Shatner hopes new game will revive "Trek" (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Starship Enterprise is introuble and, as usual, Capt. James T. Kirk has a plan to saveit.

William Shatner, who played the swashbuckling spacefarer inthe "Star Trek" television series and movies, is voicing Kirkin a new computer video game in the face of ebbing interest inthe "Star Trek" franchise.

The game "Star Trek: Legacy," due out in October, will letplayers steer more than 60 starships -- spanning all five ofthe franchise's live-action TV series -- into combat againstfoes such as the militant Klingons and the all-assimilatingBorg.

With the exit from TV last year of "Star Trek: Enterprise,"and the next feature film not expected until 2008, some fansfret that Starfleet is showing vulnerability -- not to photontorpedoes and cloaking devices but to audience apathy.

Shatner, who said he doesn't play video games but has agrandson who is keen to teach him, hopes the medium can keepthe "Star Trek" flame burning.

"The interest in 'Star Trek' has waned in the last coupleyears," Shatner told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It'sbeen around a long time, it's a staple of American life and Ithink we need something new and different in 'Star Trek."'

The first "Star Trek" television show, created by GeneRoddenberry and starring Shatner, aired in 1966.

In recent years Shatner's TV acting career has heated up ashe won Emmys for playing eccentric lawyer Denny Crane in twoshows, "Boston Legal" and "The Practice." He last lent hisvoice to a video game in 1997's "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,"according to the Internet Movie Database.

"I couldn't imagine someone else playing Captain Kirk, evenin a video game, so I kind of got a little territorial," hesaid.

Apart from "Legacy," other upcoming "Trek" titles include aspace combat game for handheld devices, as well as an onlinecomputer game that will let huge numbers of players seek outnew life and new civilizations simultaneously.

"If it's a good game, keeping true to the characters thebest they can and having an interesting story that branches, Ithink a game can bring a freshness to a franchise like 'StarTrek,"' Shatner said.

"Star Trek: Legacy" is being published by BethesdaSoftworks, which also was behind the hit fantasy role-playinggame "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" for PCs and MicrosoftCorp.'s (Nasdaq: - ) 360 game console.

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