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Brent Spiner performed the likably naive android Lieutenant Commander Knowledge for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology. His new guide Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir Impressed by True Occasions tells a fictional story through which Spiner is stalked by an obsessive fan through the early days of the present.
“The guide is a hybrid,” Spiner says in Episode 493 of the Geek’s Information to the Galaxy podcast. “It’s a thriller, it’s a memoir, it’s primarily a black comedy, it’s a novel. There are issues which might be impressed by true occasions in it, there are actual folks in it, and there are fully fictional folks in it. So it simply appeared that was a great way to explain it, as a ‘mem-noir.’”
Fan Fiction provides an interesting look into the lifetime of a working actor whereas additionally that includes a zany thriller plot that sees Spiner romancing a pair of lovely twins who might or will not be stalking him. “I might have written the guide and made it a very completely different sci-fi present that this actor labored on who had a very completely different identify, however I simply didn’t suppose it might be as enjoyable,” Spiner says. “It takes place 30 years in the past, so it was enjoyable for me to be younger once more, and attempt to suppose as my younger self.”
The guide options appearances by a lot of Spiner’s Subsequent Technology co-stars, together with Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, and Marina Sirtis, all of whose voices seem within the audiobook. “Patrick got here in to the studio, and we learn collectively,” Spiner says. “LeVar got here in, Dorn got here in. Jonathan and Genie have been in Maine, so we needed to do it over the telephone. Gates got here in too. Marina was in London, so we did it over the telephone intercontinentally.”
Spiner’s most important aim was to entertain the reader, however the guide additionally offers with severe themes of trauma and obsession. “Two of the themes that I used to be coping with—or attempting to cope with—have been worry and fandom, and I feel each of these issues are frequent denominators to all folks,” he says. “All of us expertise worry—that could be the frequent denominator—and the truth that all of us admire or maintain somebody in excessive regard can also be, I feel, frequent to all people.”
Take heed to the entire interview with Brent Spiner in Episode 493 of Geek’s Information to the Galaxy (above). And take a look at some highlights from the dialogue beneath.
Brent Spiner on Star Trek and philosophy:
“[Star Trek] has grown right into a cultural phenomenon. I don’t know that anyone truly lives their life primarily based on the teachings of Star Trek, however actually they arrive into play, as a result of they’re all very optimistic, and I feel there are lots of people who plug into that. There are a variety of issues about Star Trek which might be actually high-minded, significantly simply form of the overall acceptance of everybody&mdsah;it doesn’t matter what you appear to be or sound like or consider in, there’s acceptance. [Gene Roddenberry]’s entire factor was that sooner or later we’ll have fun the variations in each other, and that might be very nice, wouldn’t it? And to a level there are individuals who try this, and I feel they’re amongst our more healthy folks.”
Brent Spiner on movie star:
“It’s a very fulfilling expertise to place somebody on a pedestal, however it’s even higher to knock them off of that pedestal when you’ve put them on it. So I might say don’t take it too significantly. Generally it’s not significantly actual. I hear from lots of people on social networks who really feel they’ve a private connection to me, however I don’t suppose it’s actually me. It’s Knowledge. And I feel that sense of entitlement is the results of taking part in a personality that was accessible to all beings with out judgment, and that’s actually engaging. So I don’t suppose it’s actually about me a lot. … It’s not simply followers, it’s humanity, I feel, to like somebody after which to hate that individual since you love them a lot. It’s like in some way they’ve taken management of you ultimately.”
Brent Spiner on Knowledge and autism:
“[Oliver Sacks] informed me about it years earlier than, however I didn’t actually put it collectively, as a result of I didn’t fairly perceive it on the time. However for the reason that years that I began doing conventions and assembly lots of people one-on-one, I’ve had so many children who’ve come as much as my desk and mentioned, ‘I’ve Asperger’s or ‘I’m someplace on the spectrum,’ and ‘Knowledge was the character I might determine with on tv, and that’s been so significant to me.’ If I had recognized about it in full, if I’d actually understood it on the time, I most likely would have pushed the writers to put in writing in the direction of that extra, and I most likely would have blown the entire thing, so it’s higher that I didn’t perceive, as a result of I feel it labored out fairly effectively.”
Brent Spiner on watching Star Trek:
“We have been working 16 hours a day more often than not, 10 months out of the 12 months. I had learn the scripts, I’d memorized the traces, after which we have been into the subsequent episode. I feel I watched perhaps the primary 10, simply to get a really feel for the present and what was happening, and after that I didn’t actually really feel it was time efficient to observe it, as a result of I’d already been Knowledge 16 hours a day, I didn’t actually need to spend my off time watching the factor I’d already learn. I knew how all of them turned out. I did a factor final weekend on the Skirball Heart right here in LA. It’s a museum, and so they’re having a complete Star Trek retrospective, and so they requested me if I might come as a result of they have been screening ‘The Measure of a Man.’ … I mentioned, ‘I’m joyful to return, however I’ve to be clear and let you know I’ve by no means seen it.’ So I got here in early and watched the present with all people else, so I might at the very least be semi-articulate.”
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