Still Just a Geek

March 1, 2022
A second effort at an autobiography, alternately rueful and funny, by the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor. "You know who I would be if I had never left? Say it with me, my people: WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER." So wrote Wheaton in one of the "weblog"--"the cool kids call it a 'blog, ' " he was then compelled to explain--posts that made up his 2004 book Just a Geek. This revisitation is occasioned by second thoughts about various aspects of the privilege, homophobia, and insensitivity that marked him when he was in his 20s but now, at 48, rightly embarrass him. He writes of an encounter with pop star Billy Idol at adjacent urinals, for example, in which he tried not to look down to avert "getting all gay and weird." He adds in a footnote, "Hey look at that! A little casual homophobia to go with the objectification, ableism, and other inexcusable, problematic behavior...I am better now, I promise." Wheaton confesses to suffering from anxiety and clinical depression, but there's more. He also recounts feeling rejected next to a "Golden Child" brother, having his childhood acting earnings embezzled by his parents, and other injuries. Alongside the apologies, though, comes a gimlet-eyed look at show business and the complacency that stardom, however minor, can sometimes yield. Though the author admits that it was a kind of career suicide to quit a hit show and try to get onto the big screen, it led him to some good things--including picking up a role as a "delightfully evil version" of both his Star Trek role and his actual self on the long-running TV series The Big Bang Theory. Assuming readers can track the ubiquitous footnotes, they will also find a winning portrait of the first stirrings of SF conventions and fellow actors (Leonard Nimoy was a hero). Contrition accepted, a pleasure for Wheaton's many fans.

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April 18, 2022
“omeday, I will show them. I will show them all!” exclaims actor Wheaton in this tiresome endeavor to set the record straight on his reputation. After reliving the agony caused by a scathing one-sentence takedown of his first book, Just a Geek—the review’s title: “Whiner of the Week”—Wheaton concedes that he “take everything personally.” That sentiment shortly becomes apparent when, in an effort to atone for the homophobic jokes he made in his old book, he rehashes them here with annotations to “hold myself accountable.” The repetitious material that follows is rife with such trite exclamations aimed at readers as “You’re all beautiful.... You are perfect, exactly the way you are.” Less glib are raw passages about his father’s emotional abuse, his struggle with depression, and caring for his wife, Anne, as she recovered from a harrowing illness. In other glimpses into his life, Wheaton laments leaving Star Trek: The Next Generation, and reflects on a deflating encounter with William Shatner that left him in tears (“everyone was on my side,” he notes). Though fans will relish the FAQs about his movies—including one that confirms the leeches in 1986’s Stand by Me were indeed real—much of the writing feels stunted by past grievances, giving this a rather joyless air. Unfortunately, this second act is just more of the same.