Sunday, September 6, 2009

Shatner's toupee in pop-culture: How's the Night Life on Cissalda?


How's the Night Life on Cissalda? is a 1977 sex-themed sci-fi short-story written by author Harlan Ellison - famous to Star Trek fans as the man who wrote the acclaimed episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". The short-story is available in this collection.

According to a message-board poster here, the book contains the following reference to William Shatner's toupee. We should note that we have no way of knowing whether this transcription is entirely accurate:

"William Shatner, because of his deep and profound experience with Third World Aliens, attempted to communicate with the disgusting thing that popped into existence in its [his?] dressing room. He began delivering a captainlike lecture on coexistence and the Cissaldan--bored--vanished to find a more suitable mate. A few minutes later, a less discerning Cissaldan appeared and Shatner, now overcome with this good idea, fell on it, dislodging his hairpiece."

Ellison's predilection for mentioning Shats' toup has previously been looked at in this post.

Many thanks to our readers for alerting us to this and helping track down the extract. We are always very glad for your help and assistance!

1 comment:

  1. "I hate Shatner; I wouldn't want his goddamn afterword in the book..."
    Ellison may not like Shatner, but it's hard not to like Shatner's toupee.
    http://www.mania.com/content_print.php?id=19827

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