Bill's Brain

Some say wisdom comes with age.  Which is perhaps why William Shatner, in his late 80s, has written Live Long And..., a collection of the insight he's gathered over the years.  It's a short book (that sounds like an insult, but it's truly a short book) where, right from the start, Shatner admits he's no guru, and certainly doesn't know the secret of life.  Well, that's a start.

The wisdom tends to be stuff like work hard, stick to your principles but don't be rigid, exercise and eat well, care about your loved ones, etc.  Nothing earth-shattering, much less galaxy-shattering, but then, how many are buying this book to learn important life lessons?  They're buying it because the author was captain of the Enterprise, flying his ship amongst the stars, saving us all more times than we can count.

We want to hear his personal stories, not life lessons.  And Shatner doesn't disappoint.  He writes about how he was shattered as a child when his mother told him she loved his father more than she loved him.  About how he, a poor boy in Montreal, saved up to do the one thing he needed to do--ride a horse.  How as an unknown he understudied Christopher Plummer in Henry V, and had to go on one night though he was underprepared.  How, decades later, doing a one-man show, he drove like a maniac overnight from New York to Illinois through a harsh snowstorm because the show must go on.

He's written about his life before. (Live Long And... has a co-author, David Fisher, who's written other books with Shatner--one thing Shatner learned over the years is have a professional help you with writing assignments.) But we can still find out new angles on old stories. For instance, he discusses his friendship with Leonard Nimoy, and his disappointment over how they had a falling out though Shatner was never quite sure why. (He also notes how other crew members of the Enterprise hated him for years, though, once again, he isn't sure why.)

Shatner has led an odd life.  As a young man, he was handsome and talented and looked to be on the edge of a major career--either as a movie or TV star.  Then he got the lead in a sci-fi series on NBC that never got great ratings and was canceled in three years.  After that, he got divorced and for a while was living hand to mouth--it seemed he hadn't fulfilled his early promise.  And then, improbably, that series became huge in syndication, spawned several movies, among other things, guaranteeing Shatner would never be forgotten (and never be poor).  There was a short period--it's hard to remember it was so long ago--when Star Trek fans thirsted for any knowledge about the show or its stars.  Now you could fill a small library with all the books on the subject.  Live Long And...--which of course takes its title from a Star Trek phrase--is hardly the best of them, but it's still nice to have around.