#120 Wil Wheaton is Still Just A Geek

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:16

All right, Gordy. Thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 120 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be an out of this world episode. That's right. We're about to go where no one has gone before. My guest today is Wil Wheaton. That's right. Wil Wheaton loved him and stand by me Star Trek The Next Generation toy soldiers, The Big Bang Theory, tabletop, the Wil Wheaton project and a million other things. We have John's a Wil Wheaton coming up and we're gonna be talking about his new book. Still just a geek an annotated memoir. Wil's gonna share tons of great stories with us. Excited to have well on the show, and that's coming up in just a few minutes.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:17

I hope you caught last week's episode, Episode 119. With Roy Schwartz, author of is Superman circumcised that complete Jewish history of the world's greatest hero. I got so much great feedback on that Roy really knows his stuff. And his book is Superman circumcise really goes deep into the history of Superman and comics in general. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, and you need to nerd out even more after this episode, Episode 119 with Roy Schwartz is a waiting for Yeah, you can imagine I was geeking out a little bit when I got to talk to Wil Wheaton. It was so exciting. But you know, I talked to him about a week or so ago. A lot has happened since then and Wil Wheaton world. Picard announced that the majority of the next generation cast was going to be joining Picard and season three. By Wil Wheaton. His name was not on that list. We don't discuss it in the interview because it hadn't happened yet. But if you go to Wil wheaton.net wil's website where he does all the blogging, we'll did write a fan fiction sequence he wrote a little fanfiction of his own, expressing how he would see Picard and Wesley reuniting. So head over to Wilwheaton.net for that.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:32

So interestingly enough, during the interview that I have with Wil Wheaton that's coming up in a few minutes, I bring up a story called William effing Shatner, I brought it up because one, I found it on YouTube. It had been posted 11 years ago on YouTube. It was Wil Wheaton performing the story. 23 minutes, I highly recommend it. But then in his book, still just a geek. He has the full text of this story as well. And the construct of the book still just geek which wil will explain a lot better than I will right now is that he's basically reflecting on old stories and annotating it as well. We're now looking back on Wil Wheaton, then. So yes, he does include the William effing Shatner story in the new book. So interestingly, like literally two days after I talked to well, the New York Post ran an article called Wil Wheaton remembers William Shatner being a real jerk on set. And this was by Nikki Gaston and she mentioned that in the book still just a geek and annotated memoir, Wil Wheaton recalls this infamous story about meeting William Shatner and William Shatner being a real jerk to him as if Wil Wheaton had just brought it up for the first time in his book. So of course, it kind of gets spun like he's just bringing this up to kind of get publicity for the book. But the story itself actually also appeared in Wales first book, 2000 threes, dancing barefoot, it seems that the person at the New York Post just really didn't understand the book or just was tasked to write a completely baked clicky article. And that worked because a lot of other publications and use this as a source and wrote their own article about it and William Shatner even chimed in on Twitter saying I guess Wil Wheaton is got a project coming up if he needs to slam me. But that really wasn't the context at all. Our conversation will a nice conversation that you're gonna listen to real soon. We actually talked about this story, not having the context that a day later, it was gonna be used to kind of spin drama. And Wil Wheaton goes out of his way to tell some really great stories about William Shatner that occurred after this Star Trek five incident. So anyway, just wanted to kind of mention that you know, don't believe all the drama you read online.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:40

I do want to take a second to thank everyone for supporting the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here and live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show and that's how we keep the lights on today's interview sponsor the comic center Pasadena we've got the best in comics graphic novels game curios and just plain stuff. Need a Batman belt buckle, we've got over 75 for you to choose from. That's right, head on over to the comic center of Pasadena. We're open seven days a week, ready to serve all your comic book and multiverse needs. All right, well, that's great. So if you want to dive into comic books, check out the comic center of Pasadena.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:25

Well, before you do that, I think it's time for me to share my conversation I had with Wil Wheaton with Yeah, time to unleash it to the world, everybody. My conversation with Wil Wheaton. Enjoy.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:36

My guest today is Wil Wheaton. Wil, it says here that you were on Star Trek. That's the one with the ears or the Chewbacca?

Wil Wheaton 5:46

It is the one with the ears. It predates the one with Chewbacca by about a decade.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:51

I'm kidding. what a nightmare that would be right to start off. I'm totally kidding.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:56

Everyone, my next guest, author, actor NARRATOR He loved him and stand by me Star Trek The Next Generation Big Bang Theory and so much more author of the book still just a gig and annotated memoir, Set phasers to fun. Welcome to the show. My guest Wil Wheaton. Hi, well,

Wil Wheaton 6:14

hello. Thanks for having me.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:16

Oh, this is exciting. I really enjoyed your book. And I know, I know, we want to make sure everyone's aware it's coming out

Wil Wheaton 6:22

this week. Guys, it comes out Tuesday, the 12th. You're revisiting

Jeff Dwoskin 6:26

your original book, Justin peak, kind of can you set like this to the tone in terms of

Wil Wheaton 6:33

let me just give you a little bit of background and a little bit of context. In 2000, I was one of the first people to kind of be like a celebrity blogger, right. I was one of the earliest people to have a website that I built myself and maintained myself and and did all of the technical work on at that time, it was a notable thing that was a little novel, and people kind of paid attention to it, I started writing a blog, because I just felt like my whole life, my voice had never been heard, like whatever anyone ever heard was filtered through publicists or filtered through my mom, or, like, somehow, just it was never really me. So I started writing a blog about what I thought about stuff. And I don't know why but people paid attention. And after a couple of years, I wrote a book that was sort of about the process of building the website, the experiences I was having as a person who was trying to transition from being an actor into being a writer, at a moment in my life, where the thing that I was kind of best known for was the 20, something who left Star Trek when he was a kid. And I carried a lot of baggage with me about that. What I didn't know at the time is that I was living with undiagnosed mental illness, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from childhood neglect, and abuse that manifested itself in a lot of ways that I was completely unaware of, until a couple of years ago, when I took another look at it, I hadn't looked at just a geek in a very, very long time. And I had an opportunity to look at it again, and revisit it and talk about what I saw. And if just a geek is 28 year old me kind of looking back on like what 18 year old me kind of did and thought and wanted to accomplish, still just a geek, which features all of these annotations. And then and a number of pages of new material, new essays and notable speeches and things like that is really 48 year old me looking back on 28 year old me looking back on 18 year old me and really kind of recontextualizing where my life is now and really seeing the differences in who I was then and who I was now how I've changed as a person and how I've changed as a writer,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:54

