It would have been a real pleasure for me to meet William Shatner. Alas MIPCOM allows only one accreditation for our blog. Yet, being the interpreter and the photographer of the blog, my presence could have been useful to us. Fortunately Chyanthi was able to register me the conference which allows me to summarize it to you.
First, a word about William Shatner. William is best known for his role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek TOS. Having the chance to train several hundred people a year, I have the opportunity to have various and many conversations. I realize that, as time passes, people have forgotten Star Trek and especially that they do not realize how this short series has had an impact on the lives of Westerners today.
Of all that could be said of William Shatner, it seems to me that one point is more important than all the others. William Shatner is the first white man to have kissed a black woman in TV prime show. Some might object that it had been done before, but seriously, who remembers Emergency – Ward 10 and You in Your Small Corner. Clearly the first really televised kiss took place in Plato’s Stepchildren, Season 3 Episode 10 of Star Trek TOS. Read Beyhond Uhura from Nichelle Nichols to convince you how much the Star Trek TOS team, William Shatner in the lead was really the crew of an adventure that continues to change our lives.
William Shatner was in Cannes to present his latest project. The unXplained which was broadcast on History a chain of group A + E. In this show, William Shatner is executive producer. He supervises the production and presents the episodes. Ithink this new series is closer to Weird or What? series broadcast on Discovery Channel and History in early 2010.
The unXplained has 8 episodes, the first broadcast was from July 19 to September 6, 2019. The show presents amazing facts that are not clearly explained by science. It presents various testimonies and plausible theories, but never really offers an explanation. For my part, I hope that Planet + A & E will quickly propose the series.
The unXplained does not present these stories as paranormal facts. The editorial angle is rather to say that there are many mysteries on life, death, stars that science does not explain. Being, myself a scientist (PhD chemistry), I can only adhere to this idea.
During the conference, William Shatner spoke about the origin of the stories he presents. He talked about his reading and his travels.
Among other troubling stories, he talked about Polynesian travel. Indeed, this people visited and colonized the Pacific well before the European and with an apparent lack of technical means that can only leave us admiring.
Another example is that of a man who, after an accident, suddenly became able to play the piano like a concert player when he had never performed before. I think he was referring to Derek Amato. In 2006, this American suffered a head injury by banging his head violently in the bottom of a shallow pool trying to catch a balloon. Following this accident, he became a musical savant and began to see the music as colorful squares rotating around his head. One speak of musical synesthesia.
After this presentation, it was the moment of the game of questions and answers. William Shatner, who until then seemed tired of his trip, then found a new energy. In front of a rather soft public who seemed to have trouble with English, he largely furnished the auditory space. He shows, at that moment, the passion he has for this project. Using his talent as an actor, he becomes several characters by simple changes of tone. And tried some jokes that for my part made me die of laughter.
To a Swedish journalist who asks him a question, he says he found an incomprehensible mystery in Stockholm. After bringing the tension to its climax, he explains that he does not understand how Swedes can eat decomposed fish. In front of the decomposed face of the young woman, he tried to catch up with the branches as he could, but for anyone who knew Surströmming, culinary specialty elected the most disgusting in the world, it was crying with laughter. Besides, I still cry while writing these lines.
As always when we talk about strange, various paranormal theories are stated. To a journalist who, speaking of the example of the pianist, explained to her that often this kind of thing was explained by previous lives, William Shatner answered that it is indeed what many legends tell. He went on to explain that, for his part, he was simply trying to present facts that science does not explain while opening up to all plausible explanations without dismissing any.
William Shatner ended the press conference by explaining that there was still plenty of material for a second season that seems already on track. Quickly the representative of A & E tried to dismiss this information, without contradicting it. What will it be exactly, the future will tell us. In any case, William Shatner was able to convince me of the interest of The unXplained and I look forward to a broadcast in France.
