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The Captains Close Up
R1 - America - E1 Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (19th October 2013). |
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The Film
 There are few people in show business who know how to exploit their image as effectively as William Shatner. Over the years, with his showy shenanigans (which include but are not limited to cameos, crappy commercials, and some carefully crafted, ingeniously inflammatory, comments directed at just the right person to get him into a shared headline or news piece along side the current talk of the town), and the occasional knowing self-parody, Shatner has built on his status as an icon, imbued upon him by his turn as Captain James T. Kirk, and cultivated a distinct cult of personality for himself. He’s used this Shatnerian sphere of influence to add a number of jobs to his resume besides "actor with specialty for strange line delivery and penchant for extreme over-exaggeration". He's also a novelist and blogger; expert in Esperanto (or at least one of the only people who can say they acted in a movie made in that language); absurdist spoken-word recording artist; equally absurd spokesperson. In the middle 2000's, he even had a bit of a resurgence on television as an opinionated, womanizing septuagenarian often confused by the world around him—and he also played someone like that, in a character named Denny Crane, on “Boston Legal” (2004-2008) around the same time. One of the most curious of these additions to his oeuvre in recent years is that of interviewer. Shatner seems to fancy himself a pretty good moderator and host, and even parlayed his new skill into a short-lived talk show, “Shatner’s Raw Nerve” (2008-2011), on the Biography Network. That Shatner, or anyone, thinks him good at interviewing is odd, as an interviewer—like a good reporter—really shouldn’t make themselves the center of attention, and instead let the focus land on the subject at hand. Not the interviewer, but their interviewee. Is Shatner even capable of not being the center of attention for a fraction of time; does he possess the ability in any part of his being to let someone else be in the spotlight for even a few minutes on a shared stage? Not surprisingly, the answer seems to be no, he isn’t; no, he doesn’t. As proven time and again, the man loves to talk about himself, perhaps especially with other people, which would be a quality damning for any interviewer not named William Shatner. Unlike almost anyone else on the planet, Shatner’s deluded sense of self (and self-importance) might actually be part of his, for lack of a better word, charm as an interviewer. He does the job in a style all his own, sculpted to perfectly fit the weirdly manufactured Shatner persona. Shatner being so… Shatnerian is probably the major reason his latest venture, “The Captains Close Up” is as entertaining and engaging as it is. A couple of years back, perhaps still slightly bitter about not getting one of his coveted cult-building cameos in J.J. Abrams’ film-franchise reboot (“Star Trek” (2009)), the man who stresses he’s the original Captain Kirk—the at times amusingly dictatorial, delightfully delirious egoist that he is—set about making what he intended to be the definitive “Star Trek” documentary. Shatner released his eventual project, called “The Captains”, in 2011, to uneven but generally favorable reviews. Although its title suggested a focus on the men (and women) who’ve helmed a starship, and headlined a television series, in the famous franchise, Shatner’s scope was far greater. His ambitions with the film were perhaps too lofty to ever be fully realized. He attempted to chart the lives and careers of each of the five actors to ever have the honor of leading an iteration of pre-boot “Star Trek”—“The Next Generation’s” (1987-1994) Sir Patrick Stewart; “Deep Space Nine’s”(1993-1999) Avery Brooks; “Voyager’s” (1995-2001) Kate Mulgrew; “Enterprise’s” (2001-2005) Scott Bakula; and, of course, yes, even Shatner himself—as well as chronicle Shatner’s own journey in reconciling his wobbly relationship with the Kirk character, and the franchise that made him into a pop culture icon. In the original documentary edit of “The Captains”, Shatner (who wrote, produced, directed, and “starred” in the piece) attempted to cover all this in about 2 hours, and included comments from not just the five “Trek” Captains, but their fellow cast and crew members from the various series, as well as family members and friends. It was simply too much, in too little time. The general consensus is that the original documentary would’ve benefited from a narrower scope in a shorter runtime, or a more measured pace in an even longer one. Two years later, Shatner has returned to the material to deliver just that—a new edit of “The Captains”, which is at once both shorter and smaller in scope, and longer and larger than ever. How has he done this? By re-imagining the entire project, not as a single documentary feature, but as a 5-part miniseries. Each episode of “The Captains Close Up” runs approximately 30 minutes, and is focused on the life and career of one of the five actors to lead a “Trek” series. Things start off with an episode dedicated to Shatner himself—who is primarily interviewed by Kate Mulgrew—and offers a look at the actor's early career, his casting as Kirk, and various appearances in television and film as the iconic character, how the role impacted his life on a personal and professional level, and the inevitable aftermath of no longer being that character, on screen and off. The segment uses archival footage and photos, and contemporary interviews with people like Walter Koenig, Shatner’s daughter and (social media manager) Lisabeth Shatner, his third wife Elizabeth, and the other Captains of "Trek" (including, rather surprisingly, new Kirk, Chris Pine) to draw a pretty detailed picture of who Shatner is; where he came from, and how the international fame from playing one of the most iconic heroes in modern media has impacted his life. The remaining episodes follow in a similar format. Like “The Next Generation” did to the original “Star Trek” (1966-1969), Sir Patrick Stewart’s episode succeeds Shatner’s, thus establishing a sort of coherent chronology in the same vein of the release pattern of each “Trek” series. “Close Up” moves linearly along the timeline, with the final episode focusing on Bakula and “Enterprise”. I’m not going to lie, accusations of bias be damned, but Stewarts episode is by far my favorite half hour (what can I say, I love the beautiful, bald man, and “The Next Generation” has always been the “Trek” series I enjoy most, by far). Writer Ron D. Moore, actor Jonathan Frakes, and many others provide insight into Stewart’s place within the franchise, but it’s the actors own comments—about his troubled home life as child, his introduction to acting, early years on stage, landing