'Star Trek' star delivers morsels

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

By William Shatner

St. Martin's, $26.95, 368 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY CHRISTIAN TOTO

At first blush, William Shatner's life seems such an open book even the casual "Star Trek" fan could scribble a decent biography of him. Who can't recite his rise to fame as the captain of the fictional Enterprise all the way to his career redemption in the form of "Boston Legal's" Denny Crane?

But readers of Mr. Shatner's "Up Till Now" will discover there's plenty we still don't know about the ubiquitous actor.

From his Jewish-Canadian roots to his early struggles to pay the rent, "Up Till Now" offers a fresh peek at the man who would be Capt. James T. Kirk - for a while.

The prolific actor may still work nonstop, but he can't keep up the confessional pace needed for an autobiography. By the time he recalls how "Star Trek" affected his life, and our culture, it's clear he's become uninterested in continuous self-reflection.

Instead, he keeps up the breezy prose, throwing in the occasional anecdote and corny aside to keep our attention. And then there's the steady stream of plugs. The book's conversational tone allows Mr. Shatner, the author, to mention his own Web site and various projects he's completed in recent years.

It might have sounded comical in the planning stages, but it only reinforces what critics once considered the actor's Achilles' heel - the shallowness of all things Shatner.