that's what I loved about the book, it was such a unique way to self reflect on yourself and kind of see your own growth through your own writing and be able to, you know, legitimately kind of say I this is where I was then and then comment on that now. You know, I think there's there's so much in society today where people look back on things that were and kind of as if that was like a moment in time that needs to exist forever. It seemed like such a healthy exercise to talk about your own growth and reflect on all of your experiences. Again, it was such an enjoyable read. I didn't read it originally. So I'm glad I was able to late to the game but catch the new version. I felt a kinship with you with the making your own website because my background before being like a stand up comic and obviously before being a podcaster was I was a web developer I in Michigan. We started one of the very first web development companies in the late 90s. I remember going into Barnes and Noble and there were two books on HTML Oh, and I was a graphic designer and I picked one of the books up. And a friend of mine had been getting into the internet. So I started to learn about it taught myself HTML. Yeah, had a program that happened to make gifs or GIFs, we can take and, you know, started a web development company. And so that was, that was kind of cool. So I think it's, I can totally kind of understand where you were back then. And

Wil Wheaton 10:26

it was an interesting moment of time. And in the early 2000s, social media didn't exist, it was very time consuming to put pictures online, it was expensive cost prohibitively expensive to buy a scanner to put things online. And that context is extremely important. Now, it was a ton of work to do what what I did back then, and I did it all in Linux to when Linux was kind of like, not great and real difficult to understand. And when you couldn't get your computer to connect to the internet, the the online help said super helpful things like connect to the internet, and you'll find your solution. And, and I just remember that it felt a lot back then it was very similar to someone who owns a classic car, even if you don't want to be a mechanic you kind of have to be you have to understand how things work under the hood. Because setting it and forgetting it didn't exist back then it does now. And that's awesome. I love that it exists. Now I was I was just looking through Instagram reels this morning thinking about how different it is and how easy it is for people to creatively express themselves in all sorts of different ways now, and in the early 2000s version of the internet, pre YouTube. Really the only way we could express ourselves was just with text.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:47

Oh, yeah, you just gave me a flashback. As I mentioned, I was a designer. So I had one of those full color scans. 1800 Dial I remember, they sent me like a tube, you could replace the head to replace it to my hand shaking, replacing 80 Just to put in perspective, the $1,800 scanner I had in the late 90s You could walk into OfficeMax right now and buy something 50 times better for $39. Yeah, and

Wil Wheaton 12:12

I mean, and that if you adjusted it for inflation, that's about a $4,000 piece of equipment today. Yeah, it was cost prohibitive and really challenging. And that was kind of part of my story that was part of the just to Geek story and very much part of the just a moment, it was really impactful on me. Because as you read in the book, I had spent my entire life feeling like I had to be an actor. And that's just really not what I wanted to do. It's not where my passion was, I was good at it. But I didn't love it. I barely liked it. And what I really loved was writing and storytelling and doing what I could to be for other people, the person I needed in my life. And that was when all of that was happening. From my perspective, the internet felt so much smaller than it does now. And I'm sure that everyone kind of settles into their little piece of the internet. And back then for me, it was slash doc, slash doc FARC and like meta filter and meme pool. And this was even before Digg, the people who ended up doing Reddit were in elementary school then so like none of that even existed back then it was just, it was just a really, really different time I listened to Hank and John Green talk about how back in the early days of YouTube, most of the youtubers knew each other because it was easy to find one another, it was a smaller ecosystem. And it was easier to to to stand out. It's so much harder. Now there's just so much noise and so much competition and the sense of the internet being a frontier where someone with a really great idea, but not a lot of money or a corporation behind them, the ability to kind of set out and do your own thing has, as far as I can tell has become extremely difficult. Now you're really reliant on someone else's infrastructure, whether it's Tik Tok, or Facebook or Instagram or whatever it is, you're heavily reliant on someone else's web presence to make your creativity possible. And back then it was just I just felt like I had a lot more in my own hands. And looking back at that through the lens of still just a geek, I'm very grateful for for how much technology has advanced and how much my ability to reach out to and interact with people who are interested in my work and what I have to say how that has just gotten so much easier over the years.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:31

Yeah, the landscape is is changed. It's it feels in some ways, it's easier to connect with people now but it is so much more vast and so huge and so easy to get lost and social media not being really social. It's almost like the opposite of it. It can feel kind of empty. So and you still blog to this day, right? I made Wil Wheaton dotnet still accurate or fact I do. Yes. We reflect on the acting now do kind of look back and think about stand by me and you know the x variants that you had there with is it more positive than it is negative or Yeah, I

Wil Wheaton 15:05

loved standby me, I had an incredibly wonderful time working on standby me, it was beautiful. Rob Reiner was an amazing human being and a wonderful director. He was like a surrogate dad to all of us he made he was one of the very first adults may be the first adult in my life in a position of authority who made me feel worthy. I felt no worthiness in my home. Nothing I did was ever going to be good enough for the man who was my father. And the only thing that mattered to my mother was that I was famous and got a lot of attention. She didn't care how it happened, and didn't care how I felt about it. And when Stand By Me happened, I wasn't really fully aware of that yet, I was only 12, I barely turned 13 When all of that went down. And it's interesting when I kind of reflect on it, I feel like Jesus should have known more I should have been more adult they should have should have, should have should have. And then I kind of give myself a break and some empathy and realize I was 12 years old, expected to behave with the responsibilities and gravitas and professionalism of an adult. And I think Rob, and most of the crew that I can remember from standby me didn't make us feel that way. They made us feel like we were all working together on something special and wonderful. We were telling a really beautiful story. And we were all showing up to do it together for each other. It was a wonderful experience. I'm so proud of it. And so grateful for it. A lot of actors will spend their entire careers without anything approaching the longevity and the significance of Stand By Me to like kind of to a generation. And I'm incredibly lucky to have done that. And to have built an entire career kind of standing on the shoulders of that which is real different because for a long time I felt like I was in at shadow and switching the thinking in my head from being in its shadow and in Star Trek shadow to standing on their shoulders. kind of cleared the way for me to be the person I am today.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:58

That's so nice to hear. I yeah, I mean, stand by me is such a special movie. Such a wonderful group. Let me ask you a question. Some trivia I found on that movie, tell me if it's Kiefer Sutherland would pick on you guys to stay in character and never

