Not many 81-year olds would enjoy travelling across the world just to mingle with crowds of people dressed up in odd costumes, but William Shatner begged to differ as he faced thousands of fans at the Destination London Star Trek convention on Friday.
Shatner, who starred as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series, joined forces with the other five Star Trek TV captains at the convention at London's ExCel centre, the first live Star Trek event in Britain for more than a decade.
"There are a lot of people travelling from all over the world to come here. It's sort of monumental in its worth," said Shat-ner, who has also won an Emmy for his role in the U.S. drama Boston Legal.
"I enjoy meeting fans on a broad scale. There are 17,000 people ... coming to this convention. It's a huge event."
There was a time, however, when Shatner did wonder what motivated Star Trek fans to flock to conventions, splashing out on merchandise and dressing up in replica costumes true to the series' humble beginnings.
In 1986 Shatner starred in a Saturday Night Live sketch in which he told a convention full of awe-struck Star Trek fans to stop wasting their lives on a TV show and "get a life."
"I didn't want anything to do with a group of obsessives who paid to get together to talk incessantly about a TV show that had been cancelled. It wasn't logical," he wrote in an article for British national newspaper Daily Mail in 2008.
But on Friday, the Canadian-born actor appeared moved by the masses of fans who have undertaken the pilgrimage to celebrate Star Trek, the series that has turned him into one of the most-loved actors on the small and big screen.
"I've never been ambivalent. I'm only filled with gratitude with the fame it gave me years ago and the way it's kept me in the public eye."
In fact, Star Trek conventions have become an inspiration for the actor, who went behind the lens to film the 2012 documentary Get a life!, examining what drives people to attend conventions. "The conclusion that I come to is that it's mythological. It's a desire for mythology that we don't have in this age."
The London convention, which ends Sunday, is the first to unite all five captains.
The 46-year old series, cancelled after the first three seasons, attracted a loyal following through re-runs.
