For that price, Jeri Ryan should come to my house to read it to me.
The Star Trek Encyclopedia
- Thread starter Toby Meyer
- Start date
IMO, the 4th Volume failed by refusing to acknowledge The Animated Series and by holding onto some Okuda-based assumptions from the first three volumes that have been disproven or debunked.
Financially, the high cost is a combination of it being the Christmas season, and the book certainly having a low print run.
They should have aimed for a September release, peppered in more TAS references, and worked with producers to include Beyond info (even if only spoiler-free, barebones stuff, like ships and people from the 22nd century).
A potential fifth edition needs to be less of a resource tool (as MA, MB, and even Wikipedia will always exceed it) and look at other sources such as the Starfleet Survival Guide or the travel guides for inspiration. It should be built from the ground up with a streamlined focus less on completeness and more for entertainment value.
My pitch would be to remove the "Star Trek" label and make it instead a "Starfleet Encyclopedia", with a focus on Starfleet events, characters, ships, and the like. Still have article-like entries, but not having to cite everything (or anything, really, we can all figure where the info comes from now) and potentially having other Encyclopedias (Klingon, Romulan, Vulcan, Mirror?) for other cultures or concepts.
Inject a fair bit of humor, don't be afraid to include non-canon or invented info, since it's all fake and not counted anyway. They included plenty of made-up registry numbers in the past, might as well keep that tradition, and expand it to include birthdates, serial numbers, stardates, parent's names, and what-have-you.
Illustrations would be nice. Preferable, perhaps, than glossy photos from the episodes. To keep it "in-universe" we can imagine it as some kind of physical primer for children or others interested in Starfleet history and personnel.
Working with producers is vital, especially in an age with apparently six series and two distinct movies being produced. My streamlined model would lend itself to having as little information as possible from the newer series, and I like the third volume's idea of perhaps releasing addendums (or maybe an online, updated volume for an app), every once in a while.
Now, how to keep the price point low? Produce in high quantities, advertise it, make it small enough to be accessible, yet large enough to pore over.
Financially, the high cost is a combination of it being the Christmas season, and the book certainly having a low print run.
They should have aimed for a September release, peppered in more TAS references, and worked with producers to include Beyond info (even if only spoiler-free, barebones stuff, like ships and people from the 22nd century).
A potential fifth edition needs to be less of a resource tool (as MA, MB, and even Wikipedia will always exceed it) and look at other sources such as the Starfleet Survival Guide or the travel guides for inspiration. It should be built from the ground up with a streamlined focus less on completeness and more for entertainment value.
My pitch would be to remove the "Star Trek" label and make it instead a "Starfleet Encyclopedia", with a focus on Starfleet events, characters, ships, and the like. Still have article-like entries, but not having to cite everything (or anything, really, we can all figure where the info comes from now) and potentially having other Encyclopedias (Klingon, Romulan, Vulcan, Mirror?) for other cultures or concepts.
Inject a fair bit of humor, don't be afraid to include non-canon or invented info, since it's all fake and not counted anyway. They included plenty of made-up registry numbers in the past, might as well keep that tradition, and expand it to include birthdates, serial numbers, stardates, parent's names, and what-have-you.
Illustrations would be nice. Preferable, perhaps, than glossy photos from the episodes. To keep it "in-universe" we can imagine it as some kind of physical primer for children or others interested in Starfleet history and personnel.
Working with producers is vital, especially in an age with apparently six series and two distinct movies being produced. My streamlined model would lend itself to having as little information as possible from the newer series, and I like the third volume's idea of perhaps releasing addendums (or maybe an online, updated volume for an app), every once in a while.
Now, how to keep the price point low? Produce in high quantities, advertise it, make it small enough to be accessible, yet large enough to pore over.
Perhaps, but MA is being hosted by Wiki and my computer loves to block it due to the number of adware and the occasional malware that will creep into the site. I put off getting it because it didn't look like it added to much stuff to the universe like the first two encyclopedias did especially in the Starfleet ship area
The important question is what would she be wearing?
I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!!! <Opens up the "Outfits I Would Like To See Jeri Ryan Dressed In" folder on his hard drive...>
Didn't you run for Senate 14 years ago?
Such as?
The Motion Picture is still 2271, even when Voyager's "Q2" shifts it to 2273.
Khan-related dates, the five-year mission being offset now by a year or two. Starfleet's founding. Nothing major, but there's been alot of minor assumptions that don't always align. I don't mind them, and grew up with them, but feel that a fresh set of eyes, looking at canon and extrapolating as necessary from there, would do better than continuing or exacerbating the same "mistakes".
Holy crap. Until today I had no idea how much that book was worth. I think I paid $60 for it new. My copy is sitting next to my computer. Perhaps I should put it in the safe 
But seriously, I doubt they’ll make another one. From what I understand, Pocket Books doesn’t like large reference books, and the new one was twice the size of the old ones. Add to that the fact that it was a poor seller, had outdated and incorrect information, and was sold with a completely unnecessary hardcover and slipcase, I believe that if we get any future reference books, they will be magazine-size, like the old ST: The Magazine.
But seriously, I doubt they’ll make another one. From what I understand, Pocket Books doesn’t like large reference books, and the new one was twice the size of the old ones. Add to that the fact that it was a poor seller, had outdated and incorrect information, and was sold with a completely unnecessary hardcover and slipcase, I believe that if we get any future reference books, they will be magazine-size, like the old ST: The Magazine.
If you want to make some money, here's what to do. Cut the books along the spine, scan all the pages and make a DVD version of the encyclopedias. Put a picture of Harry Anderson on the disc and it will be a sure-fire hit!
There's a company called VDM Publishing that does stuff like that. They openly sell books on Amazon that are literally just copies of Wikipedia articles (and even say so on the covers)! How exactly the hell they get away with this, is beyond me. As is, what kind of dumbass would buy books like that.
At least the ST Encyclopedia is, somewhat, new content. It's not just copies of Memory Alpha articles.
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Was it? It sold out pretty quickly, and although it won't have had a huge print run, that doesn't make it a poor seller. It seemed to meet expectations.
Yeah, the high price is probably because they sold out *and* it remains in demand. They really underestimated the demand for a new Encyclopedia, and really ought to do another printing.
But they won't, because the information is outdated (thanks alot, Discovery!), there continues to be copyright snafus between Paramount and CBS (too many heads in charge of Star Trek), and it was really only approved for the anniversary, because they had to do something cheap yet meaningful.
Maybe in 2026.
Oops, yeah, I didn't mean poor sales, I meant poor distribution.
Ah, so that’s why they’re not publishing them any more. The 2016 edition of the Encyclopedia was published by Harper.
Aren't the two linked?
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