Beaming Up and Getting Off--Star Trek Actor Walter Koenig's Latest Memoir

Since this is a blog, I sometimes don't forego the temptation to ramble a bit about subjects connected to the book under review.  This is one of the times when I decided that I really ought to exercise restraint. Recording my history of involvement in Star Trek fandom and my feelings about Babylon 5 would be cathartic, but aren't what readers of this review are really looking for.

I'm going to focus this blog entry on Walter Koenig, the author of Beaming Up and Getting Off which is an update on his previous memoirs, Chekov's Enterprise and Warped Factors.  Since I didn't read either one of those, all of this material is new to me, but there are one hundred additional pages that weren't included in the previous books. For Babylon 5 fans,  I should mention that there is an introduction by J. Michael Straczynski , the creator of that series.  I was provided with a digital review copy by publicist Jennifer Musico.

                              

I enjoy reading memoirs.  Most are focused on events.  They tend to avoid being too candid about the subject's thoughts and feelings.  I found Walter Koenig refreshingly honest. In his reminiscences, comic pratfalls meander without embarassment through the wreckage of youthful dreams, and personal pain is peppered with incisive reflections.

Koenig leans toward compassion.  It occurred to me that studying psychology in college had a good influence on Koenig. I am acquainted with individuals whose background in psychology has inclined them to be judgmental.  They are eager to stick diagnostic labels on others.  Yet Koenig seems to be empathic even toward people who had harmed him in the past.

For all his flaws, which are very visible in Beaming Up and Getting Off, I would call Walter Koenig a mensch.  This is a Yiddish term for decent human being.