The Captains Close Up
DVD
Directed by William Shatner
Starring William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks
Entertainment One
Release Date: August 13, 2013

No one ever involved with the Star Trek franchise has benefited from its enduring popularity and cultural legacy as much as William Shatner. And why shouldn’t he? This is Captain James Tiberius Kirk we’re talking about here, one of the most popular and recognizable heroic figures ever created. Shatner saw his own fortunes as a struggling young actor with great talent and promise rise considerably in the 1960’s when he signed on to play Kirk after the original pilot episode of Trek with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike was poorly received. The show may have only lasted three seasons in the first place, the third of which was made possible by one of the most effective fan letter-writing campaigns in the history of civilization, but its countless television and feature film spin-offs helped the franchise become the cornerstone of a geek nation that stretches to every corner of the planet and one day possibly to worlds yet unexplored. Shatner is one of the show’s greatest champions, its most iconic character and star, and to this day continues on as a tireless promoter for Star Trek‘s undying themes and the power of its fans and alumni to inspire greatness in themselves and others. Plus, those residual checks must be pretty nice.

Most recently Shatner wrote and directed The Captains Close Up, a 5-part series for the cable channel Epix that expanded on the intentions of his 2011 documentary feature The Captains. Each of the five episodes were devoted to interviewing and profiling the actors who played Starfleet captains in the original Trek and its four television spin-offs and multitude of big screen sci-fi adventures. The entire series has been released on DVD courtesy of Entertainment One, and with a combined running time of two-and-a-half hours on one disc makes binge watching essential and well worth the time of any Trek devotee.

This week, EPIX will be kicking off “SHATNERPALOOZA,” a 48-hour on-air marathon of William Shatner‘s work starting on Thursday, July 21, which coincides with the release of the EPIX original Star Trek documentary The Captains, produced and directed by William Shatner. The doc premieres on EPIX on July 22, and there’s also going to be FREE outdoor screenings of The Captains in New York and Los Angeles, plus Shatner will be making an appearance this week at Comic-Con in San Diego in support of the film.

In anticipation of the film, fans everywhere have been uploading their videos for world’s longest “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!” If you’re interested in being a part of The Long Khan, in which fans submit their own videos impressions of Shatner’s history-making exclamation, check out the website here. If you’d rather play it cool, EPIX has given Geeks of Doom ten (10) sets of t-shirts and posters from The Captains to give away to our readers!

Ten (10) winners will each receive:

• One (1) The Captains t-shirt
• One (1) The Captains poster

TO ENTER: There’s just two simple steps:

(1) Make sure you’re subscribed to the Geeks of Doom email digest. If you’re not then click here and sign up. (If you’re already a subscriber, then go right to the next step.)

(2) Fill out the entry form here below and submit. (Form is here after the jump.)

Good luck!