the part of Jean-Luc (or, originally, Julian) Picard despite not fitting Gene Roddenberry’s initial vision of the character—that make his episode the best. Stewart is also, as he’s known to be, open and honest about his past and his personal problems. He discusses his two failed marriages; wanting to be a better father to his children; the impact his own father’s alcoholism and abuse had on his mother (and himself) in his youth, and how his fame has helped his efforts to raise awareness of domestic violence, both in England and abroad. Stewart’s segment offers a fascinating, and frank look at a truly marvelous man. Like their personal histories, Brooks, Mulgrew, and Bakula’s episodes are echoes of each other. All three actors first found fame, and acclaim, on the stage, and returned to live theatre after “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager”, and “Enterprise” ended their runs. Their episodes offer well-rounded discussion of the actor’s lives, their characters, and their shows. We get a look at Brooks’ turn to roles steeped in social activism, a rare look at a young Mulgrew performing at the age of 16, and Bakula’s return to the stage after nearly a 20 year absence. Shatner uses “Close Up” to shine a light on the careers of those who filled the Captains chair after he retired from it, but always making sure to turn the topic of discussion back to himself as the original. The added depth the miniseries edit of “The Captains” gives to each subject’s histories, characters, and series will no doubt delight Trekkies (or is that Trekkers?) looking for something to sate the fierce appetite of the franchise’s fandom. The candid comments from the interviewees and Shatner's cluelessly crass commentary on those comments make “The Captains Close Up” an amusing endeavour that is frequently enjoyable and perhaps even a little funny, while also being occasionally informative. Shatner’s new edit of the material in miniseries format is worth a watch even if you’ve seen the previous feature-length film, because it features a considerable amount of footage not seen in the 2011 release—although the trade off is that, in this entirely reworked rendition, some of the material from the alternate documentary cut is now missing. Unfortunately, because this is just a rehash of material shot a few years ago, some of the comments aren’t quite as relevant, and some of the interview subjects have more to their story now. Stewart’s segment paints him as somewhat of a lonely soul living in peaceful solitude; the actor just recently married for a third time, so he’s presumably a lot less lonely. Mulgrew recently landed a supporting part in Jenji Kohan’s female-prison dramedy "Orange is the New Black" (2013-present), and is doing some her best work in years on the that show. And no matter the version you see, or what year it was released, the entire enterprise’s (sorry, not sorry) most egregious flaw is as glaring as ever. Shatner’s a peculiar interviewer and he seemingly just can’t help redirect the conversation to his favorite subject—himself—time and again. But then again, that’s just Shatner being Shatner, and I sort of think that’s part of his, and this documentary series’, unique… well, no, charm’s still not the right word. His unique… Shatner-ness, I guess.
Video
eOne Entertainment presents “The Captains Close Up” in its original broadcast format, which most of the time means a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. The series mixes a variety of sources, formats, and ratios within an HD-sourced widescreen frame. A majority of the interviews come in the form of crisp, clean, nicely saturated studio footage shot on high-end camera equipment. But other segments appear to be from blocky and noise-ridden footage shot on cheaper cosumer-grade cameras and even a cellphone or two, and there’s considerable archival material as well, some of which is pillar-boxed, black-and-white and riddled with age-related dirt and damage. It’s hard to say if the troubling blockiness of some of the material stems from the source, or a heavily compressed encode as a result of squishing 5 episodes onto a single DVD with MPEG-2. The outdoor material with Sir Patrick Stewart—set against a garden wall of jagged stone—is especially problematic when it comes to compression artifacts. Many medium and wide shots suffer similar fates; the studio shot close ups fare much, much better.
Audio
Two options, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, both English. English subtitles are also available. No matter which way you want to spin it, "The Captains Close Up" is just a bunch of people sitting around talking, so there’s not really much here. In fact, the soundtrack is so bare that very little difference between the stereo and the surround. Like the video, the audio is at the mercy of the multitude of sources. Several of the on-location interviews have thin, tinny dialogue. The studio footage once again fares better. No subtitles are available.
Extras
Two bonus interview segments with Shatner are also included. In “Paramount Fire of 1983” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, SD; 1 minute 12 seconds), Shatner reminisces about the day he single-handedly saved “Star Trek III: The Search For Spock” (1984) from the brink of disaster, when he fought back a blazing set fire that nearly destroyed the soundstage where the film was being shot. Uh huh, yeah… anyway… the other piece, titled “When the Wall Came Down” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, SD; 1 minute 40 seconds), is about the Paramount/Desilu merger of 1967. I’m almost surprised Shatner didn’t claim to play a major part in that, too.
Packaging
eOne Entertainment packages all five parts of the Epix HD miniseries “The Captains Close Up” onto a single DVD-9. The disc is housed in an amaray keep case.
Overall
“The Captains Close Up” works as a decent companion to William Shatner’s original “The Captains” (2011) documentary from a few years ago. (Dare I cross the line, and call it a sort of expanded universe take on the subject, to borrow a phrase from the fandom of that other “Star” franchise?) With new footage, the interview series is both in a sense more, and more of the same. The enterprise’s greatest strength and weakness are one and the same—the original Captain James T. Kirk himself. Shatner’s passion for “Trek” is only matched by his ego, both of which I think are about the size of a small class M planet. Video and audio are fine for a documentary on DVD. The two bonus interviews are worth a laugh, although, as is always the case I’m not entirely sure that was Shatner’s intention (but maybe, just maybe, it was?). If you’re a Trekkie (or, Trekker?) looking for another documentary related to the franchise, or just someone who enjoys any of these actors and what to know a little more about them, look no further than “The Captains Close Up”.
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