#scifinostalgia

Two weeks ago, I posted a short clip on TikTok: William Shatner as Captain Kirk, wearing the now-infamous red tights 🔴 from the Charlie X episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. You know the scene—the one where Kirk is giving Charlie a few self-defense moves 🥋.

He’s barefoot 🦶. He’s bare-chested 💪. Just Shatner, in all his 1966 glory ✨, wearing red tights and tossing a teenage demigod to the mat.

I expected a few chuckles 😅. Maybe a couple hundred views from fellow TOS fans 👽.

What I got? 12,000 hits 📈.

Let me repeat that: Twelve. Thousand. Views. 😳

Shatner is now 94 🎂. And apparently, there are 12,000 people out there who still want to see him in tights. And no shirt 🔥.

I love classic Trek 🖖 and have endless appreciation for Shatner's charisma ✨, his command presence 🧑‍✈️, his commitment to everything from diplomacy to dropkicks 🥋, and his bare chest 💥. But I didn’t realize there was still an audience—an enthusiastic audience—for that particular costume choice 👀.

Is it nostalgia? 🪐 Is it camp? 🎭 Is it thirst? 💦

I don’t have the answers. I only have the metrics—and the realization that TikTok is, truly, a new world 🚀.