Wil Wheaton 17:11

picked on me. I've heard that. I've heard that that store I have heard that story. I've heard that Jerry was terrified of him. And I don't remember him being unpleasant or threatening or scary or anything at all. I respected him. I felt like he was an adult and kind of a capital A actor. And I don't remember being intimidated or frightened at all. I felt like I was working with another actor who who respected the work and who wanted to be the best character he can be. I actually kinda remember him being kind of sweet. Maybe that's just I mean, that's obviously just me because like, all the other kids are like, I was scared to death of them. And I just I don't remember that.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:55

I kind of I can when I when I read that I took it more as like method acting, how he was just trying to stay in character and not really be Well, I mean,

Wil Wheaton 18:02

Keeper keeper was very well known back in those days for being very much a method actor. And he I remember reading about this years later that he kind of like, grabbed a character and kind of kept that character living within him. And that means something different for every actor, right? I think that a lot. A lot of times we hear method and we think this is a person who just imagines their that character 24/7 while they're working on the project, and maybe some people do that, but my experience with him there was really not like that at all. He was great.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:27

Awesome. And then the other. The other piece that I stumbled on was your grandfather started wagon train. And your grandmother asked that wagon train. Somehow we worked into the dialogue. That

Wil Wheaton 18:37

is not correct. That is mistake nine my grandfather, according to my mother, who is an unreliable narrator, according to my my mother, my grandfather worked in the props department on wagon train, I presume? I mean, I don't know there's like at least a 50% chance that's true. But I was at dinner. My mom and I were at dinner with I think, Rob, it was either Rob and Ray Gideon, who was one of the two writers or it was my mom and me and Ray Gideon, and we were talking about that campfire sequence. And they were talking about things they discussed when they were kids that were things kids talked about. And the way I remember it, the wagon train thing came up. And I couldn't tell you I don't remember if Ray was like, I'm thinking about this wagon train joke. And my mom was like, my dad worked on that. Or if my mom was like, my dad worked on that and then re wrote the joke. I couldn't tell you which way it came up. The story is incorrect, although it is tangentially related to true events.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:36

Awesome that I read that your roommate in college was Chris Hardwick. That is true. That is cool. And then I was watching the first episode of the Wil Wheaton project. Yes. And there was a hilarious little routine you guys did were Chris Hardwick came in and did a little skit. I did a little thing with you on that show.

Wil Wheaton 19:55

Yeah, it was the we did it was he was so Christmas was like a The Talking Dead franchise was was at its peak. And he came in and instead of doing an after show he did a during show that was really really really funny. I I'm pretty sure it's online somewhere. Oh, yeah. I

Jeff Dwoskin 20:10

was just watching. It was like it comes down he does, talking the Wil Wheaton project. And then he just replayed the clip from five seconds ago.

Wil Wheaton 20:18

Yeah, was very funny that that was written by a guy named Doug Carroll who was the showrunner on Wil Wheaton project. I love Doug. He's real, real funny. And I was real lucky to get to work with him.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:28

I love the idea of that show. I always I would I would watch talk soup. And those kinds of shows, which is like the the nerd geek version of I was always like, that would be the greatest job in the world.

Wil Wheaton 20:40

I kind of thought that's what we were doing. I thought we were doing nerd soup. And I guess everyone except one particularly high ranking person at the Sci Fi Channel thought the same thing. And this one particularly high ranking person at the Sci Fi Channel, I think didn't like me, just like as a person, and kind of threw up a lot of roadblocks for us. And I love the show that we made. And I think we did some really funny things. And some really clever things. I got to meet sequel, Martin green, she came in and did a beat for us long before she was part of Star Trek Discovery. And I think it's awesome. She came into my show when I was doing Wil Wheaton project. And now she comes into ready room, which is really fun. I love that show. And I wanted to do it forever and ever and ever. And ultimately, I was relieved when it was over. Because I gotta tell you, it's exhausting to fight with a network every day when a network's like, Okay, we're gonna make a show that looks like this. And you go, All right, let's do it. And you start making that show. And then the network comes at you at the 11th hour, and tells you to get rid of all the stuff that they had just told you was cool to do. It was frustrating. But I worked with wonderful people on it. And as I write and still just a geek, in five years, no one will even remember that that show ever existed. And I think that's an extremely important, a really important piece of perspective to have on the things that we create. And I have been thinking a great deal about how we cannot focus ourselves on this must be successful. And then I must move to the next thing. And it must also be equally or more successful. Otherwise, the previous thing now that success is not valid. And that's a way of thinking that I had embraced for my entire life. It was the way that I was raised. And it's it's defeating and it's toxic. And it's it's hurtful. And I think that focusing instead switching perspective to kind of focus on I just want to do cool stuff and keep doing things that are satisfying and wonderful. And I want to work with good people and just keep doing them as long as people will let me do them without being attached to the result of that thing. And the longevity of the thing has allowed me to have a happier life and be a lot more comfortable where I am at this moment.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:42

Well, that's important to feel to feel that comfort. I think it will live on now, with YouTube and all that everything seems to be able to be to exist forever now. Right?

Wil Wheaton 22:53

In like 30 years, some kid who isn't born yet is going to be on whatever the 30 years from now version of Reddit is. And it's gonna be like, oh, man, look what I just found 10 episodes of this series from the 2000s. It'll be like, it'll be like finding one of those old episodes of a talk show that you didn't even know existed in the 80s like Rick Dees had a talk show what?

Jeff Dwoskin 23:16

Well, first of all, yeah, as like, the President and of all geeks and nerds, I think it will because people will always want to kind of dig into Wil Wheaton. I think that's, that's gonna just gonna be part of of your legacy. They'll be great pieces of things that you know, are just out there.

Wil Wheaton 23:33

I hope they will enjoy our jokes. And I really hope they will enjoy my favorite bit I've ever done in the history of my career, which is Skeletor reads mean tweets and we fight about it. Absolutely. My favorite bit I've ever done in my life, I would do an entire series. That's just me talking to Skeletor just like debating, you know, philosophies and things. I think it would be one of the funniest things.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:52

I will be upset if you don't make that happen. So, you mentioned the ready room, which is kind of now like the Star Trek version of the Wil Wheaton project. Yes.

