Thus spake the Shat

William Shatner doesn't watch a lot of himself on TV, so he hasn't seen the many promos for his new game show on ABC, Show Me the Money.

Told that said promos refer to the show -- which has a preview at 9:30 p.m. ET Tuesday and begins its regular run Wednesday, Nov. 22 -- as "Shat-rageous" and "Shat-tastic," he laughs.

"I haven't seen that," he says. "But it's funny."

So is Shatner himself, as you'll see forthwith. Here are some more musings from Shatner, who spoke to reporters Monday, on the game, his day job at Boston Legal and various other aspects of the Shatner Universe:

On whether James T. Kirk, T.J. Hooker or Denny Crane would be better at the game: "Oh, one of those questions. ... I guess Kirk could answer questions about the future, Denny could handle the legal questions, and any trivia, I'm sure T.J. Hooker could deal with."

On why he agreed to host a game show, after first turning producer Endemol USA down: "They came back to me with this sense of fun that I hadn't thought of before. Most game shows are cut and dried -- you spin the wheel, you win a prize. And as I got deeper into it, I found I could examine, in a superficial way, the contestants. ... Then [there's the question of] how do you build drama? When someone is winning a lot, how do you make them feel self-doubt? And when they're doubting, how do you bring them back? It's much more complex than I ever thought."

On getting time away from Boston Legal: "[BL creator] David E. Kelley was reluctant to let me do it based on the theory of overexposure. Then there was another theory posited that there is no such thing as overexposure. I fall somewhere in the middle ..."

On his dancing skills, which he gets to display with Show Me the Money's "Million Dollar Dancers": "I'm not a dancer but I like to dance. ... I guess I dance as well as I sing, which is not at all. But I hope the audience can see I'm having fun."

On working without a net: "The vulnerable part of hosting is in [the fact that] there's very little that's scripted, other than the ins and outs of the game that you have to explain to each contestant. After that you're in a totally improvisational area, and that's risky. ... There's a great deal of theatrical jeopardy."

On his possible involvement in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie: "I have spoken with Mr. Abrams, and they're trying to fit in Kirk and Spock, the old ones. How they get a dead captain to communicate with his young self is going to be some arduous plotting, but it will be interesting to see how they handle it."

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