‘Star Trek’s William Shatner Says He Would Go Into Space With Elon Musk

William Shatner has explored the final frontier as Capt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek. Now he says he’d take to the stars for real if he had the right traveling companion.

On Twitter, a fan asked Shatner if he’d go to space should SpaceX founder Elon Musk offered him the chance. Shatner said he’d do one better.

“Yes, with him in the seat next to me,” Shatner replied. “I’ll hold his hand during takeoff as an added bonus!”

Musk was name-checked in the first season fo Star Trek: Discovery. Capt. Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) listed him among the great pioneers of air and space exploration during a conversation with Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in the episode “Context is for Kings,” alongside real-life inventors the Wright brothers and Star Trek‘s fictional first human to discover warp travel, Zefram Cochrane.

Shatner also recently announced that he’ll be exploring another frontier, the stage of the historic Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. He’ll make his Grand Ole Opry debut on February 15th.

“I love country music,” Shatner said in a press release. “A lot of people I know are country artists, and I envy them. The terrible truth is that I can’t sing, but what I do have is a feeling for poetry. I am trying to fuse the spoken word with music.”

Shatner had an eventful 2018. He released his first Christmas album, Shatner Claus, after releasing his latest memoir, Live Long And…What I Learned Along the Way. In the memoir, Shatner touched on topics such as what went wrong with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and how he felt unwelcome at Leonard Nimoy’s funeral.

Shatner also appeared at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards earlier this year to accept the Governors Award on behalf of the Star Trek franchise, saying that Star Trek “represents an idea that is greater than all its parts” and “I accept this award for all of the artists who have worked to make this show a success.”

Shatner also stuck up for Christmas classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside” when the CBC pulled the song following listener complaints about the lyrics.

“Call in to CBC radio all day and get them to play ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ over and over until midnight,” Shatner wrote. “I would think that censorship of classics because certain “types” need to judge things through their own 2018 myopic glasses and demand they be stricken from history is important. Or is this 1984 only 34 years too late?”

Should Elon Musk take William Shatner into space? Let us know in the comments!