Star Trek

This article is about the Star Trek franchise. For the original TV series, see Star Trek: The Original Series.

Star Trek is an American science-fiction franchise spanning six television series and ten feature films, hundreds of novels, computer and video games, and other fan stories, all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek is among the most popular of all science fiction works and is considered to be one of the iconic landmarks of American television.

Star Trek depicts a post World War III vision of an optimistic, utopian future in which science has united human beings with other sentient species in the galaxy, and thus helped humanity largely overcome many earth-bound frailties and vices such as racism, poverty, environmental destructiveness, intolerance, and superstition. The central characters are members of the United Federation of Planets, a collective of partner systems. The protagonists are essentially altruistic, however, they are members of the Federation's Starfleet and called on to leverage its position when ordered. The conflict and political dimensions of the stories allegorize the contemporary 1960's cultural realities and the original series is Roddenberry's hopeful comment on that time. Many issues depicted in the series such as imperialism, class warfare, human rights, and the role of technology resonated then and now, and in part explain Star Trek's longevity.

Television series

Star Trek originated as a television series in 1966, although it had been in the planning stages for at least six years prior to that. Although the show was cancelled in its third season due to low ratings, its success allowed it to serve as the inspiration for five additional Star Trek television series. Altogether, the six televisions series comprise a total of 726 episodes and thirty seasons worth of television.

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966–1969)

Main article: Star Trek: The Original Series

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The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Star Trek: The Original Series debuted on NBC on September 8, 1966, having aired in Canada some days earlier. The show, created by Gene Roddenberry and starring William Shatner as Captain Kirk, told the tale of the crew of the starship Enterprise and the crew's five-year mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." The starring characters in the three year series and the six movies, have become some of the most recognizable and remembered characters in television .

The first episode aired, "The Man Trap," was actually the fifth episode produced. Roddenberry created the pilot for Desilu Productions, which then shipped it to NBC. This episode, entitled "The Cage," starred a very different cast from the familiar one, led by veteran actor Jeffrey Hunter. This pilot and cast was rejected by NBC, but surprisingly, a second pilot was commissioned, featuring an almost entirely new cast led by William Shatner. This pilot was entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and now only the character of Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, and Majel Barrett playing a different character, remained. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" aired as the third episode, while "The Cage" was reworked into a lengthy flashback sequence in the two-part episode, "The Menagerie."

After only three seasons, the show was cancelled, and the last original episode aired on June 3, 1969, "Turnabout Intruder,". The series subsequently became phenomenally popular in reruns, a cult following developed, complete with fan conventions, and its growing popularity ultimately spawned a franchise of big budget feature films, toys, novels, comics and spinoff series created for syndicated networks.

Released as simply Star Trek, it has in recent years become known as Star Trek: The Original Series, abbreviated as ST:TOS or TOS, or as "Classic Trek," retronyms to distinguish it from its sequels and the franchise. All subsequent films and television series, except the animated series of the 1970s, have had secondary titles included as part of their official names. The original series currently airs on G4 and is to debut on TV Land in September 2006.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974)

Main article: Star Trek: The Animated Series

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The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in animated form

Star Trek: The Animated Series was produced by Filmation and ran for two seasons, with a total of 22 half-hour episodes. It featured most of the original cast performing the voices for their characters with the exception of Walter Koenig, who was not asked to return due to budgetary limitations. While the freedom of animation afforded large alien landscapes and exotic life forms, budget constraints were a major concern and animation was of moderate quality.

A few episodes are especially notable due to contributions from well known science-fiction authors. Although originally sanctioned by Paramount, the series, with the introduction of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is no longer considered to be canon, which has caused controversy among some fans. The episode "Yesteryear" is considered by some sources such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia to be a partial exception concerning the events depicted in Spock’s youth (although it still officially remains non-canon along with the rest of TAS). Even so, elements of the animated series have worked their way into official canon, such as Kirk’s middle name, Tiberius, first revealed in TAS and made official in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Star Trek: Enterprise also incorporated several TAS concepts into canon. TAS also came back to television in the mid 1980s on the children's cable network Nickelodeon, and in the early 1990s on cable network Sci-Fi Channel. Although the series was originally aired under the title The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, the series has since become widely known as (and officially rebranded by Paramount Studios) as Star Trek: The Animated Series (or abbreviated as ST:TAS or TAS), or infrequently on StarTrek.com, the official francise website, as Star Trek: The Animated Adventures or "ANI".

