William Shatner is greatest living icon of science fiction in television. During his career he also dabbled in the genre through different media, including literature. One such attempt was TekWar, 1989 novel he co-wrote with Ron Goulart. The novel was met with bad reviews, but, mostly thanks to Shatner’s star power among fans, became best-seller and got eight sequels, thus creating franchise that would include Marvel comic book series, video game and television series in 1990s. The latter started in 1994 as series of four feature-length television film, the first one, titled TekWar: The Movie, being directed by Shatner himself.
The plot is set in 2044, when the most popular illicit drug is “Tek”, highly addictive electronic device that creates simulated reality for its users. One of its victims was protagonist Jake Cardigan (played by Gregg Evigan), former policeman, forced to take “Tek” as part of undercover operation against illegal “Tek” dealers or “TekLords”. This led to incident in which his partners died and himself being framed for their murder and sentenced to fifteen years of cryogenic prison. The plot begins when he is mysteriously awaken from cryosleep after only four years, apparently being given parole. He finds that his beloved wife Kate (played by Sonja Smits) left him, while his 15-year son Danny (played by Mark Marmut) can’t stand him. However, his former partner and best friend Sid Gomez (played by Eugene Clark) recruits him to work for Cosmos, private security firm owned by Walter H. Bascom (played by Shatner), powerful tycoon whose influence orchestrated his early parole. Two of them are given the task of finding Professor Kittridge (played by Barry Morse), scientist who discovered crystal that could eliminate “Tek” and who went missing. During his quest Jake confronts Sonny Hokori (played by Ron Flores), TekLord with whom he has clashed during his police career.
Shatner would have to work much harder to completely atone for his failure as director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but his directorial effort in TekWar looks surprisingly good. Despite limits of television production, the near future world looks believable and in some details (like presence of Evs and tablets) looks very close to our own world. Other details, like human-like androids or Cuba as US state, are less plausible, but Shatner nevertheless manages, at least for the most part, to make TekWar look elegant, visually attractive, while the plot, despite some cliches and predictable twists, serves as good basis for exposition and introduction of characters that would be explored later in the series. Special effects also look very good for early 1990s standards. Shatner also had very good cast made of his native Canadians, that include Lexa Doig (future star of Andromeda) in the role of cyberpunk hacker Cowgirl. The most impressive is Terri Hogginson in the role of Professor Kitteridge’s daughter Beth, whose character happens to be the most complex and intriguing. On the other hand, Sheena Easton is terrible in the role of WarBride, leader of Mad Max-like environmentalist rebels whose low tech enclave gives somewhat refreshing alternative to too polished futuristic look of the rest of the film. The most serious flaw of the film is annoying rock soundtrack by David Michael Frank, which 1980s style makes it anachronistic for work set in 21st Century. As a pilot of television series, TekWar: The Movie nevertheless passes the test and TekWar managed, apart from three more feature length films, to get another season of eighteen episodes aired from 1994 till 1996.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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