sadly, this is a treasure trove marred by sloppy editing and poor photo enlarging. i own all the coffee table "making of" star trek film volumes, from TMP to II, III, first contact, and now the voyage home. this book, like those prior, is a treasure trove of rare, never-before-seen images, anecdotes, and trivia. like, by all means, if you're a trekker, especially of the movie era, pick it up for sure!
but man, SO disappointing. like the search for spock tome, there are some nasty image enlargements throughout. photos which have way too much grain (which appears to be AI generated). if you've got 4K scans of the original film, as well as slides or prints of production photos, this should not be a problem at all. anyone even moderately skilled with adobe photoshop can handle it. but someone (an intern? ouch) appears to have simply hit "generative upscale" without considering the results.
what's really sad, however, is the sloppy editing. i write and edit for a living, and i'm aghast. just a sample of what i've found so far in my first evening of reading...perhaps they can be corrected in a second printing?
page 6: "i resonated so closely to the character of spock." should be "i resonated so closely with the character of spock."
page 7, caption: "on wednesday march 26, 1931, leonard nimoy celebrated his 55th birthday..." 1931 was the year he was BORN. his 55th birthday was in 1986 (as the picture shows).
page 39: "according to star trek chronology, the first president of the united federation of presidents was jonathan archer..." should be "the united federation of planets."
page 62: "it negated the later joke about how people use color metaphors more in the past." as the quote from the film (and the title on page 19) indicates, should be "colorful metaphors."
page 66: "as to why starfleet starship had round screens..." should be "a starfleet starship had" or "starfleet starships had."
page 73: "worries began to fester that perhaps bennett's early reticence about humpback whales as the time-travel story device were warranted." should be "early reticence...was warranted" (singular).
page 78: should be "diatomaceous Earth" (earth capitalized) as it is on page 82, or decap them both (as with "Fuller's earth"). if the usage on page 82 is from a published quote, suggest amend to [earth].
page 96: "while paling in comparison to the loss of life and property caused by the storms, the star trek VI production team did have to make a pivot..." misplaced modifier. "paling in comparison to" does not modify "production team." it should modify the disruption the team experienced. "while paling in comparison to the loss of life and property caused by the storms, this disruption to the star trek VI production team's plans meant..."
page 99: (interview quote) "it was kind of funny because i am also the paging voice on general hospital. "i had mentioned to leonard..." the quotation mark before "i had" is extraneous, as the quoted speaker is still speaking, uninterrupted (typo).
page 108 and 109: inconsistent number use for measurements. caption on p108 has "six-foot high" (spelled out, hyphenated at foot but not high) then also "20 foot wide" and "40 foot long" (no hyphens) along with "6-foot-deep" (not spelled out, hyphenated at both foot and deep). p109 has "four feet deep" (spelled out, no hyphens).
page 128: "can have more than 7000 guests in a single day." earlier instances of large numerals employ commas.
page 140: "all the resolution you'd want to have a faced scanned out at" should be "a face scanned..." if the typo is in the original published source, should amend to [face].
page 166, caption: "the bank of american tower" should be "the bank of america tower."
page 180: "would be more appropriate consider san francisco's contributions" should be "more appropriate considering..."
pick it up if you are a trek movie fan. but buyer beware. the state of mass market editing these days is abysmal.
but man, SO disappointing. like the search for spock tome, there are some nasty image enlargements throughout. photos which have way too much grain (which appears to be AI generated). if you've got 4K scans of the original film, as well as slides or prints of production photos, this should not be a problem at all. anyone even moderately skilled with adobe photoshop can handle it. but someone (an intern? ouch) appears to have simply hit "generative upscale" without considering the results.
what's really sad, however, is the sloppy editing. i write and edit for a living, and i'm aghast. just a sample of what i've found so far in my first evening of reading...perhaps they can be corrected in a second printing?
page 6: "i resonated so closely to the character of spock." should be "i resonated so closely with the character of spock."
page 7, caption: "on wednesday march 26, 1931, leonard nimoy celebrated his 55th birthday..." 1931 was the year he was BORN. his 55th birthday was in 1986 (as the picture shows).
page 39: "according to star trek chronology, the first president of the united federation of presidents was jonathan archer..." should be "the united federation of planets."
page 62: "it negated the later joke about how people use color metaphors more in the past." as the quote from the film (and the title on page 19) indicates, should be "colorful metaphors."
page 66: "as to why starfleet starship had round screens..." should be "a starfleet starship had" or "starfleet starships had."
page 73: "worries began to fester that perhaps bennett's early reticence about humpback whales as the time-travel story device were warranted." should be "early reticence...was warranted" (singular).
page 78: should be "diatomaceous Earth" (earth capitalized) as it is on page 82, or decap them both (as with "Fuller's earth"). if the usage on page 82 is from a published quote, suggest amend to [earth].
page 96: "while paling in comparison to the loss of life and property caused by the storms, the star trek VI production team did have to make a pivot..." misplaced modifier. "paling in comparison to" does not modify "production team." it should modify the disruption the team experienced. "while paling in comparison to the loss of life and property caused by the storms, this disruption to the star trek VI production team's plans meant..."
page 99: (interview quote) "it was kind of funny because i am also the paging voice on general hospital. "i had mentioned to leonard..." the quotation mark before "i had" is extraneous, as the quoted speaker is still speaking, uninterrupted (typo).
page 108 and 109: inconsistent number use for measurements. caption on p108 has "six-foot high" (spelled out, hyphenated at foot but not high) then also "20 foot wide" and "40 foot long" (no hyphens) along with "6-foot-deep" (not spelled out, hyphenated at both foot and deep). p109 has "four feet deep" (spelled out, no hyphens).
page 128: "can have more than 7000 guests in a single day." earlier instances of large numerals employ commas.
page 140: "all the resolution you'd want to have a faced scanned out at" should be "a face scanned..." if the typo is in the original published source, should amend to [face].
page 166, caption: "the bank of american tower" should be "the bank of america tower."
page 180: "would be more appropriate consider san francisco's contributions" should be "more appropriate considering..."
pick it up if you are a trek movie fan. but buyer beware. the state of mass market editing these days is abysmal.
