WILLIAM SHATNER: A TRANSFORMED MAN

WILLIAM SHATNER:

A TRANSFORMED MAN

This biography of William Shatner adds some surprises beyond all the stories of his eccentric behavior and reveals what makes the man tick. The author has done his footwork, talking to all the cast and crew and sifting through fifty years of archives. He has come up with many amazing insights, including the shocking, untold story of what was really behind the Star Trek franchise. Yet, this book is intended for people who don't give a damn about Star Trek. It is a moving portrait of a fascinating man, an in-depth and often unsettling biography of a modern icon.

A Transformed Man is a probing character study of one of the most iconic and recognizable persons on the face of the planet. This behind-the-scenes look at William Shatner's amazing career and fascinating personal life uncovers the raw passion and powerful psychological forces behind his eccentric behavior, steamy relationships with women, and strained interactions with fellow actors.

"Captain Quirk" is what some members of the cast and crew of Star Trek called Shatner behind his back. But that nickname only hints at the actor's convoluted personality -- a product of the contrasting forces of his deep love of life and an overpowering ego. Shatner's boundless energy springs from the struggle between these opposing forces in his temperament – what the author calls "John Wayne versus Truman Capote."

More than just a celebrity bio, this book is a gripping tale of human transformation – how one of the biggest egos in Hollywood became a self-deprecating citizen of the Cosmos. Few people know the catalyst behind this metamorphosis. It was an encounter with something straight out of the Twilight Zone.

In 1967, while motorcycling in the Mojave Desert, the Captain of the Enterprise was abducted by aliens. At least that is how Shatner described it at the time. He believed he was in telepathic contact with an alien intelligence and was being groomed as one of earth's ambassadors to guide the planet into the galactic community.

Trying to recapture the experience, Shatner recorded a bizarre spoken-word album called "The Transformed Man" a few months later. He suddenly became a "spokesman for extraterrestrials" in scores of media interviews and started touring college campuses espousing his vision of what is needed for humans to accept alien life forms. Whether or not Shatner was really abducted, his encounter illustrates the psychological process that many paranormal witnesses go through. His initial high-energy euphoria at being chosen gradually transmuted into an effete bitterness when the aliens did not return for him. The experience crystallized into a facet of his personality that influenced his choices and behavior for the rest of his life. Readers will come away from this book with a greater appreciation of those underlying currents in this intense and colorful man – and a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Dennis William Hauck is an author and lecturer working to facilitate personal and planetary transformation. His interests include consciousness studies, Jungian psychology, personal alchemy, and mystical and paranormal experiences. He worked with Shatner in the film Mysteries of the Gods and helped the star work through his own alien contactee experience. Impressed by Shatner's prolific career as an actor, director, and writer, he summarized nearly 1,000 of his credits in William Shatner: A Bio-Bibliography, a reference book in Greenwood's Performing Arts Series (1994). He also wrote a mass-market unauthorized biography of Shatner titled Captain Quirk (Kensington 1995).

REVIEWS

Literary Titan

October 9, 2017
A deceptively deep dive into the life and mind of a great actor

Astonishingly prolific and with unbridled passion, William Shatner stands out as a stunning actor, writer and director with the zeal for mystical life or what some would notate as alien life. The author, Dennis William Hauck, runs an acoustic biography of a partner while working on the film Mysteries of the Gods. Dennis paints the preconceptions of William as an eccentric man who swings like a pendulum from condescending and boring to a nitpicking perfectionist character. The book is themed with "human evolution" what the author calls "transformation of a man" but focuses on once an influencer of the Hollywood Enterprise to the lost face in the industry.

I have three words for this book; exemplary, fluent and cozy-rosy. Dennis's artistic nature proves worth it to read the book as he weaves vague facts, whimsical musings and random thoughts into a bedazzled art piece. This book uses scintillating prose that brings out his crafty abilities, which inspire creative concepts in the publishing world.

My first thoughts were that an enticing aspect of William's expressions and entitlement toward his position as a spokesperson for the alien community is surprising at first. However, a progression through the chapters evokes a mindset of withdrawal from the world. Literally, a journey through his life experience and success stands in the way of belief that such a prominent actor could turn psychic; Dennis does a good of making the reader wander between the two extremes.

Behind the scenes of the Star Trek franchise stood a celebrated modern icon who believed in telepathic experiences and cosmic intelligence, but without proof. Evidenced by the bizarre album The Transformed Man, it becomes easier to note how the author qualifies the metamorphosis of William's character from one with a fascinating social life and dreamed-of career to a life of strained relationships with fellow actors, ego-centric behavior and unlikeable attention for women.

