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Posted: 08:20:53 on October 29 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: General Star Trek

When William Shatner set out to tackle his new book about STAR TREK technology and its real-life counterparts, writer and producer Chip Walter was delighted to team up with the actor to bring some of the high-flying subjects down to earth.

"We knew we could make the connections between what the series envisioned and what was going on," Walter says in a new interview with PittsburghLIVE. "And we found that science was actually stranger than science fiction."

The book, I'M WORKIN' ON THAT, charts the present-day activities of scientists who have been inspired by STAR TREK and are researching several of the technologies presented throughout the franchise. But Shatner was quick to distance himself from the tech saavy character he's identified with.

"In our first conversation, he immediately endeared himself to me when he said, 'I don't know anything about this stuff. People think I do because I played this character, but I don't," Walter explains.

The book is divided into four sections covering concepts of future transportation, computing, artificial intelligence and the ethical implications of all this (or "Playing God"). Walter and the iconic Shatner visited scientists across the country to be educated on the subject matter, resulting in some sixteen hour days for the writing team. Randy Pausch, co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, gave Shatner and Walter a virtual reality lesson and tells the site it was a great experience.

"The reason was Shatner, by his own admission, has two qualities every student got to see," he says. "All the students who worked in the virtual reality lab got to see somebody who said, 'I know nothing about this, but I want to learn.' He didn't pretend to understand what he didn't know. And then, he was willing to take as long as he needed. … He wouldn't let me or anybody else off the hook. He would just keep trying until he got it."

For more on the book and more of the interview, check out this page.

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