Wil Wheaton 24:01

Introduce each show by saying it is your official online hub for all things Star Trek universe. I love it.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:08

So how does it feel to kind of be the emcee the ushering in all the new episodes of everything? I mean, Star Trek is like it's everywhere. Again. I mean, there's so many series happening, and I love

Wil Wheaton 24:18

it. I'm so grateful for it. It's my favorite job I've ever had. I get to watch Star Trek months before anybody else does. And then I get to apply my experience as a member of legacy Star Trek with my experience as a lifelong Star Trek fan, and write questions and commentary that hopefully bring those two things together in a unique way. And it is my goal to bring my fellow nerds into the room where it happens and talk a lot about process and talk a lot about the philosophy of Star Trek and what goes into Do the technical experience of creating these things. It's fascinating to me, I think it's very easy for these shows to just kind of almost become like, they get real close to fanfiction and fanservice if they're not done well, I think that it's real easy for it to lose its objectivity and just kind of become promotion. And you know, in a, in a really meaningful, really important way the shows are all of our after shows are all about the promotion of kind of the main dramatic or show or whatever that we're watching. But what I hope makes ready rooms special, is it is the result of me spending all but 13 years of my life as part of Star Trek. And I hope that that brings a perspective to it that is enduring and, and remains as interesting to the audience as it is fun for me to explore. I also love meeting these actors, you know, like when I get to sit down and talk to anyone from the cast of Star Trek Discovery, or strange new worlds, or any of them. I'm a massive fan of the show. But I have to keep reminding myself, I am their ancestor as it goes to Star Trek. And when I talk to the young people, especially blue and even from, from discovery, I get to talk to two young people who also know what it's like to be 1819 and on Star Trek, and there's not a lot of other people in this world who I can share that experience with. And if I can be for them. A person who didn't exist for me when I was them, I will seize that opportunity and hosting ready room gives me an opportunity to know them and kind of be part of them. And it's weird man, I turned 50 in July and I'm really like one of the Star Trek one of Star Trek sold men I'm I'm one of the you know one of the legacy Star Trek people. That's real weird. There's only one Star Trek series that is older than mine. That is also very weird. I will always feel like I am a teenager when it comes to Star Trek fat. In addition to all of this others weird stuff continues to be incredibly weird. But it's really fun, as we've done them for a couple of years now, the control room and I have really found a magnificent rhythm that we're all just in and we hand stuff off and pass things back and forth. I kind of feel like maybe word has gone around the sets that ready rooms fun, that it's a positive, nurturing celebratory environment, hosted by somebody who loves this as much as as the actors do. And I feel like there's always been a level of availability from the actors going all the way back to when we started this for Picard, but I am feeling an enthusiasm that maybe wasn't there at the very beginning that I really love.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:41

Well, I can't even imagine someone else hosting the show, so they must feel I watched the episode with John de Lancey. I'm excited to kind of dive into some more of them, but it was, it was great for any I think almost any level of Star Trek fan because you kind of welcome it and you give just enough information on the characters are backstories that kind of make people feel welcome into this into this universe. But I mean, as a light, I know you're a lifelong fan of Star Trek. And as you mentioned, Legacy can't believe when you say it out loud, 14 year old Wesley Crusher is two years old, but they

Wil Wheaton 28:16

imagine how it makes me feel. Imagine how it makes my cast feel. But it

Jeff Dwoskin 28:21

gives you that that rare opportunity to be legacy and you're gonna be around for a while, and you can usher in many decades of Star Trek in the future as well. So that's that's pretty cool. That's, that's really awesome. So that's a great thing that you got going on. You mentioned rick dees in passing earlier. BARDA, what I when I'm digging in, I'm going through the web, I found three talk show appearances that you did talk about things living forever, right? These are from 2010. So this was into the night with Eric DS 2010. This was you coming on kind of breaking into the world that you were going to transition out of Star Trek The Next Generation. And then and then you were on Arsenio Hall. I saw that and you taught him the word stoked.

Wil Wheaton 29:05

That would have been about 87 or 88. Rick Dees would have been about 99 be I think, Oh, was it? Oh, maybe

Jeff Dwoskin 29:10

it was it was.

Wil Wheaton 29:11

It would have been could have been uploaded in 2010. But I happened when I was in my teens.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:15

My dating doesn't make sense. But yeah, it was just it was just funny. But the best one that I found was our magazine with Gary Collins.

Wil Wheaton 29:24

Oh my gosh.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:25

So you had just done young Harry Houdini. Yeah,

Wil Wheaton 29:29

I love that movie.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:30

You did a card trick on the show. Oh, what was hilarious about this hour magazine was like coming up standby means Wil Wheaton. And then then they talked about the other things on the show. Yeah, man sexuality after 40 la laws. Susan Roulin saucy secretary and woman of the hour Barbara Eden very, very attractive woman. And I was just like, it's so funny because like they some of those things they just would never say now

Wil Wheaton 29:56

it's odd to me that Barbara Eden is it's not odd. It's offensive. Barbara Eden is reduced to very attractive woman rather than lifelong, brilliant comedic performer who carried an entire iconic series for its full run. Like Exactly, exactly. Larry Hagman had a career because of Barbara Eden like maybe she's a bit more than that hour magazine. Did you find these? Like, could I track these down and watch them or did you just find descriptions?

Jeff Dwoskin 30:25

No, I found them I'll try and find them again and I'll Oh my god. Yeah, I

Wil Wheaton 30:30

would love that.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:31

So the other thing that was cringe worthy was Gary Collins saying to you Hey, well, I hear you like older women and then almost implying like he was trying to pass Barbara Eden off on you. Oh, listen,

Wil Wheaton 30:41

I appreciate Gary Collins trying to like do me a solid wing man me up with Barbara Eden. But maybe there was an age discrepancy. That was that was a little inappropriate.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:50

It just, it's such a snapshot in time. That would not fly now. But just so funny, it was just so funny. Talk to me about your relationship with Gene Roddenberry.

Wil Wheaton 30:58

I didn't know Gene really well. But my relationship with him was extremely positive. It was lovely. He made me feel special all the time. He always made me feel like he valued what I had to say, and that he listened to me. And that was something I was really unaccustomed to in my home. And something I was really unaccustomed to just kind of in life in general. But I especially felt that at home, I especially felt unheard and unseen in my home. And Jean was one of those rare adults who really made me feel worthy. And like he was glad that I was there.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:34

I read that you were one of his favorite actors, but also favorite characters. It was like pressure was absolutely one of his favorite characters.

