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From the publisher
- Get A Life!, with the possible exception of "Beam me up, Scotty", is clearly the most repeated catchphrase in the history of Star Trek. Poking fun at Star Trek's gung-ho fans and conventions in a now-infamous Saturday Night Live sketch, William Shatner's comic rallying cry has been indelibly emblazoned into the collective psyche of trekkers everywhere. Through the years, the phrase has spurred laughter, anger, controversy, and far more than its fair share of debate. It's now also given birth to an honest, sentimental, insightful book.
- Uncomfortable with speaking on stage, William Shatner had spent the better part of the previous quarter century steadfastly avoiding convention appearances. However, to publicize the release of Star Trek Generations, Shatner agreed to a rare series of speaking engagements at Star Trek conventions around the globe. He was jolted by an unavoidable dose of reality.
- Shatner was met with wild enthusiasm, love, and good humor at convention after convention. Touched and fascinated, he was overwhelmed with the realization that in almost three decades of starship hopping, he'd never really taken the time to enjoy or understand Star Trek's fans or their conventions. That's when the light bulb clicked on; that's when "Captain Kirk" dove headfirst into action.
- For the past several years, William Shatner has been treating each Star Trek convention like an enormous research project. Interviewing fans, dealers, fellow castmembers, convention organizers, and promoters – even going undercover beneath alien makeup – Shatner's been scouring convention floors. Having grilled trekkers and trekkies in all corners of the planet, Shatner's had his eyes opened and his mind boggled. He's amassed a small mountain of research material, and cultivated his findings in Get A Life!
- This is a first-person journey of discovery told with self-deprecating wit, unflagging honesty, and his trademark enthusiasm and humor. Get a Life! tells William Shatner's own story of how the actor who played the now deceased starship captain, James T. Kirk, can finally come to grips with his past, his fans, their love, and his own intergalactic legacy.
- Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
Contents
- Mea Culpa
- The Backstories...
- The Beginning
- So Then What Happened?!
- The Man in the Rubber Mask
- Frequently Asked Convention Questions No. 1
- One Man's Opinion: Bob Justman
- One Fan's Opinion: Dan Madsen
- The Speakers... The Classic Cast
- The "Billings, Montana" Story
- The Elephant Story
- Frequently Asked Convention Questions No. 2
- Captains Outrageous
- One Dead Dax's Opinion: Terry Farrell
- The Stuff
- Frequently Asked Convention Questions No. 3
- The Cyber-Frontier
- Me and My Shadow
- Planes, Trains, Automobiles... and Leonard
- One Gorgeous Borg's Opinion: Jeri Ryan
- One Fan's Opinion: Darryl Frazetti
- Frequently Asked Convention Questions No. 4
- The Pieces
- Frequently Asked Convention Questions No. 5
- The End
Mistakes
On page 35 (first UK hardback edition), the wrong name is given for the original pilot. The episode "The Cage" is mistakenly referred to as "The Menagerie", the title of the two-part story which incorporates sequences of the pilot into "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II".