''How William Shatner Changed the World'' (or ''How Techies Changed the World with William Shatner'' in Europe, Asia, and Australia) is a 2005 two-hour television documentary, commissioned by

Discovery Channel Canada Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a Canadian specialty television channel owned by CTV Speciality Television Inc. (a joint venture between Bell Media/ESPN Inc. (80%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns the remaining ...

and co-produced for

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

in the United States and Channel Five in the United Kingdom. Hosted and narrated by

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

, known for his portrayal of

Captain James T. Kirk James Tiberius Kirk is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in ''Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as captain. Kirk leads ...

, and based on his 2002 book, ''I'm Working on That'', the show focuses on technological advancements and people in the real world that were inspired by the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' phenomenon.

Summary

First hour

The first hour focuses on the original ''Star Trek'' series and the ideas that

Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and ''Sta ...

had about the future of space travel. It begins with the life of Dr. Marc D. Rayman, the chief propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and shows how Dr. Rayman became interested in propulsion through ''Star Trek''. It also discusses how NASA's newest deep space probe's

ion propulsion An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity. An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of a ...

was inspired by the 1968 ''Star Trek'' episode "

Spock's Brain "Spock's Brain" is the third season premiere episode of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Gene L. Coon (under the pseudonym ''Lee Cronin'') and directed by Marc Daniels, it was first broadcast on September ...

". Shatner also states that "those pesky trekkies are everywhere in the space program," hence the name for the first Space Shuttle: ''Enterprise''. The show then examines the life of Martin Cooper, the chief engineer at

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

, who invented the

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

. Cooper states that ''Star Trek'' was his inspiration for the cell phone, and discusses the similarities between the modern day cell phone and a ''Star Trek'' communicator. He also discusses how ''Star Trek'' introduced the concept of computer voice recognition dialing. Next,

Mae C. Jemison Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. Je ...

describes how ''Star Trek'' inspired her to become the first African-American woman in space, and

Seth Shostak Seth Shostak (born July 20, 1943) is an American astronomer and author, and is currently the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. Shostak hosts SETI's weekly radio show/podcast ''Big Picture Science'', has played himself numerous times in TV ...

, of

SETI The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...

(Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), tells how it led him to astronomy. The show also explores how ''Star Trek'' popularized the notion of the

user-friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

, and how ''Trek'' fan Ed Roberts, invented the first home computer, the

Altair 8800 The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics and was sold by mail order through advertiseme ...

, named after the solar system Altair (Altair 6) in the 1967 ''Star Trek'' episode "

Amok Time "Amok Time" is the second season premiere episode of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, scored by Gerald Fried, and directed by Joseph Pevney, it first aired on Se ...

". This led to

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

writing the computer programming language

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

for the Altair and forming

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. Medical technologies are discussed, in particular the inspiration for non-invasive ''Star-Trek''-style imaging technology.

Warp drive A warp drive or a drive enabling space warp is a fictional superluminal spacecraft propulsion system in many science fiction works, most notably ''Star Trek'', and a subject of ongoing physics research. The general concept of "warp drive" was i ...

and

faster-than-light Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...

interstellar travel with theoretical physicist

Miguel Alcubierre Miguel Alcubierre Moya (born March 28, 1964) is a Mexican theoretical physicist. Alcubierre is known for the proposed Alcubierre drive, a speculative warp drive by which a spacecraft could achieve faster-than-light travel. Personal life Alcubie ...

's theories are mentioned.

Lawrence M. Krauss Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now cal ...

, physicist and author of the 1995 non-fiction book ''

The Physics of Star Trek ''The Physics of Star Trek'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by the theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss. It is the third book by Krauss, who later wrote a follow-up titled '' Beyond Star Trek'' in 1997. Overview Krauss discusses the physics in ...

'', is also featured. The show then investigates the research work of

Kevin Warwick Kevin Warwick (born 9 February 1954) is an English engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also done ...

at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

and considers its links with the

Borg The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the ''Star Trek'' fictional universe. The Borg are Cyborg, cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a Group mind (science fiction), hive mind called "the Collective". The Borg ...

. Warwick's

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

implants, linking his own nervous system into the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, are featured.

Second hour

The second hour focuses on further programs in ''Star Trek'' franchise: '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and ''

Star Trek: Enterprise ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', titled simply ''Enterprise'' for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It originally aired from September 26, 2001, to May 13, 2005 on Uni ...

'' and their impact and how they differed from the original series. Next up is Steve Perlman, at the time principal scientist at Apple Computer, who was inspired to invent the

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

media player by watching an episode of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Filmed mostly in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, Canada, the special featured some scenes that took place in locations shown in ''Star Trek'' TV series.

Awards

The special was nominated for two

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2006 - Outstanding Nonfiction Special, and Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming.

References

External links

Discovery Channel Canada
* MemoryAlpha: ''How William Shatner Changed the World'' *
TechHui Geek link
{{Star Trek, state=expanded 2005 television films 2005 films Canadian documentary television films Documentary television series about technology History (American TV channel) original programming Documentary films about Star Trek 2000s Canadian films