Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary...Finally?

[ChristopherPike]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Two more preview pics!

http://www.thetrekcollective.com/201...ictionary.html

That does look awesome.

[Admiral_Young]

Sigh. Well I just took a look on Amazon Canada and they've changed the release date from Feb 26 to March 12. I don't know if this is the same for Amazon but this is annoying. I was looking forward to getting my copy today.

[8of5]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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8of5 has done an excellent review that does a great job of giving an overview of the contents of the book. As I've stated, it looks like your typical Visual Dictonary, I hope this sells well enough so that we can start getting Visual Guides, as those are the more indepth books.

http://www.thetrekcollective.com/201...ictionary.html

Thank you. It's quite typical of many of the more introductory Star Trek books too, what really gives it the edge are the many obscure things included. As I mentioned in the review, I think it's worth getting just to get a good look at some of the amazing Enterprise props!

[Donald Draper]

I am a fan of Enterprise, so its strong inclusion here is fantastic. It added a lot to Trek lore that was never explored in other series. Think of it, without that series would the Andorians have got any section in a book that is not just geared towards hardcore fans? No.

Also not just props but some of these pictures from the show have never been printed in this quality before.

I am lazy someone should hype this in the Enterprise forum.

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah, I agree that it seems to be more like an introductory guide to Star Trek...which is why it's covering all five series at once but in a generalized way. I look forward to potentially more stuff from DK Publishing regarding Star Trek. It's still hard to believe this is coming out...I seriously never would have thought this would happen. LOL

[Dream]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Yeah, I agree that it seems to be more like an introductory guide to Star Trek...which is why it's covering all five series at once but in a generalized way. I look forward to potentially more stuff from DK Publishing regarding Star Trek. It's still hard to believe this is coming out...I seriously never would have thought this would happen. LOL

I think most fans will be buying it for the high quality photos in the book.

[Therin of Andor]

Donald Draper wrote:

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Think of it, without that series would the Andorians have got any section in a book that is not just geared towards hardcore fans?

Probably. Andorians were quite well featured in lots of ST stuff over the years, including "The Monsters of Star Trek", a 1980s book aimed at kids rather than ST fans, "The Starfleet Medical Reference Manual", which sat in bookshops alongside the bestselling "Starfleet Technical Manual", and GE Fabbri's weekly "ST Fact Files", which were in every UK and Australian newsagent for many years.

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm more impressed that the Tellarites got a double spread, myself. Good for them!

[Therin of Andor]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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I'm more impressed that the Tellarites got a double spread, myself. Good for them!

They put up a good argument.

[Deranged Nasat]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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They put up a good argument.

Another, much more minor, detail that impresses me: Human is capitalized like the other race names. Thank you!

[Deranged Nasat]

Oh, 8of5, sprinkle me with spoilery goodness from atop your endictionaried perch.

What races are featured on the "Allied Species" page? I'm assuming that's the "assorted other Federation races" page, after Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Denobulans, Betazoids and Trills get their own pages. So...Bolians, I'm betting? Benzites? Deltans? Rigellians?

[Christopher]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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Another, much more minor, detail that impresses me: Human is capitalized like the other race names. Thank you!

Personally I'd be happier if it was the other way around. Normally, we capitalize the names of nationalities (French, Korean, Sioux) but not the names of species (dolphin, elephant, octopus). It's an unfortunate tendency of Trek and other SF to treat species as equivalent to nations or cultures, rather than portraying them as distinct entities (a species can be divided into many nations and a nation can have members of many species). So, for instance, "vulcan" should be the name of a species that encompasses the nations of Vulcan and Romulus -- although ideally the nation/planet name wouldn't be the same as the species name (humans come from Earth, not Huma).

[Deranged Nasat]

Christopher wrote:

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Personally I'd be happier if it was the other way around. Normally, we capitalize the names of nationalities (French, Korean, Sioux) but not the names of species (dolphin, elephant, octopus). It's an unfortunate tendency of Trek and other SF to treat species as equivalent to nations or cultures, rather than portraying them as distinct entities (a species can be divided into many nations and a nation can have members of many species). So, for instance, "vulcan" should be the name of a species that encompasses the nations of Vulcan and Romulus -- although ideally the nation/planet name wouldn't be the same as the species name (humans come from Earth, not Huma).

Mass Effect is the only popular sci-fi that comes to mind in that regard - it's salarians from the Salarian Union, for example. (There's the pak'ma'ra in Babylon Five, but that's apparently whimsy of the Great Maker and certainly isn't the norm in that franchise).

Either way, though, I'm glad humans are being treated as "just another race" here, one way or the other, rather than something distinct.

And as always I must clarify that humans are from Humus Prime, not Huma

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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Personally I'd be happier if it was the other way around.

I seem to recall Diane Duane used "Human" in her early works.

But Larry Niven favours "kzin" and "kzinti".

[8of5]

Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcan's all benefited hugely from the extra info Enterprise gave them. I'm sure they'd have struggled to fill half as much space as they do without it.

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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Oh, 8of5, sprinkle me with spoilery goodness from atop your endictionaried perch.

What races are featured on the "Allied Species" page? I'm assuming that's the "assorted other Federation races" page, after Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Denobulans, Betazoids and Trills get their own pages. So...Bolians, I'm betting? Benzites? Deltans? Rigellians?

Just Bolians and Benzites on that one, with the Horta and Tribble on the opposite non-humanoids page.

And if you're curious the alien threats spread has Mugato, Nausicaans, Salt Vampire (or M-113 creature as they've called it), and Yridians.

Christopher wrote:

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Personally I'd be happier if it was the other way around. Normally, we capitalize the names of nationalities (French, Korean, Sioux) but not the names of species (dolphin, elephant, octopus). It's an unfortunate tendency of Trek and other SF to treat species as equivalent to nations or cultures, rather than portraying them as distinct entities (a species can be divided into many nations and a nation can have members of many species). So, for instance, "vulcan" should be the name of a species that encompasses the nations of Vulcan and Romulus -- although ideally the nation/planet name wouldn't be the same as the species name (humans come from Earth, not Huma).

I hadn't noticed that, but I too am pleased to see Humans getting some capital equality, now you point it out!

Re Chris' point: I'm Human, European, British, and English. Much as a Vulcan can be a person of the planet Vulcan, but also a person of a particular culture/race on the planet Vulcan, or come from a particular geopolitical region of Vulcan. One does not preclude the other, and I see it as a positive thing that the planets of Star Trek future have such a feeling of oneness that they primarily identify as the collective peoples of that planet.

Wouldn't it be lovely if we all stopped worry about being English, American, Asian, a New Yorker, etc, and had a bit more of a sense of our equal collective Humanness?