. >> what did gene roddenberry have in mind when we developed "star trek"? and 40, 45 years later, we're still talk about it. initially it wasn't that popular. >> exactly. it wasn't that popular to begin with. but it had a very devoted fan club early on, a very devoted audience. but he really wanted to do a kind of mythical show set in space, but he wanted to deal with contemporary issues. and that's what made it so interesting that almost every story was a kind of veiled reference to something that was going on in the world around us, whether it was cold war, antagonisms, the conflict in vietnam, women's rights, racial tensions in the united states, conflicts between science and the humanities, conflicts between liberal and conservative points of view. and so he was drawing all his subject matter from the present, but then projecting it out into the future. and that gave people a new lens to look at current affairs. >> we are about 15 minutes away from the ceremony that will take place not far from where we're at outside at 8:30 eastern time. let's go to ti

. >> stephen: the original, gene roddenberry, the original cast, when they couldn't afford the monsterwould just say, "it's a creature of pure energy" and project light. and that's how they would save money. that's tv, baby. >> that is tv from the 60s. the great part about being a part of this reimagining of the franchise is this version of it is the opposite of that. it takesse explorations and infuses them with all of the action and all of the excitement that i think the original series aspired to, and sometimes achieved, but notes always. for me it was the motion pictures. the original cast in the motion pictures. the wrath of kahn and then it started to change for me and brought me in, in a way. >> stephen: you have to do that, you know, on a big screen when shatner is acting that hard. >> you do. >> stephen: it wouldn't fit on a tv. you're also playing glenn greenwald in the new movie about snowden. >> which comes out just after "star trek"." oliver stone directed that one. >> stephen: greenwald, of course, is a less-known character in this. explain to the people who greenwald is.

trying to kind of reason why that is, i think, fundamentally gene roddenberry, the guy that created thehow it was a a russian, and that asian guy, you have an african-american woman, there was the first interracial kiss on "star trek" in 1968, if you can imagine that. the height of civil disturbance here, and so 50 years on we kind of reinvestigate the need for family, the need for federation, the need for strength and unity, and obviously as we unfortunately see in our world right now i think it's germane and apropos message for right now, which is, we work better when we work together. [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: that is absolutely true. we have a clip here. here's chris pine in "star trek beyond," take a look at this. >> no response. i am picking up some kind of signal. they're jamming us. >> magnify, mr.sulu. >> what is this? >> shields up! red alert! [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: come on. popcorn, oh, so fun. would you like to play a game with me? a little -- a rematch? >> the inflat-o suit game? >> jimmy: yeah. >> let's do it. >> jimmy: let's do it right now. inflatable

. >> what did gene roddenberry have in mind when we developed "star trek"? and 40, 45 years later, we're still talk about it. initially it wasn't that popular. >> exactly. it wasn't that popular to begin with. but it had a very devoted fan club early on, a very devoted audience. but he really wanted to do a kind of mythical show set in space, but he wanted to deal with contemporary issues. and that's what made it so interesting that almost every story was a kind of veiled reference to something that was going on in the world around us, whether it was cold war, antagonisms, the conflict in vietnam, women's rights, racial tensions in the united states, conflicts between science and the humanities, conflicts between liberal and conservative points of view. and so he was drawing all his subject matter from the present, but then projecting it out into the future. and that gave people a new lens to look at current affairs. >> we are about 15 minutes away from the ceremony that will take place not far from where we're at outside at 8:30 eastern time. let's go to ti