Holiday Gift Guide: Star Trek: The Original Series 365 by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann
I am a Star Trek fan (I’ll wait while you finish mocking me). I have always been a fan of the original series, mostly because it wEas the one I grew up with. Captain Kirk, Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy, Mister Scott and the rest of the crew were the parago
ns on which I based a lot of who little me wanted to become. And whil
e bombing around in a space ship and shooting ray guns at multicolored aliens was cool and everything, it was really the message that Star Trek imparted as much as the setting that influenced me.
Now, I need not go into how Star Trek was a ground breaking series and how it influenced a generation of, well, of everything. If you don’t know about Star Trek or its various offshoots, explaining it here will do little to help.
Star Trek: The Original Series 365 (Abrams) by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann touts itself as a definitive guide to the original program. But, really: how can anything about a show that has survived in one incarnation or another over 44 years be that definitive? There is bound to be more Star Trek stuff to come which could be just as definitive. No matter. This book on the original Trek is quite fascinating. It is also what a fan of the original series will love. It not only contains a synopsis of each ot the 79 episodes but also includes behind-the-scenes histories combined with what any true Trekker (or have we gone back to being called Trekkies; I can’t keep up) loves to hear: never-before-seen images -- as well as really cool before-seen ones.
As a side note: I’m Scottish, my father was an engineer and the guys at work called him “Scotty.” Now as foolish as it seems, I only got the joke about a year ago. The main difference between Trek’s Scotty and my dad, other than he didn’t fix things in interstellar space: my dad had a real Scottish accent.
Neither sappy nor overly romantic, Star Trek: The Original Series 365 is really just a wonderful little book about an iconic television series. True fans will love it. ‘Nuff said. ◊
David Middleton is a graphic artist and like any real and true fan of Star Trek doesn’t endlessly bore his friends or colleagues with his love or knowledge of the show. Unless they ask. You’ve been warned.
ns on which I based a lot of who little me wanted to become. And whil
e bombing around in a space ship and shooting ray guns at multicolored aliens was cool and everything, it was really the message that Star Trek imparted as much as the setting that influenced me.Now, I need not go into how Star Trek was a ground breaking series and how it influenced a generation of, well, of everything. If you don’t know about Star Trek or its various offshoots, explaining it here will do little to help.
Star Trek: The Original Series 365 (Abrams) by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann touts itself as a definitive guide to the original program. But, really: how can anything about a show that has survived in one incarnation or another over 44 years be that definitive? There is bound to be more Star Trek stuff to come which could be just as definitive. No matter. This book on the original Trek is quite fascinating. It is also what a fan of the original series will love. It not only contains a synopsis of each ot the 79 episodes but also includes behind-the-scenes histories combined with what any true Trekker (or have we gone back to being called Trekkies; I can’t keep up) loves to hear: never-before-seen images -- as well as really cool before-seen ones.
As a side note: I’m Scottish, my father was an engineer and the guys at work called him “Scotty.” Now as foolish as it seems, I only got the joke about a year ago. The main difference between Trek’s Scotty and my dad, other than he didn’t fix things in interstellar space: my dad had a real Scottish accent.
Neither sappy nor overly romantic, Star Trek: The Original Series 365 is really just a wonderful little book about an iconic television series. True fans will love it. ‘Nuff said. ◊
David Middleton is a graphic artist and like any real and true fan of Star Trek doesn’t endlessly bore his friends or colleagues with his love or knowledge of the show. Unless they ask. You’ve been warned.
Labels: art and culture, David MIddleton, holiday gift guide 2010
posted by David Middleton at 9:00 AM
3 Comments:
The second writer's name is ERDMANN, with a D, not EROMANN as you misspelled it each time.
Thanks for the heads-up: it's been repaired. We had to do some checking, too: that was some *nasty* bad typography! In the display font used quite a lot in the book, the uppercase "d" looks very much like an "o".
Well, I'd like to put in a comment about the content of the post itself. I, too, am a Trek fan (no, Trekkies are still the ones who make the rest of us cringe with embarrassment, not what we call ourselves) and like David I grew up with the original series.There was, once, a "definitive" guide to Star Trek, the Concordance by Bjo Trimble, but even she had to update it and put in new art due to copyright restrictions. I'll be interested to take a look at this one, because I vaguely recall that Paula Block was rather well-known as a fan writer at one stage, but as you say - it can't be definitive when they keep producing more!
It should be fun.
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