Buried Treasures: Star Fleet Technical Manual

Star Fleet Technical Manual (1975, Franz Joseph Designs, published by Ballantine Books)

Karen: Boy oh boy, was this buried treasure read cover to cover and ogled over and over! It's in

pretty bad shape today, which is why I had to take photos of the pages rather than put it on the scanner (the poor thing would have fallen apart) but that just shows how much it was loved. This is a first printing of a book that has been reprinted over and over again. It's famous among Trek fans for providing a look into the world of Star Fleet that went far beyond what we had seen on the TV show (and in 1975, all we had was the original series and the cartoon show, as well as a few novels). The great thing about this manual is that it is composed entirely as if it were in the world of the Federation; there are no references to "Star Trek" or the show. It's as if you are an officer in Star Fleet and have picked up your manual, with the relevant information you need to do your job.

Karen: One thing to remember is, that while we are inundated with Star Trek product today, in 1975, you really didn't have that much stuff available to speak of. Yes, there were some models and a few other things, but nothing like today, when you have Star Trek pizza cutters and bath mats. I mean, you could have Star Trek stuff in every room of your house if you wanted to now. And as for reading material, the James Blish novelizations of the TV shows, and "Spock Must Die", were about it. Stephen Whitfield's great "Making of Star Trek" was still two years away. So when the Star Fleet Manual came out, it was truly mind-blowing.

Karen: The technical manual was the brain child of fan Franz Joseph Schnaubelt, who sent some of his technical drawings to Lincoln Enterprises, Trek's merchandising arm at the time, and they were enthusiastic about putting together a product. And what a product it was. Trek fans went bananas and the manual sold like hot cakes, opening the doors for the flood of books, blueprints, and maps to come.Besides Joseph, there are many names recognizable to fans of classic Star Trek mentioned in the acknowledgements including Bob Justman, Walter Jeffries, Bjo Trimble, Irv Feinberg, William Thiess, Judy Lynn Del Ray, Stephen Whitfield, and of course, Gene Roddenberry. 

Karen: So what's in the manual? Well, a little bit of everything. It starts off with two memos: one from the United States Military command, about the strange "data sheets" found in the Omaha Air Force Base computers. The second memo is from Star Fleet Command, and refers to a Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Commander Spock and their accidental trip back in time to that military base, and the accidental transmission of documents to the air base's computer. This is a reference to the episode "Assignment Earth," when the crew traveled back to the late 1960s. So we have an explanation for how we came by this manual.

Karen: The first section of the manual is very text heavy, including the Articles of Federation,which looks a lot like the US Constitution: "We the intelligent life forms of the United Federation of Planets..." This is a very thorough document covering the organizational structure of the Federation.There's also two peace treaties, one between the Feds and the Romulans, and one between the Feds and the Klingons. I have to admit, this was the section I looked at the least as a kid.

Karen: Next up: Banners! Every star system has its own flag/banner. The UFP has their own, 40 Eridani, Epsilon Indii, Alpha Centauri -all the different Federation members. Next is a uniform color guide (the only color page in the book). I remember wondering how to pronounce "Tenne," a golden color. (It's tenny, by the way.) 

Karen: The next section  probably got the most attention from me -the Command section. Here, we see insignias, uniforms, and best of all, starships! The insignias, which always appeared on the left breast of the uniforms, were nearly impossible to make out on the show. Now, thanks to the manual, we knew that the command branch wore a small star, the science branch had a stylized circle,  and the engineering branch had a symbol similar to an 'e'. The braid that designated rank was also shown, making costuming much easier for fans as well. But the real treat of this section was the ships. On the show, the only Star fleet ships we saw were heavy cruisers like the Enterprise, almost certainly in an effort to save money. But here, besides the familiar heavy cruiser, we get three variations: the destroyer/scout, the transport/tug, and the dreadnought.While all variations on a theme, they seem like logical members of the same fleet. I recall at the time wishing I could get model kits of these ships, to hang up in my room alongside my Enterprise and Klingon cruiser. What's even more fun is the lists of the ships in each class. There are scores of ships listed, giving one visions of a huge fleet. 

Karen: There are more diagrams, for the shuttlecraft,  the typical stateroom on a cruiser (didn't you wonder where the bathroom was in Capt. Kirk's quarters?), and more importantly, the bridge of a heavy cruiser. If you wondered what each station was on the Enterprise, wonder no more. Now you could tell the Communications station from the Defense Sub-Systems Monitor. Important stuff, if you were going to serve on a starship. The command section was rounded out with schematics of the two versions of the phaser.

Karen: The Science section looks at the bridge science station, the tricorder, the galactic coordinate system, some warp drive calculations, and medical instruments. All good stuff, but not quite as exciting as starships!

Karen: The Support Services section examines the Communications bridge  station, the communicator, and the Engineering deck, warp engines, and transporters, including some versions never seen on the show. To round the book out, illustrations are included of Spock's Vulcan harp and the three-dimensional chess set over which Kirk and Spock sometimes enjoyed a friendly game. There are also blank graph pages at the end of the book for adding more information -which this young Trek fan did!

Karen: I still enjoy looking at the manual today. It seems rather simplistic now, compared to all the books that have come out since, but it has a charm all its own, and knowing that it was the book that started it all gives it a special status in my heart.