All This Science, I Don't Understand

It was never my intention to provide you, the dedicated reader, with material you were already familiar with here at OPC, so I apologize to anyone who has already seen this rather notorious clip. But I present it anyway because I have always had my own questions about it, deep, disturbing questions, beginning with the question of whether Bill Shatner could actually have been serious about this. It is so heartrendingly awful that you think he must be putting us on, and heaven knows Shatner doesn't take himself all that seriously. On the other hand, I don't think he's a good enough actor to pull that off.

Then again, I can't imagine why Bernie Taupin would participate in the desecration of his own song. So, go figure. Here, from the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, is William Shatner's Brechtian declamation of Elton John's "Rocket Man."