Probably cost over fifty bucks...
USS ENTERPRISE HAYNES OWNERS MANUAL (Part 3)
- Thread starter Starlock
- Start date
With a Paramount license? Don't count on it.
Chris Trevas is one of the top Star Wars reference book artists so contrary to what we got for the Enterprise Manual (which appeared to be tracing in some cases) this is a legit in house Lucas Books artist working on the book which makes me give Haynes a little more credit. I'm wondering why bother with a partnership with Haynes in the first place? They could have just made this another Essential Guide.
^ That Haynes shop manual cover, that's why.
As an aside - I got the Messerschmitt 109 manual, and it's actually very good. It even lives up to the name owner's manual, since much of the book is devoted to Bf-109 restoration projects (such as the famous Black Six), with how-tos and advice, and notes on flying and servicing.
Wow. That is pretty cool. it is too bad they didn't use more creative license in the Enterprise manual like in the old tech manuals to hypothesize how to actually operate a starship.
^ That is what I thought we would get from the Enterprise manual but instead we got "dissertations" on transporter technology and time travel theory instead. Lame.
^^ Agreed. The Haynes manual should have made us think that we'd just purchased all those tech manuals that Scotty (and Khan) kept reading in his free time.
As you have seen with Borders, you almost have to be an established giant to keep up. I think the folks behind Starlog kept wrestling magazines, in the same way that Penthouse profits kept OMNI going for as long as it did.
Haynes wanted to offset publishing paper manuals, and trekkies wanted a cheap publishing house--that was my guess.
Recently I received the new release of a reference book to another television series. It is the Lost In Space: Jupiter 2 Technical Guide.
Although some might scoff at mentioning LIS in comparison to Star Trek here is what I thought of the book:
Having just finished going through the book I quite like it overall.
I'm impressed with the technical background and explanations. Granted you can see some of this has been retconned with a current understanding of sciences over what was known back in the '60s, but it doesn't seem to contradict or invalidate what was shown onscreen. Indeed I quite like this approach of using genuine science and plausible theory to make the show's science and technology more credible. I didn't get much sense of handwavium while reading the text. Overall this is the kind of thinking I'd like to have seen applied to some of the Trek reference guides I've seen and in this respect this LIS book and its companion(s) impress me as better than the Trek related counterparts.
In terms of images I found this book to be a mixed bag. I really liked the schematics although I felt there could have been more. I would like to have seen schematics of the Chariot, the Space Pod and the B9 Robot, but in fairness this is a reference book and not a set of general plans. I liked the use of actual photographs along with plan drawings in conjunction with the technical exposition detailing each aspect of the Jupiter 2. Candidly, though, I did not care for the 3D animation images and for me they looked out of place in an otherwise excellent book.
For the material contained in this book it is very fairly priced and well worth the purchase for anyone interested in science fiction speculative science and technology as well as fans of the Lost In Space television series. I also think it is a far superior work compared to the recent Haynes' Trek reference book.
The quality of this book is a reflection of genuine interest and fan devotion as opposed to just cranking out tie-in merchandise.
If curious then go here:
Jupiter 2 Technical Guide
Lost In Space Design
Although some might scoff at mentioning LIS in comparison to Star Trek here is what I thought of the book:
Having just finished going through the book I quite like it overall.
I'm impressed with the technical background and explanations. Granted you can see some of this has been retconned with a current understanding of sciences over what was known back in the '60s, but it doesn't seem to contradict or invalidate what was shown onscreen. Indeed I quite like this approach of using genuine science and plausible theory to make the show's science and technology more credible. I didn't get much sense of handwavium while reading the text. Overall this is the kind of thinking I'd like to have seen applied to some of the Trek reference guides I've seen and in this respect this LIS book and its companion(s) impress me as better than the Trek related counterparts.
In terms of images I found this book to be a mixed bag. I really liked the schematics although I felt there could have been more. I would like to have seen schematics of the Chariot, the Space Pod and the B9 Robot, but in fairness this is a reference book and not a set of general plans. I liked the use of actual photographs along with plan drawings in conjunction with the technical exposition detailing each aspect of the Jupiter 2. Candidly, though, I did not care for the 3D animation images and for me they looked out of place in an otherwise excellent book.
For the material contained in this book it is very fairly priced and well worth the purchase for anyone interested in science fiction speculative science and technology as well as fans of the Lost In Space television series. I also think it is a far superior work compared to the recent Haynes' Trek reference book.
The quality of this book is a reflection of genuine interest and fan devotion as opposed to just cranking out tie-in merchandise.
If curious then go here:
Jupiter 2 Technical Guide
Lost In Space Design
Well, LIS doesn't have the massive lemming fan base that Star Trek does, so they have to try harder.
^I agree on the CG images in the LiS book. They were downright bad. The Poser people Robinsons were kinda scary looking. I really didn't see the point of having a photograph of the actual set, then right next to it a 3D Scetchup image that was LESS detailed and mostly inaccurate.
Here is the synopsis for the Millennium Falcon guide. The more I read about this book, the more I want it and the more I suspect it will be what we all thought the Enterprise book was going to be.
http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Synopsis_For_Falcon_Owners_Manual_140151.asp
http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Synopsis_For_Falcon_Owners_Manual_140151.asp
I think it's likely it will be more or less how the Enterprise manual turned out.
I wonder if Rick Sternbach had any involvement with the Enterprise manual?
I was wondering about that myself, since "Lost In Space Design: No Place To Hide" uses accurate images of the "Gemini 12" set.
Then it occured to me that this might have been a deliberate choice by the artists and writers due to possible copyright issues with CGI shots of the "Jupiter 2" set.
What do y'all think?
@Captain M as far as anyone knows Okuda "consulted" and wrote the foreward and Sternbach had nothing to do with the book. I now have hope for the Falcon Manual simply because they actually have long time LucasBooks people working on it. Unlike the Enterprise manual which was reduced to allegedly tracing other people's work.
Nope. Not a thing. - Rick