Thursday, October 25, 2012

Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History

It's out!

Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History

"Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History" has arrived at Galaxy Bookshop.

Trek Ewok
The Trek's not over till the last Ewok falls!

Written by Robert Greenberger and edited by Scott Pearson for Voyageur Press. For those playing at home, it features a few photos from my own collection. Look out for my Arex and M'Ress Filmation TAS customized action figures (page 58), yours truly as Maltz the Klingon, introducing Bjo Trimble at Eccentricon (page 135), the "Star Trek"-themed Mr Potato Heads I bought from Kings Comics (page 135), Lana Pennington-Brown's beautiful artwork of Data and Tasha on a Mike McGann-printed sweater (page 145), and my "United Federation of Paramount" t-shirt from Lincoln Enterprises (page 146).

Star Trek customized action figures
Customised Tuvix, Dr Selar, Arex, M'Ress and Trader Worf with tribbles.

I've only had a chance to do some quick riffling so far, but there is some really great stuff in here! Nostalgia plus for fans of any era, but particularly those who remember the original TV series of the 60s with fondness, the Filmation animated series and the six classic movies. Later chapters look at the tie-in novels, collectibles and the expansion of the franchise with "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and "Enterprise".

The ideal book for Christmas gift-giving to that hard-to-buy-for Trek fan in your life?

Oh! I had forgotten that I can claim responsibility for another pic in the book, although it wasn't taken by me. On page 199, there is an image of the Playmates' "Flashback" Janeway action figure. I was the winner of a design contest by Playtrek listserv and New Force Comics, who needed an exclusive figure that could be achieved by a simple headswap and repaint, so I suggested Kathryn Janeway's head on Saavik's body, in Janice Rand's ST VI and "Flashback" colour scheme. And I won, I won!