Star Trek: Phase II (1978; not produced)

Main article: Star Trek: Phase II

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Concept art from the series

Star Trek: Phase II was set to air in 1978 as the flagship series of a proposed Paramount television network, and 12 episode scripts were written before production was due to begin. This series would have put most of the original crew back aboard the Enterprise for a second five-year mission, except for Spock, because Leonard Nimoy did not agree to return; a younger full-blooded Vulcan named Xon was planned as a replacement, although it was still hoped that Nimoy would make guest appearances. Sets were constructed and several minutes of test footage were filmed. However, the risks of launching a fourth network and the popularity of the then-recently released film Star Wars led Paramount to make a Star Trek film instead of a weekly television series. The first script of this aborted series formed the basis of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, while three others were eventually adapted as episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)

Main article: Star Trek: The Next Generation

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The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (also known, colloquially, as The Next Generation, NextGen, ST:TNG, or TNG) is set nearly a century after the original series and features a new starship (also named Enterprise) and a new crew, once again venturing "where no one has gone before."

It premiered on September 28, 1987, with the 1 hour 30 minute pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," and ran for seven seasons, ending with the final episode, "All Good Things..." on May 23, 1994. The show gained a considerable following during its initial run. Even during that time, the show was produced mainly for syndication.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had the highest ratings of all the Star Trek series and was the #1 syndicated show during the last few years of its original run. It was the only Star Trek series, and the only syndicated series, to ever be nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series, which came during its final season in 1994. Because of its widespread acceptance, The Next Generation is sometimes regarded as a kind of 'golden age' for Star Trek.

The New Captain was Jean-Luc Picard, a Frenchman with an English accent played by Patrick Stewart. His First Officer, or "number one", was William Thomas Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, and was a kind of tribute to Kirk in that he was often sleeping with the various female guest stars. The New Doctor was Beverly Crusher portrayed by Gates McFadden; she had a son named Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton) who became an acting ensign in the second season, a full ensign in the third season, and eventually ascended to a higher level of existence with the help of The Traveler. The New Security Chief was Tasha Yar, played by Denise Crosby, who was killed in the first season and replaced after her death by Lieutenant Worf, played by Michael Dorn (Worf was on the show during season 1, just not security chief). The new chief engineer, who did not have the post until the second season, was Geordi La Forge, a blind man who was able to see with a device known as a VISOR. He was played by LeVar Burton. The New Science Officer was Lt. Commander Data, an android portrayed by Brent Spiner. A new post on the ship was that of ship's counselor, in the form of Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999)

Main article: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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Space station Deep Space Nine (DS9)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 or DS9) ran for seven seasons. It stars Avery Brooks as Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, the first black man in the lead role. This is also the first Star Trek series to take place primarily on a space station, rather than aboard a starship, although the USS Defiant is frequently used.

It chronicles the events centering on the Federation station Deep Space Nine, which is found to be near a uniquely stable wormhole that provides immediate access to the distant Gamma Quadrant. This makes the station a vital strategic and commercial gateway to a largely unexplored area of space. Complications include the repercussions of the lengthy and brutal occupation of the nearby planet Bajor by the Cardassians, Sisko's unique spiritual role for the Bajorans as the Emissary of the Prophets, and a major war with the shapeshifting Changelings of the Gamma Quadrant.

Deep Space Nine sheds some of the utopian themes that embodied the previous versions of Star Trek, and focuses more on war, religion and political compromise. It also abandoned the widely accepted format in the franchise at the time of having each episode be self-contained, and instead embraced a "serialized" storytelling format, most notably once the Dominion War storyline began.

The show also embraced humor, with several comic relief characters and episodes devoted to showing the crew engaging in various comic scenerios (such as Sisko trying to teach the crew how to play baseball so that they could play an ultra-talented all-Vulcan baseball team). The show also indulged in retro 1950s fantasy during the later seasons, with the creation of a fully developed holodeck world based around 1950s Las Vegas that the crew would visit for various adventures.

