Beam Me Up, Scotty: William Shatner Fired from Priceline Commercials

He had a great many memorable battles as Captain James T. Kirk on the original classic Star Trek television series, and now William Shatner is poised to face another battle: to find employment again after being sacked as the Priceline.com spokesperson.

Television ads airing Monday will show Shatner's Grand Negotiator character hopping on a bus...that promptly drives off a cliff. The former Rescue 911 host has been shilling for Priceline, an online site for people looking to bid on travel and vacation packages, for the past 14 years. It appears the dot.com is dropping Shatner and placing more focus on its fixed-priced deals, as opposed to those won by bidding.

 "I'm in grief mode," Shatner says. "It's not the first time I've had an iconic character die off." His return to a regular television series, the comedy $#*! My Dad Says, was cancelled last year after only one season.

Boldly Going: Star Trek Nazi Episode Airs for 1st Time in Germany, 43 Years Later

Germany decided to boldly go where no one has gone before when a controversial episode of the classic science fiction series Star Trek was aired for the first time, forty-three years after its original broadcast in the US. The episode, titled "Patterns of Force", featured the captain of the USS Enterprise James T. Kirk and First Mate Spock dressing up in military garb with the Nazi party's infamous swastika symbol emblazoned on their arm bands.  The crew infiltrate a group of dictatorial tyrants on the planet Ekon as they try to wipe out the population of nearby planet Zeon.

When the episode was first screened in 1968, it was considered too controversial to air in Germany, as it had only been a little over two decades since the fall of Hitler and the Third Reich after World War II. Still, German television network ZDF screened the episode after 10:00 PM, with a warning that the material may not be suitable for any viewer under the age of sixteen.

The series' two major stars, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, are both of the Jewish faith. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry used his show many times to portray the struggle of people to overcome the scourge of racism, discrimination and prejudice through artful storytelling. (Even if Shatner tended to overact his key scenes!)