Dr. Andrija Puharich, a neurologist with keen interest in parapsychology, tends to bend his professional view towards the deep-seated belief that Uri Geller and Gene Roddenberry shared; these were characters who either could equally bring "sense" into extraterrestrial intelligence. For instance, Geller could bend metals or even disintegrate them. I believe this book effectively convinces its target audience to believe in what William stood for.

Dennis makes a closing case by reflecting on the temperament of his protagonist and relates the misconception William had towards his alien friends who, unfortunately, did not "come back" for him. The appreciation of normalcy in human life cannot be underplayed as this autobiography leaves the reader with deep contrasting thoughts of aliens and reality.

William Shatner – A Transformed Man by Dennis William Hauck is an exciting book to read as it probes a celebrity bio with a tale. This book has done more than just impress the publishing market; it has also popped out curious questions that keep the mind wondering what exactly was the thought-process of script writers, actors and directors behind the iconic movie, Star Trek.

Midwest Book Review
By James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief

October 2017

Synopsis: Dennis William Hauck is an author and lecturer working to facilitate personal and planetary transformation. His interests include consciousness studies, Jungian psychology, personal alchemy, and mystical and paranormal experiences. He worked with Shatner in the film "Mysteries of the Gods" and helped the star work through his own alien contactee experience. Impressed by Shatner's prolific career as an actor, director, and writer, he summarized nearly 1,000 of his credits in "William Shatner: A Bio-Bibliography," a reference book in Greenwood's Performing Arts Series (1994). He also wrote a mass-market unauthorized biography of Shatner titles "Captain Quirk" (Kensington 1995).

Now in "William Shatner: A Transformed Man", Hauck produced a new biography of the 86 year old actor. This biography of William Shatner adds some surprises beyond all the stories of his eccentric behavior and reveals what makes the man tick. Hauck draws upon his interviews with all the cast and crew and sifting through fifty years of archives. He has come up with many amazing insights, including the shocking, untold story of what was really behind the Star Trek franchise.

Yet, "William Shatner: A Transformed Man" is intended for people who are not Star Trek fans. Rather it is a moving portrait of a fascinating man. It is an in-depth and often unsettling biography of a modern icon. It is a probing character study of one of the most iconic and recognizable persons on the face of the planet. This behind-the-scenes look at Shatner's amazing career and fascinating personal life uncovers the raw passion and powerful psychological forces behind his public facade, steamy relationships with women, and strained interactions with fellow actors.

To the babyboomer generation, William Shatner will always be known for his starring role as Captain Kirk in the iconic Gene Roddenberry television 'Star Trek' series and films. The newest generation of teens and young adults may know him best as a pitch man for a series of television commercials hyping a law firm's services. However, after being launched into a lasting fame in "Star Trek", Shatner also played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in T. J. Hooker (1982 - 86) and hosted the reality-based television series, Rescue 911 (1989 - 96), which won a People's Choice Award for the Favorite New TV Dramatic Series. Shatner also appeared in the NBC series, 3rd Rock from the Sun in seasons 4 and 5 as the role of the "Big Giant Head" who the alien characters of the Series reported to. From 2004 until 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in the final season of the legal drama "The Practice" and its spinoff series "Boston Legal", a role that earned him two Emmy Awards.

Critique: Of special appeal to Shatner's legions of fans, in this new biography of the man in terms of his professional accomplishments, is the focus on the off screen stories of his personal life. Exhaustively researched, exceptionally well written, impressively informed and informative, and thoroughly 'reader engaging' in organization and presentation, "William Shatner: A Transformed Man" is unreservedly and enthusiastically recommended, especially for community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections.

More Reviews:

"The author's sense of humor and understanding of Shatner shines through, making this a biography worth reading for anyone who enjoys the life stories of actors and people with strong personalities, and even avid Trekkies might enjoy the look at the other side of Shatner that this work provides."

– Ryan Lanz Reviews

"While taking jabs at our ever-heroic Captain Kirk has become quite fashionable, Dennis William Hauck has written a biography of William Shatner that adds a few surprises. I was expecting to hear the usual stories of Shatner's egotistical behavior but was treated instead to some insights into what really makes this man tick."

- Richard Sims in Captain's Log Magazine

"This biography is definitely not a whitewash. For instance, there's a view of the internal politics of Star Trek that explains much. The author has actually done his footwork on this one, talking to second tier Trek actors and sifting through archives."

- Peter Nichols in Postviews