I am now the proud owner of "Star Trek 365: The Original Series", a massive house-brick sized book filled with big colour pics, sketches, memos - and lots of info. Written by Paula M Block & Terry J Erdmann, the book is introduced by Dorothy "DC" Fontana and published by Abrams Publishing (no connection to JJ).
I've barely done more than flip through the wonderful rare and familiar pictures so far, but this looks to be a wonderful publication! Just when you think no more could possibly be left to see or read about "Star Trek", Paula Block & Terry Erdmann have scrounged out those last(?) remaining bits of trivia!
A few random pages of the 365 double spreads:
Lug a copy home today!
Captain's Log: Supplemental. I was lucky, even though living in Sydney, Australia, to find a copy of this Abrams Publishing "365" in a local bookshop - as it turned out, many weeks before the jealous US readers started to report seeing copies!
Paula Block & Terry Erdmann have done an incredible job of fossicking through all those years of material on Star Trek and presenting a blend of iconic, familiar and extremely rare photographs and facts about Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek". The "365" format is certainly unusual and modern. I laughed out loud at early Amazon.com reviewer comments complaining about the unique design features; features which I immediately thought were wonderfully retro and modern at the same time. (In fact, my great experience with this particular edition convinced me to go back and pick up a shrink-wrapped "Star Wars 365 Days" from the same publisher - and I'm not even much of a "Star Wars" fan.)
I've had the "Star Trek" book for weeks now (it's 9th September now; yesterday was TOS's 44th anniversary), using it exactly as intended: as a coffee table book, but safely on a coffee table upon which food and drink are never served! I feel like I've barely done more than flip through the wonderful rare and familiar pictures so far, or yelling out factoids to anyone who passes. Stunning photos! Glorious colours! I stop riffling every so often to absorb brand new (and sometimes well known) trivia in the text. There are even some great mini interviews and quotes from people we haven't seen in the limelight for decades! It's a wonderful publication!
Just when you think no more could possibly be left to see/read about the original "Star Trek" series, Paula & Terry have scrounged out those last(?) remaining bits. And now... I want more! Bring on the movies book, TNG and beyond, and the Abrams' book of JJ Abrams (no relation)!
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2 comments:
Hi Ian. Looking forward to this book, but based on what you show looks like the same old pix we've seen a thousand times. Was hoping this book would be special and unique. If you've had a chance to look through the whole thing, what's your take?
Gosh, don't be so fast to diss this book. I picked six random images (out of over 365) that seemed fairly unusual to me. I own every licensed ST book ever published and many unlicensed ones. I've only ever seen those Gorn and Tellarite shots once each before, never saw the set sketches I scanned, and that beautiful Khan and Marla shot, while very familiar from the episode iself, is not something I've seen as a production still. I'd say that Paula & Terry have done an extraordinary job digging up some rarities.
There's a great interview in the current "Star Trek Magazine" from Titan where they explain that a few golden oldies are included among the pics simply because they are good photos that are fondly remembered, but the book took me a good two hours just to skim through the pics - and I've barely touched the 365 pages of researched trivia in the text!
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