William Shatner,
71, actor/writer/director
The captain of them all led the
Federation to battle in the most talked about scenario game in paintball history.
You're at this event for a charity, could you tell us about
it?
One of my passions has always been horses. Fifteen years ago,
I competed in a horse show in Los Angeles to benefit a hospital.
The ladies running the show decided that they had done enough,
that they were going to stop, and we would all lose this horse
show. Everybody thought it was terrible. They weren't willing
to accept it. I wasn't willing to accept it, so I said: "I'll
put on the horse show", I mean, how difficult could it be? This
charity was benefiting "Ahead with Horses", a therapeutic horse
activity with handicapped kids. The horses acted as a means
of therapy for children who had never spoken, who had never
walked, who in some cases, were missing limbs from birth. They
were producing miracles, and they demonstrated it to me. One
kid, from birth, had one leg as the only limb, but with her
toes, she was able to hold the reigns, she painted me a beautiful
picture, she was happy. It was extraordinary for me. Over the
years, I've brought in one or two other charities to benefit
from this horse show.
LA's Best, for example
Yes, a program that keeps children in school, by having complex
and interesting after-school programs. I've benefited native
Americans, kids' museums, and more. When we made a lot of money
from the show, it varies from year to year, we also helped another
charity that I've started, for addicted women. So that's been
the thrust of the Hollywood Horse Show.
From horses
to paintball?
I met a man who was a trainer, and he told me that his son was
into paintball. I had never really heard of it, I had maybe
read something about it once. But it was peripheral, not in
my consciousness at all. So I met the son of this horse trainer,
JJ Brookshire. JJ began to suggest that at that horse show,
we could have a paintball event on the sideline. We played with
that possibility and how we could manage paintballs going in
all direction at a horse show. Obviously, that would scare the
horses and endanger people there. We thought about taking it
out to a rodeo area, but none of it seemed practical. We then
began playing with the idea of a paintball scenario show somewhere
else. Our plans became bigger and bigger, and finally, JJ found
Challenge Park, and said: "I have the perfect area for the paintball
competition, but it has nothing to do with horses."
You accepted immediately? 
I thought "what a wonderful way to raise money for these charities
that I seemed to be part of", and
JJ agreed. This would become a charitable moment in which people
could play the game that they were passionate about, and at
the same time, donate money after the expenses were paid. All
excess money would go to these charities.
You wanted to be extremely
involved in the project. Is that why you decided to write the
scenario yourself?
Well, I helped write it. It interested people who were working
with me on my website. They
thought it would make a wonderful DVD. We thought: "how can
we make this an interesting film?"
I had been working with this articulated head, a movie prop,
mechanically operated to move eyebrows, lips, etc. I was
working with it on a program that I'm hosting,
a horror program on the sci-fi channel called "Shatner Fright
Night". I thought "that's visual, that's big, this would appeal
to a lot of people who are watching". We could build a story
around that. The DVD is produced by Creative Light Entertainment,
and we got permission from Paramount to use the names Klingon,
Borg, etc. Our jerseys are loosely based on the Federation thing,
and I'm not captain Kirk, but I'm captain. We acquired ten cameramen,
all being combat photographers now, my daughter, who runs my
part of the web, is the combat journalist, and my wife is the
communications officer for our team. We've all come here to
play the game.
Could you briefly outline the plot?
The big giant head is a member of an alien race, who has advanced
armaments. The Big Giant Head has put to the Klingons, the Borg,
that the winner of this competition would acquire these arms.
The Federation has stepped in to say: "No, no, we don't want
to unbalance the state of affairs in the universe, we will make
sure that nobody acquires these arms". The twist that we've
put in, is that in fact, the Big Giant Head is a child, and
'big daddy' Giant Head will call him back at the end, and say:
"Now, put away your toys." But we'll do that with a green screen,
with special effects, and all that won't appear here. We'll
have to do that at home.
Rumor
has it that up to now you haven't fired a paintball. This can't
be true?
There's been an interesting development... So I thought fun
and games with paintball. And I had never fired a paintball
marker. I came out here to look at the facility with the leading
manufacturer in paintball markers, my opponent, Tom Kaye (Airgun
Designs). Tom lent me one
of his paintguns, and I fired it at a target range, and it was
a kick! It's almost atavistic, a weapon and firing. I then went
back to Los Angeles, and a couple of weeks ago, I escaped to
a range and played with a guy, Dave Bassman, who although semi-retired,
was running this area, and was a great player. He took me under
his wings for about an hour. He brought in several people and
we played a game, capture the flag. And suddenly a light bulb
went off when I began to talk with these people. It's not just
a game. To a lot of paintball enthusiasts, it's an expression
of their life. It's very meaningful to their existence, it's
everything.
 You
think that it's more than a hobby?
It's a big hobby, and they get to meet people, it's not unlike
the Star Trek conventions that I've been attending. I drew a
parallel between the importance... I wrote a book on the Star
Trek audience called "Get a life". What I dazzled myself with
was that the audience wasn't coming to see the headliners, they
were coming to see each other. A community of people, each their
interest in each other and in the core information which was
Star Trek. So it is, it seems to me, here... this cadre of paintball
enthusiasts. There's people from all over the world coming here,
whose union with everybody is in paintball and equipment. Who
won, who got it, what their lives are like? And I realized that
this DVD is not about the Big Giant Head and that silly scenario,
it's about these guys' lives. It should and will be a DVD on
paintball, a documentary if you will, using this game that we're
playing and this scenario as a means of telling the story of
paintball.
