'Star Trek' actor William Shatner and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's space bromance takes off in new 'The Universe Is Absurd' show

《星际迷航》演员威廉·夏特纳和天体物理学家尼尔·德格拉斯·泰森的太空兄弟情在新节目《宇宙荒诞至极》中升温

SEATTLE — On Wednesday (June 18), nearly 3,000 space enthusiasts gathered at Seattle's McCaw Hall to watch the real-life Captain Kirk trade witty banter with one of America's best-known science communicators.

西雅图——周三（6月18日），近3000名太空爱好者齐聚西雅图麦考音乐厅，观看现实版柯克船长与美国最著名的科学传播者之一机智幽默地谈笑风生。

Canadian actor William Shatner, famed for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek — and, in 2021, as the oldest person to travel to space at age 90 — teamed up with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson for an evening of cosmic zingers.

加拿大演员威廉·夏特纳(William Shatner)因在《星际迷航》(Star Trek)中饰演詹姆斯·T·柯克(James T.Kirk)船长而闻名。2021年，90岁高龄的他成为太空旅行的最年长者。此次，他与天体物理学家尼尔·德格拉斯·泰森（Neil deGrasse Tyson）携手，带来了一场充满宇宙妙语的奇幻之夜。

"It's a conversation that explores life," Tyson told Space.com ahead of the event. "The two of us together — we're using this as an occasion to explore elements of who and what we are, and how we became who we are."

“这是一场探索生命的对话，”泰森在活动前向Space.com表示。“我们两人一起——借这个机会来探索我们是谁、是什么，以及我们是如何成为现在的自己的。”

The show, hosted by media company Future of Space and billed as a "one-night-only" event, originated from a spirited dialogue between Tyson and Shatner during a space-themed cruise to Antarctica last December.

这场由媒体公司“太空未来”（Future of Space）主办、号称“仅此一夜”的活动，起源于泰森和沙特纳去年12月在前往南极的太空主题游轮上展开的一场热烈对话。

"We were enjoying ourselves," Tyson recalled in the pre-show interview. "Crowds gathered — they wanted to hear us banter, hear us engage. Then the organizer said the proverbial, 'You guys should take this on the road.'"

“我们玩得很开心，”泰森在演出前的采访中回忆道，“人群围在一起——他们想听我们斗嘴、听我们交流。然后组织者说了那句老话，‘你们应该把这套搬上舞台巡演’。”

"'And off my ship,'" Shatner quipped. "So here we are, doing it again."

“‘然后离开我的船，’”沙特纳打趣道。“所以我们又来接着演了。”

As soon as the duo took the stage, the banter kicked into high gear. Seated in matching rocking chairs against a sweeping backdrop of the Milky Way, they entertained a near-capacity crowd for almost two hours with personal stories, comic jabs and moments of reflection.

这两人一上台，戏谑便进入了高潮。他们坐在两把配套的摇椅上，背后是银河系的壮丽全景，在近两个小时的时间里，用个人故事、幽默调侃和反思时刻，让几乎座无虚席的观众大饱耳福。

Shatner, 94, recalled his early days as a struggling actor in Canada, "alone all the time, moving from city to city, and fetid bed from fetid bed."

94岁的夏特纳回忆起他早年作为加拿大一名苦苦挣扎的演员时的日子，“总是独自一人，辗转于各个城市，睡在一张又一张散发着恶臭的床上。”

"Am I the only one who doesn't know what 'fetid' means?" Tyson asked.

“难道只有我一个人不知道‘fetid’是什么意思吗？”泰森问道。

"Fetid means it didn't smell good — and it wasn't me," Shatner replied, drawing laughter from the crowd.

“‘Fetid’就是说气味闻起来不好闻——而且那不是我身上的味儿。”沙特纳回答道，引得全场观众哄堂大笑。

Then, Tyson, 66, recounted his own climb from walking dogs in the Bronx for 50 cents to becoming a prominent astrophysicist and popularizer of science on TV and radio. He also chronicled his film cameos — from Neil deBuck Weasel in Ice Age: Collision Course to Merlin in The Last Sharknado: It's About Time and the "astrofishicist" Neil DeBass Tyson in SpongeBob SquarePants.

然后，66岁的泰森讲述了自己从在布朗克斯区遛狗赚50美分到成为杰出的天体物理学家以及电视电台科学普及者的奋斗历程。他还细数了自己的电影客串角色——从《冰河世纪：星际碰撞》中的尼尔·德巴克·黄鼠狼到《鲨卷风5：全球鲨变》中的梅林，还有《海绵宝宝》中的“天体鱼理学家”尼尔·德巴斯·泰森。

"Can you believe that this highly educated Ph.D. has spent 15 minutes telling you about his bit parts in these incredibly bad movies?" Shatner asked the audience.

“你能相信这个受过高等教育的博士居然花了15分钟跟你们讲他在这些烂得不能再烂的电影中演的小角色吗？”夏特纳向观众问道。

The show's title — "The Universe Is Absurd" — served as a thematic throughline.

这场演出的标题——“宇宙荒诞至极”——成为了贯穿始终的主题主线。

"The word 'absurd,' in our everyday language, is crazy, stupid," Shatner said in the pre-show interview. "But absurd can also mean outlandishly true."

“在我们的日常用语里，‘荒诞’这个词是疯狂、愚蠢的意思，”沙特纳在演出前的采访中说道，“但荒诞也可能意味着离奇却真实。”

"Actually, when you think about it," Tyson added, "there are things we've discovered that it's hard — if not impossible — to wrap our brains around. Yet the data tell us, nonetheless, that it's true."

