Rating: 
Summary: Great! Really gives an inside view on the way it was!
Review: William Shatner has an easy, humor filled, conversationalist style of writing, and I felt as if I were somewhere in sunny southern California, sitting in a comfy chair in the same room with him, and the people he interviewed, listening to them telling their stories. I thouroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is one of my prize possessions because it is hard-bound AND autographed. I grew up with the show and being an artist it was eye opening as to what goes on in the entertainment industry in order to 'do' a show. I'm surprized everyone the author refered to or interviewed wasn't (or isn't) a chain smoker.
Rating: 
Summary: An insightful look into the people behind Trek
Review: William Shatner tells readers about some of the "behind the scenes" action during the original series. From Nichelle Nichols' affair with creator Gene Roddenberry to Shatner's estrangement with James Doohan. A "must read" for all trekkers, trekists, and yes, even trekkies
Rating: 
Summary: YOU LEFT OUT THE ACTORS
Review: 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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