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A review by upbeatmetaphor
Memories of the Future, Volume 1 by Wil Wheaton
4.0
Blimey, have I finished this already? Well it is a very easy and entertaining read, and written very much in Wil Wheaton's voice, so it flows quite naturally.
Basically, it's great. It's a subjective behind the scenes opinion of some of the earlier episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, stuffed with stories and comparisons between how the actors felt at the time, and how they feel now (principally Wil Wheaton, obviously). It shines a light on the mess of television production, bordering occasionally on the apologetic when it does.
There's also some fantastic insight into how early-internet and even pre-internet fandom worked (remember Usenet, anyone?) and how we all still managed to be behave like we had Twitter and Tumblr, even before we did. Some things never change.
It is drenched in references to various shows, memes, and news stories.. but these are layered. There are things everyone will get, things some people will understand, and things that will amuse a select few. There's a certain smugness in spotting a joke or reference that would go utterly unnoticed to someone who was unaware of what it involved.
There is one unfortunately jarring joke, an unnecessary swing at Lindsay Lohan's vicodin addiction. It seems to be the only truly hostile joke in the book, and seems oddly out of place. This is a recurring symptom in I guess what you would call popular nerd culture, where all that inclusiveness and understanding drops for a second to make a very crass and mainstream remark, before carrying on as normal.
Otherwise a great read though, the kind that will entertain both fans of Star Trek, and fans of television production. I appreciate this is a digest of specific published articles, but feel it could have been longer. If there is a Volume 2, 3, etc, I don't see why they couldn't have been merged together.
Nick
xx
Basically, it's great. It's a subjective behind the scenes opinion of some of the earlier episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, stuffed with stories and comparisons between how the actors felt at the time, and how they feel now (principally Wil Wheaton, obviously). It shines a light on the mess of television production, bordering occasionally on the apologetic when it does.
There's also some fantastic insight into how early-internet and even pre-internet fandom worked (remember Usenet, anyone?) and how we all still managed to be behave like we had Twitter and Tumblr, even before we did. Some things never change.
It is drenched in references to various shows, memes, and news stories.. but these are layered. There are things everyone will get, things some people will understand, and things that will amuse a select few. There's a certain smugness in spotting a joke or reference that would go utterly unnoticed to someone who was unaware of what it involved.
There is one unfortunately jarring joke, an unnecessary swing at Lindsay Lohan's vicodin addiction. It seems to be the only truly hostile joke in the book, and seems oddly out of place. This is a recurring symptom in I guess what you would call popular nerd culture, where all that inclusiveness and understanding drops for a second to make a very crass and mainstream remark, before carrying on as normal.
Otherwise a great read though, the kind that will entertain both fans of Star Trek, and fans of television production. I appreciate this is a digest of specific published articles, but feel it could have been longer. If there is a Volume 2, 3, etc, I don't see why they couldn't have been merged together.
Nick
xx