Bjo Trimble

This fan-compiled reference guide to Star Trek was originally started way back when the original series was still on the air. The version I have is an updated edition from 1995. But, although TNG had come and gone by then, and DS9 was currently on the air, the book confines itself only to the classic series, or more accurately, to anything involving the classic series characters. Which includes the movies, the oft-neglected animated series, and a few TNG and DS9 episodes in which the original characters appear. (Although DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" hadn't aired yet, so, sadly, that's not included.)

The first section of the book consists of short, fairly unremarkable episode recaps. It's followed by an encyclopedia-like "lexicon" section, which is... a little odd. In addition to all the things you'd expect -- people, places, weird alien diseases Dr. McCoy had to find cures for -- it includes entries like the one for "basement," which helpfully explains what a basement is and then mentions a couple of times in which characters went into basements, or the one for "quaint" which cites a couple of lines of dialog in which the word "quaint" was used. I'm pretty sure that even in the most rabidly Trekkie period of my youth, I wouldn't have had much use for that information. But... OK. Other entries are considerably more entertaining, such as the one for "beverage," which lists everything anyone ever drank on the show. (Which turns out to be kind of a lot.)

The book also includes fan-art illustrations, some of which are better than others, but the best of which are fairly impressive.

You really do have to admire the fannish labor-of-love dedication behind it all, and, back in the day, it was surely a useful reference to have, if, like me, you're the sort of person who finds ridiculously detailed information about Star Trek useful. These days, of course, if you want episode recaps, or the name of that redshirt who got killed by that cloud creature, it's a trivial matter to find it on the internet. And if you're just looking for something that's fun to browse through, books like The Star Trek Encyclopedia are probably a better bet.

Rating: 3/5, although a couple of decades ago it would probably have been higher.… (mais)

It's so cool to realize that Uhura's earpiece has become the Bluetooth and Kirk's Communicator has become the Smartphone. I am not a Trekkie...or Trekker...or whatever we (they?) are called. No, I am simply a fan of an old American TV show that captured my heart when I first saw it as a child Down Under. This is a collection of fan art, episode summaries, and a lexicon of all that matters, with a the ability to cross reference, which proved very valuable to a youngster in the days before online databases.

Just glancing through it again brings back memories of shouting at the TV because something bad was about to happen to those guys in the red uniforms. Even the cover is a delight, as you can move the wheel to get the show title, which then provides the page number and, most importantly, the Star Date. The Star Date! How righteous was that.


Book Season = Summer (school's out)… (mais)

This is a labor of love by a fan, Bjo Trible, who seeing a friend, Dorothy Jones Heydt, taking notes on the first Star Trek television show while it was still on the air, thought they should write a book to share it with fans. The first version was self-published in 1969. The edition I have was published in 1995, and unlike many Star Trek reference books, included material encompassing the animated series. The subtitle is "the A to Z guide to the classic original television series and films." And that's what it is. Although in this edition there are sections on Next Generation and Deep Space Nine--but only such episodes up to that date that had ties to the characters and episodes on the original such as "Encounter at Farpoint (McCoy)," "Sarek (Sarek)," "Unification" (Spock), "Relics" (Scotty) and "Blood Oath" (Kor, Koloth, Kang.) No "More Tribbles, More Troubles" or "Flashback." There's a list of episodes by alphabetical order, then a more extensive guide episode by episode in chronological order by air date with generous illustrations, followed by an extensive and very useful Lexicon.… (mais)