Wes Boldly Goes Trekking!

Star Trek: Legacy to feature ALL FIVE original Captains!

So I have finally realized a dream - I am going to appear in a Star Trek project with William Shatner!

Yee-ha!

Anyone who knows me knows that the geek boy inside is doing the happy dance right now. I just laid down several voices for a new Star Trek video game being produced by Bethesda Softworks. Star Trek: Legacy, whose release this fall will coincide with Star Trek's 40th Anniversary, will mark the first time that all five series Captains - William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula - will act in the same Star Trek project together! This is huge news - if you don't believe me, read the Press Release!

But personally, the bigger news is that I will be a part of it. And I'm thrilled!

A few months back, I had the pleasure of actually voicing the Kirk lines for the demo version of the game that made it to the E3 convention. I've been doing a Shatner impression almost as long as Kevin Pollock (See The William Shatner School of Acting), and a Shatner fan for even longer, so this was an honor to do.  Some people felt that it was a pretty dead on impression.  Still, even though it was great to sit in the Captain's chair, I knew that there was no one else for the job of Kirk than the man himself. And the man? He agreed.

As Shatner told Reuters, "I couldn't imagine someone else playing Captain Kirk, even in a video game, so I kind of got a little territorial."

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! It's kind of like I'm a Gorn taking a paper mache rock right to the chest! How cool is that?

So instead of playing Kirk for the game, I played the main Klingon Captain Menvek (YOU KILLED MY SON!), a generic TOS Captain, The Borg, a TNG Crewman and a familiar TOS Helmsman. It was a blast, and recording with Laffy Taylor at Absolute Pitch in Bethesda was a lot of fun (if not hard on the vocal cords during heated Klingon battle). I've discovered that working with Bethesda Softworks on video games is usually a great experience. In fact, this will make the second video game I've done with them in a row that features the great voice of Patrick Stewart. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the first (and REALLY worth checking out!).

It's very cool that Bethesda Softworks can bring such wonderful stars like the Five Captains to their games. The voice directors and producers (like Mark Lampert, Charles Harribey and Laffy) are remarkable at bringing out the best in their voice talents, and the graphics developers at Bethesda have been doing some jaw droppingly beautiful work.  If the brilliance of Oblivion is any indication, Star Trek: Legacy should be even more fun to play than it was to record.  The only thing that could have been more fun?

Meeting Shatner himself.

But then, there's always the future!

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Check Out These Handy Links

Star Trek: Legacy - Official Site

Star Trek: Legacy - Official Trailer

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Official Site