Good Behind the Scenes Books

[Ceridwen]

A friend and I are putting together a project for Star Trek's sixtieth anniversary this year. He's watching the original series for the first time (until now he's only seen the Bad Robot movies), and we're getting his reactions as we go. He's very curious about the making of the show and the thought that went into each episode, and I want to make sure I'm not just repeating a bunch of fandom myths.

I have The Fifty Year Mission, though this book is a bit more broad strokes about the show's history so far, without going episode by episode specifically. When I was a teenager I had Captains Logs from the same writers; would it be worth seeking out another copy of it? I've read the original The Making of Star Trek from the library years ago and want to find a copy of this too.

I was thinking of picking up These Are the Voyages since it's cited on Memory Alpha a lot, but I see it's not exactly recommended around these parts, so I feel hesitant to invest in it.

What am I missing? What are the best "making of" books for the original series?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Star Trek: Lost Scenes

Star Trek: Lost Scenes is an officially licensed reference book written by David Tilotta and Curt McAloney, operators of the StarTrekHistory.com (restoration) website. The book is in part based on the same source collection of cut footage, retained by Gene Roddenberry, which generated the...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[Ceridwen]

Star Trek: Lost Scenes

Star Trek: Lost Scenes is an officially licensed reference book written by David Tilotta and Curt McAloney, operators of the StarTrekHistory.com (restoration) website. The book is in part based on the same source collection of cut footage, retained by Gene Roddenberry, which generated the...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

Ooh, interesting. Thank you.

 

[Some Sort of Lemur]

Funnily I just saw this: One fan’s reading list for Star Trek’s 60th Anniversary. It’s very extensive.

The only ones I’ve read are The Making of Star Trek and I Am Spock. I’m very interested in looking into Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier, though, if it puts Jeffries’s work in the context of broader trends in mid-twentieth-century design (because imo his work really does hold up on a design standpoint and I’d love to have seen it “come to life” with a higher budget, as opposed to assuming that the design is what makes it “dated”).

 

[mb22]

IMO the site you link to should include The Art of Star Trek (1995) even if most of it isn't TOS. And since he is including Roddenberry material, the authorized (Alexander) and unauthorized (Engel) bios should be there as well.

 

[Ceridwen]

Funnily I just saw this: One fan’s reading list for Star Trek’s 60th Anniversary. It’s very extensive.

The only ones I’ve read are The Making of Star Trek and I Am Spock. I’m very interested in looking into Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier, though, if it puts Jeffries’s work in the context of broader trends in mid-twentieth-century design (because imo his work really does hold up on a design standpoint and I’d love to have seen it “come to life” with a higher budget, as opposed to assuming that the design is what makes it “dated”).

This is a fantastic resource, thank you.

 

[Michael]

I think the best book about how the original Star Trek was made is “Inside Star Trek: The Real Story” by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. Very good read and incredible photos and reproductions.

Great books about the design and art direction of the show are of course the aforementioned “The Art of Star Trek” by the Reeves-Stevens. But I can also recommend the follow-up (?) “Star Trek Sketchbook”. Tons of sketches and concept drawings. A really good (and recent) book about the design is “Designing the Final Frontier” by Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire. Lots of gorgeous photos of sets and props.

The episodic companion book that I read in my childhood was “Captains' Logs” by Edward Gross and Mark Altman. It‘s an unauthorized book that mostly compiles bits and pieces from Starlog articles. I‘m not sure how good or accurate it is in this day and age, but I loved it as a kid.

 

[Ceridwen]

The episodic companion book that I read in my childhood was “Captains' Logs” by Edward Gross and Mark Altman. It‘s an unauthorized book that mostly compiles bits and pieces from Starlog articles. I‘m not sure how good or accurate it is in this day and age, but I loved it as a kid.