Of the various spin-offs, Deep Space Nine has a particularly devoted fan base, who call themselves "Niners". Characters such as enigmatic Cardassian spy Elim Garak inspire cult-like followings of their own. The show also featured one of the franchise's most beloved "love stories" in the form of the shapeshifter Odo's quest to win the love of the Bajoran Colonel Kira Nerys.

This was the first Star Trek series without any direct input from (the by then deceased) Gene Roddenberry. Debate still rages over whether he would have approved of Deep Space Nine, particularly given the series rejection of Roddenberry's long-standing disdain for lengthy serialized storytelling or allowed conflict within the station's crew, something which Roddenberry had forbidden in any Trek script.

Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001)

Main article: Star Trek: Voyager

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USS Voyager (NCC-74656)

Star Trek: Voyager (also known as ST:VOY, ST:VGR, VOY or Voyager) was produced for seven seasons, and is the only Star Trek series to feature a woman, Captain Kathryn Janeway, as the commanding officer.

The plot of Voyager mirrors somewhat those of The Odyssey and Lost in Space, with the USS Voyager and crew stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years from Earth, by an entity known as "The Caretaker." Given a 70-year voyage back to Earth, the crew must avoid temptations and defeat challenges on its long and perilous journey home. While the Voyager was originally isolated from many of the familiar aspects of the Star Trek franchise, later seasons saw an influx of concepts such as the Borg and "Q", which led to the introduction of the first full-time Borg character in the form of the voluptuous sex symbol Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).

It was during this show's run that criticism of producer Rick Berman began to mount, coinciding with the growth in popularity of online discussion forums that amplified the message of a vocal group of fans who felt Berman was no longer welcome as the franchise leader. The addition of Seven of Nine, and other changes to the series, were regarded as attempts to enliven the show and add a sexual element.

Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005)

Main article: Star Trek: Enterprise

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The early starship Enterprise (NX-01)

Star Trek: Enterprise (named simply Enterprise during its first two seasons and the first few episodes of its third, and abbreviated as ST:ENT or ENT) is a prequel to the other Star Trek series. The pilot episode, "Broken Bow," takes place ten years before the founding of the Federation, about halfway between the "historic" events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek series. This series depicts the exploration of space by the crew of the Earthship Enterprise, a new NX-class starship, which is able to go farther and faster than any humans had previously gone. Its theme began, showing humans and Vulcans eventually becoming friends.

Star Trek: Enterprise was promoted as being more accessible for newcomers to the Star Trek franchise, as well as for taking place during the formative years of the Federation. Ratings for Enterprise started strong, but declined rapidly (see the main article for discussion as to possible reasons); and, as it had done during the initial airing of The Original Series, fan support during Enterprise's second and third seasons helped keep the series on the air. At the start of Enterprise’s fourth season, writer and executive producer Manny Coto took over as the primary “show runner” from Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. The fourth season of Enterprise was the most critically lauded season of the series, and several websites and critics contend that this is the season when Enterprise finally lived up to its potential. Despite that, the show continued to lose ratings during the fourth season, and Paramount cancelled the show in early 2005.

Multi-part and feature-length stories

Long, multi-part stories and story arcs were never part of The Original Series, with each episode being a self-contained story in itself. The exception to this was the two part story The Menagerie from the first season, which was an attempt to utilize the footage of the original pilot episode, The Cage. For this, a framework story was established in the first part, with the pilot footage forming the bulk of the second part.

The trend for episodes to be self-contained units continued in the early seasons of The Next Generation, with the feature length pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, being the only one longer than 45 minutes up to the end of Season Three. Then, it was decided to introduce a cliffhanger at the end of the third season with The Best of Both Worlds. After this point, cliffhangers were a regular occurrance at the end of each season of The Next Generation. Then, in Season Five, the series also introduced two parters during the season, beginning with Unification, which saw one or two per season. The final episode, All Good Things..., was a feature length episode, beginning a trend for modern Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine continued the trend for multi part stories with its feature-length pilot, Emissary. However, the series did not have straight cliffhangers to begin with - the first two seasons saw general continuations of a story arc from the end of the previous season. The first straight two parter was The Maquis, near the end of Season Two. Season Three saw a pair of ordinary two parters, The Search and Past Tense. However, after this, multi-part stories tended to have different episode titles, with another two feature length episodes The Way of the Warrior (Season Four premiere) and What You Leave Behind (Series Finale).

