The Making of Star Trek - out of print?

[11Alive]

Is this book out of print? I looked on Amazon and the paperbacks are going for $30 and up. I was hoping to find a cheap copy in rather bad shape (like a heavily creased spine) to scan so I could have it on my tablet and computer, but that would involve cutting the book apart. Not paying $30 for a book that's going to be summarily destroyed, though.

 

[Galileo7]

ebay currently has copies for as low as $13 or $15.

I enjoyed this book when I got my first copy at my elementary school book fair in the '70s. I still have that copy and a newer edition I bought in the '90s.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

Try checking sites for different countries? I got my copy for £0.01, although that wqs 10 years ago...

 

[Defcon]

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...&tn=Making+Star+Trek&cm_sp=plped-_-1-_-search

 

[11Alive]

At this point, I was more wondering if they had stopped publishing it after 1994. I suppose current generation Trekkies just aren't interested enough in TOS to justify any more printings. Looks like it, according to Memory Alpha. I don't have my original Ballantine mid-70s edition anymore, although I have a Del Rey copy I bought in the mid-80s. Strange that they haven't created an ebook edition for sale that wouldn't need an inventory of paper copies. Google Books doesn't have a scan of it, either.

 

[feek61]

It has been out-of-print for a while. I thought that they should have done a 50th anniversary hardback addition with hi-res photos. I know that at least some of the original photo negatives have survived. This is one of my favorites from the book; now available in excellent quality. If only we could get the rest of those photos from TMOST released! Next year is the 50th anniversary of the first publication of the book; perhaps it's not too late, fingers crossed!!

 

[11Alive]

Nice one, feek. The first and after more than a half century, still the best bridge of any Trek.

 

[Therin of Andor]

IIRC, it has episode titles only for the first two seasons.

Whitfield, aka as Poe, also wrote "A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager". http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Stephen_Edward_Poe
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Stephen_Edward_Poe

 

[Christopher]

IIRC, it has episode titles only for the first two seasons.

Yup, because it came out shortly before season 3 premiered.

 

[UncleRogi]

At this point, I was more wondering if they had stopped publishing it after 1994. I suppose current generation Trekkies just aren't interested enough in TOS to justify any more printings. Looks like it, according to Memory Alpha. I don't have my original Ballantine mid-70s edition anymore, although I have a Del Rey copy I bought in the mid-80s. Strange that they haven't created an ebook edition for sale that wouldn't need an inventory of paper copies. Google Books doesn't have a scan of it, either.

I have three copies; an original, the Del Rey, and one I don't have the copyright page cuz I took it EVERYWHERE When I was but a wee Trek person. My family has a long history of book collection.
For example, I have a mint copy with dust -jacket of To Kill A Mockingbird. Saved. Worth at last listing $12,000.

My favorite Ballantine books are the topic one, and mint copies of the Marshak-Culbreath Phoenix novels of such controversy.

Then again, I am an original fan of old-fart class, and have copies of ALL the Ballantine novels.

Spock: Messiah is an awesome read, no matter your fan proclivities, because the crew is so out of character!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Uh, what Ballantine novels? Ballantine (including Del Rey) only had the rights to (1) ADF's Star Trek Log series, (2) nonfiction works, and (3) non-narrative works like FJS's Technical Manual and Booklet of General Plans. BANTAM had (other than ADF) all the narrative fiction rights.

 

[UncleRogi]

My mistake, sir, the books are safely stored where there is not easy access. I haven't been through the collection in a while. I meant Bantam.
Again, old-fart dementia setting in.

 

[Galileo7]

cool

I have one copy of each of these printings:

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

My mistake, sir, the books are safely stored where there is not easy access. I haven't been through the collection in a while. I meant Bantam.
Again, old-fart dementia setting in.

Indeed. I find that my own brain-farts are coming with ever-increasing frequency.

Galileo7: The first time I saw a friend's copy (back in 5th grade, if I remember right), I didn't realize that the picture with the "PHASER UNIT" callout was simply a top-view of a perfectly ordinary type-II, and thought it was some variant without the pistol grip.

 

[Reanok]

I have a copy of this book . My Grandma gave it too me for a birthday present .I read it a lot over the years. It's one of my favorite trekbooks.

 

[Starfleet Engineer]

I saw this last night available at Half Price Books. As a matter of fact, I see it frequently at different locations of Half Price Books. I bet you can find it at discount bookstores in your area.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

A couple of other more-or-less contemporaneous books that may be of interest: The World of Star Trek, and The Trouble with Tribbles, both by David Gerrold. Probably a good deal harder to find, because I don't think either one of them went through nearly as many reprints.

 

[11Alive]

I remember The World of Star Trek as a title, but I'll be darned if I can remember what was in it. Pretty sure I liked it and read it over and over since there wasn't much Trek literature back then, but haven't seen a copy since the 70s.

I also remember Star Trek Lives! from a few years later, roughly the same time as Star Trek: The New Voyages, a collection of early fanfic. A few of the stories were decent but others forgettable and some were just plain bad. Sort of like any given Trek show, I guess.

 

[Christopher]

I remember The World of Star Trek as a title, but I'll be darned if I can remember what was in it. Pretty sure I liked it and read it over and over since there wasn't much Trek literature back then, but haven't seen a copy since the 70s.

It covered a variety of angles. In the original 1973 edition, Part 1 was a sort of analytical overview of the show and its concepts; Part 2 was more of a behind-the-scenes account of the production, with anecdotes from various actors and other involved parties; Part 3 was a discussion of the fandom phenomenon, the campaign to save the show, the conventions, etc.; and Part 4 was more of a critical analysis of "The Unfulfilled Potential," with Gerrold talking about the ways he felt Trek fell short of its goals and how he thought it could be improved. (Some of his ideas ended up in TNG later on -- for instance, he was a critic of the idea of the captain leading landing parties, and proposed instead having a dedicated "contact team" that would go into danger while the captain stayed behind.) An epilogue also talked briefly about some upcoming Roddenberry productions, including Spectre, Questor, Genesis II, and one that never got produced, The Tribunes -- a cop show involving a police division using updated, cutting-edge technology and methods (a similar premise to FOX's recent midseason replacement series APB).

There's also a 1984 edition that keeps the first four parts largely the same, but with some updating, and replaces the epilogue with a Part 5 that's about "The Return of Star Trek" and covers the first three movies (but, oddly, not TAS).

 

[Therin of Andor]

There's also a 1984 edition that keeps the first four parts largely the same, but with some updating, and replaces the epilogue with a Part 5 that's about "The Return of Star Trek" and covers the first three movies (but, oddly, not TAS).

I had such a scoop on that! I was at Bjo Trimble's house, during my first trip to USA - and David Gerrold arrived unannounced, returning Bjo's massive collection of TOS film-clip slides, which he'd borrowed to select new images to include in the new edition of WoST.