‘Star Trek’ star delivers morsels

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.

The book’s earliest chapters are the best, if simply because the stories feel heartfelt, the attention to detail is impressive and anyone can relate to the actor’s struggles.

Mr. Shatner begins with a hokey but homespun story of why he wanted to act in the first place. He found himself on stage as a young boy and his simplistic performance brought the house down. That’s all it took, even though his hardworking pappy preferred he take over the family’s clothing business.

He learned his craft on the stage, but quickly found himself smack dab in the middle of television’s Golden Age. He was just right for that era. He worked cheap and was always available, he says.

The early chapters teem with riotous anecdotes, like the time a drunken Lon Chaney Jr. read through his stage directions during a live telecast rather than actually perform them.

Mr. Shatner describes his work ethic in one tight paragraph. It helps explain how he managed to evolve from science fiction icon to afterthought to Emmy winner:

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