By Captain Pyke | August 18, 2010 - 9:31 pm

The Shat is everywhere, man! He seems to be more popular in his 80th decade than ever before. From starting in two new television series this year alone to appearing at almost every convention this side of Ceti Alpha V (This IS CETI ALPHA V!), The Shat is a hot commodity. In preparation for his upcoming appearance at the Chicago Comic-con, Bill sat down for a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times to discuss his new show as well as his convention appearance.

A few interesting points from the interview, The Shat calls Star Trek XI "wonderful" (he called it wonderful at Vegas Khhaaan too), his deepest fear is that he'll "disappoint fans", and his most memorable moment from a convention was a young Darryl Frezetti. Well, we guessed it was Darryl, The Shat's description fits Darryl to a T. Check out an excerpt from the interview below.

Q. Why don't you often make convention appearances?

A. The truth is, my deathly fear is I'll disappoint the fans. "Star Trek" means that much to some of them. It's more than a TV show, it's a community. I realized a couple of years ago that they are there to see each other more than they are to see us.

Q. What's your most memorable convention story?

A. There was a kid who used to show up at the conventions with his cat dressed in a "Star Trek" costume. You initially think that's kind of silly, but the whole thing had a unity to it that made it both memorable and outstanding. He loved the show and the cat was kind of his buddy, so I guess he thought he might convince the cat to love "Star Trek," too, if he dressed him up in the outfit. Over the years, this shy kid and the cat developed a following at the conventions, and the kid ended up overcoming his shyness.

Q. What's one obscure fact about "Star Trek" you can tell us?

A. I am the last person to come to to ask that question. So much has been written about the show that inevitably people come up to me with things I didn't even know. I always encourage people to remember that it was 44 years ago. At this point, I can only hold on to major points ... like the fact that I got paid [chuckles].

Q. Last year's "Star Trek" served as a relaunch for the franchise. What did you think of it?

A. It was a wonderful ride. I tweeted after I saw it that you know you're old when you're part of a science-fiction series that goes back in time, and you're still old.

(Source Chicago Sun-Times)