Wil Wheaton 31:43

So the story that I have heard, and I think that most of this is true, I don't know how much of it is apocryphal. So take it at, you know, I would just say take this at face value. The story goes that Jean wanted a young character on on his new Star Trek show who was smart, who was capable, who was wise, a little bit beyond his years who could bring kids into Star Trek The way like Will Robinson brought kids into our lost his space. But without it being a kid show. He wanted a kid who could talk to other kids and meet them where they were at in their lives. The first few seasons first to spruce season especially. And the first two seasons, I think the writers largely didn't accomplish that. I think they just didn't know what to do. I think a couple of them were kind of stuck in that kind of Washington space style writing idea and couldn't see him really, outside of those confines. I do remember once I was at a con and some fans, egged on by somebody who worked on the show, really were given Gina a really hard time about Wesley specifically. And I was in the audience watching him. And I'd never seen Jean get mad. And I remember Jean getting mad. And Jean saying I created this show, because I wanted to make the show I wanted to see. And I wanted a smart kid on my show. And there are smart kids in the future. And if you have a problem with it tough, this is how it's going to be. And the way I recall it, it kind of shocked the room into silence and it was like dad's mad at us. And we should be quiet now. And I didn't feel like he was standing up for me. I felt like he was just saying, Look, man, this is my art. This is my story. This is my creation, and this is what I want it to be. All of that said, Leslie was little more than an idea for the first couple of years in Star Trek The Next Generation. And he never really got to where I think he would get if he existed today. For a ton of reasons. A lot of them i i talked about in still just a geek and and I've written about him a lot and you know, just on my website in general. But I know that Wesley I know that Jean loved him. He named him after himself jeans middle name is Wesley and he was protective of him and he was protective of me. He made me feel looked after which I really cared, which I really valued and made me feel cared for.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:06

That's awesome. Why do you think there was friction with like with the fans with your character when you reflect on it, he was poorly

Wil Wheaton 34:13

written he was he was he was appallingly badly written. I've talked about this for years because as I as you can imagine, I have been asked this a lot in the last several years of my life. And by years, I mean decades. Leslie never really got past being an idea. He was real smart. And and he was kind of like, he was so smart that he was really insightful and saw things and the writers would have someone like Picard give Wesley a task or have Riker give Wesley a task and Wesley goes and completes the task. And as he's attempting to complete the task, he's running into adults who don't listen to him. He's running into adults who don't respect him. He's He's overcome and he overcomes all of that. And he comes back to Riker or Picard and he's like, Yo, I did the thing you wanted me to do, and it contradicts your presumption about the solution to the problem. So alter course, at which point Riker or Picard goes, or we're not listening to you now you don't know what you're talking about. And then a few acts later, they come back and go, Oh, Wesley, you were right all along and the audience gets enraged, the audience doesn't want their captain and first officer to be outsmarted by the 14 year old. That's terrible writing, you can get away with it one time, maybe one time. And the one time that actually works is in the episode final mission, which I think is my best work in the entirety of next generation where Wesleyan Picard crashing land on a planet in a shuttlecraft with a weird dude who ends up dying and Wesley's got to like break into a fountain, the safe Picard's life, and that is the one time where, yeah, rise to the occasion, kid. Let's see what you can do. And you can pull all this stuff off. And it's great. Had they done that a little more consistently, I think he would have been a more popular character with adults, I will tell you that I have learned over the last 20 or so years, that people who are my age, loved him from day one and never disliked him. It was the 20 somethings in 1987, who hated him. It wasn't the teenagers. So it was people who were one outside the demo. So they were predisposed, you know, he wasn't for them. But also he was very poorly written. And by the time he was well written, I was out.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:25

Got it. I think when one aspect that shines a light on how well the character was loved was how they incorporated into the Big Bang Theory. Yeah. And Shelton's feeling of that of the Wil Wheaton of the Wesley Crusher character and how it kind of manifests into evil Wil Wheaton, if

Wil Wheaton 36:43

you will, I have had the privilege of meeting so many real life Sheldons of every gender identity, who loved Wesley for the same reasons. Sheldon loves Wesley, they feel very, they felt very seen by him. They related to adult saying, Hey, you're smart, go do this. And then those very same adults being mad at the kid for doing it, right. Just get all the time. It was incredibly fun to play evil Wil Wheaton for the first few years on the Big Bang Theory. And I was initially kind of bummed when the writers and the showrunner altered the course of the character to make him more of a friend than an adversary. And I was bummed, I thought that meant that I wasn't going to get to be on the show very much anymore. And I was wrong. It just changed it. And it let that their version of me exist in their universe. What a gift that was, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 37:33

it was I think a lot of people probably rediscovered you that way, right? And it was so well done. I went and I rewatched the scene when you guys are playing that the table game, the competition at the comic book store again, there's loads of QA. And just that whole exchange the way you do, Sheldon, to win in the end with this story about your grandma. I mean, it's some of the best big bang theory I think

Wil Wheaton 38:01

Jim's physical comedy as he does his impression of Shatner's rage explosion in Wrath of Khan is so funny, and it kills me every single time.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:10

So funny. So funny. And I then as I was kind of digging into the clips, just to kind of rewatch some of the highlights again, I was reminded of the Wesley crushers, such a funny, that whole scene where he's trying to explain to them how you say, so funny. That

Wil Wheaton 38:26

scene was originally almost a full page. It just kept going. And it was it got funnier every time I saw it. And eventually, they were like, it's too long. We can do the same thing with like three lines. It doesn't have to be the full page. They went through a lot of different reads on that. And it was just hilarious every single time and

Jeff Dwoskin 38:42

then you walk in and go oh, they named their team after me.

Wil Wheaton 38:47

I have a couple of Leslie crushers bowling shirts that have been given to me over the years by people I very rarely break them out. But I cherish them.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:53

Oh yeah. That's that's so so cool. So I was talking to the writer the first few Sharknado movies and we talked about you Yeah. And I was like, that tie in with your when you were doing a cameo in Sharknado? Two? Yes. And then and then it gets mentioned on the Big Bang Theory. You kinda Yeah, tie those together. That was that was pretty. I

Wil Wheaton 39:17

did that in Sharknado. Two, because David lat who is the founder of the asylum, the film company that makes all those magnificently just awful sci fi monster movies, David wrote and directed a fantastic indie comedy called Jane White is sick and twisted in the early 2000s. And I co starred in it with an actor named Kim Liddell, who is David's wife, and we just did this great, weird little movie. We got some wonderful recognition from some international independent film festivals. And we stayed friends using years and years after that happened. So when Sharknado came out, I remember my wife and I saw the pro Almost for it, and we were like, Wait, it's a tornado full of sharks. How are we not watching this? And and we had a huge party with all of our friends. So when we found out there was a sequel, I emailed lat, and I was just like, dude, could I please just get killed by a shark in Sharknado? Two? And within minutes, he was like, Absolutely, we'll find a place for you. That's awesome.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:20

Yeah, that opening scene was great. And it did. I know, you're not on Twitter anymore. But it's interesting, because you were one of the people that was tweeting with the original Sharknado. Yeah. And as history looks back on that initial launch of that movie, The celebrities yourself included, were a part of that, let's call it NATO that actually launched that and gave it so much attention that it did have a second showing and a third showing and kept topping itself. And then led to that, you know, five other movies.

