Great listen for a carload of Trekkies on a trip. Or several in our case. This is a huge Studs Terkel-style oral history of those involved in the making of Star Trek and the Trek phenomenon. What I learned--Hollywood has always been a mess. It is a miracle they accomplish or make anything. They also have a horrible track record of missing what is obvious to fans. Gene Roddenberry was kind of an a**hole and difficult to work with. Sometimes difficult creative people need their ideas taken away and worked on by others. And Star Trek VI is the worst Star Trek movie. I really didn't need that last one confirmed, but nice to know. We will most likely pick up the next volume. But right now--I need a break. ( )

It took me a while to get into the rotational style of the various speakers in this book (I only expected it to be for the first little bit, then the book would settle into a standard narrative, which it did not).

Once I got used to it, it was often interesting to read a view, then an opposing or contradictory view immediately follow it (Roddenberry was a visionary genius/Roddenberry was a hamfisted hack who didn't play well with others).

After getting through the first 25 years, my immediate thought is, how the hell did Star Trek even get made? There's so much infighting, so many egos, so many opposing "let's do it my way" personalities, that it seems rather shocking that anything got past a planning stage without falling apart.

My biggest takeaway from this entire thing was that Roddenberry was extremely good at preaching the Great Bird of the Galaxy (and lord, how I hate that honorific) gospel, but behind the scenes, he was a skirt-chasing, antagonistic asshole that couldn't see that television and movie making is a collaborative effort, nor the wisdom of surrounding himself with people smarter and more talented than himself. And that he was actually willing to undercut and sabotage those he disagreed with--which was everyone--and harm the Star Trek brand rather than seeing something other than his own vision on the screen.

Oh, and that Gene Coon was the guy we can thank for saving Star Trek.

It'll be interesting to read about the next 25 years. ( )

This is the Rashōmon of Star Trek. I found it very enjoyable, many different points of view. ( )