The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood

I feel like I just had a long lunch with writer/director Nicholas Meyer, and I didn’t get a word in edgewise. And that’s fine, because no doubt he can tell stories far better than I. The proof’s long been in his novels and movies, and now it’s in his own story in the autobiography THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE: MEMORIES OF STAR TREK AND A LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD.

Although he’s primarily known for his roles in shepherding STAR TREKs II, IV and VI to the big screen, he’s also responsible for TIME AFTER TIME, THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION and THE DAY AFTER, as well as a few other projects not nearly as memorable.

From his birth to today, Meyer takes us through his entire life, but above all, this is a bio of his Hollywood career — something he lucked into, only after experiencing success as a novelist, which is something else he lucked into, pairing Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud in the surprise bestseller SOLUTION.

It was his insistence that he sell SOLUTION’s movie rights only if he got to write the screenplay that Meyer became the busy presence in motion pictures he remains today. He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, but it was his work with STAR TREK that really put him on the map.

Strangely, he wasn’t a fan of TREK when he got the assignment to helm the second feature, THE WRATH OF KHAN. He found it off-putting, but ironically, it was his very distaste with certain elements of the show that made him the perfect man for the job. In not being concerned with mythology and continuity and the most minor of fanboy details, Meyer was free to tell the story he wanted, and it saved the franchise.

But the climb was still uphill, and he discusses those battles — creative conflicts that continued on his work on THE VOYAGE HOME and THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. Even though all his TREK films had been enormous hits, Paramount Pictures was still second-guessing him on seemingly minor matters. Interestingly, Meyer describes William Shatner as someone who is “free of ego,” but not vanity, and Leonard Nimoy comes off a tad too power-hungry, but certainly intelligent.

As does Meyer. He’s an absolute pleasant host, with his writing reading close to conversation. He appears to be honest, but this is no tell-all, and it’s precious free of scandals and sordid dirt, yet still full of candid observations about his peers. In covering his many projects, though, his personal life often gets the short shrift; his late wife’s death by breast cancer in her mid-30s takes less than a page to discuss, but an all-but-forgotten Gene Hackman/Mikhail Baryshnikov spy thriller gets more ink.

Then again, he’s a guy in love with the movies. In one of the last chapters, he seems genuinely depressed that it’s no longer America’s go-to spot for entertainment, with video games and the Internet having siphoned off much of its juice. I’d have to agree, but he comes off like an angry old man when he writes, “Caped crusaders and movies that end with the word ‘Man’ strike me as rather pathetic attempts to dial out an encroaching reality that most Americans appear unwilling to confront. … Tell me a story.” That struck me as strange, particularly from someone whose very livelihood has thrived upon pop concepts. Maybe he’s watching the wrong ones?

You need not be a TREK fan to enjoy this one. I don’t even remotely qualify, and I read it cover to cover in one evening. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Related posts:

1. Star Trek: The Manga — Shinsei Shinsei
2. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
3. Shooting Star / Spiderweb
4. KNOW-IT-ALL Jacobs set to conquer Hollywood
5. Hollywood Jock: 365 Days, Four Screenplays, Three TV Pitches, Two Kids, and One Wife Who’s Ready to Pull the Plug