Voyager also had a feature length pilot, Caretaker, and, from the end of Season Two onwards, tended to have a cliffhanger at the end of each season. The series also followed The Next Generation's lead of having one or two two-part stories mid season. As with Deep Space Nine, at least two feature length episodes were produced during the course of the series, Dark Frontier (Season Five) and Flesh and Blood (Season Seven) prior to the feature length finale, Endgame.

The fifth series, Enterprise, followed a mix of multi-part styles, with standalone two parters and feature length stories a la TNG and VGR, combined with a DS9 style story arc through much of Season Three. Then, during the fourth season, there were three and two-parters about classic Trek materials before the much-disliked series finale These Are the Voyages...

For a list of multi-part episodes, see List of Star Trek episodes.

Feature films

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The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), from films VIII-X

Ten Star Trek feature films have been produced by Paramount Pictures. The first six continue the adventures of the TOS cast, while the later four feature the TNG cast. The seventh film, Star Trek: Generations, serves as a "bridge" film between the TOS and the TNG eras. Although North American and UK releases of the films were no longer numbered following the sixth film, European releases continued numbering the films.

A common and fondly-held superstition among fans is that the even-numbered Star Trek films are superior to the odd-numbered Star Trek films. A statistical test based on IMDb data lends credence to this conclusion [1]. Star Trek II, IV, VI and Star Trek: First Contact are usually considered the fan-favorites, while Star Trek I and V are usually at the bottom (though I has since received quite a bit of positive re-evaluation in the wake of an acclaimed "Director's Edition" revision released on DVD). This is not wholly applicable, however; Star Trek III followed on from the success of Star Trek II, which continued into Star Trek IV. Another exception is X (Star Trek: Nemesis), which was one of the most critically derided Star Trek films. Many critics accused it of attempting to imitate the plot (and success) of Star Trek II. Despite fetching the lowest revenue at the box office in Star Trek history, its 2003 DVD release sold well. A new, eleventh (and as-yet-untitled) film in the series has been announced for release in 2008.

Novels

Main article: List of Star Trek novels

Cover of the 1997 Star Trek: New Frontier debut novel, House of Cards, showing main character Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, in the center.

The Star Trek novels typically fill "holes" in the Star Trek story and timeline, with explanations of events which have never been adequately explained through live action productions. The term was first used in 1966 by writer D.C. Fontana to describe information put forth in the backstory of Doctor Leonard McCoy.

The first original Star Trek novel (for adult readers) was published in 1970 by Bantam Books, which held the licensing rights for original Trek fiction throughout the 1970s. However, since 1980 the publishing company Simon and Schuster has been most directly responsible for contributing to the Star Trek Expanded Universe through its license with Pocket Books which has generated a large number of Star Trek novels over the past twenty five years, based upon all of the live-action series.

Many have been accepted by Trek fans as being canon, even though Paramount Pictures, owners of the Star Trek franchise, considers only live-action television and film productions to be canon.

Star Trek: New Frontier is a Star Trek novel series created by John J. Ordover and Peter David and published by Pocket Books. The idea behind it was to create a Star Trek book series with its own continuity and not one that is purely reactionary to the television shows. Nearly every story of the series is written by series co-creator Peter David.

