Favourite unlicensed books

[F. King Daniel]

Those rabscallions who tried to profit from Star Trek without paying royalties. Mostly crushed in the mid-to-late ninties. Usually pseudo-reference books of some kind. I'm curious what everyone's favourites were. Here are mine:

I loved Trek: The Printed Adventures by James Van Heise. A fun look at Trek's novels up to the mid-90's, as well as fanzines and fanfiction, as well as interiews with Ann Crispin, Leslie Fish and others.

The Best of Trek collections have given me countless hours of enjoyment. Seeing the differences between the fans and the fandom of 1979 and 1995 was fascinating. I still need #17 to complete my collection.

Let's Trek: The Budget Guide to the Klingons is a fake tourist guide to the Klingon Empire. Info is borrowed from episodes, movies, novels and fanfiction, covering planets, history, foods, social customs and Klingon clans/houses. Lots of pictures of convention-goers in full Klingon dress-up.

Since the Captain's Logs book combine all series (up until publication) into one volume I tend to reach for it instead of the official Star Trek Companion books when I need to find an episode.

 

[Thrawn]

I looooooved the Nitpickers Guides. I'm still pissed off that his publisher made him stop writing those. They were worried about getting sued, even though there wasn't any apparent evidence that was likely.

 

[Kertrats47]

I looooooved the Nitpickers Guides. I'm still pissed off that his publisher made him stop writing those. They were worried about getting sued, even though there wasn't any apparent evidence that was likely.

Agreed x1000. I loved those books so much. I followed his message boards for awhile, where the community posted nits to new productions (even a lot of non-Trek was represented), but eventually stopped visiting there. It really is a shame, the Nitpickers Guides were so much fun!

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

^This is why I love Trek BBS. I learn about tons of books and Trek info I never would find on my own. Thanks guys, these look like very interesting reading. FYI, you can still pick a few of them up on Amazon.com.

 

[Harvey]

I looooooved the Nitpickers Guides. I'm still pissed off that his publisher made him stop writing those. They were worried about getting sued, even though there wasn't any apparent evidence that was likely.

Farrand did resurface in 2010 to post a series of 200 video nits (mostly non-Trek, although a few show up) on his web site.

http://nitcentral.com/nitclips/

 

[JD]

I don't think I ever actually read them myself, but when I was a kid my family had a couple of the Nitpicker's Guides.

 

[Admiral Rex]

I had forgotten about Trek: The Printed Adventures and the Best of Trek collection. I need to pull those out again. It would be fun to read them now after all these years. I bet many of the Best of Trek articles will seem really out-of-date considering how the Trek universe has grown since many of those articles were written.

 

[Brikar99]

I don't think I ever actually read them myself, but when I was a kid my family had a couple of the Nitpicker's Guides.

I never gave them a thorough read, either, but I recall perusing them from time to time when I came across them at a book store or library.

 

[E-DUB]

The thing I liked about those "Best of Trek" books were the ships on the covers that looked like they almost could be Trek ships, but not really.

 

[Timewalker]

Those rabscallions who tried to profit from Star Trek without paying royalties. Mostly crushed in the mid-to-late ninties. Usually pseudo-reference books of some kind. I'm curious what everyone's favourites were. Here are mine:

I loved Trek: The Printed Adventures by James Van Heise. A fun look at Trek's novels up to the mid-90's, as well as fanzines and fanfiction, as well as interiews with Ann Crispin, Leslie Fish and others.

The Best of Trek collections have given me countless hours of enjoyment. Seeing the differences between the fans and the fandom of 1979 and 1995 was fascinating. I still need #17 to complete my collection.

Let's Trek: The Budget Guide to the Klingons is a fake tourist guide to the Klingon Empire. Info is borrowed from episodes, movies, novels and fanfiction, covering planets, history, foods, social customs and Klingon clans/houses. Lots of pictures of convention-goers in full Klingon dress-up.

Since the Captain's Logs book combine all series (up until publication) into one volume I tend to reach for it instead of the official Star Trek Companion books when I need to find an episode.

I absolutely LOVE the "Best of Trek" books. I have the whole series, and I've read some essays a dozen times, easily. Sure, some of them are hopelessly outdated, but there are a few that stand up to scrutiny even now.

My favorite is "The Disappearing Bum" - that seeks to explain a possible reason why, when Kirk & crew appeared in San Francisco in 1986(?), they weren't immediately mobbed by a horde of Star Trek fans. This explanation would work well for Janeway & crew not being mobbed approximately 10 years later when they came to Earth.

There are a couple of ambitious essays by Mark Andrew Golding, that attempt to explain just how many different universes the series episodes take place in (given the inconsistencies). And then there are the attempts to explain warp drive and the inconsistencies of how fast/slow it takes to get to various stars in our galaxy. Trying to follow it too closely will tie your brain up in knots, but it's entertaining.

I've even got some of the original Trek magazines that these essays were taken from. It's a shame this series never continued - think of all the fascinating insights people could have shared!

 

[Therin of Andor]

[It's a shame this series never continued - think of all the fascinating insights people could have shared!

We do it here. Hundreds of ST blogs and wikis.