Voyager
THE UNAUTHORIZED
HISTORY OF
TREK
JAMES VAN HISE
Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine are registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation. This book was not prepared, approved, licensed or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the Star Trek television series or films.
HarperVoyager
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Copyright © 1991, 1995 Pioneer Books, Inc.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006482925
Ebook Edition © December 2016 ISBN: 9780008240257
Version: 2017-01-05
A TREK THROUGH HISTORY
This unauthorized history of Star Trek is the complete and inspirational chronicle of a legend from its original conception to its phenomenal effect on millions of viewers across the world. America’s leading science fiction television historian JAMES VAN HISE takes you where no Trek fan has ever gone before—from the meeting in which Gene Roddenberry first pitched his idea for the Star Trek series to the lean years when die-hard fans kept the show alive to the continuing sequence of successful feature films and new television series which have secured Star Trek’s enduring importance in popular culture, and in our lives. The origins of the series are revealed through in-depth interviews with the original cast and creative staff, offering not only a wealth of Trek trivia but speculations as to what the future may hold.
Here are the facts behind the science fiction, the historical journey that goes beyond what you can see on the screen and covers three decades of voyage and on-going discover.
CONTENTS
A brush with death alters Gene Roddenberry’s career choices and leads him to Hollywood, where he creates Star Trek.
NBC loves “The Cage” but wants Roddenberry to produce a second pilot.
ONWARD TO THE STARS, WITH HOPE (THE FIRST SEASON):
Star Trek makes stars of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as the series is launched successfully, albeit with some trepidation.
STEADY AS SHE GOES (THE SECOND SEASON):
The strong scripts in the second season aren’t enough to satisfy the mysterious Nielsen ratings, but Star Trek is brought back from the brink of cancellation, only to suffer a bitter loss.
AN AREA OF TURBULENCE (THE THIRD AND FINAL SEASON):
A lackluster third season, marked by numerous indifferent scripts and few bright lights, marks the inevitable end to the first voyage of the starship Enterprise.
MOVING THROUGH LIMBO AND BEYOND (THE LOST YEARS … TO STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE):
The seventies prove that Star Trek is anything but dead, as rumors of a revival become a reality by decade’s end.
SAILING THE SILVER SCREEN (THE MOVIE TRILOGY):
One successful motion picture leads to another.
The seemingly impossible task of creating a new version