Story: The first book ever written about the making of Star Trek – published while the series was still in production – this is still one of the best non-fiction Trek books that has ever been published. Several things factor into this. It’s a relatively unopinionated look at the development of the story of Star Trek. Such elements as production design, budgets, difficulties with actors, and other hassles are touched upon, but at least the first half of the book concentrates on the various changes that the show’s original premise underwent. This book’s material dates back to the time when the Enterprise’s captain was going to be named Robert April.
Review: My trust in this book’s information stems from the fact that it dates back to Star Trek’s original broadcast life span, before Gene Roddenberry (whose comments appear throughout the book IN ANNOYING ALL-CAPS TO SET THEM APART FROM EVERYTHING ELSE) set about reinventing the Star Trek universe and adjusting his own public image in the 1970s. The parties involved, who later dished much dirt after the fact, were too busy trying to make the show to spend much time deciding who was to blame for anything that might have been going wrong. The book’s prologue, written after the announcement of the time slot with which NBC lumbered Star Trek’s third season, offers an admission that the show was drawing to a close.
Though Stephen Whitfield occasionally succumbs to the fawning adulation that befalls many authors who are allowed to infiltrate television or movie sets for an extended period of time, the end result is a book that comes across as one of the most unaffected, best-illustrated and reliable sources of information on the making of Star Trek.
Year: 1968
Authors: Stephen E. Whitfield, Gene Roddenberry
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 414 pages