William Shatner started his career as a promising young actor in the company of the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. But when, despite strong reports for his performances, he failed to achieve the breakthrough fame of his Canadian counterpart Christopher Plummer, Shatner lowered his sights and adopted the philosophy of a working actor. This is not knocking. He shone in his Twilight Zone episodes and was excellent as a racist intruder who incites violence against the black residents of a small town in Roger Corman's The Intruder. However, he also took on so many guest roles on television that he risked diminishing his value due to his ubiquity.

Three seasons and some great episodes of Star Trek fixed it for Shatner, but during the 1970s he became closely associated with a kind of ridiculously serious, easily parodied manner. Serious Shatner's ne plus ultra might be his portrayal of veterinarian Rak Hansen in the wonderful 1977 exploitation film Kingdom of the Spiders. The movie works as intended, but you'll be laughing all the way through as Shatner battles a biblical flood of tarantulas. (It's like the feature-length version of Indiana Jones knocking creepy crawlies off Satipo's back in Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

Eventually, Shatner realized that he was getting too deep into self-parody, and decided he wanted to have some fun. In 1982, he found the perfect project to scratch that stupid itch.

"Airplane!" is one of the funniest and most quotable comedies ever madebut Airplane II: The Sequel is mostly remembered as a pale imitation if it's remembered at all. Why is that? For starters, Paramount greenlit the film without the involvement or approval of the original film's creative team (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker). Second... it's just not very funny.

When Airplane II: The Sequel works, which is rare, it's usually when William Shatner is on screen as Alpha Beta Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock. He is this film's version of Robert Stack's Rex Kramer; he also hates Robert Hayes' Ted Stryker, and desperately tries to guide the main character's malfunctioning passenger space shuttle to a safe landing on the moon.

The whole point of having Shatner in the film is to relentlessly riff on Star Trek (easy enough for Paramount since they own the property). There's a trapdoor around voice-activated doors (base officers must make a Star Trek door sound to open them) and a moment when Shatner, inexplicably using an underwater periscope to advance the shuttle, spies the Starship Enterprise. His biggest laugh, however, has little to do with Star Trek. When informed that their base has no tower, only a bridge, he forces his way out from behind a video screen which is revealed to be a door. It's much funnier when you see it.

The act of grief suited Shatner. It also led to him playing for Yuki on TV shows like 3rd Rock from the Sun and Boston Legal, as well as films like Free Enterprise and Miss Congeniality.