Not long ago, something of an astronomical event took place in Seattle: two superstars collided. William Shatner, of Star Trek fame, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, America's favorite astrophysicist, took the stage to explore the nature of exploration. Think of it as Martin and Lewis, but with more quantum mechanics.
“It’s a bromance,” Tyson said. “I think what Bill Shatner and I have together should be the textbook definition of bromance.”
“If we could have a bromance,” Shatner said, “I would be honored.”
They became close last year on a high-end cruise to Antarctica, where they ended up being the after-dinner attraction. “The organizer said, 'Why don't we put you two on this mini stage they have on the ship and just chew the fat?' – Tyson said. “And then the organizer said, 'Why don't you guys take this on the road?'”
Their first port of call? Seattle, where they debuted an expansive, sometimes meandering, but always intriguing stage show they called “The Universe Is Absurd!”
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When Shatner asked his co-star for a sound bite, DeGrasse Tyson asked the audience to suggest: “Pick something from the universe. Go. Anything. Doesn't matter”.
“Pluto!” – shouted one of the enthusiastic spectators.
DeGrasse Tyson agreed: “More than half of Pluto is made of ice, so if it were where Earth is now, the heat from the Sun would evaporate that ice and it would grow a tail. And this is atypical behavior for the planet!” Microphone falling. “This sound bite!”
For DeGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium and the authority on virtually everything we know about the universe, this is a chance to delve into the insatiably curious mind of 94-year-old Shatner. “What kind of magic potion is he drinking?” DeGrasse Tyson laughed. “By the way, you can do the math, he’s been alive for three billion seconds, okay? I figured you don't have to. So when Bill Shatner speaks, it comes from a place much deeper than any of us can imagine.”
And for Shatner, who has never formally studied astrophysics, it's a chance to make up for what he considers lost time. “I hate it because we know so little about what nature's design is, but what little we do know is so amazing, it's so fascinating,” he said. “The fact that when I was young I didn't realize how fascinating it was, I could have been much more aware of it.”
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Four years ago, Shatner became oldest person to ever fly into spaceand since then he has been traveling around the world.
Shatner asked DeGrasse Tyson, “Are you still scratching your head in awe?”
“Every night I look up,” he replied.
So, is this the dynamic between the two of them – Shatner with the questions, DeGrasse Tyson with the answers? “Unfortunately, that’s the way it is,” Shatner responded.
“No, but he has wisdom and life experience that I value and respect,” DeGrasse Tyson added. “So I'm here to grab some of this.”
As for Shatner's take on DeGrasse Tyson, “he has access, both because of his mentality and his books and research, so he's into modern mysticism, which is the study of the stars and how they work and what's going on.”
“You call this modern mysticism?” asked DeGrasse Tyson.
“Because you can't be sure that what you say is absolutely true until more experiments are done.”
“This is the border. We're scratching our heads.”
“Exactly,” Shatner said. “So he's a researcher. He is a researcher. He's on this edge. He teaches this. And it’s mystical in every sense of the word.”
I asked, “I think this is where you politely and respectfully disagree, because Dr. deGrasse Tyson will say something like, “We know what the speed of light is and what the fastest things that can move are.” And you say: “Well, let’s see!”
“Yeah, we had that argument,” Shatner said.
DeGrasse Tyson seems well aware that he doesn't know everything – such as what happened before the Big Bang and the profound idea that something comes into being out of nothingness. “We don't know. Next question! – he said. “No, as a scientist you have to be comfortable with a question that doesn’t yet have an answer.”
Of course, the big question we don't really know definitively is where we'll go when we die, and Shatner, as he loses friends and colleagues, finds himself wondering about that more and more. “You know, I differentiate between my fear of death and my fear,” he said. But: “There is so much love around me. I have a wife, children, and grandchildren. I even have two great-grandchildren.
“But are you interested in what you find out?” I asked.
“Not enough to die!” he laughed.
“Even your curiosity has a limit?”
“Right. It stops right here!”
So William Shatner's famous curiosity stumbles upon the edge of his universe. And when the Seattle show wrapped, Shatner closed it out with one of his unique spoken word songs, accompanied by trumpeter Keyon Harrold.
Don't grow old
no matter how long you live.
Don't forget the pain
but somehow learn to forgive.
It turns out the universe may be a little absurd, but what an interesting ride!
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson (Video)
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The story was produced by Anthony Laudato. Editor: Karen Brenner.
