Season 1, Episode 9—”BARD TREK – Shakespeare in Star Trek”
(Image: creative commons license)
Shakespeare. Star Trek. The combination seems a bit odd.
From Wikipedia: William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist.
Star Trek, the original series, was set in the 23rd century, created by Gene Roddenberry. From Wikipedia: In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels, the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.
But, the writers of Star Trek were also influenced by Shakespeare.
Troy Harkin and David Clink will do a deep dive on Bard Trek, and will also look at how theatre, plays, and drama became a part of Trek, with special guest Trevor Rines (see author photo & bio below).
Also, on this podcast, Dream Casting and The OOTB (outside-of-the-box) Casting, for Star Trek and Shakespeare.
Trevor Rines is an actor, musician, writer, notorious punster, & boardgame designer & developer, with a background in Astrophysics, who is quoted on DNA in The Dictionary of Canadian Quotations.
Since the start of the pandemic, he’s performed (online, of course) in every single one of Shakespeare’s plays with The Quarantine Players.
As a composer, he’s written music for many theatrical productions, including the incidental music & songs for two Shakespeare productions.
As a voice actor, his low, rumbling voice has been heard onstage with orchestras, as well as on TV, radio, film, documentaries, audio dramas, radio plays, & even on other podcasts…