Admit it, you know you love it. You love the now infamous clip of Captain Kirk fighting the Gorn, the overgrown green lizard in the leopard loincloth.
Much like his “interpretations” of Rocket Man and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, the Gorn battle is another great piece of William Shatner hilarity that never fails to incite laughter.
You also have to admire the fact that instead of getting sulky about people making fun of him, Shatner’s playing along with the gag, especially in the latest commercial for the long awaited Star Trek video game, which is due on April 23, not long before the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. In this commercial, we see Bill battling the Gorn again, but this time in a living room as they’re playing the Trek game together.
The Gorn costume is very close to the original, except the noises he makes are nowhere near as funny. Still, it’s an amusing commercial, and they redo the fight choreography pretty close as well, with Shatner making fun of the fact that many years have passed since then, and they’re both too old to be going at it like they used to. (Shatner is eighty-two years old).
As we’ve seen from the coverage of the upcoming Star Trek game, the Gorn are much improved monsters these days, and you certainly wouldn’t mistake them for somebody in a Godzilla style monster suit. Nevertheless, for sheer hilarity, Shatner’s battle with the Gorn on the original Star Trek is still priceless after all these years.
Obviously since the Gorn battle became a YouTube sensation, much like Shatner’s Rocket Man, the makers of this commercial decided to capitalize on it, assuming there’s plenty of others who’ve seen it online, and find it just as hysterical as we do. In fact, when you look up the Gorn fight on YouTube, it’s listed as Worst Fight Scene Ever with over twelve million views. (There’s certain to be more once this commercial also becomes part of the pop culture firmament).
Again, it’s good to see that Shatner has a good sense of humor about himself, and is not only playing along with the gag, but probably laughing all the way to the bank as well. Even when funny clips from his past are shown on talk shows to try and embarrass him, he always flashes that sly Captain Kirk smirk and never loses his cool.
