William Shatner really has, if you add it all up, gone where no man has gone before. You could also say the 87-year-old Canadian actor, best known as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series and subsequent movies, truly embodies the Vulcan blessing “Live Long and Prosper”.

The man behind such iconic roles as Kirk and attorney Denny Crane in The Practice and Boston Legal — not to mention innumerable parts on stage and screen — is back in Perth next week with his one-man show, Shatner’s World, which ranges far and wide over the ups and downs, the laughter and the tears of an almost 70-year career.

Judging from his rapid-fire delivery and ability to extemporise on just about any subject, age has not wearied this master raconteur. Although he admits that nowadays he does have to pace himself.

“I’m husbanding my energies all the time,” he says. “When I was younger I could go longer and further. Now I see where the conservation of my energies need to be in a performance, and I’m finding myself jealously guarding the free moments I have.”

He talks about one particular feat of endurance only a few years back. “Here in the US, I was performing on the east coast and there was a coming snowstorm. We got into a four-seat Fiat and we tried to race the snowstorm because I had to be about 1000 miles west for another show.”

Neither of his companions knew how to drive. Shatner had to drive through the night himself, keeping ahead of the blizzard which had already dumped a metre of snow on New York City.

“We arrived at the venue about four in the afternoon, I slept for two hours, did the show, got into the car the following morning and drove 300 miles to Detroit to perform again. So yeah, you do have to summon up that energy and endurance sometimes.”

With so many competing technologies, you might think good old-fashioned storytelling had been left in the dust. Not so.

Camera Icon Shatner, DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek. Credit: P

“We’re hardwired for story,” Shatner says. “Go back to when we lived in caves. Dad’s just brought in the animal he’s killed and they’re cooking it. Everyone’s gathered around the fire as he tells the story of how he escaped with his life. The whole adventure. Then it became a religious ceremony. Then it became theatre. Then it became movies.

“But there is still the theatre of the mind, which blossomed with radio. What I’m doing on stage as a one-man show is inviting you in and keeping you fascinated with stories of laughter and tears. It’s pure joy.”

Although he was a theatre actor for many years, Shatner says just continually being in front of an audience and talking to them is what’s really honed his skills as a storyteller.

“I might go to a Star Trek convention and stand in front of an audience for an hour and riff off questions. It’s almost a jazz performance. It’s total ad-lib improvisation. I’m doing that all the time. So I’m honed. My abilities are on as fine an edge as I can get them.”

Shatner says working on the original Star Trek, which ran for three seasons from 1966-69, was very exciting. It also taught him to think in a different way.

“Great science fiction takes from the human story, whether it’s politics or racial tensions or whatever the case is with present-day, vital stories and projects it into the future in the guise of strange animals, aliens and technologies,” he says.

“And it needs to be that way because there are things we can’t imagine. Whether it applies to behaviour we can’t understand or quantum physics or what’s out there in the cosmos. We can’t imagine the universe expanding for ever, for example. Yet it is. But our human minds can’t endure no limits.

“I guess that’s the reason for divorce,” he laughs.

You might be forgiven for thinking Shatner is ever expanding. He laughs again. “Well, they say your brain cells are supposed to decay as you get older. But I’m more creative now than I’ve ever been. I’m a better actor now than I ever was. I don’t know why. It might be the freedom to allow an unfettered mind to expand and not be afraid of criticism.”

Shatner’s World: The Return DownUnder is on Monday at the Perth Concert Hall. Tickets are available from perthconcerthall.com.au.