“I have never watched ‘Star Trek’,” he said. “There are many episodes I don’t know, there are some movies I don’t know.” Shatner did say, however, that he watched the 1989 movie “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” but that’s mostly because he directed the film. “I directed one of the movies — No. 5 — I had to watch that one,” he said. Still, he said the experience of looking back on his performance in the long-running series is not an enjoyable one. “But it’s all painful because I don’t like the way I look and what I do.”

Shatner also pondered with People (via Entertainment Weekly) why the beloved series created by Gene Roddenberry has managed to endure over the years, spawning many a spinoff including, most recently, “Star Trek: Picard.” Related Remembering Kirstie Alley Going Vulcan for ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’ George Takei Speaks Out on ‘Star Trek’ Feud with William Shatner: He’s a ‘Cantankerous Old Man’ Related The Best Zombie Movies Ever Made Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Movies: 53 Films the Director Wants You to See
“We’re on the verge of extinction,” Shatner said. “We are poisoning ourselves out of life, and the Earth will survive and this little cancer, mankind, that’s growing all around her will die off the way a body gets a temperature and kills the germs off. Mother Earth will get rid of us because we’re a pestilence. But we don’t have to be. And we can join with the rest of life that makes it here on Earth with equanimity.” Shatner also said that the franchise offers a glimmer of hope for a broken world. “The fact that ‘Star Trek’ exists 400 years from now is sort of a promise that if we do those things, we will, your children, your grandchildren will continue to live and live in fairly decent circumstances if you follow what we’re supposed to follow,” he said. “‘Star Trek’ says we exist 400 years from now, so there’s hope. That’s what the audience gets, is the hope. That’s the message of ‘Star Trek,’ and that’s why I think ‘Star Trek’ is popular.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.