the couple of things I've noted is that there are relationships, sexual relations, relationships going on between the people that would make Gene Roddenberry turn in his grave." It's ironic then, that despite Shatner's claims of intimately knowing the man, he seems to forget about "The Motion Picture's" heavy sexual imagery with V'Ger and the entire character of Ilia.

One of the first things she mentions in the movie is that she has an "oath of celibacy," and this is directed at Captain Kirk. When she's scanned by doctors after being killed and replaced with an android copy, they explicitly mention that even the "smallest body functions are duplicated." Shatner himself even famously participated in prime time TV's first scripted interracial kiss, when Kirk locked lips with Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Uhura, although the crewmates weren't romantically involved, and were forced into the kiss by aliens. Even in "TNG", when under direct control from Roddenberry, his own decisions may have made him turn in his grave, according to Shatner. 

Its third episode was "The Naked Now", wherein all the crew onboard are overcome with lust after being infected. He also said that season one character, Tasha Yar, was directly inspired by "Aliens'" Vasquez, who he claimed had "created a whole new style of feminine beauty." Sometimes watching what you're critical of can unveil new information, even when you're a legendary pop culture figure.