When it comes to William Shatner, the first thing we all think of is his turn as James T. Kirk on Star Trek: The Original Series and its subsequent films. After that, we probably think of Rescue: 911, T.J. Hooker, Boston Legal, his Priceline commercials, and maybe his many cameos across television. Somewhere after his latest RT show, and right after a random photo of him riding a horse, we get to TekWar.
What is TekWar, you ask? Well, it's William Shatner's attempt to create a hip and timely story of the growing concerns around internet addiction and the rampant drug use of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It started as a book series, which was mostly written by Ron Goulart, even if Shatner came up with the idea, and later became a television show.
It's basically the plot of Demolition Man but with less fun. Starring Greg Evigan as the series main character Jake Cardigan, the series quickly became known for its awful acting, dead-pan deliveries, terrible CGI, and William Shatner rocking one of his worst hairstyles ever.
The series fails to achieve any meaningful success at any point. Its concepts are dated and the overall vibe of the show is so mundane, that you'd be forgiven if you think you've seen this show before. You likely haven't, but as it looked like so many other shows at the time, one could see how you'd make that mistake.
What makes TekWar so bad is the fact that whatever Goulart did to make the books semi-interesting was lost by the time the series was made. It's unclear if Goulart had any hand in writing the show but it seems unlikely as he was only a "ghost writer" and therefore likely not rewarded with any producer credits for the show. Goulart was a fine writer, and he clearly impressed enough people in the 90s with his work on TekWar, after all the series was turned into a show.
Yet, the charm, what little the series had, was gone when the show came about. The over-acting, poorly written scripts and bad crop of talent to pull from really hindered the production. So much so that we're left wondering why the franchise was made in the first place. After all, it's not like it was some fly-by-night outing.
The franchise had a tie-in video game, which was a big deal in the mid-1990s. So clearly, Shatner had something on someone that they didn't want to get out. That, or the thought could be a huge success.
Of course that never happened and yet, people are still claiming that TekWar is a hidden gem. A show worth checking out. No, Jericho is a hidden gem. Just because TekWar the series should stay hidden does not make it a "gem" by any means. I would not recommend TekWar to anyone, as it's too poorly done to be entertaining, but not serious enough to be hilariously over the top.
You'll just be bored watching it and that's the worst sin a piece of media can make.