Lisabeth Shatner Interviewed

Written by Ian Cullen on February 20, 2002 – 12:00 pm -

By Ian M Cullen

It’s no secret that Actor, Writer and Producer William Shatner has a great deal of pride in his daughter Lisabeth. Just recently Lisabeth was generous enough to take time out of her busy schedule to talk to me about what is to be her ongoing involvement in ‘The All New William Shatner Web Site’

I started by saying that I was sure that many fans have been asking how long you and your father have been wanting to make Williamshatner.com more interactive. Was it something that Lisabeth and her father had both been wanting to do for some time?

“Yes it had been,” she replies enthusiastically. “We came into contact with the people at ‘Creative Light’, and met up with them on a number of occasions. It ‘s only recently that we have had the opportunity to do something with the site. I think that my father has been wanting to interact more with the Fans for quite some time, but has never really had the technical know how which is where Creative Light came in.”

While I was talking to Lisabeth on the ‘phone it was very evident that she shared her fathers enthusiasm for the new Web Site and her excitement was very infectious. So I asked about what some of the interactivity would be about other than the normal Chat Rooms and Message Boards, which are somewhat mandatory with most web sites. Lisabeth was happy to explain about some of the new developments on the new site.

“The interactive parts of the site will involve the message boards and the chat rooms.” Lisabeth said “But will be split off into two sections. My dad will have a section for his editorials which I think he will be doing Bi Weekly, and he will have his own message board attached to that also.”

Lisabeth was extremely excited about her new creative endeavour, which is to be a huge part of the new sites interactivity. “I will also have a message board, but there is also going to be a ‘Ruby’ message board as well.”

What’s A Ruby Message board I hear you all ask?  ‘Ruby’ is going to be very much the story element of the website. ‘Ruby’ is an Interactive Murder Mystery, which I have written especially for the web site, and I am very excited about it. The idea is that I will write episodes of the story and the fans that visit can go to the Ruby Message Boards to interact with her, or alternatively they can go to my board and talk to me about their idea for the web site and any story developments.”

I asked Lisabeth about the episode of Tek War that she had written.

“That’s right, I wrote an episode of ‘TJ Hooker’ called ‘Partners In Death’ and I also wrote an episode of Tek War’ called ‘Betrayal’ which never made it to the screen because the show was cancelled. I was really upset about that because I thought it was a great series. I think the problem was that it was ahead of its time.”

I interjected at this point and asked if it would be an idea to publish her Tek War script on the site to which she replied, “That’s a really great idea, but sadly I no longer own the script so would have to ask for permission to use if off the company that now does. Thanks for the suggestion — that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for from the fans”.

Lisabeth elaborated more on her concept of ’Ruby’. “The problem I always found with television was that there is always that lag time involved. What is great about ‘Ruby’ is that there is no lag time. I can write it and have it posted on the site in a matter of days.” Plus you do not have to contend with temperamental actors? “Oh the actors we have for ‘Ruby’ are great their all in their early 20’s and are very good to work with.”

So what else can we expect from the site? It all sounds to coin a famous Spock phrase “fascinating”…

“I will also be having an Art Exchange on the site using pictures of my Sculptors, we are hoping to get some of Leonard Nimoy’s photography posted on the site too. I am really interested in Fine Arts and am hoping that fans around the world will enjoy sharing their art work in this forum. My father on his part of the site will be posting family photographs to give the fans an idea of what our family life is like. We have a lot of fun.”

Talking about family life, I’m sure that you have been asked this many times by fans, what was it like growing up and having such a famous Father? “Yes you’re right I have been asked that a lot, to be honest I was never really aware of it when I was growing up, but as I got older I really began to appreciate the opportunities that my Fathers fame afforded me.”

I have been getting asked a lot by your Fathers fans about ‘Groom Lake’, do you have any involvement in that, credited or otherwise. “No am not involved with that, your best bet would be ask my father or his assistant about that.”

I believe that you had a lot of involvement in helping your father with the production of ‘Star Trek 5’: The Final had a great time; I visited London and also went up to Scotland. In fact I was going to vacation in England last year, the weekend after September 11th. But sadly I never got there because they were having trouble with the outgoing flights at Heathrow. I still have my ticket and would like to find time to visit again soon.”

What does she like to do in her spare time? “What spare time?” she laughs. “When do I get some spare time I like to do my Sculptor which is like a second job for me, and I like anything to do with water, things like Scuba Diving, I’m very much an outdoor person. With me working indoors a lot, when I get time I enjoy to do outdoor activities like hiking, or lazing on a beach.”

Will you be taking part in the chat later on today? “Yes and I invite everyone to be there because we are going to have a lot of fun, and would like you all to stay up with us and become insomniacs.”Frontier? “Yes I did in fact shortly after that I did a tour of England to promote my book, we went all over the place.

Do you have any TV interviews coming up with you father that you would like the fans to know about?

“Yes in fact me and my dad will be on the Larry King show this Thursday at 6pm PST (9pm EST) on ‘CNN’.

Lisabeth Shatner was an absolute delight to talk too. It was very much in evidence that she was excited about her forthcoming role in WilliamShatner.com and it was very apparent to me why her father takes such great pride in her.

I would like to thank Dana Archer for setting up the interview with Lisabeth Shatner who proved such a joy to interview. Finally my sincere thanks to Lisabeth for being such a pleasure to chat with.

  • For more information head over to williamshatner.com additionally if you are a fan of William Shatner and would like to meet him there is a list of convention appearances on his site which can be found here.

Source: Sci Fi Pulse
First Published: 20 February 2002

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