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Star Trek Memories
by William Shatner
| List Price: |
$22.00 |
Unavailable for
purchase at this time |
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Hardcover
Publisher: Harpercollins
Encompassing plot summaries of all seventy-nine TV episodes and the six hit films, ""Captain Kirk"" shares his reminiscences about the making of Star Trek, a history of the show as a cultural phenomenon, and behind-the-scenes antics. 300,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo. Tour.
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| Fascinating details about everyone but Shatner |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Worth every penny - Chock full of fascinating details about all the backstage and front office folks, and some about the cast. Doesn't go into individual episodes much, and we actually don't hear all that much about Bill Shatner's Star Trek experience: it's more like Bill is the narrator for EVERYONE ELSE'S Star Trek memories. As a die-hard Shatner worshipper I was bummed about that; still, the book has enough juicy backstage scoop to be a really fun read.
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| Shatner is honest in his recollections and occasionally pokes fun at himself |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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While Star Trek made a great deal of television history, there were many other significant consequences. To the best of my knowledge, it was the first show to make significant profits via syndication. It was so popular that three subsequent television series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager" each ran for years. Finally, there is also the enormous number of books about Star Trek. I own nearly one hundred Star Trek novels and have read nearly every one of the "memories" books written by a major cast member of the original series.
In this book, Shatner sets down many of his recollections about the original series. To his credit, Shatner is very honest about things, giving all of the other major players the opportunity to contribute to the book. Those contributions are included even when they are critical of his actions on and off camera. In defense of Shatner, it is difficult to see how it could have been any other way. This was a show about a quasi-military ship that by necessity had to operate independently of any central command structure. The captain of the ship was lord of his surroundings, so the premise of the show was that all the action had to resolve around the captain. Secondly, television shows, especially in that period of time, revolved around the stars of the show.
These are the reasons why I have always taken comments critical of Shatner by the secondary members of the cast with a grain of salt. Had the show simply languished and died off, none of them would have ever achieved the fame that they did. Therefore, they are criticizing the very means whereby they achieved their fame.
As Shatner makes very clear in this book, all the members of the cast and production crew were under enormous pressure to get the work done. Given those circumstances, it is amazing that more serious and lasting rifts between the principals did not occur. The fact that they did not speaks to the sense of purpose and community that existed between them.
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| This Is What You Need |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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After reading this book, I was able to tell that William Shatner knows how to write! Not that I had any doubts, but this book is so intriguing, it feels like he is talking to me as a friend while I read. This is written like a documentary, and it is just as interesting. There are facts in here that I never knew, and stories are told about things that happened in front of and behind the camera. About the smallest detail of how Star Trek works that you wanted to know is talked about. Shatner not only talks about and interviews the cast, but the behind the scenes set builders and script writers among other people that are revealed and talked about.
The book is written in a light hearted, joking way, with Shatner making fun of himself and having fun at other people's expense. The only problem I had is that the book also kind of brags on how great Shatner is, and how many problems some of the other cast members had while filming. Coming from the man who wrote the book, it feels kind of like an ego trip since it occurs many times throughout the read. There is also a very nice collection of pictures that are on some of the pages that shows behind the scenes laughs and on set memorable scenes. Overall, this is a book I recommend to all fans. It hardly ever gets dull and by the end, it feels too short and could have lasted longer.
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| Tell us more, Captain Kirk! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The first big chunk of this book is taken up with giving lots of attention and credit to Gene Roddenberry and the many people behind the scenes, and explaining the interworkings of network TV- very interesting to those who like to know how the series was created and why it started losing in the ratings wars and why it was eventually cancelled.
I would have loved to hear more about the crew of the USS Enterprise and enjoyed immensely the few stories related. The book became much more interesting once he launched into the separate sections with the interviews with Grace Lee Whitney, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, but there was not much on the rest of the crew. The format used of letting others speak for themselves was unique and entertaining. The conversational style of writing made one feel right at home. William Shatner is a fine actor and a gifted writer. Obviously, he was the star of the series and movies and that caused much friction, especially since the other cast members didn't let him know when he upset them or hurt their feelings. I would have loved to read much more concerning all the crew of the Starship Enterprise. "The Captain" turned the spotlight on the cast and crew but overall kept out of the spotlight in this book. Since William Shatner has all the notes from extensive interviews and possibly the ability to gain more information from the other actors, I would love to see one more book on our Star Trek heroes.
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| William Shatner waxes nostalgic about "Star Trek" the original series |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Keep in mind going in that William Shatner (with Chris Kreski) set down these "Star Trek Memories" a quarter century after Gene Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the stars" aired on television, so this is not a contemporaneous account by the actor of the television that made him a pop culture icon. In fact, this memoir begins with a mea culpa from Shatner, who acknowledges that he was "Blind with personal problems, with fatigue and with the necessity of spending those incredibly hard hours shooting 'Star Trek,' the series." Sometime between the end of the series and when he wrote this book Shatner apparently made a transition from being a supreme egotist to someone who can make fun of his own persona (the man sold his kidney stone for charity this week), passing somewhere along the way the Shatner who did the infamous "Star Trek" convention skit on "Saturday Night Live."
Shatner began writing this book on the final day of shooting "Stark Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," which was being promoted as "the final voyage of the Starship 'Enterprise/.'" Consequently, Shatner found himself in a nostalgic state of mind, and goes back to the beginning. "Star Trek Memories" proceeds chronologically, from the creation of the series, when Shatner was not the captain of the "Enterprise," to the show's cancellation. Of course around the same time that Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, "Star Trek" was becoming enormously popular in syndication, which is why there were all those new "Star Trek" movies and television series. However, the epilogue to this book is not about the success of "Star Trek" after the original series, but about Shatner learning what his co-workers thought about him, his efforts to reconcile with them, and his regrets over the lack of stronger friendships. The final subject of the book is Roddenberry's death and the legacy of "Star Trek."
In covering the three seasons of "Star Trek," Shatner tells what he remembers about the various episodes and guest stars, with his developing friendship with Leonary Nimoy a constant element. But not as much as the series of practical jokes that took place on the "Star Trek" set. There are chapters devoted to the Shatner's favorite episode, "The Devil in the Dark," which was filmed the week Shatner buried his father, and Harlan Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever." There is much more about the first two seasons than the show's third and final season when it became obvious cancellation was inevitable. The story of the "Save 'Star Trek'" campaign receives more attention from Shatner than the season it produce, which makes sense. The result is a decent but certainly not comprehensive look back at the history of the television show, Die-hard fans should read in paperback as opposed to hardback. Shatner and Kreski followed this book up with "Star Trek Movie Memories," which continues the actor's journey to the death of the character of James T. Kirk.
In addition to his recollections and anecdotes, Shatner includes the personal recollections of cast members, producers, designers, and crew, who are able to provide some different perspectives on the series (No surprise, Nimoy provides thoughtful insights, but my favorite is Nichelle Nichols getting to the heart of the NBC suits worried about the first interracial kiss on television, which, Shatner reveals, did not really happen). There are also more than 120 photographs and illustrations scattered throughout the book, most of which include wry captions because while Shatner might be willing to give up his ego, he is always going to go for the laugh. It is clearly pathological with the man, which explains why he has won consecutive Emmy Awards as Denny Crane on "Boston Legal."
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