Book Review: 'Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future'

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© 2018 Eaglemoss Ltd. STAR TREK marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios


On November 13, 2017, Eaglemoss Ltd's Hero Collector imprint published Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future, the second volume of a new and ongoing encyclopedia that focuses on the various space vessels seen in the Star Trek television and motion picture franchise. Edited by Ben Robinson, who also wrote the text along with Marcus Riley, this is a followup to Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2151-2293 and focuses on Federation vessels featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, as well as the four TNG  features released between 1994 and 2002.

Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future is divided into four chapters; each chapter is dedicated to specific ship types, starting with Small Transports and segueing into larger classes, such as Fighters and Multi-Mission Explorers such as the USS Lantree, Stargazer, Enterprise-C, Defiant, and the two Enterprise starships commanded by the legendary Capt. Jean-Luc Picard between 2364 and 2379.

© 2018 Eaglemoss Ltd. STAR TREK marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios

This volume features small transports, fighters, multi-mission explorers and time traveling ships from the distant future. Each ship is illustrated with CG artwork, including original VFX models made for the TV show, alongside a technical overview and operational history. Chapters include size charts, showing the ships to scale. An appendix of class listings is featured at the back of the book.

 STAR TREK SHIPYARDS is a series of lavishly illustrated books that provide in-universe profiles of STAR TREK ships, building into the ultimate illustrated encyclopedia of STAR TREK vessels. Each ship is profiled with technical information, operational history and plan view CG renders – wherever possible using the original VFX models that were used on the TV shows and movies. - Publisher's dustcover blurb (inside flap), Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future 

 My Take

 I've been a Star Trek fan for 40 years; ever since I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture on its first day of wide release in December of 1979 I've watched every TV series (including the new Star Trek: Discovery) and feature film released by Desilu, Paramount, and CBS All-Access.

And even though I know that the franchise is about the characters, whether they're the crews commanded by Jonathan Archer, Gabriel Lorca, Philippa Georgiu, James T. Kirk, or Jean-Luc Picard, I share many of my fellow Trekkers' affinity for the vessels on which our heroes serve.  That's why my Star Trek library includes such works as Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise (non-canon), Star Trek: Star Fleet Technical Manual (also non-canon), and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Technical Manual (the first of Pocket Books' triumvirate of canonical in-universe references created by Star Trek production team members, which also includes The Star Trek Encyclopedia and The Star Trek Chronology).

Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future is a slightly longer entry in Eaglemoss Ltd.'s new series of books that will cover starships and starship designs from the various factions seen in every official incarnation of Star Trek. As denoted by the book's title, the focus in the 240-page volume is on the Starfleet vessels that were on active duty from the last decade of the 23rd Century all the way to the 26th Century (the Enterprise-J featured in Star Trek: Enterprise's Azati Prime appears in Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future's fourth chapter.

As someone who loves fictitious "in-universe" references - I also used to have the fan-created Ships of the Star Fleet: 2290-91, a much-loved and sorely-missed volume done as a tip-of-the-hat to the Jane's Fighting Ships series of naval reference books - I strongly recommend Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future to all Star Trek fans.

Like the first volume of the Star Trek Shipyards series, Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future sticks to the Paramount/CBS Studios canon and depicts only those starships and small vessels seen on TV or on movie theater screens. Unlike Franz Joseph's 1975 The Star Fleet Technical Manual or Mastercomm Data Center's Ships of the Star Fleet: 2290-91, there are no "fanon" ships within this new book by Messrs. Robinson and Reily.

The book, as previously mentioned, is chock-full of detailed illustrations, most of which are computer generated renderings created by the artists who make the CG models used in the later seasons of TNG, as well as the complete runs of DS9, VOY, and movies such as Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis. 

As I said in my review of the first Star Trek Shipyards volume, none of the ships from the Kelvin Timeline (Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond) appear in the pages of Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294-The Future. Yes, the soft reboots of the so-called "Abramsverse" are considered canonical by Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, but the series' editor Ben Robinson is starting the Star Trek Shipyards encyclopedia with books set in the Prime Timeline. Eaglemoss Ltd. (the same company that makes the Star Trek Starships line of die-cast metal models) intends to devote an entire volume to the Kelvin Timeline, which Robinson has said will be published in due time.

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