JAMES LILEKS: “It’s cool that William Shatner is flying into space. He’ll be the second of the Enterprise crew to do so, and, if all goes well, the first to return:”

What if he doesn’t come back?

Oh perish the thought, you say, but it’s possible. First of all, there’s the dark comic angle: a warning light goes off, the ship bucks, and you know everyone will instinctively look at him for guidance. I would. Then there’s the inescapably fitting-end aspect: it would be like James Arness dying in a gunfight, or Jackie Gleason participating in some TV reunion show where he drives a bus, and he crashes it. They pull him out in his Kramden costume. But Shatner dying in space would be an utterly unique end to a career that no one could’ve predicted back in the late 60s.

No, actually, they could have. When the show went off the air we were still on track to keep exploring, right? A space station soon, a moon base by the late 80s. Why, of course it would have been plausible for Shatner to die in a moon-shuttle accident in 2021.

If I were Shatner, and I was toting up the odds, I’d think: what if? Could happen. Will there by time to say something? If so, what?

There are several things he could say on the last transmission.

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