Karen: This one's a twofer: both a Star Trek at 50, as we continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Trek's debut, and a Buried Treasure, as we look at a piece of Trek memorabilia I discovered in one of my many bins of books in our garage.
Karen: Almost exactly two years ago, when we started the Buried Treasure category, I discussed the original Star Trek Technical Manual, one of the early Trek books to look at the universe of the show, and one that has been a perennial favorite. Today, I have its poorer cousin, the USS Enterprise Officer's Manual. This was a fan-produced, spiral-bound book circa 1980, whose chief architects were Geoffrey Mandel and Doug Drexler, both fans at the time, who later went on to work on official Star Trek series, as well as other sci-fi projects. This is essentially a follow-up to the Technical Manual, retaining the styling of that book, while adding additional information, mostly based off of the original series, and with a few updates from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Nowhere does it say it was authorized by Paramount, so the information in it isn't 'canon' but it's fun to look at. I'm pretty sure I got this back in 1980 or '81 at one of the Los Angeles Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror conventions (that's what they were called).
Karen: For a fan product, it's of high quality. The graphics are solid, the same clean designs as the Tech Manual. The only times it really looks at all amateurish is when whole pages are given over to text, and the font makes it look like it came right out of a typewriter (which it might have). It's broken down into sections - Personnel, Familiarization, Ship Recognition,etc. - that one might expect an officer of the Enterprise would need to know. Like the Technical Manual, you won't see the words 'Star Trek' anywhere in it. It's as if a time traveling Star Fleet officer accidentally left it behind for us to glom on to. The majority of the material is a continuation of the TOS-era ships, uniforms, weaponry, etc. But the beginning of the manual lists the Enterprise's personnel, and this is broken down not in the usual "Command, Sciences, and Engineering/Support Services" from the series but rather the six divisions from ST:TMP. Also, characters such as Will Decker, Lt. Ilia, Lt. Cmdr. DeFalco, and others from the film are listed, as well as animated series regulars Lt. Arex and Lt. M'ress.
Karen: Full-page bios of the bridge crew from the television series are provided. There's some interesting stuff here. Check out Spock's page below -nice first name they came up with huh? Recall in "This Side of Paradise," he told Leila Kalomi she couldn't pronounce it. This guarantees it. Under Kirk's entry we are told he has a tendency to become overweight and frequently is put on a special diet. Sulu's first name is given as "Itaka" and Uhura's as "Upenda." Chekov is described as being like Kirk in many ways "although is extremely active sexually" ! I don't see how that's not like Kirk. Anyway...
Karen: One thing seemingly missing from the original Technical Manual, as David B. pointed out in comments in the post on that subject, were any schematics of enemy starships. Here, we get a couple of pages of Klingon ships in profile. Klingon uniforms (as well as Romulan ones) are also presented. I'm sure at some point full blueprints for a Klingon D-7 must have been published but I don't recall ever seeing them. Anyone know about that?
Karen: Oddly enough, the new Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was not detailed in this manual. Maybe the book was assembled before they had enough good pictures of it to work from. But the image below should be recognizable to any of you who have been following the news about the upcoming series, Star Trek: Discovery. Look familiar? The Discovery ship design has been around a long time. It was originally conceived by Ralph McQuarrie around 1976 for a Trek project but was nixed. And I think for good reason! But apparently someone saw it and liked it, 'cause it's coming back.
Karen: Full-page bios of the bridge crew from the television series are provided. There's some interesting stuff here. Check out Spock's page below -nice first name they came up with huh? Recall in "This Side of Paradise," he told Leila Kalomi she couldn't pronounce it. This guarantees it. Under Kirk's entry we are told he has a tendency to become overweight and frequently is put on a special diet. Sulu's first name is given as "Itaka" and Uhura's as "Upenda." Chekov is described as being like Kirk in many ways "although is extremely active sexually" ! I don't see how that's not like Kirk. Anyway...
Karen: One thing seemingly missing from the original Technical Manual, as David B. pointed out in comments in the post on that subject, were any schematics of enemy starships. Here, we get a couple of pages of Klingon ships in profile. Klingon uniforms (as well as Romulan ones) are also presented. I'm sure at some point full blueprints for a Klingon D-7 must have been published but I don't recall ever seeing them. Anyone know about that?
Karen: Oddly enough, the new Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was not detailed in this manual. Maybe the book was assembled before they had enough good pictures of it to work from. But the image below should be recognizable to any of you who have been following the news about the upcoming series, Star Trek: Discovery. Look familiar? The Discovery ship design has been around a long time. It was originally conceived by Ralph McQuarrie around 1976 for a Trek project but was nixed. And I think for good reason! But apparently someone saw it and liked it, 'cause it's coming back.
Karen: It's impressive to read through this book and see how much effort -and love -these fans put into it. This kind of dedication is what kept Star Trek alive all these decades!