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3.0étoiles sur 5
YOU LEFT OUT THE ACTORS, Mai 6 2004
You would expect a Star Trek memoir written by a cast member, especially the eternally energetic William Shatner, James Kirk, himself, to offer new insight into the early days of the Trek series. You'll probably be disappointed with this book if you have such expectations. What Shatner sets out to do in this book, co-written by Chris Kreski, whose pedigree includes writing Beavis and Butthead episodes, is to put forth a history of the original Star Trek series. I would have like to have known about the relationships between the cast members and anecdotes about the filming of the episodes. Most of the book is taken up by the story of Gene Roddenberry's fight to even get the show produced at all. We meet all the technical and production experts of the show but the whole book is left a little flat in that most of the main cast, except for interviews with Leonard Nimoy, are left out of the research of the book. In a brief epilogue at the back of the book, it becomes clear why this was so. It seems that the rest of the cast resented Shatner because he was almost solely concerned about his camera time on set to the detriment of the others. Nichelle Nichols relates about a time where they were shooting an episode and Shatner told the director that Uhura didn't need to have any scenes, that it wasn't important to the story. James Doohan flat out refused to be interviewed at all for the book. Even when he spoke to the actors that played Sulu and Chekhov it became surprisingly apparent that there was very little of the familial relationships seen on the show. Shatner seemed genuinely amazed at his lack of knowledge concerning the lives of his co-stars. In fact, the others had originally planned to use Shatner's interviews for the book to air their anger at him. It seems truly sad that the author did not attempt to write a human look at the creative process of this classic show but instead resorted to almost a fan's perspective that could have been gleaned from reading previous non-fiction works written about Trek. If you're looking for an insider's view, I wouldn't reccomend this book.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
Shatner grants equal time to costars, Fév 4 2004
Before I start my review, let me address what I think is a bit of revisionism going on among Star Trek fans. Some reviews of "Star Trek Memories" (written by "Next Generation" snobs, no doubt) suggest that William Shatner had nothing to do with the success of "Star Trek," and that his career would have gone nowhere had he not been lucky enough to win the role of James T. Kirk. First, I would argue that after Gene Roddenberry, William Shatner is probably more responsible for the phenomenal success of Star Trek than any other person. Without his bold, histrionic, over-the-top performance as Kirk, I seriously doubt Star Trek would have achieved cult status shortly after its original cancellation in 1969. And without the development of that cult following into massive proportions, there would have been no movies, no "Next Generation," no "Deep Space Nine" or "Voyager" or "Enterprise" - none of it. Second, Shatner was already established when he joined the "Star Trek" cast. Before Trek, Shatner had already played Shakespeare on stage, starred on Broadway, and appeared in major motion pictures (notably "Judgement at Nuremburg"). Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Shatner brought a unique talent to the original "Star Trek" that was crucial to the show's popularity.Anyway, on to the video review. "Star Trek Memories" is a highly condensed documentary based on Shatner and Chris Kreski's book of the same name. I recommend the book over the video - you've seen all the clips already, and after a while the documentary succumbs to "talking head" syndrome. But there are definitely some worthwhile moments here, thanks to generous allotments of time to Shatner's costars. James Doohan entertains with alternate accents for Scotty, while Nichelle Nichols offers a moving account of her meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who convinced her not to quit the show. Shatner himself offers a cogent theory about Star Trek's popularity stemming from a relatively young nation's search for its own mythology. If you've read the book, the video isn't essential, and might even be superfluous. But it makes a nice gift for fans of the original "Star Trek" series. "Live long and prosper!"
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5.0étoiles sur 5
An interesting look at the other team, Fév 3 2004
Being a fan of Star Trek means not only being conversant about the different episodes of the original series, but the fan should also have attended conventions and read the many books from the original cast members. From all my experience, I learned that not everyone liked William Shatner.With that knowledge, I read the first couple of chapters with the voice of Shatner at the Star Trek convention lampooned by the SNL cast. From the sound, Shatner still did not understand what the big commotion was for. I fully believed that the rest of the book would be Shatner tooting his own horn. The bulk of the book does not concern his specific recollections of the series, nor do most of the stories concern him. The material primarily concerns how the show finally got on the air and how it made it through three seasons. Although he did talk to some of the other cast members, the focus is more on the team behind the scenes. He discusses Roddenberry and the other producers, directors, writers, lighting technicians, dolly grip, wardrobe designers, and set designers. He gives the readers a very intriguing look at the people who helped get the series on the air and kept it going. This book is more of a salute to those who made a quality product despite studio plans otherwise, such as cutting the budget and changing time slots. Overall, the language was conversational and kept me engaged. The final chapter does mention that he understands that some of the others do, or did, not care for him that much, and he also offers an olive branch out to James Doohan. Given the year this was written (early 90s), I wonder if it was accepted. I would recommend this book to fans of the show and other fans of 60s television. The story behind the camera (rather than off) is an interesting one.
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