Wil Wheaton 40:52

That was fun. That was before Twitter became all about like empowering bullies and spreading fascism back then it was still fun when we could just use it to sort of globally enjoy the ridiculousness of of that kind of of movie. It was just, you know, I mean, I think that all of those films, they just land on those of us that grew up watching Elvira and Mystery Science Theater, like it's just, they're just perfect. They're just such beautiful love letters to all of that ridiculousness. And yeah, it's interesting. I feel like it only could have happened at that moment. Sharknado being what it was Twitter being what it was all of that it had to happen at exactly that moment. It could not have happened at a different time.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:32

I don't you probably can't see over my shoulder, but I have Sharknado poster, eight by 10 on the wall during a terror raid site.

Wil Wheaton 41:39

Amazing. That's fantastic.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:41

I was upset. I was I love that whole series. Awesome. So one of the reasons but getting back to Gene Roddenberry for a second one of the stories in your book that I actually had found the same story online. William fucking Shatner that you did, it was like a, like a 23 minute video with you and Paul and Stokes, probably at

Wil Wheaton 42:01

Woodstock or else at a show called Wil Wheaton versus Paul and Storm. We did that a lot a few years ago,

Jeff Dwoskin 42:07

as as I was catching up in the book, I realized this whole it's all written out in the book as well. There's a whole chapter on it. I gotta say like, it is really nice listening to you perform and tell stories. You're amazing. Oh, you're welcome. You're an amazing storyteller. It's whenever I when I got to when I was reading the book, and it got to a part where I talked about it, it was a Mensa speech that you guess I'm like, oh, you know what, I'm gonna go searches. I want to hear Him say. Thanks, man. So I found it. And I made a note that in the book, you left out the hula hoop line, which I thought was funny.

Wil Wheaton 42:41

Oh, that's probably a line that I improvised during the speech that wasn't in the text. That happens, that happens an awful lot. I always publish the texts of my speech, the original texts of my speeches with a note that says this is intended to be delivered orally in front of a room. And however the actual performance goes will be different, because that's just how it is every single time. I'll have to dig it up and see if I can find that.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:05

I'll try and find some of these. Because I have some of the URLs that I collected as I was kind of digging in on my Wil Wheaton research. I've been I've been killing myself, because I've been trying to say, well, I can't say like Stewie does. That was the funniest Family Guy with the next generation cast reunion and the way he says your name with with an age

Wil Wheaton 43:26

when I got the email about that every now and then I get asked to do really, really special things. And I say yes, like nine out of 10 times, and maybe half the time. The thing I said yes to actually makes it into the final thing. That's just filmmaking. That's just the, you know, it's nothing personal with that one. There was so much more story of like stories day out with the next gen cast that had to get cut for time. But I knew that that would make it because it's a callback to their cool whip thing. And family guys all about callbacks. So people still come up to me and quoted all the time. And I will always say to them, Why are you saying it that way?

Jeff Dwoskin 44:06

It was so funny. It's always great. Like when people go on Family Guy and can kind of laugh at themselves, like the whole cast Patrick Stewart all of them like it was just it was just so funny. But the reason I brought up the William fucking Shatner story was as kind of a bow to the Gene Roddenberry thing. I won't give away the story because people can read it and go to get the book. It's a great, great story, but it was just it was wonderful how he made Shatner Mia culpa. Yeah,

Wil Wheaton 44:32

I mean, you know, it's, it really meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me. However, that happened. And I don't know I will never know exactly how all of that went down. The ultimate thing that is really important is that somebody I respected and looked up to really hurt me and a different person who I respected and looked up to loved me and looked out for me and looked after me and stuck up for me, and this comes up over and over again. In the book in a lot of different places, I did not have people standing up for me in my life, I had people who were exploiting me and wringing every last piece of everything out of me that they could possibly get with absolutely no regard for how it affected me as a person. And that was a very significant moments where I really I really felt loved and protected, not just by Gene by everyone in my cat. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 45:24

all of them came to Brent Spiner. I'll have them kind of came and really had your back on that. Yeah,

Wil Wheaton 45:31

they really did. It was wonderful. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 45:32

sometimes you can't meet your heroes.

Wil Wheaton 45:35

I will say that that thing with Bill is, I am willing to allow for the possibility that it was a series of what he thought were jokes that didn't land. It's distinctly possible that that kind of happened that way. And as I write in the book, and as is, like, easily available public information, he's been really great to me ever since then, we had an incredibly fun time when we work together on the Big Bang Theory. The thing about Bill is that he can be a lovely, gentle, very funny, very unwise, wickedly funny person, and you can also just be an absolute shit. And you just kind of never know who's gonna show up. And sometimes both guys show up, and you just never know who's gonna be there. When we work together on Big Bang Theory. We were really, really lucky that super awesome, kind friendly, William Shatner showed up, I am going to tell you a very brief story about that day that I believe you will enjoy. So we're all sitting at the table, right? And it's all these really fancy people. And everybody at that table is impressed by someone else at that table. And I will just remind for your listeners who's there. Joe manga, nello Kareem Abdul Jabbar, William Shatner. Me, right? What? It's bizarre. Kevin Smith is there like it's ridiculous. It's just this. I can't believe it. So I asked Bill Brady, who did you want? Who was your dream? Get for that group? And he said the people who said yes, like that was my first ask. And everybody said Yes, right away. And it's like, oh, my god, that's amazing. So there is a line in that scene, where Shatner says Don't make me go all Wrath of Khan on your ass. In rehearsal. Shatner is saying Wrath of Khan, not wrath Roth. So imagine our O th hear that in your head when I say it, okay. I'm not gonna go Wrath of Khan, the director comes over. Hey, Bill, we're hearing Roth can do. Its we're pretty sure it's wrath. Okay, great. That one comes around again, Wrath of Khan. Now there is a story that based on you laughing I'm sure you know, there is an outtake of Shatner in ADR recording from the 60s where the guy says to him in the voiceover booth says, action and Shatner says, Well, this is a clear case of sabotage. And the guy says it's it's actually built sabotage and Shatner goes well, maybe you say sabotage, I say sabotage, and he will not change the pronunciation. So omnicef. He's saying Roth. I know the sabotage story, Bill Prady knows the sabotage story, Steve malaco, marks and drotsky all the writers we all know the sabotage story. And I'm watching all of them talk to each other. Who's gonna go up to Bill Shatner, who's doing sabotage and tell him it's sabotage? Who's going to do that? And you can see that none of them want to do it. They're all trying. These are all fully grown men. And they're all like, I don't want to go do it. And I'm just sitting on the SEC. I am the only person on stage 25. Who knows exactly what's going on. And I'm dying inside. I'm trying so hard to hold it together. Because he just it's like four times of someone gently coming to Shatner, and trying to nudge him into saying sabotage. Finally, Bill Prady comes over and he says, Bill, I'm pretty sure it's saBotage, and I'm hearing sabotage, and that's pretty sure it's wrath. And I'm hearing Roth and shatter goes really? And pretty says, Yeah, I feel like you're saying Roth and we're just we're really sure it's wrath and Shatner goes Keira. Well, all right, the next take Wrath of Khan. He says it perfectly. To this day, I do not know if Shatner was like doing a move to see what he could get away with or if he genuinely didn't hear it or understand it, but it remains one of my like, top five big bang theory moments of sitting there watching my friends from the writing staff and that part of production, absolutely running around with their hair on fire, trying to figure out who was going to be the person to tell shot and are you saying it wrong?

