Does anyone know whether Shane Johnson, author of Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise and other sci-fi works, as well as Christian fiction novels, is still active online? I had interviewed him some years ago for my Trekplace website, but I've since lost touch with him. Thanks in advance!
I'd love to know that, myself. Especially because I'm curious if that update to Mr. Scott's Guide he was working on some time ago will ever see the light of day, even as a self-published online deal?
I think he had some health problems. Last I heard of him was after a heath scare--he posted this on www.starshipmodeler.net some years ago.
That post was deleted long ago--it just fell away after a certain time period. This might be him http://www.sljillustration.com/contact.html
I have this overwhelming urge to find Shane Johnson and point out that, despite all the scorn Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise received over the years, they referenced it in the latest movie and thus he wins.
One of the Enterprise damage graphics visible for a second just before Khan's torpedoes detonate (seen among these) measures shield strength in "diburnium/osmium levels" which is straight out of Mr. Scott's Guide.
An "alloy of diburnium-osmium" had previously been mentioned in TOS "That Which Survives", so it's not exclusive to Mr Scott's Guide.
^Yeah, but it was MSGTTE that posited the completely ludicrous notion that deflector shields are some kind of "energy image" of a really hard diburnium-osmium barrier or some such bizarre notion. Still, it's silly to pretend that a background graphic you have to freeze-frame and enhance in order to read is meant to be an authoritative part of the universe. It's about creating an overall impression of a scene; the details are not as important as the big picture, and often the details don't make sense in context if you take them seriously. I mean, ILM inserted R2-D2 as a piece of space debris in both Abrams movies, but that doesn't mean R2-D2 is "canon" in the Trek universe.
Well, someone in the ID art department thought it was good enough. It made me smile to see the reference, mission accompished.
Agreed on the point of seeing the user interface animators giving tips of the hat to those who've inspired them. It's nice to see the respect shown.
Well, I've looked all over the web, and there is no sign of Shane Johnson anywhere after about 2010. He hasn't posted on his own website in five years. No indication of any books on the way. I hate to say it, but I think he's no longer with us. *hat on breast*
Hi, I was one of the collaborators on the aforementioned update to Scott's Guide that we were working on back in 2005. I've been in touch with Shane off and on since then, but the most recent was in 2012. Seeing this thread, I emailed him to let him know that people were wondering about his whereabouts. I haven't heard back yet, nor had the email bounce back. Hopefully he's alright. Tim
I really would have liked to have seen that update come out. One of the things I was hoping was a possible refresh of the refit for a post 1701-A era. We see the Excalibur in STO keep the lines, and having something like Arida Sophia's Balson ( but with high, cranked nacelle supports) would have been nice.
I haven't heard back from my email to him yet. I hope he's alright! The book would have been an updated version of Scott's Guide (I believe he posted some messages on trekbbs about it back in 2005). So it would have shown the internals of both the refit as seen in TMP and TWOK as well as TFF and TUC including the TNG style engine room/officer's lounge as seen in ST5 etc. I talk about this a little on my About page, with some imagery. The last I heard was that he approached Pocket Books but they never responded. Their loss IMO.