Actor William Shatner recently said in an interview that the original cast of 'Star Trek' have never received residual payments from their time on the 1960s show.
00:03I'm checking my direct deposit and I'm not seeing proper income for all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek series.
00:09Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not an accountant!
00:12Okay, it's true. Though the original crew of the Starship Enterprise parlayed their work into decades worth of movie deals, convention adoration, and other riches,
00:21according to their captain, the original classic cast never received residual payments from their time on the 1960s show.
00:29Actor William Shatner said in an interview with IGN's Transporter Room 3 podcast,
00:34the series Star Trek that I was in was so early on there were no residuals, so none of us ever have received residuals.
00:41Scotty! We need more money! I cannot give you any more, Captain! Damn it, Scotty!
00:48Okay, stop shaking. According to Shatner, it wasn't so much a showbiz deal thing, but more a sign of the times of early TV.
00:56That came into being about three years later, continued Shatner, referring to changes in the industry that saw TV actors begin to get paid when their shows were aired in reruns.
01:06At the time the show aired, between 1966 and 1969, it was hard to imagine a TV series would still have life 50 years later.
01:14Star Trek was cancelled in 1969, but it was revived as an animated series and a decade later was made into a movie with 1979's Star Trek The Motion Picture.
01:24The film was quite costly and divided fans, leading studio Paramount and its cast to believe it would be the one and only Trek movie.
01:32Every movie we made subsequent, even Star Trek 1, they burned the sets.
01:37There was no reason to store them because there was never going to be another movie, Shatner said.
01:42As we know, the franchise survived. Shatner would go on to appear as Captain Kirk alongside original series stars Leonard Nimoy,
01:50DeForest Kelly, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig and James Doohan in six films and also appeared opposite Star Trek The Next Generation's Patrick Stewart in the 1994 crossover movie Generations.
02:03But the ultimate Kirk performance came in 1980's Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, which is returning to theaters in September via Fathom events.
02:12I've worked gainfully all these years, said Shatner, making it clear he isn't upset about the lack of residuals.
02:18I'm really grateful for it. It's affected my life incredibly.
02:22So guys, what's your take on the lack of residuals for the original TV cast? Let me know in the comments.
02:28For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Paul Costabile and I think we all know deep down who to blame this on.
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