Back in 1980, Pocket published a book written by Susan Sackett and Gene Roddenberry which went into detail on how ST:TMP came about. Given the amount of attention on J.J. Abrams' project (and comparison between it and TMP), I'm wondering if such a project is being considered for next year, close to the movie's release. Given how much movie-making technology has changed since 1978 when TMP was made and the huge budget this version of Star Trek has, there should be no shortage of material to make a decent non-fiction book on. I guess the big thing is whether the folks at Pocket would think such a title would sell well next year.
Of course, one of those big changes is DVD, specifically in this case the extras often have a lot of that 'making of' material so there's less of a call for books on the subject these days...
True enough, but a book can still cover a lot more ground than a few extra features can on a DVD. I'm just thinking that if any Trek film warrants such a book, it's this one.
I miss "Making-Of" books. Even the ones that do come out these days seem to be heavily weighted towards photos and illustrations as opposed to text. There's a reason why Whitfield's original Making of Star Trek is so well-regarded - for all that the black-and-white pictures in the middle are interesting, the book itself is so well-written and so informative that you really feel like you were there on set, with Justman standing on someone's desk, Leonard Nimoy's bicycle constantly being stolen, and cute little memos flying around all over the place. Seems as though books of that calibre are all but gone these days, though. Sad.
It is sad. That was a great book, and if I'm not mistaken, Sackett's and Roddenberry's The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was patterned after Whitfield's. I'm still hopefull that we might get one for this 're-invigoration' of Trek.
A lot of 'making of' books these days are basically just PR puff pieces, and for that, you can always buy STARLOG. I love good 'making of' books, especially about movies that don't work, so you can see for yourself what went wrong (MAKING OF EXORCIST II comes to mind, as does the Shat TFF book and a phenomenal volume on Preminger's ROSEBUD called SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE.) I really disliked the Sackett book, because it was skewed very much from a perspective to (over) credit Paramount employees. It gave tons of credit to the prop master for stuff that Brick Price built (and he didn't even get screen credit), for example. A lot of it was recycled from her STARLOG column as well.
I can't bring myself to do that anymore - it just hurts to much when it makes me remember what a great magazine it used to be, when I was young and dinosaurs walked the earth. Yeah, the ones about the "noble failures" are a lot of fun, especially when they're the "warts and all" sort. I haven't read the Sackett book in years and didn't know most of this, though I do seem to remember the repetitions from her STARLOG writing. At the time, that didn't bother me, since I was glad to have all of it in one place instead of strewn throughout several magazines.
Aw, is it really that bad. I stopped getting it some time ago when it started getting bad. I always hoped it would turn itself around.
Well, it was that bad the last time I looked at it (which was about eight or so months ago); can't speak to anything more recent than that.
I don't think I've bought a new STARLOG in 15 years, but I find myself rebuying the old ones pretty often. I've probably bought issue 27 at least a half dozen times, it has great vfx stuff about TMP and Galactica and Alien.
The last issue I made a point to buy was the one released at the time Sky Captain hit theaters. The issue had a faux "pulp magazine" in the middle, complete with a Sky Captain short story.
The Original "Making of ST" was awesome!! I even liked the one for STTMP. The one for TWOK was a little bland like it was old Starlog leftovers. The one for ST V had a nice inside look from Shatner's daughter's point of view but what REALLY annoyed me about her book was the way she kept phrasing everything with "my father" over and over. I could have used a "Dad" or even "Bill" once in a while to break up that kind of monotony. If they were to do one for ST XI, it would be interesting to see one done by JJ Abram with a lot of input by Leonard Nimoy. Kind of like how they had Gene Roddenberry's input set off in CAPS in the original. It would be fun to see JJ's view of reviving Trek and Leonard's take on keeping the franchise alive and bringing so closure to it as he comes full circle with his Trek as Spock.
I like Asherman's TWOK volume because it features Sallin's involvement, which very few folks do. Except for that book and CFQ, it might be nobody would know of his contributions (in a way, I kind of think of him as Gary Kurtz for trek, because w/o him there, none of the other movies have worked so successfully AS movies, which is a real tribute considering the poverty row budget of the project.)
Really??? Awwww, that sounds awesome. Any idea which issue that is? I might have a go at finding a copy.... Yeah, I remember that - it drove me nuts too. That would be cool, but I doubt we'll see anything like that - it really does seem that the day of books like these is over.
I don't have it handy to check, but it would've come out in September 2004 or so when the movie premiered, which means it either has a "September 2004" or "October 2004" date on the cover.
I thought magazine cover dates tended to be several months ahead of their release dates -- for instance, an issue coming out in September would have a December or January date. Has that changed?
The ones I've been involved with tend to have a date on that indicates when they come off sale - so the current STM came out August 22nd, but is dated September/October, to be replaced on October 22nd-ish. Certainly in the UK, some monthly mags have the specific date that they are to be taken off the shelf.
About a year ago, the main warehouse, where most of the official "Starlog" back issues were stored, burned down.
And with input from Kurtzman and Orci, but overall, I like what you said there. That would be a book I'd be interested in reading.