The Star Trek Concordance

[Myko]

I'm wondering if anyone has Additions and Corrections to the Star Trek Concordance and Supplement, published in 1974 by Ruth Berman?

I'd be curious to know what the letter to/from Frank Vinci as mentioned http://fanlore.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Concordance here, says.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Here's what Bjo Trimble has to say about the subject:

I have a copy of Berman's snippy little fanzine, which she published without telling me or showing me a copy before it went out. I had to find out by having another fan send me a copy. But it is a file copy and I am not inclined to share it. Much of the info is erroneous but she had a grudge against me and went out of her way in those days to show me in a bad light. Some fans lapped it up, but fortunately, she never achieved her goal of running me out of fandom and she is now out of my life. -- Bjo

 

[Ward Fowler]

I didn't even know it existed. Sounds like I was better off not knowing.

 

[bbailey861]

^ Me, too.

 

[seigezunt]

ditto. Wow, I thought fans eating each other was a Web phenom.

 

[Captain Robert April]

ditto. Wow, I thought fans eating each other was a Web phenom.

You'd be surprised how much of what we think are recent schisms date back to the early days. Even the Trekkie/Trekker debate dates back to the early 70's.

 

[David A. Sobral]

I had heard about this publication several years back but, as a rule I tend to stay away from "fan publications" when it comes to "Star Trek". Bjo Trimble's original Concordance published, I think by Ballantine (the one with the wheel-of-fortune on the cover) & the subsequent updating (BlueJay Books?) including material from the spin-offs & films is pretty much all you need. There are SO many "authorized" publications out there why anyone would be interested in one of these upstarts is beyond me, unless your extremely curious.

I've been reading the "Best Of the Best Of Trek" (Signet, 1990) which contains the "best" articles from the now-defunct magazine "Trek". At the time "Trek" was being published, all that exsisted were the original 79 episodes, the 22 animated & the first four films. Man! Did these writers put the word "conjecture" into overtime. Talk about over analyzing a TV show! They gave Sulu's first name as "Walter" & Uhura's was some Swahili word for "pearl". These were the MOST impatient fans! They just could not wait for new films or episodes, so they filled in many blanks themselves...& were WAY off base! Most of the articles in this book were written after "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" which, although not what we expected, was successful enough to guarantee a second life for "Star Trek".

They should try being a fan of "Space:1999" like me. In the 34 years since that show premiered, all we've gotten is two "behind the scenes" books, one which won't be published until the Spring. It took nearly 20 years to see a proper soundtrack release, and there have only been five new novels.

And you guys think you had it bad?

 

[Captain Robert April]

The "Walter" bit was derived from a frustrating time on TMP, where Robert Wise kept confusing George Takei's and Walter Koenig's first names, i.e., he kept calling George "Walter" and Walter "George". Sometime during all this, somebody, a reporter or fan writer or some such, asked George what Sulu's first name was, to which a very irritated George Takei responded "Walter."

Ironically, it was around this same time that Sulu's first name was determined to be Hikaru, and was used in Vonda McIntyre's novel "The Entropy Effect".

 

[Timewalker]

It's a sad fact that some fan feuds have gone on for many decades - back to the '30s and '40s, never mind the '70s! I have met Bjo Trimble, and she's a very nice, down-to-Earth lady (no pun intended).

I have also read a lot of the Trek zines, and the Best of Trek (not merely the "best" of the best, but all the paperbacks)... and granted, some of the articles there are quite ridiculous - particularly those trying to pin down why Number One was called Number One, and why she looked so much like Christine Chapel.

But there are some very good articles as well, and I recommend this series of books to anyone who can find them.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I had heard about this publication several years back but, as a rule I tend to stay away from "fan publications" when it comes to "Star Trek". Bjo Trimble's original Concordance published, I think by Ballantine (the one with the wheel-of-fortune on the cover) & the subsequent updating (BlueJay Books?) including material from the spin-offs & films is pretty much all you need. There are SO many "authorized" publications out there why anyone would be interested in one of these upstarts is beyond me, unless your extremely curious.

I've been reading the "Best Of the Best Of Trek" (Signet, 1990) which contains the "best" articles from the now-defunct magazine "Trek". At the time "Trek" was being published, all that exsisted were the original 79 episodes, the 22 animated & the first four films. Man! Did these writers put the word "conjecture" into overtime. Talk about over analyzing a TV show! They gave Sulu's first name as "Walter" & Uhura's was some Swahili word for "pearl". These were the MOST impatient fans! They just could not wait for new films or episodes, so they filled in many blanks themselves...& were WAY off base! Most of the articles in this book were written after "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" which, although not what we expected, was successful enough to guarantee a second life for "Star Trek".

