Today, someone wanted details on Pocket Books' "Signature Edition" omnibuses of reprinted Star Trek novels. I knew I had it saved in an email somewhere. And here it is:
There are seven ST "Signature editions" from Pocket Books in all, trade paperback omnibuses of popular past novels, collected by theme or author. In brief, all of the "Signature Editions" have new introductions and/or afterwords, and the four in the first batch have interviews with the authors by Kevin Dilmore, and facsimile signatures. In order on my shelf they are:
"Worlds in Collision" (Nov 2003) reprints "Memory Prime" and "Prime Directive" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and features TOS Kirk (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover, a new introduction by the authors, and an interview with the authors by Kevin Dilmore.
"Duty, Honor, Redemption" (Oct 2004) reprints the novelizations of "ST II: The Wrath of Khan", "ST III: The Search for Spock" and "ST IV: The Voyage Home" by Vonda N McIntyre and features movie-era Kirk (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover and a new introduction by Terry J Erdmann interviewing Harve Bennett, "the man behind the movies". The book has had minor errors corrected, such as "McGivers" for "McGiver". Sulu's promotion to captain (in ST II) is removed, since the line was dropped from ST II and then ignored by the other movies.
"Sand and Stars" (Dec 2004) reprints "Spock's World" by Diane Duane and "Sarek" by AC Crispin and features TMP Spock (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover and a new introduction about Vulcans, with quotes from Tim Russ (Tuvok, VOY) and Gary Graham (Soval, ENT), by Terry J Erdmann.
"Pantheon" (Sept 2003) reprints "TNG: Reunion" and "TNG: The Valiant" by Michael Jan Friedman, with an all-new bridging arc that connects the two tales (ie. seven extra paragraphs from a reflective Guinan.) It also features Stargazer-era Picard (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover, a new introduction by the author, and an interview with the author by Kevin Dilmore. The bookend historical chapters for "The Valiant" are widened to embrace both stories in the SE.
"The Q Continuum" (Oct 2003) reprints the TNG Q trilogy ("Q-Zone", "Q-Space" and "Q-Strike") by Greg Cox and features Judge Q (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover and an interview with the author by Kevin Dilmore. Cox took the chance to make several stardate error corrections, and changed a few mentions of "the original Enterprise" to "Kirk's Enterprise", to avoid confusion with Archer's ship since "Star Trek: Enterprise" was the current series on the air.
"Imzadi Forever" (Dec 2003) reprints "TNG: Imzadi" and "TNG: Imzadi II: Triangle" by Peter David and features TNG-era Troi (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover, a new introduction by the author, and an interview with the author by Kevin Dilmore.
"The Hand of Kahless" (Nov 2004) reprints "The Final Reflection" by the late John M Ford and "TNG: Kahless" by Michael Jan Friedman and features TNG Kahless (a lower quarter portrait) on the cover and a new introduction about the evolution of Klingons over the generations, with quotes from Marc Okrand (linguist, writer of "The Klingon Dictionary") and Dan Curry (TNG visual effects), by Terry J Erdmann.
Only the 2003 omnibuses contain facsimile signatures from the authors. The series title continued, presumably because these are books you'd present to authors for signing(?).
The omnibus for the Reeves-Stevens' "DS9: Millennium", which is not a "Signature Edition", has a bonus Allyn Gibson timeline (of the complex plots) that didn't appear in the original MMPBs. The MMPB omnibus collecting MJF's "Starfleet: Year One", which was originally serialized over a whole year, has new material and new characters. Its original chapters were divided up and blended with each other, too. The "Rihannsu saga" omnibus, "The Bloodwing Voyages", also not a SE, corrects Diane Duane's assumption that there was a second five year mission between TOS and TMP and corrects some dates and ranks. The first DS9 Relaunch omnibus, "Twist of Faith", has a new foreword by David R George III.
Although some early ads for "Odyssey", the omnibus collecting the first three Shatner/Reeves-Stevens novels about Kirk, claimed to have new linking paragraphs, the final result did not seem to include any new material.
No other Pocket ST omnibuses (to date) have new material, or I'd have bought them. :)
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The second printing of the "Stargazer: Oblivion" MMPB corrected a printing error that had seen the outer margins of several letters' worth of text vanish from about eight pages of all the first printings.
The UK and Australian versions of the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" novelization have extra sentences in several places, better describing the relationship between Kirk and Vice-Admiral Lori Ciana. They also contain a generous section of captioned colour plates: publicity pics for the movie. The US Pocket slipcased hardcover has a dedication "To Majel".
The MMPB version of the "Generations" novelization features the as-screened Kirk death scene, revised by Dillard herself. The original hardcover has the scene as featured in the bonus scenes of the DVD.
Oh yeah, and David Mack's standalone MMPB novel version of "Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empire" doubles the length of the original novella.
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