After his Next Generation fame had faded, he found a new kind of celebrity as a blogger. He describes the creation of his own website and the generally positive reaction it received. The book is the culmination of Wheaton’s blog posts and articles he’s written for a number of different websites. At its heart, Still Just a Geek is the story of his journey away from being an actor and toward greater fulfillment as a writer. He shares a lesson that he learned from Patrick Stewart, about how it’s necessary to love acting more than you hate the process of auditioning and the sting of constant rejection, but Wheaton states that he never felt that kind of passion for acting. He’s also very open about the practical dilemma of making enough money to support a family. He talks about several projects he auditioned for, and how each one fell through. He lays out the reality of life as an actor in the competitive world of Hollywood, with all its unfairness and frustration. He doesn’t let himself off the hook for the occasional misstep, but his genuine love for his family shines throughout the book. Wheaton has clearly made an effort to do things differently as a husband and father himself. When he did achieve success in films like Stand by Me, they proceeded to spend all of his earnings on themselves. He describes an emotionally abusive father and manipulative mother, who forced him into acting as a child and made their love conditional on his success. The villains of this story are his parents. It feels very gratifying when he reunites with them, later in his life. He has nothing but praise for his co-stars, whom he credits with being supportive of him during his difficult teenage years.
The book doesn’t include many behind-the-scenes stories about Trek, focusing more on the years since he left the show. He’s clearly come a long way toward reconciling himself with that period of his life. Wheaton also expresses considerable regret about not appreciating the time he spent playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, I can understand why the author wishes he had phrased some things differently. When I first read Just a Geek years ago, I wasn’t offended by the writing. In the current book, Wheaton spends a lot of time apologizing for passages in Just a Geek which he now perceives to be sexist, ableist, or coming from a position of privilege.
On the whole, I think I’d recommend getting a physical copy to read. But the annotated format of the book was hard to follow in audio form. Hearing the text in Wheaton’s voice certainly adds nuance to his words and makes the most of his conversational style of writing. I listened to the audio version of the book, narrated by the author. Wil Wheaton’s new book Still Just a Geek is an annotated update of his 2002 book Just a Geek.
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