Terry J. ErdmannRezensionen

This is a very interesting work, commissioned and researched over the series' entire 7-year-period. 'Deep Space Nine' is a probing work of television that deserves a good guide. This is far from perfect - some entries lack the depth or critical analysis that one would like - but it also offers a great deal. Overall, Erdmann covers every aspect of production from casting and writing to props and costume creation. On top of this, the show's writers are somewhat critical of their own work when need be. One for any collector.

I wasn't certain about this (never being overfond of Quark) but I was pleasantly surprised and amused. Worth picking up if you like DS9.

This book finally brings an end to a depressing five-year gap without a Deep Space Nine book. Sure, we've had Deep Space 9 books, but not Deep Space Nine books, if you see what I mean. The last one was a moving epic about one young man with a backdrop of an entire civilization's rise and fall, so what's this one about?

Well, it's about Quark trying to find some good porn.

Uh, okay.

Look, I know these novellas are trying to emulate a tv episode more than your average prose release from Simon & Schuster, and there are several Quark episodes this is clearly intended to remind you of, like "Who Mourns for Morn?" or "Rules of Acquisition." But the best Quark episodes were 1) actually funny, 2) had a somewhat serious core somewhere, and 3) were actually about Quark! That last one is where this all falls down for me. Quark tries to track down the rest of a Vulcan's Love Slave sequel, and goes to Wrigley's Pleasure Planet and battles with the Orion Syndicate, but basically none of his choices move the narrative at all. He gets himself out of no dangers, he does nothing clever or interesting. This is the dumb Quark of the worst DS9 episodes. At the end, we learn three other characters manipulated him and everything he did was pointless and then the book stops. He learns nothing, and we learn nothing. I was genuinely surprised when I got to the end: "That's it?" Like, that was all this book was for?

On screen, Armin Shimerman might have made you believe in this stuff (he could do that with weak scripts on screen), but on the page this all lies pretty flat. Quark can be shallow, but this is ridiculously shallow even for him; it's like the tv show never happened. Quark gets a dumb "comedy" sidekick, and I kept expecting some kind of reveal about him, but no, he's just a dumb "comedy" sidekick, and his role would have been much more interestingly taken by just about any other character.

Even at its short length, it's a joke that goes on too long.

Continuity Notes:

• We're told in this book that since the dedication of the new Deep Space 9, business at Quark's has been totally dead. So what about that massive crowd there to watch the new president's inauguration in Fire with Fire, huh?
• Thank goodness the book specifically mentioned Photons Be Free, because I never would have remembered that Broht was a screen character otherwise. (Here we learn he publishes basically every significant holoprogram seen on screen.)

Other Notes:

• Thankfully, for us font-watchers, the book maintains the DS9 relaunch logo, and doesn't Rotis Serifize it as the TNG relaunch logo was. If this book had a spine, it would look good on my shelf!
• One of the big problems about the Destiny time jump and then the lack of DS9 novels is that all of the characters seem to have been in stasis the entire time. It's been almost a decade since Quark and Ro first dated back in Mission: Gamma, and apparently their relationship has not progressed since.
• The writers keep confusing "vedek" with "vedic." Unlike all the errors in Absent Enemies, this one remains uncorrected eight years later.

A fantastic companion to rewatching Star Trek: The Original Series, from the high quality stills from the show and behind-the-scenes production photos, to brief episode guides and "insider" info which add depth to viewing experience. All 80 episodes have their individual entries, interspersed with actor and production crew profiles, fandom history and merchandising.

I guess anybody who's watched and enjoyed a few episodes would find something of interest, and it's a beautiful coffee table book, though it's interest in minutae probably makes it more of a fan volume.

This book is a visual celebration of the original “Star Trek” series, with pictures and descriptions of every episode. This definitive guide to the ground-breaking television series includes in-depth commentary, interviews with writers, actors, and crew members, highlighted by full-color remastered stills from network archives and never-before-seen pictures. “Star Trek” fans will treasure this can’t-miss trip down memory lane that brings Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the Enterprise to life.

Highly recommended.

Full of fun tidbits about the series covered on an episode by episode basis.

At first, I thought this would be a cool behind the scenes look at what goes into making Star Trek, with interviews and tidbits and all that. Instead, what this book has to offer are in depths looks at the creation of particular scenes from an episode of Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Start Trek: Insurrection respectively. I'll admit that it did get a bit technical at times, but there were lots of interesting points throughout the text that still made this engaging and enjoyable for me to read.

I'd recommend for any die-hard Star Trek fan…just make sure you've already seen these episodes/movie before reading it.

This book is a must for any Star Trek fan/collector. It is a book of Topps Star Trek (TOS) trading cards. The Topps company was a leading manufacturer of sports and entertainment-themed trading cards. The Star Trek cards were issued in 1976 as a package of cards, a stick of bubble gum, and an extra sticker in every pack. I'm not sure how many cards came per pack but the entire collection was 88 cards. The book includes the front and back of all 88 cards and 22 stickers. The back of the book contains 4 bonus trading cards, one of which is Lt. Sulu who did not appear in the original set of cards and stickers. Although there were 79 episodes in the original series, the cards feature only 41 episodes. The remainder of the cards feature the main characters or the alien guest star of the week.

This book is aimed directly at the original series Star Trek Fan, the one who can spend 10 minutes staring at a close up color photo of a phaser or a tricorder, who finds delight in reading little details about well known episodes, and who can appreciate the beauty and information in this brick of a book. The pictures recall well the special wonder and excitement that grew with this unique, now practically ancestral sci-fi tv show.

It's less of a straight through read and more of an 'open at random' book, which suits me fine. It also includes pictures and information about Star Trek's early years of "Afterlife", when conventions and novels and concordiums began to appear. While a perfectly good entry way for someone who (somehow) knows little about the series, it's really aimed at those who spend long hours discussing the real nature of Spock's emotional life and who possibly have owned one pair of fake Vulcan ears.

Star Trek: The Original Series: 365
By Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann

Publisher: Abrams
Published In: New York, New York, USA
Date: 2010
Pgs: 365

Summary:
A series of behind-the-scenes stories, production stories, art stories related to each episode of the original series, it’s characters, the actors behind them, the creators, writers, directors, places, both real and imagined, of Star Trek.

Genre:
Science Fiction; Movies and Television; Fan

Main Character:
N/A

Favorite Character:
My favorite character has always been Dr. Leonard McCoy. And when you step outside the triumvirate and start looking at co-stars and guest stars and what not, I fall to praising Ricardo Montalbon’s Khan Noonian Singh.

Least Favorite Character:
N/A...maybe the executives who drove it from the air too early with cost constraints that forced it down paths in its final season that were not conducive to its being renewed.

Favorite Scene:
Too many to enumerate.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
N/A

Last Page Sound:
So awesome.

Author Assessment:
Would depend on subject matter.

Disposition of Book:
Giving it to Jerry to read.

Why isn't there a screenplay?:
N/A.

Hey, it came with my tribble! A slender 30-page pamphlet on all things tribble, even from such apocrypha as the animated episode, "More Tribbles, More Trouble." It even duly cites sources in footnotes. So, what kind of adult owns a tribble? Don't ask. Fortunately mine doesn't reproduce.