Star Trek: 10 Biggest Takeaways From 'William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill'

William Shatner has spoken quite a bit about Star Trek: Generations over the years, as well as about Kirk's death scene in particular. Whilst promoting You Can Call Me Bill, Shatner stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live where he got a birthday cake and also the chance to re-do the (in)famous demise.

If Shatner wants another try at Kirk's death, then it's because he wasn't happy with the way he performed it in the first place. "It's slightly darker than I wanted it to be," Shatner admits in You Can Call Me Bill. He believes that Kirk would have approached death the same way he approached life — with a sense of awe and curiosity at the prospect, "like wow, death is coming. How interesting!"

Had Shatner had one more take, he would have given the "Oh, my" more of an inquisitive, upward inflection, to reflect Kirk's sense of courage when faced with the unknown. Nonetheless, it is the darker reading of Kirk's final words that is there on film. "Maybe that's the way it should be," Shatner goes on to add. Of course, we might have preferred that Kirk didn't die at all in Generations, but that's a discussion for another time. Shatner has also brought Kirk back from the dead, not on the stage, but the page.