Shatner: It’s ... his ... big ... moment!

I confess, I am a partisan. I have followed William Shatner’s career with the kind of avidity that results in restraining orders. My God, Jim, I’ve read the man’s books -- not just the “TekWar” series but also the two “Star Trek” memoirs, which recount his days playing James Tiberius Kirk in TV and film. I’ve watched every frame of Shatner celluloid I could find, including his 1965 horror film “Incubus,” the only movie ever made in Esperanto, the cinematic version of the Enterprise’s universal translator.

And then there is his 1968 spoken-word album “The Transformed Man,” a veritable Matterhorn of campiness famous for the actor’s howling and unhinged versions of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man.” It prompts the question: If Shatner wasn’t on drugs at the time, why not?

You could be forgiven if you came to Shatner’s new spoken-word album with low expectations -- Shields up! Arm irony torpedoes!

But you don’t know Shatner like I know Shatner. The single -- “Common People,” a coolly evil rip on class-slummers featuring Joe Jackson on vocals -- is brilliant. It’s getting heavy radio rotation in Los Angeles, quickly becoming a novelty hit. Come to think of it, the man’s entire career has been a novelty hit.

“Has Been,” released Wednesday, caps the year of Shatner, the annus Shatnerius. Last month the 73-year-old actor won an Emmy for his performance as Denny Crane on the TV drama “The Practice.” Shatner anchors a new series, “Boston Legal,” which premiered Sunday. I stayed up to watch despite having a life to which to attend. Next summer, Shatner will reprise his role as smarmy pageant host Stan Fields in “Miss Congeniality II” -- absolutely no one does smarmy better. I will pay good money to see this film, God help me.

There are even rumors (be still, my Klingon heart) that Capt. Kirk -- who died on Veridian III, as everyone knows -- will make a cameo on UPN’s highly regarded, lowly watched syndicated series “Enterprise.”

He was on the cover of TV Guide with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock and who -- let’s get real -- hogged all the best lines. Shatner has script projects and book projects and documentaries and video games and his own production company. I honestly believe a letter-writing campaign could get Shatner’s face on the $50 bill. At least in Canada.

It is common wisdom that if a celebrity lives long enough, he or she enters the revolving door of postmodern irony and self-reference. Tony Bennett. Bert Parks. Britney.

It is true that Shatner has often goofed on himself: the Priceline.com commercials in which he recites beat poetry about the lowest prices for airfares. Over the years, Shatner has exhibited an Olympian lack of shame -- or, if you like, his utter indifference to vanity. He is perfectly comfortable cast as a loon (Big Giant Head in “Third Rock From the Sun”). And he will, for the benefit of charity, sausage-pack himself into a Star Fleet uniform and play paintball with Klingons and the Borg (you can order the DVD “William Shatner’s Spplat Attack” from www.williamshatner.com).

But make no mistake. Shatner gets Shatner.

Of course, I have always been of the opinion that the man deserved an Irving Thalberg award, or something, for carrying the “Star Trek” movies -- films that, in the argot of the series, had their inertial dampers set to maximum. Shatner’s Emmy is four decades overdue. Go back and watch the original series. How many actors can sell a line like “What have you done with Spock’s brain?” Sir Laurence Olivier? Anthony Hopkins? Please, playa.

My favorite story from Shatner’s biography comes from the desperate year after the TV series was canceled. He spent the summer of 1969 driving across the country doing summer stock, sleeping in a camper with his dog, giving the occasional waitress a toss. In a camper!

It was a decade of quiet desperation before the first “Star Trek” movie debuted in 1979, when he was well and truly launched into the pop culture etherium. For a man who started in legit theater and who fell into the geek gravity well by accident, to be cast immortally as Capt. Kirk could not have been easy. He wears the mantle with as much good grace as anyone could possibly expect. Space freighters full of cash have helped.

But he has never gotten the taste of hunger out of his mouth. Shatner is a relentless worker and a fearless artist, willing to try anything -- books, music, video games. He is the great middlebrow polymath of our time.

How did Shatner get so hip? He earned it.

Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com.