By GustavoLeao / 18:10, 2 November 2007 / Feature Films

• Beam story to friend
• Join our newsletter
• Syndicate news
• On Screen forum

In his two most recent Shatnervision video interviews with his daughter Lisabeth Shatner, Star Trek star William Shatner talked at some length about his new Star Trek prequel book, The Academy Collision Course, co-written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and how politics involving both Paramount and Publishing company Simon & Schuster almost prevented him from being able to tell his version of the story about a young Kirk and Spock. Here is a transcript of the interviews, cortesy of Sci Fi Pulse.

When talking about his new book which is a prequel to the original Star Trek TV series much like the new movie. It is very obvious that Shatner had a lot of pride invested in it.

"The Book, ‘Academy' is about how I think a young Jim Kirk became Captain Kirk." Shatner said.

Shatner went onto reveal that the story reveals how, "the seeds" of a young kirks "personality and ambition" eventually moulded him into the man that Star Trek fans grew to know and love over the last 40 years. However Shatner quickly points out that the book tells of how a Young Spock came into being as well. "That was my thought on how to do this" story.

"Then I ran into difficulty with Simon And Schuster. By now the drum beat of the movie was starting and they stopped me from doing the book. Then I went out on a personal basis to everyone I know to say, ‘Let me write this book'. To which they finally said you can write this book but you have to put in it, ‘The plot storylines and the historical narrative presented in Star Trek: Academy Collision Course constitute an imaginative work deriving solely from the authors unique personal vision."

Not to be outdone by political manoeuvrings Shatner went onto acknowledge in the foreword for his new book that Star Trek over the years has benefited from a great many different people who had brought their own unique spin to the Star Trek.

"They wanted me to put in ‘Unique Personal Vision'. So I thought Ok, ‘They thought I would fight it.' So I put it. I also on the other page wrote, ‘I'd like to acknowledge the contributions of all who have added their own unique vision to ‘Star Trek'. The series went on the air in 1966 and since then many individuals have used their talents to shape the legend that become the worlds and federation history and beyond.

"Among the first John [D.F] Black, Gene Coon, Harlem Ellison, D.C Fontana, Sam Peeples, Theodore Sturgeon, Barry Trivers. Every writer who has contributed to the tapestry that is ‘Star Trek' weaves their own thread that adds to the epic began by Gene Roddenberry. My thanks to them all." he said.

"So. What they thought was going to separate the book from Star Trek just made it more part of the tapestry. There were a lot of political things going on for the publication of the book."

Speaking in another recently recorded pod cast with his daughter, Shatner explained how the plight of the kids in Darfur inspired him.

"I thought the story I want to tell is about a young Captain Kirk and Mr Spock and they've got to be troubled adolescents. Then the thought of Darfur and the children solders of Darfur came to mind. Suddenly a story sprang in my head of the children solders being the enemy. Now across the planets and the universe they're coming towards us. The Enemy and they're kids. With AK - 47's or the equivalent of."

Shatner went on explain that he had read books based on accounts of some of these kids who had got out of the fighting and how one particular account in book form inspired his creation.

"There's a kid who was a child solder who was brought to the United States and he was on the air quite a bit, and I read his book.

"All that fostered a story. Involving the adolescents Kirk and Spock and the solders of the equivalent are the children solders of Darfur, and how the Federation. In affect the United States Navy is going to handle that crisis."

The original report can be found at Sci Fi Pulse.

You can watch both the video interviews here and here.