Shatner Rules
Oct 27, 2011
Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large
Author: William Shatner
with Chris Regan
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: October, 2011
ISBN: 978-525-95251-0
I adore William Shatner - always have. From Capt. Kirk to the guy that sees the ghoulie on the wing of the plane in a Twilight Zone episode to any commercial he may be in.... adore him. Therefore I was so excited when Bill (I call him Bill, we're tight like that) decided to share with us how we too can be as awesome as he is. How we can also rule the Shatnerverse.
I sat down expecting to laugh my head off, smile and nod knowingly at his antics and snort coffee out my nose.
Well, I was wrong........sort of.
This is really a rather introspective look at his life and how he shares some of it, keeps some private, and is rather stymied by how other people react to him at times.
He shares his confusion as to why many of his coworkers on Star Trek are hostile toward him to this day and talk about his ego hogging ways in the show ( he explains that it was not an ensemble cast - he was supposed to have more air time as the star) to the way people argue with his "characters" when they meet him in person.
He discusses marriage and stage fright and health scares and just about anything else someone might sit down and chat with you about over a bottle of wine one night. He shares it all with serious humor - that's the best way to describe it.
One hilarious moment that sticks in my mind (probably not so funny to him) was when he experienced kidney stones and ended up on a gurney in the hallway of a hospital in the middle of the night. The gurney had stirrups and not thinking because of the pain he was experiencing, he put his feet up.
My eyes were closed tight with the blinding pain, but I remember distinctly at one point a female passing me and saying, "Look, Captain Kirk is having a baby!"
An interesting book to read - I recommend it, and I'm still just as enamored of William as I was before the book.
