Now that this is in stock, I'll most likely be getting this next week some time.
Star Trek: The Complete Unofficial History Update
- Thread starter Bob Greenberger
- Start date
I received my first email accolade today, from someone who saw my Arex custom figure in the book and went Googling for my details!
For those playing at home, the five featured photos from my own collection are: Arex & M'Ress Filmation TAS customized action figures (page 58), Therin of Andor as Maltz the Klingon introducing Bjo Trimble at Eccentricon in Australia (page 135), Star Trek Potato Heads (page 135), New Zealand fan Lana Pennington-Brown's artwork of Data & Tasha on a one-off Mike McGann printed sweater (page 145) and my "United Federation of Paramount" t-shirt from Lincoln Enterprises (page 146).
I love the way the designer was able to trim and enlarge Arex and M'Ress out of this bigger pic:
Star Trek customized action figures by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Tuvix, Dr Selar, Arex, M'Ress and Trader Worf with tribbles.
For those playing at home, the five featured photos from my own collection are: Arex & M'Ress Filmation TAS customized action figures (page 58), Therin of Andor as Maltz the Klingon introducing Bjo Trimble at Eccentricon in Australia (page 135), Star Trek Potato Heads (page 135), New Zealand fan Lana Pennington-Brown's artwork of Data & Tasha on a one-off Mike McGann printed sweater (page 145) and my "United Federation of Paramount" t-shirt from Lincoln Enterprises (page 146).
I love the way the designer was able to trim and enlarge Arex and M'Ress out of this bigger pic:
Star Trek customized action figures by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Tuvix, Dr Selar, Arex, M'Ress and Trader Worf with tribbles.
Most excellent squire...
I'm quite impressed with the book. The text is quite good and the plethora of full colour images makes this much more visually appealing than the other unauthorized Trek nonfiction books published this year. And I'd say that if Robert Greenberger hadn't been kind enough to invite me to contribute one of the sidebars. If you buy only one unauthorized history of Star Trek book this year, go for this one.
My copy arrived today. Obviously I've only had time to flick through, but WOW! This is a beautiful, exhaustive book. Kudos to everyone involved -- author(s), editor, and designer.
I may have to dig out my bins of Playmates action figures and put some of them on display...
I may have to dig out my bins of Playmates action figures and put some of them on display...
Thanks, Daddy! It was a labor of love among the writers, editor, and visual contributors. I look forward to comments from the rest of the board.
Trek Ewok by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
The Trek's not over till the last Ewok's dying breath. "Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History". Now available at Galaxy Bookshop, Sydney.
Trek books at Galaxy by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Okay, all those collectors who always say, "How come Pocket Books doesn't do chunky ST fact books very often anymore?", this one's from Voyageur Press. It's a massive 256-page, oversized, full-colour hardcover. I'm still cherrypicking/browsing at random intervals, as one does with great coffee table books. Loving the fresh approach to the known and unknown history of Star Trek.
Who's throwing their $$$ support behind it? (I have a second one in transit, for gift-giving at Christmas.)
I thought we'd have some more extensive reviews by now.
Who's throwing their $$$ support behind it? (I have a second one in transit, for gift-giving at Christmas.)
I thought we'd have some more extensive reviews by now.
I've got it and read it, and while it's an interesting read, I honestly found it a little disappointing. (just a little though)
For example, I thought that some parts of it were not properly made clear. For example, when it describes the way Sternbach got involved, on page 153, it says he "heard the news of TNG on the radio, found the first payphone, and called Sacket..." If I didn't know the whole story, I'd probably imagine him jumping up from the breakfast table and running down the street, forgetting about his home phone. There's also a few mistakes, such as where it mentions Famke Jannsen played a Trill on TNG. While her spots were used on DS9 as the make up for the Trill, Famke's role was a different species.
I also thought some parts were quite thin. While the section on Classic Trek is quite detailed, this level of detail seems to fade. For Classic Trek, we get four full chapters (one for the pilots and a full chapter for each season), not included the extra chapters for Roddenberry's Dream and the animated series. With the chapters for the movies added on, there's a full ten chapters on the Original series.
However, by the time we get to Next Gen, there's only three, one for the development of the series, one for the show itself and one for the movies. DS9, Voyager and Enterprise each only get a lone chapter each. So the incredible amount of detailed description that we start out with fades and by the time we get to the most recent series, it feels like we're just getting a general overview. This is, for me, the biggest let down. There's a wealth of material out there regarding the modern series, and its exclusion hurt the book.
But there are some strong plus sides too. The book is beautifully presented, there's a ton of photos (I never would have recognized John de Lancie on page 166!). The book also delves into the impact Star Trek has had on popular culture very well. While other sources have done this, they are quite out of date now, and this book brings the area up to speed.
So I'd rate it as good, but not great. I think the format of the book, with glossy pages and lots of photos limited the word count. A hard cover book with only photo inserts perhaps would have worked better, allowing a higher word count and greater detail.
For example, I thought that some parts of it were not properly made clear. For example, when it describes the way Sternbach got involved, on page 153, it says he "heard the news of TNG on the radio, found the first payphone, and called Sacket..." If I didn't know the whole story, I'd probably imagine him jumping up from the breakfast table and running down the street, forgetting about his home phone. There's also a few mistakes, such as where it mentions Famke Jannsen played a Trill on TNG. While her spots were used on DS9 as the make up for the Trill, Famke's role was a different species.
I also thought some parts were quite thin. While the section on Classic Trek is quite detailed, this level of detail seems to fade. For Classic Trek, we get four full chapters (one for the pilots and a full chapter for each season), not included the extra chapters for Roddenberry's Dream and the animated series. With the chapters for the movies added on, there's a full ten chapters on the Original series.
However, by the time we get to Next Gen, there's only three, one for the development of the series, one for the show itself and one for the movies. DS9, Voyager and Enterprise each only get a lone chapter each. So the incredible amount of detailed description that we start out with fades and by the time we get to the most recent series, it feels like we're just getting a general overview. This is, for me, the biggest let down. There's a wealth of material out there regarding the modern series, and its exclusion hurt the book.
But there are some strong plus sides too. The book is beautifully presented, there's a ton of photos (I never would have recognized John de Lancie on page 166!). The book also delves into the impact Star Trek has had on popular culture very well. While other sources have done this, they are quite out of date now, and this book brings the area up to speed.
So I'd rate it as good, but not great. I think the format of the book, with glossy pages and lots of photos limited the word count. A hard cover book with only photo inserts perhaps would have worked better, allowing a higher word count and greater detail.
Gotta leave room for a follow-up book.
To include even more info would require leaving out something, or making the book unwieldy and too expensive to produce. Most current fans have lived through the more recent ST series, so spending time on Star Trek's roots, through fresh eyes, was important. Not to mention that Paula Block and Terry Erdmann's "TNG 365" came out just a month before this one.
Aw, c'mon! People pick up coffee table books because of the pictures! You can bet that if this book came out mostly words and a few photo inserts, the complaints about not enough pictures would be thick and fast. No shop would want to carry a hardcover book of this size that was mostly words and only a few colour plates.
I think they got the balance just right. I sent in over 70 never-before-seen pics and five made it. Makes me wonder how many hundreds of fan pics sent in by others almost made it, too. This book was always going to have trouble satisfying everyone, and there was always going to be more material than could be made fit.
Some honest assessments here, and all appreciated. To be honest, TOS remains the engine that has driven the franchise for all these years and deserves the most pages. I will admit I had far more written about the other franchises but had to trim for space reasons.
I have been asked NOT to buy this book - so I expect I should be seeing it sometime in December. This happens every year around this time - something for which I am truly grateful.
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