They should try being a fan of "Space:1999" like me. In the 34 years since that show premiered, all we've gotten is two "behind the scenes" books, one which won't be published until the Spring. It took nearly 20 years to see a proper soundtrack release, and there have only been five new novels.

And you guys think you had it bad?

Oh yeah, I remember those old "Best Of Trek" books!

Like you said, the fans would analyze everything right to the bone. I think each "Best Of Trek" book had to have at least one article that was some insanely in-depth analysis of either Vulcan philosophy/society, or Spock.
Usually with cheesy titles like "He Who is Spock"

 

[bbailey861]

I have met Bjo Trimble, and she's a very nice, down-to-Earth lady (no pun intended).

I met her also, it was in '96, at a ST convention held in Winnipeg. She is very down to earth - she sat knitting during her discussion and Q&A. It was great. Roxanne Dawson was the featured guest star back then.

 

[Timewalker]

I have met Bjo Trimble, and she's a very nice, down-to-Earth lady (no pun intended).

I met her also, it was in '96, at a ST convention held in Winnipeg. She is very down to earth - she sat knitting during her discussion and Q&A. It was great. Roxanne Dawson was the featured guest star back then.

It was in Calgary, in the '80s, when I met her. She and Sonni Cooper (Black Fire) were Guests of Honor at Con-Version. On Sunday, they announced that on Monday they intended to go to the Calgary Zoo and anybody who wanted to go along was welcome. So my boyfriend and I, plus several other lucky people (about half a dozen in all), tagged along with them for a relaxing day of wandering through the Zoo and shopping for souvenirs (she did a lot of that! ). We chatted about Star Trek, heard a couple of stories about David Gerrold and what it's like to live so close to where TV shows are made, and generally had a very nice time.

 

[Mysterion]

Like you said, the fans would analyze everything right to the bone. I think each "Best Of Trek" book had to have at least one article that was some insanely in-depth analysis of either Vulcan philosophy/society, or Spock.
Usually with cheesy titles like "He Who is Spock"

Yup. Or there's the letters section where reader write in and tell about how they had a zit and were ready to go on a murder/suicide spree until they watched Star Trek and saw how Spock coped with being different, causing them to go join the Peace Corps or hug a puppy or something.

Also really enjoyed the article about TNG which seemed to be entirely based on a short promo that speculated the Captain Picard must be a deltan since he was bald...

 

[Neutral Zone]

Like others I had not even heard of this Concordance, don't think I will lose sleep over it but would interested in seeing a few pages to wjat it is like

 

[milo bloom]

Not sure if this is the same thing you guys are talking about, but I have this
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Concordance-Z-Television/dp/0806516100

and I've been wondering if there's a newer addition?

My copy goes up to VOY's Flashback, and I'd love a newer version, esp with the new movie material included.

 

[Captain Robert April]

^ There may be some news after the holidays.

Stay tuned.

 

[WendellM]

Like others I had not even heard of this Concordance, don't think I will lose sleep over it but would interested in seeing a few pages to wjat it is like

Here are a few scans from mine (clicking enlarges):



I was so happy to find this used copy in a dealer's room at an early 80s con - one of my first Trek reference books.

 

[Hambone]

Like others I had not even heard of this Concordance, don't think I will lose sleep over it but would interested in seeing a few pages to wjat it is like

Here are a few scans from mine (clicking enlarges):



I was so happy to find this used copy in a dealer's room at an early 80s con - one of my first Trek reference books.

That's the 1976 version. The original was a fan-produced, mimeographed (or offset), three-ring brad-bound book. There were two volumes; Volume 1 was seasons 1-2, Volume 2 was Season 3. These were available directly from Bjo Trimble, and other various fan sources. All of the artwork was fan drawings; a few of the better drawings made it into the published concordance. The original book was kind of the "Holy Grail" of fan publications, back in the day.

 

[mb22]

Here is the cover of the 1995 edition (with the original cast movies and other data) from Citadel Books (not Bluejay):

And here is another 1995 cover from Titan Books:

Back in 1976, the Concordance was a great buy -- and it's still fun to read today.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek_Concordance

 

[Captain Robert April]

The Titan version is, as far as I can tell, a British publication of the Citidel version (which, btw, was a big disappointment to those of us who were involved, from Bjo on down).