"The Science of Star Trek will not be a dry, academic documentary, which is only natural given that it is a William Shatner project," noted one journalist of the Star Trek star's upcoming two-hour documentary on ideas from the original series which have become or are becoming reality in the nearly 40 years since the show's premiere.

The Montreal Gazette explains that the upcoming film, which is based on Shatner's book I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact, will be narrated by the Captain Kirk actor and will poke fun at both Shatner and the series that made him famous. Producer Alan Handel said that the concept "is to flesh out his humour and have his humour central to the whole thing...part of the content and a lot of the flavour he's established in the book in a way that's consistent with Bill Shatner, icon, which is very self-deprecating and funny."

In The Science of Star Trek, Shatner interviews scientists who were inspired as children by Star Trek and went on to become inventors. The documentary will air next season on the Discovery Channel in Canada, the History Channel in the U.S., and Channel 5 in Britain. Of the famously quirky star, who has lampooned his own image everywhere from the feature film Free Enterprise to a recent tribute to Star Wars creator George Lucas, Handel said, "He's been really good to deal with...people say very cautiously - 'So what's Shatner like to deal with?' But the god's honest truth - he's so professional."

Shatner's I'm Working on That, the source for the film, was co-written with Chip Walter and hailed for its readable tone when discussing technical innovations. "Shatner expresses the perspective of somebody with a layman's problems in coping with existing 'Star Tech' well, and even wittily," notes Booklist in a review cited at Amazon.com, from which the book can be ordered.

The original article on the documentary The Science of Star Trek is at The Montreal Gazette.

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