“事实上，你仔细想想，”泰森补充道，“我们已经发现有些事物难以理解——甚至可以说是不可能理解——但数据却明确无误地告诉我们，这是真实存在的。”

Onstage, Tyson mentioned his first book, Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, published as a graduate student in 1997 and re-released in an updated edition last October.

在舞台上，泰森提到了他的第一本书《梅林的宇宙之旅》，该书于1997年他作为研究生时出版，并于去年10月推出更新版重新发行。

"Is Pluto back?" Shatner asked.

“布鲁托回来了吗？”夏特纳问道。

"No! It's not coming back," Tyson replied.

“不！它不会回来了，”泰森回答道。

Tyson, who oversaw the redesign of the Hayden Planetarium’s solar system exhibit in 2000, famously excluded Pluto from the planetary lineup, grouping it instead with icy Kuiper Belt objects. This decision, made years before the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006, sparked a deluge of criticism. Tyson has spoken and written extensively about the volume and intensity of the backlash, attributing some of the attachment to Pluto’s planethood to cultural factors, such as Pluto being the only planet discovered by an American astronomer (Clyde Tombaugh) and its namesake, Mickey Mouse’s dog. Though not involved in the IAU ruling, Tyson has remained an unapologetic defender of Pluto’s demotion, calling himself an "accessory" to the decision.

泰森在2000年主持了海登天文馆太阳系展览的重新设计工作，他将冥王星从行星行列中剔除，转而将其归类为冰冷的柯伊伯带天体。这一决定早在2006年国际天文学联合会（IAU）正式将冥王星重新归类为矮行星之前数年就已作出，并因此招致了如潮的批评。泰森曾多次发表公开演讲并撰写文章，详细阐述他所面临的强烈反对声浪，并将冥王星行星地位的一些执着归因于文化因素，例如冥王星是美国天文学家（克莱德·汤博）发现的唯一一颗行星，以米老鼠的狗命名。尽管泰森并没有参与IAU的裁决，但他仍然毫无歉意地捍卫冥王星降级的决定，甚至称自己是该决定的“帮凶”。

The distant orb remained a recurring punchline throughout the evening. When Tyson invited Shatner to pick any topic for a soundbite demo, an audience member shouted, "Pluto!"

整个晚上，这颗遥远的星球成了反复被调侃的笑料。当泰森邀请沙特纳为一段声音片段演示任选主题时，一名观众突然喊道：“冥王星！”

"More than half of Pluto is made of ice," Tyson said. "If it were where Earth is right now, heat from the sun would evaporate that ice and it would grow a tail. And that is no kind of behavior for a planet." He mimed a mic drop to cheers and whistles.

“冥王星超过一半是由冰构成的，”泰森说，“如果它位于地球现在的位置，太阳的热量会把那些冰蒸发掉，它就会长出一条尾巴。这可不是行星该有的表现。”他模仿了把话筒扔在地上的动作，引得全场欢呼和口哨声一片。

Shatner recounted his suborbital mission with Blue Origin in 2021, echoing the emotional post-flight realization he'd had about Earth's fragility.

沙特纳回忆起2021年他搭乘蓝色起源公司飞船进行亚轨道飞行任务，重述了飞行结束后他内心涌动的、关于地球脆弱性的深刻感悟。

"It's a vulnerable, precious piece of rock that supplies us with life, and we have destroyed it," he said. "I bawled my head off, and I realized I was in mourning for our Earth — and that's what my flight did for me."

“这是一块脆弱而珍贵的岩石，孕育着我们的生命，但我们却已经摧毁了它，”他说，“我放声大哭，那一刻我意识到我是在为我们的地球哀悼——这就是那次飞行带给我的。”

"So what you're saying is, we should take all the leaders of the world, send them into space," Tyson quipped, prompting another round of applause.

“所以你的意思是，我们应该把全世界所有领导人都送上太空，”泰森打趣道，此言一出又引起了一轮掌声。

Asked in the pre-show interview if he would return to space, Shatner said, "You know, I had such a meaningful experience. Maybe I tend to think of it like a love affair. Going back to that love affair? Maybe not. It was such a great moment."

在演出前的采访中，当被问及是否愿意重返太空时，夏特纳回答道：“你知道吗，那是一次意义非凡的体验。也许我会把它想成一段恋情。重温那段恋情？也许不会。那是一个无比美妙的瞬间。”

Tyson, when asked the same question, said he would go — but only if there's a destination. "If I want to go into space, I want there to be a destination in mind, not just up and back," he told Space.com. "Go to the moon, Mars and beyond. Bring the fam."

当泰森被问及同样的问题时，他说他愿意去——但前提是有明确的目的地。“如果我想进入太空，我希望是心中有一个目的地，而不是单纯地上去再回来，”他告诉Space.com，“要去就去月球、火星，甚至更远的地方。带上家人一起。”

"Would you really?" Shatner asked. "Bring the fam to the moon?"

“真的吗？”夏特纳问道。“带上家人一起去月球？”

"Yeah, why not?"

“是啊，为什么不呢？”

"Because you'll be obliterated!"

“因为你会家破人亡！”

Though promoted as a one-time-only show, talks of future appearances are already underway. When asked whether their "bromance" might continue, Tyson said, "No reason why it shouldn't."

虽然这场演出被宣传为仅此一场的特别活动，但关于未来再度合作的讨论已经在进行中。当被问及他们的“兄弟情谊”是否会延续时，泰森说：“没有理由不继续下去。”

"I'm feeling more passionately in love with him as we speak," Shatner deadpanned.

“就在我们说话的时候，我就感觉越来越爱他了，”夏特纳一本正经地打趣道。