Written by William Shatner & Chris Kreski
SUMMARY:
Released by HarperCollins Publishers in 1994, this 358-page hardcover is William Shatner & Chris Kreski’s follow-up to their popular 1993 memoir: Star Trek Memories, which revisited the original TV series.
Utilizing the same narrative-by-committee format as before, Star Trek Movie Memories incorporates perspectives from: producers Harve Bennett, Rick Berman, & Ralph Winter; actors David Gautreaux, Ricardo Montalban, Malcolm McDowell, & Patrick Stewart; Gene Roddenberry’s former assistant, Richard Arnold; screenwriters Harold Livingston & Ron Moore; and directors Robert Wise & Nicholas Meyer.
Among Shatner’s long-time co-stars, Leonard Nimoy and George Takei are significant contributors. Included only briefly in the text are: Nichelle Nichols; Walter Koenig; Michael Dorn; James Doohan; Persis Khambatta; Christopher Lloyd; Kim Cattrall; and DeForest Kelley.
Shatner first recalls his July 1968 meet-and-greet with NASA personnel a year before Apollo 11’s historic launch. A few days later, Star Trek would commence production on its third and final season, which Shatner ruefully notes is soon doomed to failure. Recovering from Trek’s cancellation (both personally and professionally), the ex-Captain Kirk describes the franchise’s subsequent rebirth.
He covers the full gamut: Roddenberry’s controversial God Thing script; the dawn of the convention circuit, the animated TV program, and Trek’s misfired relaunches as either a low-budget feature film or a sequel TV series (Star Trek: Phase II).
Supplemented by his colleagues’ observations, Shatner recalls each of the original cast’s six Trek films, including their collective satisfaction re: The Wrath of Khan. He also discusses his recruitment for 1994’s Star Trek: Generations, which includes the deleted orbital skydiving sequence. In detail, Shatner reveals, from Nevada’s scorching Valley of Fire, the filming of Kirk’s original death scene. The book’s last-minute final page reveals that he is being unexpectedly recalled to Generations’ Valley of Fire set for additional filming.
Notes: As with Star Trek Memories, this book is available in hardcover and paperback formats. Movie Memories’ paperback edition sports a different introduction discussing Star Trek Generations’ reshoot of the Picard & Kirk vs. Soran sequence (as well as mentioning Shatner’s second divorce).
REVIEW:
Shatner & Kreski’s likable style ensures that Trekkers again consume an insider’s account that is consistently both entertaining and intriguing. For instance, producer/screenwriter Harold Livingston’s take on his ugly feud with Gene Roddenberry, during the prolonged production of The Motion Picture, seems plausible. Comments from Leonard Nimoy (effectively Trek’s reliable statesman) and Nicholas Meyer coping with Paramount’s studio politics amidst creating Treks II, III, IV, and VI are also illuminating, as such obstructionism becomes a recurring pattern.
One should also give some credit where it’s due: Shatner concedes that Star Trek V was a failure, as he explains how it wasn’t necessarily all his fault, given the circumstances. It’s fairly acknowledged why Bennett, Nimoy, Kelley, Roddenberry, and screenwriter David Loughery all had misgivings re: The Final Frontier‘s dubious script. Unsurprisingly, Shatner doesn’t accept that the biblical-like epic he had first envisioned was his own bizarre Captain Kirk ego trip that Paramount gradually deep-sixed. Suffice to say, the heavily-diluted dreck Final Frontier became almost looks good by comparison to what first-time director Shatner’s initial story synopsis sought to do.
Shatner, at least, keeps his other self-serving claims to a minimum — i.e., an eye-roller about how, at a post-Star Trek IV premiere party, he amusingly pressures Paramount’s studio chief, Frank Mancuso, into letting him direct Star Trek V, or how he ‘improves’ Kirk’s weakly-devised murder on the Generations set just prior to its original filming.
The former, of course, stems from the long-standing Shatner/Nimoy ‘favored nations’ contractual requirement where they received equal everything, so Paramount already knew long before of Shatner’s directorial ambitions. As for the Generations death scene, the fact that test audiences despised the concept of Kirk being mortally wounded (by a cowardly phaser blast) enough to force a subsequent reshoot speaks for itself.
Still, the bulk of what Movie Memories states happened appears accurate, as corroborated by others, which stands consistent with Shatner’s mission statement in the acknowledgments section. No matter the extent Kreski actually penned Movie Memories, what Shatner has devised is a refreshing treat for any Trek fan. The only caveat is that its smattering of profanities should preclude middle schoolers as a potential audience.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
The acknowledgments section spells out Shatner’s mindset researching this project. Aside from black-and-white photos, there is an eight-page color photo spread between pages 150 and 151.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 8 Stars