Yeah, I had that one too when I was a neophyte to the series (mentioned in my original post). I'm thinking about seeking out a new copy of it, if only for personal history's sake.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

If you want to get in depth about how an episode was conceived and filmed, David Gerrold's book on The Trouble With Tribbles is a must.

 

[NCC-73515]

Where no one has gone before is also nice

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I always liked Gerrold's take on the TOS tendency for fake deaths during the series, from WORLD OF STAR TREK.

 

[CoveTom]

I am a big fan of William Shatner's two Trek memoirs, Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories. Now, in candor, I take Shatner's comments in the books with a heavy grain of salt. Much of what he says is obviously exaggerated or incorrect. However, the thing I like about them is that he interviewed so many people directly involved in the making of the show and the films, and many of their comments, stories, etc. are transcribed verbatim throughout the two books. Through that, they provide a great deal of insight.

I also like Nicholas Meyer's memoir, The View from the Bridge. Although it is not entirely Trek focused, and covers the rest of his career as well, there are long sections devoted to the Trek films in which he was involved. It provides a great deal of good background into his thinking behind those three films.

 

[Maurice]

Star Trek Lost Scenes is great.

The Making of Star Trek is good, even if it's a tad biased.

Inside Star Trek by Solow & Justman is good, but suffers from some historic inaccuracies and Solow really has it in for Roddenberry, and it shows.

As a reality check on some of the other works recommended here:

Star Trek Fact Check blog, recommended by Mental Floss, Neatorama, Den of Geek, and the American Press Institute (twice!) by Michael Kmet.

Which then led to him and I to create our Fact Trek project. One of the articles there (The Off-Center Seat: 55 Years of Myth Making) is a takedown of a lot of popular but inaccurate Star Trek myths.

Both of those are exhaustively researched. The former contains the most serious teardown on WTF happened to "The Alternative Factor" that I've ever seen.

 

[Ceridwen]

Which then led to him and I creating our Fact Trek project. One of the articles there (The Off-Center Seat: 55 Years of Myth Making) is a takedown of a lot of popular but inaccurate Star Trek myths.

Oh jeez, I just finished watching this series too. Thank you.

 

[Maurice]

Oh jeez, I just finished watching this series too. Thank you.

My pleasure. Our mission statement is "to baldly show what no fan has known before," which often involves tipping some sacred cows.

One thing I'm most proud of is that our research helped us fairly conclusively answer why Star Trek ended up in the "Friday Night Death Slot" (article) after 50+ years of speculation, though that story's not quite complete because we're still researching into what impact cigarette advertising might have contributed to NBC's ultimate decision.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Another good "Behind the Scenes" book, if you can get your hands on it, is 'The Lost Years' by Edwards Gross.
It's an unauhorized look at the making of 'Phase II' and the subsequent transformation into 'The Motion Picture'.
It came out before the similar book by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and covers a lot of the same ground, but, IMO, since it was unauthorized, the people interviewed for the book are lot more candid about their frustrations in dealing with Gene Roddenberry and his constant interference when it came to writing 'In Thy Image'/'The God Thing' and trying to launch 'Phase II'.​

 

[BillJ]

I would steer clear of These are the Voyages.

 

[Ceridwen]

I would steer clear of These are the Voyages.

That bad?

 

[Ceridwen]

Another good "Behind the Scenes" book, if you can get your hands on it, is 'The Lost Years' by Edwards Gross.
It's an unauhorized look at the making of 'Phase II' and the subsequent transformation into 'The Motion Picture'.
It came out before the similar book by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and covers a lot of the same ground, but, IMO, since it was unauthorized, the people interviewed for the book are lot more candid about their frustrations in dealing with Gene Roddenberry and his constant interference when it came to writing 'In Thy Image'/'The God Thing' and trying to launch 'Phase II'.​

I have the Reeves-Stevens' book already, so I'll keep an eye out for this one.

 

[BillJ]

That bad?

If they’re the books by Marc Cashman, they contain a lot of inaccuracies.