New Frontier may be considered a turning point in the publishing of Star Trek novels. Encouraged by the freedom that this allowed and the popularity of New Frontier, the Star Trek editors started several new series over the years (with varying degrees of succeess), including Diane Carey's short lived Star Trek: Challenger, Michael Jan Friedman's Star Trek: Stargazer, Keith R. A. DeCandido's Star Trek: I.K.S. Gorkon, Star Trek: Vanguard, the e-book series Star Trek: S.C.E. (Starfleet Corps of Engineers), Star Trek: Excelsior a non-related series of books about the USS Excelsior, and a handful of other individual novels not directly based on any series. Similarly, authors have taken advantage of this new freedom for the post-series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch and Star Trek: Voyager relaunch along with the post-film novels based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, including the spinoff Star Trek: Titan. All of these Star Trek book series in recent years have been written to be consistent with one another and have formed their own Expanded Universe.

Other storylines and canonicity

Main articles: Star Trek canon; Star Trek, other storylines; and Star Trek, fan made productions

The Star Trek canon comprises the five live-action TV series and ten motion pictures. The animated series, books, comic books, video games, and other materials based on Star Trek, though licensed by Paramount Pictures, are generally considered non-canon, as are fan-made (or "fanon") productions set within the Star Trek universe.

Outside of the television series and motion pictures produced by Paramount pictures, the Star Trek franchise has been officially expanded and elaborated on by various authors and artists in the so-called "Star Trek Expanded Universe," despite the fact that Paramount does not consider these derivative works canon. The creators of these works are generally free to tell their own stories set in the Star Trek universe, and are free to either keep an existing continuity, or use their own. (Similarly, writers for TV and film are under no obligation to pay heed to any of the derivative works.) These works often expand the back stories of characters, species, planets, etc, already seen in the official live-action productions. For example, the Voyager novels Mosaic and Pathways are known to have given essential background information for characters in the Voyager live-action series.

The Star Trek series has also inspired many unofficial fan-made productions. For example, in recent years, Star Trek fan films have been created for distribution over the Internet. Currently, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier which is a continuation of the timeline after the Dominion War from the perspective of a station and fleet in the Briar Patch, and Star Trek: New Voyages, a "continuation" of the original Star Trek, are prominent fan series. While none of these projects are licensed by Paramount, some have attracted participation from official cast and crew.

Cultural impact

Main article: Cultural impact of Star Trek

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A commemorative postage stamp issued by the United States Postal Service.

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The inaugural (and test) space shuttle Enterprise in 1976.

|} The Star Trek anthology is one of the most culturally influential television shows. The Original Series (TOS), which aired in the late sixties, has since spawned four successor series, ten feature films, a plethora of merchandise, and a multibillion dollar industry collectively known as the Star Trek franchise (owned by Paramount).

Gene Roddenberry sold TOS to NBC as a classic adventure drama -- he pitched the show as a "Wagon Train to the stars." Though set on a fictional starship, Roddenberry wanted to tell more sophisticated stories using futuristic situations as analogies for current problems on Earth and rectifying them through humanism and optimism. The opening line "to boldly go where no man has gone before" was taken almost verbatim from a US White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957. The central trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was modeled on classical mythological storytelling. Harking of human diversity and contemporaneous political circumstances, Roddenberry included a multi-ethnic crew.

Star Trek and its spin-offs have proved highly popular in television repeats, and are shown endlessly on TV stations worldwide. The show’s cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular, though now often merged with conventions of other genres, and fans have coined the term "Trekkies" (or "Trekkers") to describe themselves. An entire subculture has grown up around the show.

Classical music pervades the Star Trek franchise. Many fans have discovered classical music from each of the various series, most notably Star Trek: The Next Generation. Beautiful works such as the string sextets of Johannes Brahms and the piano works of Erik Satie, which had previously resided in the domain of classical music aficionados, are beginning to enter into the public eye.

The Star Trek franchise is believed to have motivated the design of many current technologies, including the Tablet PC, the PDA, and mobile phones. It has also brought to popular attention the concept of teleportation with its classic depiction of "matter-energy transport". Phrases such as "Beam me up, Scotty" have entered the vernacular. In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its first space shuttle, Enterprise, after the fictional starship. Encouraged by the burgeoning fan base for the show throughout the seventies, Roddenberry sought to start a second television series; this abortive attempt morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. The movie did sufficiently well at the box office to produce more films during the eighties. In 1986, Roddenberry returned to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), which was set more than seventy years after the earlier series and related movies. TNG was syndicated through local TV stations rather than a nationwide network. It became the number one syndicated TV show, lasting seven seasons, resulting in two sequels, a prequel, four movies, a vast marketing business, and a considerable fan base.