We're all expecting great things from
you tomorrow.
If the wind is right, I'll come down on a parasail with a motor
on my back. A self propelled parasail. I've been doing it for
the last few years, and I got handy at it, but I haven't done
it for a while, so they're very nervous about it. They'll help
me get up in the air. Getting up is the hard part, landing is
easy. I'm a pilot as well as a skydiver...
You
better watch out, a lot of people came here to shoot you out
of the game!
There's 1500 people, that means that there's 1000 on two of
teams, at 10 paintball/second, that's 10 paintballs a second
times 1000, all aimed at me! I'll be captain of the Federation,
and I have wonderful operatives who can help this captain and
his team, more than help, but we won't say that.
Have
you ever done anything that comes close to this?
I was a very good archer. I used to compete and I hunted with
a bow and arrow. I also like guns, and fire rifles, and there's
something of that in this. I was fascinated by the people who
are snipers, the long range rifles. The need for body control
and the skill of stalking. As a bow hunter, many years ago,
I was fascinated by the stalking aspects. So here we have a
game, that can use many of those skills without killing anything,
without hurting anything, but retain the essence of the joy
of all that, without any of the detrimental part of a bullet,
of a kill...
You're
now managing a Special Effects company. Paintball has always
been chosen by companies for staff seminars and building strong
teams. Would you ever consider sending your staff on a paintball
weekend?
I think that's a great idea, I think that getting to know somebody
in the anxiety of a paintball fight, having to develop strategy
and communication. It's a perfect way for a group of people
in a company to get to know each other better. And then, think
about Monday morning at the water cooler!
Do you see more technologically
enhanced sports in the future? 
To me, the essence of a sport is hand-eye coordination, and
I'd like to get technology out of there. I prefer sailing to
motor boat...
Do you see scenario
paintball as a real sport or as a type of interactive entertainment?
For this event, there's recreational players like myself, here
to have fun, there are tournament people here out to kill, and
then there are some mental cases. It's a complex grouping of
people each with their own agenda.
You
just wrote a book on Star Trek's impact on today's new technologies.
There's a sentence on the holodeck that struck me: "Remember
when you were a kid and you used to play pretend? Let's play
army, let's play cowboys and Indians, let's have a tea party.
Well this is the place where you can really pretend..." What's
your take on Challenge Park?
There is a kind of holodeck recreated here, that's what the
town is... Bedlam, the deserted town. Armageddon, with all those
destroyed vehicles and what it would it be like, in a post atomic
era. There is a sense of fantasy and reality here as these paintballs
substitute for bullets. You're in your own imagination.
So when you compare paintball to video games, who is
having the better 'holodeck' experience?
That's interesting. I think that everybody lives in his or her
imagination, and we don't see reality as a computer mind. The
ultimate reality is impending death. We're all going to die,
but we forget that. Even I, at my advanced age, don't think
it's going to happen. We're all living in an imagined state
of grace, where as if we didn't live this way so much, we might
lead better lives. And so we lead our imagined lives with paintball,
or with board games, or video games. It's all inside our head,
and the essence of that drama is radio drama. Radio drama is
theater of the mind, and by some suggested sound, can paint
for you, if you pardon the expression, a grandeur that no movie
can show you. With the right sounds, the right suggestions,
it can inflame your imagination and take you to realms no one
else can take you. That's our imagination, and that's where
paintball and video games take us. What I'm trying to suggest
is that it's everybody's individual head game.
All
right, just one Star Trek question. How do you explain it's
global appeal?
I can't explain it, but maybe using the very example of what
were talking about, the adventure of the mind. These people
who know me as a result of Star Trek, found that Star Trek influenced
their imagination as well. And by suggesting possibilities of
the future, each of these individuals has imagined a future
that has peace, and that, in fact, there is a future.
You're an actor, director, writer, CEO... Is there anything
else you'd like to do?
You forgot lover.
Professionally, I meant.
Everything.
What are you the most committed to
now?
I've got the book you mentioned, another book coming out, movies,
a couple of television shows that are popular now, and I'm working
on a script that I really like.
Do you see more
paintball in your future?
It is our hope that this is the beginning of an annual Splatt
Attack. What a wonderful way to raise funds for children in
need.
Things you love and hate?
I love love and I hate hate.
For info on the charity:
www.williamshatner.com
For info on the upcoming DVD: www.crlight.com
Comments
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| VIP |
| "That episode of the Twilight Zone with William Shatner was by far my favorite. Great to hear him say he prefers the traditional to the fast. I would rather play with my friends in the woods and have a great time then spend $300 to play in a tourney any day. The Kenpo community salutes William Shatner." | wayfarer
08/06/04 at 18:14
 | | "My friends and I drove for two days to get that game and played the best paintball of our lives. We even bought the DVD." | mread
16/07/04 at 13:58
 | | "I was at the rescent game at CPX, and it was one day of paintball I will never forget. I just have to remember to bring more money to get some stuff and donate to the charaties more." | ringldr21
23/09/04 at 17:08
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