Shatner is such a vegetarian, he even loves his ladies green.

Today, I'm going to let a true master do the talking. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and enjoy Vegetarian World, starring William Shatner.


(If your browser cuts the image off, here's a link to the original.)

This documentary is fascinating on so many levels. First and foremost, Denny Crane, I mean William Shatner, is positively riveting from his bad jogging suit to his love for eggplant parmigiana. What also makes this 1982 vegetarian rant interesting is that it's 30 years ahead of its time in discussing then-fringe concepts that modern authors like Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) have now made completely mainstream, such as the benefits of organic farming, the evils of antibiotics in farm-raised cattle, and the notion that farmland used to raise grains and veggies is more economically and environmentally sustainable than land used to raise animals. It was such a different time back then. Even cholesterol needs to be referred to as "a substance in the bloodstream called cholesterol" or, as T. J. Hooker, er, I mean William Shatner, puts it, "a substances inthebloodstreamcalled... cholesterol."

While it's easy to consider the film's director, Jonathon Kay, a visionary, I give all the credit to James T. Kirk - and I do mean James T. Kirk - for slingshotting the Enterprise around the sun, thus going forward in time 30 years so that he could get the low-down on 21st century eco-politics, then return to 1982 and report on it.

Well, technically, Sulu steered the spacecraft around the sun, but Kirk was captain, so I'm giving him credit.