Many fans contend that the Star Trek franchise, particularly after Roddenberry's death in 1991, has reached a nadir. Reduced viewership and box office receipts for recent productions and the short tenure of Star Trek: Enterprise point to decreased popularity. Some assert that the many incarnations are formulaic, repetitive, mediocre, and sometimes inconsistent, while others ascribe this decline to poor decisionmaking at Paramount.

Current status and future of the franchise

• Reruns of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are aired regularly on Spike TV in the United States. Spike TV will also begin airing reruns of Voyager in the fall of 2006, as part of its original deal for all three series.
• In December 2005, Comcast's G4 network announced it had obtained the syndication rights for both TNG and TOS. G4 has been airing TNG since January 8 and currently airs Star Trek 2.0 (featuring the original Star Trek accompanied by various interactive features), while Spike will continue to broadcast TNG as well.
• TOS, TNG, and Voyager air daily in Canada on Space: The Imagination Station, which also purchased Enterprise for daily rebroadcasts starting in the fall of 2005.
• In the UK, reruns of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise air regularly on Sky One and Sky Two, TOS is also being shown on the Sci-Fi Channel weekdays at 7pm, and the terrestrial network Five recently began showing Voyager on weekday afternoons. The BBC have also started showing "The Next Generation" and "TOS" on Saturday Mornings also.
• In Australia, reruns of TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise air regularly on Foxtel/Austar's TV1 and TV1 +2 (Foxtel/Austar Digital subscribers only) during the late Sunday night "Sci-Fi Sector" which also shows other sci-fi shows such as Stargate SG-1.

After Enterprise was cancelled in 2005, the Star Trek franchise found itself for the first time in over 25 years without a series or film in production or development. Though some assumed that the franchise was essentially dead, predictions of its demise are nothing new. As early as 1993–1994, when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine failed to generate the high ratings of its predecessor, magazines such as Entertainment Weekly predicted the end of the franchise. The rumored near-cancellation of Star Trek: Voyager in the mid-1990s led to more such predictions, as did the poor box-office performance of Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 and the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. However, in April 2006, the official announcement of an eleventh feature film, to be produced by Alias creator and Lost co-creator J. J. Abrams, made it probable that the franchise has not yet ended.

References

Bibliography

Star Trek may be the most documented entertainment franchise in history. Here are a few of the major reference works related to the production and influence of the franchise.

• The Making of Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen PE. Whitfield (Ballantine Books, 1968)
• The Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold (Ballantine, 1973)
• The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold (Ballantine Books, 1973; revised edition, Bluejay Books, 1984)
• Star Trek Lives! by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, and Joan Winston (Bantam Books, 1975)
• The Making of the Trek Conventions by Joan Winston (Doubleday Books/Playboy Press, 1977)
• A Star Trek Catalog edited by Gerry Turnbull (Grosset & Dunlap, 1979)
• On the Good Ship Enterprise: My 15 Years with Star Trek by Bjo Trimble (Donning Starblaze, 1983)
• Star Trek Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (HarperCollins, 1993)
• Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (HarperCollins, 1994)
• Beyond Uhura by Nichelle Nichols (Putnam, 1994)
• The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss (Basic Books, 1995)
• City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison (White Wolf Publishing, 1996)
• Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, edited by Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, Kent A. Ono, Elyce Rae Helford (Westview Press, 1996)
• Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman (Pocket Books, 1996)
• Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth by Jeff Greenwald (Viking Press, 1998)
• Get a Life! by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (Pocket Books, 1999)
• The Ethics of Star Trek by Judith Barad Ph.D. with Ed Robertson (HarperCollins, 2000)
• I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact by William Shatner and Chip Walter (Pocket Books, 2002)
• Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry by Susan Sackett (Hawk Publishing Group, 2002)
• Picard: The Academy Years by M.N.Lake (Dragon Publishing, 2005)

External links

• StarTrek.com - The Official Star Trek website
• Memory Alpha - A Star Trek Wiki.