William Shatner made an appearance on Oprah.

Today, William Shatner boldly went where he’d never been before, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shatner was featured as one of Oprah’s ‘TV icons’ series. The show also included Happy Days’ Fonzie, Henry Winkler and soap opera singing sensation Rick Springfield (who was also Zac on the original Battlestar Galactica). No big news (besides seeing Shatner using a cane) and no questions about the new movie, but was still interesting to see Shatner in this environment.

John Tenuto’s article on Shatner’s appearance continues. Watch the video in its entirety here.

It was an endearing appearance.

Shatner’s “Star Trek” and “Boston Legal” successes are well known. He has had success in music with his 2004 album, “Has Been.” Here’s another side of William Shatner: his appearance on the Tonight Show performing “Common People” (from “Has Been”) with Joe Jackson and Ben Folds. “Common People” is a cover of a Pulp song and this is a performance as indescribable as it is compelling.

MTV interviewed Anton Yelchin who will portray Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abram’s upcoming “Star Trek” movie.

In the years since the original “Trek” depicted Vulcan Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) working alongside a human crew, various incarnations have occasionally shown nonhuman crew members, like android Data or half-Borg Seven of Nine. But according to Yelchin, Abrams’ depiction of the “Trek” crew’s early days will reveal dozens of distinctive-looking aliens helping to run the ship.

“The aliens are people that sit through, like, three hours of makeup to become that oh-so-special alien in the shot,” Yelchin grinned, adding that they’re much more than generic creatures with green skin and big eyes. “They’re good; they’re Enterprise aliens.”

[…]

But even though 71-year-old Walter Koenig won’t be reprising his role as Russian Starfleet officer Pavel Chekov, he did give Yelchin the thrill of meeting up to compare notes. “He was on set, and I talked to him for a while, and I was really nervous,” Yelchin admitted sheepishly. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s gonna come on set and say I suck!’ But, he was really gracious and happy about what we were doing. I talked to him about a couple of things.”

Their discussions included Koenig’s accented line deliveries over the last few decades, which — depending on whom you ask — are either beloved, all wrong or a combination of the two. “That’s a trademark Chekov thing, the V’s [being pronounced as W’s], so there’s a lot of that in the film,” revealed the Russian-born Yelchin. “I did take the V/W thing, because I thought that was really [iconic]. We are doing our own thing, we aren’t remaking the old show, but the whole goal is to do your own thing and be original, while being respectful.”

In recent interviews, Leonard Nimoy has given the J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movie high praise.

“My photography is still a major love and a major part of my creative life, but this is a ‘Star Trek’ project, so it’s something special,” Nimoy told The Shmooze by phone from Los Angeles, where he’ll be filming through next month.

His last “Trek” movie was 1991’s “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”; four more have been made since. Nimoy said he was drawn to this next one by the energy and reputation of director/producer J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” “Alias,” “Mission Impossible III”), “a really special guy with a wonderful script and a great production…. He’s the real deal.”

“And I feel I owe it to ‘Star Trek’; it’s been a big, positive factor in my life,” he added. “I do think this is a very serious chance for the entire franchise to become reinvigorated.”

The entire interview is here. Larry Mantle of AirTalk recently conducted a radio interview with Leonard Nimoy. Visit the Web site to listen.

Find out more about Leonard Nimoy’s photography and view images from the critically acclaimed “Full Body Project” here.