Book Review: 'Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future - Revised and Expanded'

In the spring of 1994, Pocket Books published the first edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference to the Future, the third book in a trilogy of reference books co-authored by graphics artist and production consultant Michael Okuda. (The other two volumes are The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual and The Star Trek Chronology: A History of the Future.)

At the time, the Star Trek franchise was in a state of flux. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) was ending its seven-year run in syndication and production was under way for its first theatrical movie, Star Trek: Generations.  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) was picking up steam in its second season in syndication, and Paramount was about to launch its United Paramount Network with Star Trek: Voyager (VGR) as its flagship TV series.

This, of course, meant that the first edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, written and edited by Mike and Denise Okuda with Debbie Mirek, was at best an introductory volume; its comprehensiveness about the franchise was limited to Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) and its six spin-off movies, Star Trek: The Next Generation up to part of the seventh season, and the first season's batch of episodes from DS9.  Star Trek: Generations and Voyager were mentioned in the pages relating to Star Trek, but of course just as being works in progress  

Even by limiting the encyclopedia to Paramount "canon" projects - Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS) and the "expanded universe" novels don't count (with the exception of a data point taken from the TAS episode Yesteryearwhich was referenced in the TNG episode Unification, Part 1 and thus garnered canon status.) - the Okudas and Mirek knew that as the Star Trek franchise expanded, there would be a need for future editions.

Sure enough, in 1997 Pocket Books published the second edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, which now contained material from two TNG feature films and from various seasons of both DS9 and VGR, which were still airing first-run episodes.  

The 1997 edition was re-issued two years later in both hardcover and trade paperback.  The 1999 version was almost identical to its predecessor save for a supplemental insert that covered the release of Star Trek: Insurrection, the seventh (and final) season of DS9 and part of VGR's fifth season.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future's entries are presented (as most encyclopedias usually are) in alphabetical order, ranging (in the main section) from ‘audet IX (a planet on which a Federation Medical Collection Station is located) to Zytchin III (yet another planet, this one defined as a world on which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard had spent a not-too-enjoyable vacation once).  Each entry is tagged at the end with the name of the episode, series (with the three-letter code for each) or feature film title. 

Entries about characters also have tags which tell the reader the name of the actor who played his or her role in an episode or feature film, and cross-references to other, related entries are presented in boldface type so readers may find out more information.

Example:  Tal. (Jack Donner). Subcommander on the Romulan battle cruiser that captured the Federation starship Enterprise when that ship crossed the Romulan Neutral Zone in 2268 on a secret spy mission. ("The Enterprise Incident" [TOS]).

Naturally, the length of each entry varies considerably based on its topic's prominence in the Star Trek universe. ‘audet IX gets, at best, two sentences and the requisite source tag, while Kirk, James T. has an entry that begins on part of page 241. takes up all of page 242 and ends at the head of page 243 with information taken from Star Trek: Generations.

The hundreds of entries encompass a wide range; you can look for characters, planets, star systems, creatures, starships, food and drink, civilizations, organizations and other "in-universe" topics.  Those are presented in a very factual, 'this is real" style reflecting the authors' clever conceptual conceit.

However, the entries also cover such production-related topics as short descriptions of the (then) four canon TV series, nine feature films and the hundreds of individual episodes, listed (of course) alphabetically and painstakingly cross-referenced and source-coded.  (The section on Star Trek also includes a reference to the unproduced Star Trek II TV series of the late 1970s, explaining that the pilot episode, "In Thy Image" became the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) 

Wherever possible, the franchise's major races and entities (Bajorans, Cardassians, Dominion, Ferengi, Kazon, Klingons, Romulans and Vulcans) are highlighted in illustrations showing individuals in various outfits and uniforms.  For instance, if you look up Romulans, there is a graphic at the foot of the page which shows two distinct groups of military personnel, one from the 23rd Century-set TOS and one from the TNG time period.  Additionally, entries on Romulan starships have graphics depicting various classes as they appeared in episodes or films set in the two time periods.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future  also has various lists in its main text sections, covering such topics as astronomical features, Starfleet vessels seen or mentioned in the various episodes or movies, food and drink and warp speed factors.

In contrast to the 1994 first edition, the 1997-1999 edition is illustrated in color, which is a vast improvement vis-à-vis  the black-and-white photos and line drawings in the original volume.  The quality of the production stills and head shots is much better here because the photos look more "in focus" and sharper, and there are moreillustrations in total, too.

As I said before, Pocket Books did not publish a true Third Edition when it released its 1999 revised version; the publisher merely asked Michael and Denise Okuda to create a Supplement section which would add material gleaned from Star Trek: Insurrection, the final season of DS9 and VGR's fifth season.  Organized in the same format as the main body of the encyclopedia, its entries begin with ablative armor and end with Zevians.

While I understand that doing the update in this fashion was more economical in both time and money for the Okudas and Pocket Books, and although I concede that it is presented with the same attention to detail as the main book, it does have a "tacked on at the end" vibe to it.

At the end of the book there are eight appendices, listed from A to H.  They are:

A. Federation Starships & Ships of Earth Registry B. Ships of the Galaxy C. Historical Events in the Star Trek Universe D. Timeline of Star Trek Production E. Writer and Director Credits F. Cast  G. Production Personnel H. Bibliography 

The first two appendices are charts illustrating the comparative sizes of most of the various space vessels featured in the Star Trek TV shows and feature films until 1999.  

The two timelines which follow are text-only updates of the ones which appeared in the 1994; the "historical events" timeline is drawn mainly from the Okudas' The Star Trek Chronology and is only a selection of major events up to the fifth season of VGR, the end of DS9 and the release of Star Trek: Insurrection.

The other appendices are purely informational ones about the production side of Star Trek.  Essentially, they are lists of writers, directors, episode titles, cast members and people who worked behind the scenes on the various pre-Enterprise, Nemesis and J.J. Abrams reboot feature film projects.   Though casual readers might skip them, reviewers and trivia fans can peruse Appendices E-G for all sorts of details, like who wrote "Yesterday's Enterprise" (Ira Steven Behr & Richard Manning & Hans Bemler & Ronald D. Moore. From a story by Trent Christopher Ganino & Eric A. Stilwell) or to see how many roles James Sloyan played (Jarok, Alidar; Jetrel, Dr.; K'mtar; Mora Pol, Dr.) in the franchise.

Sadly, the high costs involved in publishing expensive reference books which don't sell as well as cheaper paperback novels, combined with the existence of online databases such as the one on StarTrek.com have caused Pocket Books to cease publishing further print editions of The Star Trek Encyclopedia.  The franchise has grown to encompass five TV series, 11 completed feature films and at least one more due in 2012 (as this is being written), so revising the entries for a print edition would be very time-consuming and expensive, especially when one considers that few readers would buy the book anyway.