See William Shatner Swim With Sharks For The First Time In His Life
Check out the video of William Shatner overcoming his fear of sharks. He gets up close and personal in this Shark Week encounter
This article is more than 2 years old
When it comes to space, fans would like to believe that William Shatner has already boldly gone where no man has gone before. That is what happens when you lead a Starship for a bunch of years on the big and small screen. But what about frontiers right here on our good old blue orb? Well, later in life it looks like Shatner is looking to conquer those as well. In this latest video, the actor and icon does something for the first time. He swims with sharks.
As part of Discovery’s Shark Week, William Shatner joined some shark experts on a deep dive into the ocean. They were testing a new system that is meant to repel sharks away, a set of magnets that act as a barrier against the massive fish. These are meant to keep the sharks in front of the observers so they don’t need to worry about an attack from the rear. This was all part of a special Expedition Unknown episode with Josh Gates. It’s lovingly called Shark Trek.
In the video, William Shatner and company do a number of different things most regular humans wouldn’t ever even begin to consider. For starters, they lay a bait box down right in front of them to attract groups of sharks to the area. This is meant to get them in their vicinity to observe the effects of the shark behavior. And a couple of the sharks even seem to confuse the dudes for actual food. The guys are able to brush them off with a firm push of the hand, but it still doesn’t seem like the ideal situation.
There is some general high jinx on the part of the crew, with one of them handing William Shatner a taser-like gun that can be used underwater if he’s in danger from one of the sharks. This looks like they added it as more of a prop, a reminder of Shatner and his days on the Enterprise as part of the Starfleet command. There is some dialogue between the group back and forth, but this does seem like something added after the fact. It is hard to imagine they are having any type of meaningful conversation with the breathing apparatuses used to stay down underwater for so long.
When they finally got off the boat and came up, William Shatner marveled at what they had just experienced, describing it as a “melee” of sharks around them all getting in closer and closer. It was said that part of the video was to help Shatner overcome his fear of sharks. It doesn’t seem like when it is all said and done, that the icon was all that worried about the danger sharks might have presented. But he also was down there with some other experts and covered by a magnetic field as well.
The 90-year-old William Shatner doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In addition to scuba diving into the deeps to stand face-to-face with sharks, he’s also been part of advertising campaigns of late as well. He got into the ring with Mike Tyson for a bit a couple of months ago that simulated the famous former boxer laying into Shatner in the ring. Real? Of course, not. A punch from Tyson would literally kill Shatner at this point. But he’s still up on the screen having fun.
