William Shatner’s 80th Birthday is next Tuesday, which is also the third annual "Talk Like William Shatner Day". TrekMovie has partnered up with WilliamShatner.com and ThinkGeek to hold a special contest where you can win prizes by submitting a video talking like Shatner. More details below. [DEADLINE EXTENDED + Maurice LaMarche joins judges panel]

Talk Like William Shatner Video Contest

William Shatner is of course the king of all media (sorry, Howard Stern). What better way to honor the man, but to try to be more like him? So TrekMovie thought we would celebrate Shatner’s 80th birthday (and the 3rd Annual Talk Like William Shatner Day) with a special contest where you submit your own videos – talking like William Shatner.

The rules are simple:

Create a new video showing off you (or a group of you) talking like William Shatner

Videos should be no longer than 3 minutes

1 Submission per person (or group)

Submit video to YouTube (or any video service that allows embedding)

Videos should be family friendly (no profanity, no adult content, etc)

Submissions should be made by 5:00 PM Monday March 21st [ Deadline extended to Midnight Pacific Time ]

March 21st [ ] Contest open to all countries

As for your subject matter, that is entirely up to you. You just wish him a happy birthday, or recreate something from Shatner’s vast repertoire, imagine Shatner in some other context, or create your own scene/dramatic reading – all that matters is you talk like William Shatner. Videos will be judged both on creativity as well as their Shatner-ness.

Once you upload your video, send a link to tips@trekmovie.com with the subject "Talk Like William Shatner Day Video Contest Submission".

The videos will be judged by a panel of experts including TrekMovie’s Shatnerologist John Tenuto, Free Enterprise director Robert Meyer Burnett and WilliamShatner.com/Shatner Project Producer Paul Camuso. [UPDATE: Talk Like William Shatner Day founder and famed voice artist Maurice LaMarche will also be joining the panel of judges] Winners will be announced on March 22, 2011 and shown here at TrekMovie.com.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive:

Command Gold Star Trek Robe (courtesy of ThinkGeek)

Signed DVD of "Mind Meld" (courtesy of WilliamShatner.com)

Rare Free Enterprise One Sheet Poster (courtesy of Robert Meyer Burnett)

There will also be some runner awards with additional prizes.



Grand Prize collection if you win Talk Like William Shatner Video Contest

Tips on Talking like Shatner

International Talk Like William Shatner Day was the brain-child of renowned voice actor Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain, Harvey Birdman, Futurama, etc). He introduced the idea in 2009 with a video talking about how to do Shatner. And last year he teamed up with famous impressionist Kevin Pollack for another video. Check those out below to pick up tips.