Jeff Dwoskin 49:36

That is amazing. Thank you for that. Man, I think in the book Yoxall talk about you kind of you rebounded, you reconnected on the weakest link. You guys had the Star Trek thing there.

Wil Wheaton 49:51

Yeah. And that actually happened to us before Big Bang Theory. I mean, like 10 or 15 years before Big Bang Theory. Talk to me

Jeff Dwoskin 49:57

about tabletop. You know, as I was watching it, it I think on Larry King, you mentioned it was your friends that created Cards Against Humanity, which I thought was pretty cool. You ever play axis and allies? Yeah, of course. Okay. So when I was discovering tabletop, my friends and I, we would play in high school, we would do axis and allies, and we would, and it just I started having just some flashbacks to that we'd spend nine hour days, you know, we just have like, saltines, and we just slap butter on it. And we would play axis and allies. And the funny thing is to this day, my friends name are Howard Rosner and Jeff zander. I'm saying it out loud on purpose so that they get annoyed when they hear this back. There was one day the way exercise works, right? Your we would split up. So it's three of us. I think it was two would be the I'm thinking I can't remember how was the axis or the Allies I can't remember. But somehow now this normal eight to 10 hour game that I have to explain to my parents and girlfriend, why we're doing this for this long, I somehow roll dice like, Heaven intervened, I win in 90 minutes, I completely wipe them out. That's insane. Insane, right? That's crazy.

Wil Wheaton 51:07

That's like go to a casino man.

Jeff Dwoskin 51:08

I know. But to this day, if axes and allies comes up, I kind of give them a look. And they go we know 90.

Jeff Dwoskin 51:22

I think tabletop games are amazing. And that's why I thought the whole show and people should kind of check out all those episodes.

Wil Wheaton 51:30

Thank you. I loved it. Because you brought it up a couple of things about it. I want to give enormous credit to a group of amazing women who made tabletop possible this tabletop would not exist without Felicia de Kim EV Sherry Bryant and Jen Arnold, they were amazing. Nearly every good idea that went into shaping the direction of tabletop and kind of the tone and the language of it was developed in meetings with them. And and the show would not exist and would not have been successful. And as long lived as it was without all of their participation. I really miss it. I'm really sad that it is over. I will not ever work for legendary Digital Entertainment, if I can help it. And that means tabletop and anything that I did with Geek and Sundry is probably never going to happen again. But I have not completely eliminated the possibility that at some point in my future, I might do something that is similar yet legally, distinctly different from tabletop, maybe something where I get together with a couple of friends. And we play a board game together. And and we talk about it in some way that is legally distinctly different from tabletop because it was really fun. And I'm proud of what we did. I'm grateful for what we did, we have left a very clear legacy in the gaming industry that I'm incredibly proud of. I love the people who who picked up kind of the ball when we put it down and have continued to move it toward a world where everybody plays games. And board gaming is a incredibly meaningful hobby to so many people. Welcome to games on

Jeff Dwoskin 53:07

a table with Wil Wheaton. Here we go. There we go. I just worked around all the legals

Wil Wheaton 53:13

the working title is not tabletop.

Jeff Dwoskin 53:18

Sorry, is a family favorite.

Wil Wheaton 53:19

Yeah, that's the one game that my wife and I can play all the time because it's one of the very few games where there's enough luck involved that my min maxing and extreme gamer gamer Enos doesn't wreck our ability to have fun together because you just kind of have to count on what happens with the with the with the cards,

Jeff Dwoskin 53:39

really, because in our family and when we have all four my wife and my two daughters and we play a can get cut throughout and it'd be like, you can't No, no, you got me last time. It causes a complete breakdown in the family units but but I love it a lot. We have an old school game from like when I was a kid the board when you roll you know exactly where eight is. And seven isn't 12 And it's awesome. So I know I can't believe that the times just kind of flying by I do want to say that one of the things that kind of really touched me when I was reading the book, I was reading the part about where you talk about your chronic depression and your in the panic attacks and dealing with that and and it's an amazing message about not being ashamed of having any form of mental illness. But there was one particular thing that you said in the book that kind of really struck me it was just do something for future you. Yeah. And I gotta say it was it was funny. I know this is meaning it This isn't like the biggest thing in the world. But I was just like I had put up so I put I had went off so much. That day while I was just kind of digging into the book and stuff and it says future you and I looked at the time and I realize I gotta I gotta go take care of myself. Yeah, workout, go do all these things. But it's a really great mantra just to have like when you're kind of thinking about, you know, there's so many times in your life where you can kind of say, I'm not going to do it. But it's like think about like how A future you is gonna think and, and thank you for it. It was just it just it was an interesting way to think it's kind

