You should read Wil Wheaton’s account of meeting his long time hero Mr Shatner aka “How Captain Kirk was instantly transformed into William-Fucking-Shatner.”
I am just grateful that they got everyone who was alive, except James Doohan, for the Futurama episode, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before”.
It’s already been linked to just a few posts above. 
Thanks, I missed the link. That was a good follow up to the story.
I’m really really sad that Deforest Kelly had already died by the time this cartoon was made. The inclusion of him and James Doohan would have made it perfect.
Just like his dad! 
Avoid being in that typecast role again? Too late. By the time TNG aired, the original seven TOS actors (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Doohan, Nichols, Takei, and Koenig) had already appeared in four movies.
Kelley was in the cartoon, though. Or at least his animated representative was. It was true he had no lines because of Kelley’s passing, and it’s bittersweet, also. Apparently the producers had permission from his estate to include him.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/Futurama_ep65.jpg/205px-Futurama_ep65.jpg
As for Doohan, I believe he suffered from Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis. And that was before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2004. His health might not have been up to his recording dialogue for the Futurama episode.
When the series came out, there was resentment for TOS cast members that they were gypped out of series residuals from the original (got paid for first five showings, then nothing) and couldn’t find work because they were typecast. Then this series appears without them. A television critic with “Newsday” has said he talked with Shatner before TNG went on and Shatner was sure it would be a failure without the original members and a year later was crushed because it was a success.
I think once TNG was a success, the producers felt they didn't need too many TOS appearances and it would be best to keep them separate. When you get down to it, doing a new show probably was a big risk.
The first part of the Spock appearance was typical TV hype: all kinds of “Spock is on the episode” promotions and he doesn’t show up until 10 seconds are left. He was in more of the second part.
Because it sickened him.
For me, Walter Koenig broke typecasting with his superior role in Babylon 5. They never gave Chekov much to do in Star Trek. Psi Cop Alfred Bester played a big part of B5. The Psi Corp conspiracy was a major story arc in B5.
::golf clap::
Yeah, the first part was a teaser. Part 2, including Spock’s reveal, was filmed first in order to accommodate Nimoy’s schedule. His first appearance was added to end of the first part after that filming was completed.
Perhaps he couldn’t find his toupe.
I did. And I read Part 2 where Shatner was quite down to earth and nice to Wheaton. I have no doubt that Shatner can be a dick upon occasion, as can we all. I just think he gets a bad rap for it. As he says in the Captain’s Summit, he hates the phrase, “I hate to bother you…” because (and he is correct in this) whoever is saying it has already bothered the recipient of that bit of speech. I don’t see the big deal that he’s Shatner and not Kirk. But enough of all of this. YMMV and all that.
In the commentary for that Futurama episode, they (the Futurama folk, not the ST folk) talk about how they invited everyone to do the episode and Doohan’s response was “Hell no”. They laugh about how “No” would have been bad enough but Doohan had to throw a “Hell” in there.
This says nothing about what Doohan’s actual reasons were but they didn’t seem to be a regretful decline due to circumstances beyond his control.
Well, to be fair, I didn’t make it very clear that that was what I was linking. And I only linked Part 2 because it had a link to Part 1, but not vice versa. Part 1 is the one where it seems that Shatner doesn’t like the Wesley character.
It does make sense that he’d never seen the show, though. It seemed odd that he had to ask Wil what his character did.
And the nervous way Wil approached him, in an odd geekish outfit, probably screamed “con fanboy” to Shatner, so he wrote Wil off.
And yet he’s Canadian. 