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

Though the title plays up Meyer's work as writer and director on the second and fourth Star Trek films (arguably the best of them), there's plenty in this breezy, enjoyable showbiz memoir for non-Trekkers to enjoy. Meyer wisely focuses on the range of his Hollywood accomplishments, including devastating television movie The Day After and Oscar-nominated film The Seven Per-Cent Solution (adapted from his best-selling book). Ingratiatingly humble-""I assume that people who get to make a film are a) doggone lucky and b) doing this job because they want to do it""-Meyer's clear joy for his work never edges into ego-inflation or pretension. William Shatner, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Streenberg, Leonard Nimoy, Kirstie Alley, Gene Hackman and other stars pop in and out of his narrative, as does Meyer's family, but the films take center stage, as well as Meyer's grounded but exuberant affection for the community that allowed him to make them.