William Shatner has been around for decades, having played everything from the decadent, right-wing lawyer Denny Crane in “Boston Legal” to Alexander the Great in a failed pilot to a starship captain in that little-known science fiction series “Star Trek.” Shatner announced recently that he is trying to put together a tv show that he calls “The Young Guns of NASA.”
What show would be about
Shatner did not reveal whether “The Young Guns of NASA” would be a scripted TV series or a reality based documentary. In either case, he seems to have hit upon an interesting idea that could not only be entertaining but educational.
The series would also cover something that the space agency has traditionally be inept at, that being telling its story.
The stories of the astronauts and some of the senior engineers and managers at NASA has been done to a large extent. But, as “Hidden Figures” proved, the stories of some of the more obscure worker bees at the space agency can be just as compelling. The fact that Shatner proposes to concentrate on younger scientists and engineers is also interesting. NASA has developed a reputation in the post-Apollo era as being stodgy, middle-aged, and bureaucratic. The idea that people younger than 40 are doing things at the space agency will be a revelation for many people.
What about the commercial space sector?
Most people who have been paying attention know that a lot of exciting things happening in the space business has been going on in the new, commercial companies. From SpaceX’s efforts to create a reusable rocket to Moon Express’ plan to land on the moon, the spirit of the early space program lives on in the private sector.
It should also be mentioned that the new space companies have more than their share of young people, idealistic, hard-working, their gaze firmly fixed upon the heavens. The one problem is that a lot of what is being worked on in the commercial space sector is proprietary, so some of the companies may not welcome too close a look from Shatner’s cameras.
What about the ‘Young Guns of Space?’
Still, not everything that is exciting in space is happening at NASA. To be sure, if, as expected, President Trump gives the space agency an immediate mission, like returning to the moon, things are going to pick up. The stories that a TV series such as Shatner proposes will become all the more compelling. Perhaps we can call it “Young Guns of Space” and actually cover what is going on in a comprehensive manner.
