The Star Trek Compendium

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The Star Trek Compendium
The Star Trek Compendium, 1st edition.jpg
First edition cover
AuthorAllan Asherman
Published20 March 1981
15 Sep 1986 2nd edition
21 Aug 1987 2nd edition (UK)
June 1989 3rd edition
1998 3rd edition (Italian)
1 May 1993 4th edition
12 May 1993 4th edition(UK)
31 Jan 1996 4th edition (Japan)
31 Dec 1998 4th edition (German)
PublisherWallaby Books (first printing)
Pocket Books
Titan Books (UK)
Heel (Germany)
Japan Mix (Japan)
Fanucci Editore (Italy)
Pages187 (1st edition)
192 (4th edition)
264 (4th edition Japan)
ISBN0671791451

The Star Trek Compendium is a reference book published by Pocket Books that provides an extensive episode guide to the original Star Trek series, beefed out with production background information, researched and compiled by its author.

Summary[edit | edit source]

From the fourth edition book jacket

"Space…the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations – to boldly go where no man has gone before…"
On September 8, 1966, those now-familiar words first introduced an entire generation of television viewers to STAR TREK. Over the course of its three-year network run, the show developed a fan following unprecedented in entertainment history – a following that is still growing with the release of each new STAR TREK motion picture.
Much of the show's appeal came from its blueprint for the future – a future where man had put aside his differences to reach the stars. STAR TREK gave us a Russian and an American working side by side, television's first interracial kiss, the name for America's first Space ShuttleEnterprise – and a host of unforgettable characters: the unflappable Captain Kirk, his half-human science officer Spock, the irascible Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, and ever-resourceful engineer Montgomery Scott, to name but a few.
THE STAR TREK COMPENDIUM is the official guidebook to the STAR TREK universe. Relive the voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) with a complete show-by-show guide to the series (as well as the Emmy Award-winning animated shows and the STAR TREK movies), including plot summaries, fascinating behind-the-scenes production information and credits for each. Follow the creation of Gene Roddenberry's series step-by-step – and STAR TREK's road to the big screen. Illustrated with over 125 specially selected photographs – including at least one from each episode – and fully indexed, this is the indispensable reference work to one of the most memorable shows of all time – STAR TREK.
This text was on the back of all four editions; later editions included a line mentioning the inclusion of material from the latest movie.

Background information[edit | edit source]

  • Written by Allan Asherman, the book was first published in 1981 and gave summaries and production information on all three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It was not the first of its kind, as Star Trek fan Bjo Trimble had previously released a similar work, the Star Trek Concordance. Unlike some of the later editions, it also gave the actual production schedule for each of the episodes (script dates, when it was filmed, etc.) The 1986 edition also included episode summaries and production information for both seasons of Star Trek: The Animated Series and the next two movies. A UK edition, released between the first two US editions, incorporated excerpted material from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, reprinted from the author's own The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The third edition was issued after the release of the following two movies, and the fourth edition to cover the sixth, and were updated to summarize the given movies.
  • The original English edition was never updated to cover Star Trek Generations, as that movie was covered in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion. However, the German edition did have a small section dedicated to that film.
  • The book's format inspired that of the later The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager companions. No companion book has been issued for Star Trek: Enterprise.
  • The book contains a large number of TOS background information and trivia, presented for the first time in one book. However, as it came out long before the release of Inside Star Trek: The Real Story and other similar works, it still did contain some trivia long adhered to in "Trek lore", but which eventually turned out to be only myths.
  • Similarly, as the internet was non-existent and only a handful of official publications about Star Trek were available at the time, the book contains some factual errors. For example, the Mugato is spelled as "Mugatu", "Court Marial" is mentioned as taking place at Starbase 6 instead of Starbase 11, and the McKinley Rocket Base is misidentified as Cape Kennedy.
  • Translated international editions are known to exist, among others in German (as Star Trek, Raumschiff Enterprise, das offizielle Logbuch, translated by Martin Noeken for Heel Verlag) and Italian (as Guida ufficiale a Star Trek serie classica by Fanucci Editore). Aside from these, an expanded Japanese hard cover edition is known, released as Sutā torekku daikenkyū II ("II" as a Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion was released previously in Japan) by Japan Mix and translated by Sumitomo Susumu.

Cover gallery[edit | edit source]

The Star Trek Compendium front covers
First edition reprint cover
First edition reprint cover
Second edition cover
Second edition cover
Second edition cover (UK)
Second edition cover (UK)
Third edition cover
Third edition cover
Third edition cover (Italian)
Third edition cover (Italian)
Fourth edition cover
Fourth edition cover
Fourth edition cover (UK)
Fourth edition cover (UK)
Fourth edition cover (Japan)
Fourth edition cover (Japan)
Fourth edition cover (German)
Fourth edition cover (German)

External links[edit | edit source]

 
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Star Trek Concordance
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Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion