TNG 365
- Thread starter Teppo
- Start date
Thanks--I hadn't seen that. Hope they post the cover soon.
Cover is coming soon!
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The cover is now up at Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation/dp/141970429X/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation/dp/141970429X/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1
These aren't available on the Nook or any other ereader that I know of. ST: 365 & ST: TNG 365 are large, hardcover, definitive guides to the shows.
- Byron
"definitive"? Hardly! But they do have some and sometimes rarely seen pictures in the collections.
Kevin
I didn't find the TOS 365 book to have anything new or interesting beyond what has already been published on TOS. I can't imagine TNG 365 contributing anything new or interesting beyond what was published in Trek reference works from 10-15 years ago.
I've found recent Trek reference works to be severely lacking compared to the ones from the 90s such as "The Art of Star Trek", "the Continuing Mission, the technical manuals, etc. The recent works such as the Haynes Guide to the Enterprise and "Star trek Vault" lack the thoroughness, research, and creativity of the older ones; if I could have viewed them before buying, i wouldn't have bought them.
I've found recent Trek reference works to be severely lacking compared to the ones from the 90s such as "The Art of Star Trek", "the Continuing Mission, the technical manuals, etc. The recent works such as the Haynes Guide to the Enterprise and "Star trek Vault" lack the thoroughness, research, and creativity of the older ones; if I could have viewed them before buying, i wouldn't have bought them.
I really enjoyed the first book, and am looking forward to this one, as I'm a heretic that prefers TNG to the original. TOS 365 was far from comprehensive, sure, but it was a fun read, which made it worth the money in my eyes.
I have those earlier books too, and they were sensational. The Reeves-Stevens in particular are incredibly dilligent about detail. But they had the virtue of doing those books while the show was happening, which gave them access to everyone they needed to talk to (some of whom are now unavailable or dead or whose memories have faded) and visuals that have long since been auctioned off. But what I liked about TOS 365 was the effort to find some fresh nuggets of info, or tales told from a slightly different perspective, or the authors obvious sheer love for the show. I'm hoping to find the same thing in TNG 365. There's no way the authors can avoid repeating some stories but I'm betting they'll have a few real gems in there, and that it will be a fun read with some nice eye candy.
With seven seasons to cover versus the original's three (in the same number of pages, 744, according to Amazon) I can't imagine this being very detailed. Still, the first one was fun, if only for the photos.
Somebody needs to write a proper making-of book about TNG, though. The original has Inside Star Trek: The Real Story; DS9 has the excellent companion (and a well-written making-of book from early on). TNG has nothing so comprehensive.
Somebody needs to write a proper making-of book about TNG, though. The original has Inside Star Trek: The Real Story; DS9 has the excellent companion (and a well-written making-of book from early on). TNG has nothing so comprehensive.
Don't forget The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, the original making-of book (and not just where ST is concerned -- as I understand it, it pioneered or at least popularized the entire genre). Like the DS9 Companion, it was written during the production of the series and the author had direct behind-the-scenes access, so it's an invaluable resource. David Gerrold's The Trouble With Tribbles, his nonfiction book about the creative process behind that episode, also provides some great firsthand insight. I'd say those three are the most essential "making-of" books for TOS.
There's also A Vision of the Future: Star Trek: Voyager by Stephen Edward Poe (Whitfield's real name), a good detailed look at the production process in the early days of VGR. And there are making-of books for several of the movies, with The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Susan Sackett and Roddenberry probably being the best.
TNG had an excellent book titled "The Continuing Mission" that told a lot of "making-of" stories and had several production photos.
I have mixed feelings about The Making of Star Trek. It has a lot of terrific information in it, but it also presents a lot of things that are skewed in Roddenberry's favor, as well as a few that are plainly false. Inside Star Trek: The Real Story covers much of the same ground, but with a more even hand (although it's not a book without its flaws, and, of course, it was written long after the fact).
I bought Gerrold's book a few months ago, but haven't had the chance to read it yet.
Still, the fact that you're pointing out TOS-related nonfiction that I've missed underlines the point: TNG doesn't have a comprehensive making-of book available. There are a few books out there, but none that impress me. I wish TNG 365 had a chance to change that, but with such a limited page count, I doubt it. Hopefully the pictures will be nice, though.
I expect it will fit the "365" format of every other Abrams Publishing's "365" series: 365 pages of factoids plus 365 photos, many rarely or never published before. So how is that a "chance to change that"? Abrams wanted a book with their predictable, marketable, proven format.
365 pages is quite generous. Small page size, sure, but some of those 365 factoids will be new to you. Or at least us.
TNG also had, at the time of production, the excellent "Starlog" magazine series (four issues per season): lots of behind the scenes articles in there, not to mention the regular "Starlog", and "Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine"/"The Communicator", which started out as a mere pamphlet around the time of ST II and grew to an extensive monthly magazine. "Cinefantastique" did a good retrospective of episodes for all seven years of TNG; its episode reviews were collected in a trade paperback.
"Skewed in Roddenberry's favor?" This isn't a trial. And what's so horrible about Roddenberry? Sure, he had his faults, but he had his positive side too, and that's as worth acknowledging as the rest. TMoST has his name on it as a co-author, so of course it reflects his point of view, just as other books like IST represent alternative points of view. Every source is going to have its own bias, and that's why it's valuable to get your information from multiple sources instead of just one. One shouldn't read TMoST without also reading IST as a counterpoint, but the reverse is equally true.
And Roddenberry aside, TMoST was, as I said, a seminal book in the entire genre of "making-of" literature. For decades, it was highly popular not just with Trek fans, but with people who were interested in TV production in general, because it was such a detailed and insightful examination of the process of creating a television series. There is so very much more to the story than just what one thinks of Gene Roddenberry, and TMoST is essential reading for those elements.
It's also valuable to read TMoST because it's the original source for a lot of things that the fans have assumed for decades, like Kirk being the youngest captain ever, or things that weren't canonized until decades later, like the forward dish being a navigational deflector. I've seen a lot of Trek BBS posts over the years from people who didn't know that certain bits of long-established fan lore had their origins in TMoST, or that longstanding questions they had were answered there. The book plays a foundational role in the "belief system" of Trek fandom, and so it's invaluable as a historical source. You don't have to believe everything in it, but the same goes for every historical source. It's still worth studying.
And what are these "plainly false" things you're referring to, anyway?
Have you visited Doug Drexler's blog? It contains a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes insights into the production process on all the modern Trek shows. I think sites like that are increasingly taking the place of nonfiction books and magazines.
Well, 365 full-page, usually color photos, plus assorted other photos on many of the facing pages. Paula Block posted a shot of a catalog page for it on Facebook, and it says there are 500 illustrations.
Oh yes, I still have a lot of those. There were some excellent behind-the-scenes articles there; for instance, issue 2 of the TNG magazine had a detailed analysis of the construction of the Enterprise miniature and the other FX work ILM did for "Encounter at Farpoint."