Wil Wheaton 55:07

of a way to trick ourselves into loving ourselves. It's a way to trick ourselves into doing kind things for ourselves. Like, you know how there is a person in this world who you love more than anybody in the world. And you would never say an unkind thing to that person, no matter what. And you might even like, get in between that person and another person who's being unkind to them, you should treat yourself exactly the same way that you would treat the person you love most in the world, because you can't love another person until you love yourself. And when you do kind things for yourself, you're really taking care of yourself, you're just practicing self care. And you know, it can go in all these different directions. For me, it comes up on Wednesdays because the Wednesdays when the damn trash cans have to go out, and I fucking hate it. And there will be several times during the day on Wednesday, where I'll just look at anago odd slug on Wednesday. And what I've started doing now is the first time I do that, I trudge out to the yard and I do the whole thing myself and and I finish it all and then spend the rest of the day starting to think what oh, no, it's not I already did it. Thank you, me from a few hours ago, there was also a day recently, with the book coming out, I needed to sign a whole bunch of hundreds of bookplates to go off to England, because it's just not possible to do international travel for us right now and travel and signings and things like that. So I had worked it out. So I could do like 10 a day, I was gonna sit down for like, two minutes and just go ba ba ba ba ba and then you know, and anyway, I ended up signing all of them at once in a multi hour marathon. And I said too, and more than once Boy, I tell you what, me from the past as accumulated a significant debt, that knee from this moment is paying off and like I accept it. I know that that mean from the past had other things to do. But like, I'm not doing this to future me the way past me did it to current me. Which I know creates a lot of time as a flat circle weirdness and Spider Man pointing at each other and memes in people's heads. But if you stop to think about it and visualize it, actually, the math does work out.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:09

Oh, it totally does. There's always those times where you do something and you realize, Oh, I did it. And when the anxiety of having to do it, and you realize it's already done. There's no greater feeling than that. Well, I can't thank you enough for hanging out with me. This was so much fun. I I really, really, really appreciate it. Let's plug the book one more time.

Wil Wheaton 57:30

All right, it's called still just to Geek and annotated memoir, it drops April 12. It is available in print ebook and audio, I will tell you this about the audio version, there is additional material in the audio version that I remembered things during the narration of it. And I would have comments about things that I did not remember when I did the writing, of still just to Geek. So there's a few additional little pieces in there. And if you want to hear just if you really want to hear my voice, in my words, that's the way to do it. But it's available in every format, you can imagine in every place that you can possibly get books, I've worked real hard to make sure that it is available in libraries everywhere. Someone will always say where do you where do you want me to get it? And the answer is, I want you to get it where it's easiest and most convenient for you. Because ultimately, I just want you to share the experience of reading it, I would like the opportunity to take up an awful lot of your time. And if that's still not a good enough answer, I would love for you to get it from an indie shop because indie bookshops always, always always need our support no matter what

Jeff Dwoskin 58:34

Absolutely. And I do encourage everyone to get the heart, the tangible version of the book, I think that's something so missing from the world is there's just nothing like holding a good book, but also the audio version using your own words. I've heard you do that a lot. And that would be an extra special experience. I do want to say one last thing that I totally forgot. So a lot of times if I don't always tell my friends when I'm about to meet somebody because one you know if it gets cancelled, I just never want to put it out in the universe. So I told my friend Tom Foley, I said, I'm talking to Wil Wheaton. Now normally, when I tell people something like that the normal response would be Hey, I'm talking about weed. And if you have any questions, you let me know. And five days later, they'll come back with us on what it was like to be on Star Trek. Oh, thank you. I didn't think to cover star trek with well, we nice to have the staff. Isn't this what he said he was talking about how you did the audio for the book. Ready Player One? Yeah. He said it was excellent. He says and I assume it was quite the meta moment given that Wil Wheaton is actually discussed in the book.

Wil Wheaton 59:39

Yeah, that was great. I knew it was coming up and I was getting excited for it. And when it when that moment actually happened, I have to I'm professional, and my job is to just keep going you know, I'm Wade in that moment. I'm not well, but it was really fun. And and what an honor to be to be mentioned in the same breath as Cory Doctorow who is a person who I just endlessly respect and admire.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:02

So cool. So cool. Well, thank you once again. This was such an honor. Thank you again. This was this was awesome. Yeah.

Wil Wheaton 1:00:09

Awesome. I enjoyed it. Nice talking with you.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:11

Nice talking with you, too.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:12

All right. How great was Wil Wheaton everyone. soon as you're done here, I want you to run out, preorder, or order. Wil's book still just a geek, super awesome. If you love Wil Wheaton, you're going to love his book, available April 12. Well, with the interview over can only mean one thing. That's right. It's time for another trending hashtag from the family of hashtags. That hashtag round up, follow us on Twitter at hashtag Roundup, download the free hashtag roundup app always free doesn't cost a penny. Head on over to the Google Play Store or iTunes App Store, download it receive a notification every time a new game starts. tweet along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you. Today's hashtag. Of course, inspired by my conversation with Wil Wheaton and his time as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek The Next Generation comes the Ultimate Star Trek The Next Generation mashup hashtag #StarTrekTNGSongs brought to us by our friends at Friday Fondue a weekly Game On hashtag roundup #StarTrekTNGSongs Star Trek The Next Generation songs The Ultimate Star Trek The Next Generation show song mash up Friday Find you went to Twitter, challenge them to mash up those two genres and hilarity ensued. So get ready for some #StarTrekTNGSongs warfare warfare real good number one is done though the yes number you have to excuse my singing wore me up before you go go. I do not apologize for my singing I take it back. Wesley's mom has got it going on. You are of the cat everything I do. I do it for Q is this amazing? #StarTrekTNGSongs. The Ultimate Star Trek song mashup game? Yes, I'm all I want to Dianna was somebody be honest, who thought I recruited Whitney there for a second Jodi's a jolly good fellow Jodi's a jolly good fellow, make it so why, when you wish upon a star gazer comfortably, number one, since you've been clinging on I can breathe for the first time since you've been clinging on okay, maybe I do apologize. You know, it's Picard out here for a pimp These are amazing #StarTrekTNGSongs Seven of Nine to five work in Seven of Nine to five What a way to make live and I well a ball ball Borg. The Borg is a word birnberg BORG is word, a BORG BORG BORG, breaking up as Picard to do sitting on the holodeck at the bay. Will pay will be real good. Make it Su Su sudio. And our final hashtag Star Trek TNG songs tweet Crusher, pushing down on me pressing down on you under a question. All right. At the end with a Wednesday one. All right. There you go. There's your #StarTrekTNGSongs, tweet your own tag me at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter. He's on Twitter live as always, all of those fabulous Star Trek The Next Generation song mashup tweets are retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter, go show them some love

Jeff Dwoskin 1:04:08

Well, with that hashtag game over that can only mean one thing. That's right. Episode 120 is come to it. And can you believe it? I can't believe that special thanks again to my guest, Wil Wheaton. Everyone go out and buy his book. Still just a geek an annotated memoir. It is spectacular. And of course, I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time. Oh, one last thing the BORG BORG BORG

Announcer 1:04:41

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. Catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai