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Reviews on Star Trek Encyclopedia and Chronology

This is a review on the official Star Trek Encyclopedias and Chronology books and CD-ROMs published by Pocket Books and/or Simon & Schuster, under license from Paramount. This is not an objective, thorough review that you would expect from a professional writer, but instead, you will read about my views and my personal opinions about the book or CD-ROM. Sometimes I would include certain interesting aspects of the item in contention, such as pictures or written entries, and make comparisons among the books and CD-ROMs. I would also state my opinion as to whether an item could have been produced as a source of information to the Star Trek fans, or they were produced just so that the publishers could grab more money from the readers. As you may already know, there are many books that had been considered canon until they were disavowed by more recent publications. I still consider these disavowed books as an interesting read as they give an idea of what had been perceived before canonical information were created. Some of these books were actually published with authority from Paramount, as a way of "filling in the blanks" to provide fans with information on uncertain time periods in the Star Trek universe, such as what happened between the present-day and TOS, or what happened between TOS and the first Star Trek movie. Sometimes even RPG companies were allowed to create their own information in these books. As the more recent series of TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT provided canon information about these time periods, the previous publications had mostly become disavowed by Paramount and the Star Trek producers, much to the dismay of fans who had whole-heartly embraced the information previously published. These 'disavowed information' were released to fans who were hungry for Star Trek information years after the end of the TOS run, so it is understandable for the fans to be angry at being told that what they had come to accept as the truth had become totally disregarded. In addition, other publications such as novels, games and comics became considered as non-canonical, and Roddenberry himself instructed Paramount not to consider TAS as part of the official Star Trek universe, being upset at some elements of the show. This of course dismayed many TAS fans, books fans and comic readers. Personally, I follow the Paramount line of Star Trek novels and TAS as not being part of the Star Trek universe, but I consider some Star Trek games and Star Trek Comics (only DC TOS vol.1) as part of the Star Trek universe, since I like those games and also that particular series of comics.

Star Trek Chronology, 1st Edition (published April 1993)

Star Trek Chronology received much fan attention as it was the first official Star Trek chronology to be published after many years since the last official chronology, which had only included information on TOS and none on TNG. The chronology has only black and white photographs, and contain information up to TNG season 5. The authors did not refer to any of the fandom chronologies when writing this book, but instead based the chronology on some basic assumptions, mainly the idea that TOS was set in the future. It was assumed that TOS occurred 300 years from the first airing of the episodes in the 1960s, to account for the advances in technology. This therefore established the time period of TOS to be in the 23rd century (to be more precise, around the 2260s). Another basic assumption was that the first season of TNG occurred in the year 2364, a fact itself established in the episode "The Neutral Zone" (TNG). Working from these two assumptions, the authors actually found that the history of the Star Trek universe more or less held together, although conjectural dates were given for certain undated events, another way of "filling in the blanks". It was also decided that TOS episodes will be listed according to their production order, and not according to their original airdates. TNG episodes will also follow their production order, except for certain exceptions. This will be a decision that will return to haunt the authors during the writing of Star Trek Omnipedia as well as the 2nd edition of the Chronology.

Here are some interesting information about the Star Trek Chronology (1st ed.). Star Trek modeler Greg Jein built several spacecraft models that were seen for the first time in some of the photographs in the chronology. These include the conjectural designs for Zefram Cochrane's first warp-powered spaceship, the SS Valiant (mentioned in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" [TOS], and assumed operated in 2065), an early Romulan warship which supposedly saw combat during the Romulan Wars, and the Daedalus-class starship (the design of early Federation starships, based on an early concept design of the USS Enterprise by Matt Jefferies).

Among the conjectural information given in the Chronology include: - Zefram Cochrane conducted Earth's first warp flight in 2061. - The Romulan Wars occurred from 2156 to 2160. - The starships USS Archon ("Return of the Archons" [TOS]) and USS Horizon ("A Piece of the Action" [TOS]) were assumed to be of the same class as USS Essex ("Power Play" [TNG]), which was established to be Daedalus-class, since the three starships operated at around the same time (USS Essex was lost in 2167, USS Archon lost in 2167, and USS Horizon lost in 2168). The idea that there had existed the Daedalus-class starship received semi-canon status when a model of USS Horizon became a set decoration in Sisko's office on DS9. Although the Enterprise NX-01 from ENT looks pretty much more advanced than USS Horizon and even USS Enterprise NCC-1701, it is still possible that the design lineage will evolve in the direction of the Daedalus-class and Constitution-class. Or rather, the Daedalus-class could easily become disavowed by the next edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia.

Earth's first warp-powered spaceship (conjectural)

SS Valiant (conjectural)

Early Romulan warship (conjectural)

Daedalus-class starship (conjectural)

- The USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was said to have been launched in 2245 under the command of Captain Robert April. This is based on Gene Roddenberry's suggestion that the Enterprise was 20 years old at the time of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (TOS) (set in 2265). It was Roddenberry's intention for the Enterprise to be a ship with "some history" by the time of the start of TOS. This is inconsistent with Admiral Morrow's line in ST3, where he says that Enterprise was 20 years old at that point (2285). The problem with Morrow's line is that it would mean that the ship was launched just before TOS, and this contradicts "The Menagerie" (TOS) which suggests that Spock had served aboard the Enterprise with Captain Pike for over 11 years, since 2252. For this reason the authors chose to use Roddenberry's date of 2245 for the Enterprise's launch. Captain Robert April is not based on any direct evidence from the show, but is included at Roddenberry's suggestion. The name "Robert April" is the name Roddenberry had considered for the captain in his first proposal for the Star Trek series. Although I am not sure, the photograph of Robert April in the Chronology bears a close resemblance to Gene Roddenberry himself, but this is not stated in the book. Star Trek Chronology also provided some tentative information on episodes that were still in-production at the writing of the book and were yet to be shown. The entry for "Montgomery Scott" in the Appendix states that a TNG season 6 episode ("Relics" [TNG]) was being planned that will establish that Scotty disappeared in 2294, only to reappear in 2369. In the entry for "Invention of the Transporter", it is stated that another planned TNG season 6 episode ("Realm of Fear" [TNG]) may establish that the transporter was developed around 2158, difficulties were encountered during the initial use of transporter with human subjects around 2209, and that these problems were eliminated around 2219. The episode actually state that the transporter problems were solved in 2319. Perhaps 2219 was only a tentative date on the script. Anyway, ENT would establish that transporters were already invented by 2151, as a transporter was installed on the Enterprise NX-01, although the crew would be reluctant to use it routinely because of distrust ("Broken Bow" [ENT]). I do not understand why, of all the photographs of characters in the Chronology, only the character of Plasus (on  pg. 66) has the honour of having the actor's name (Jeff Corey) alongside it. This will also happen again in the 2nd edition of the Chronology. The date of ST:TMP was set to be two and a half years after the end of the TOS run, as suggested by dialog in the film, although the characters appear to have aged much older (actually more like 10 years, ie. the period between 1969 and 1979, considering that TAS was not taken into account). There is one remarkable error towards the end of the book. It was stated in "By Any Other Name" (TOS) (set in 2269) that radiation levels in the Andromeda Galaxy are expected to reach intolerably high within ten millennia. Star Trek Chronology (1st ed.) dates this event to the 33rd century, when in fact it should happen in the 123rd century. This error is corrected in the 2nd edition of the Chronology. In the acknowledgments, the authors thanked 'John Whorfin of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems' for his contribution to the book, starting off a trend of thanking fictional characters that would continue in future publications (I believe that Whorfin guy comes from Buckaroo Banzai, a movie that was an inspiration not only to the authors of the book, but also to the producers of Star Trek).

The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 1st Edition (published April 1994)

The Star Trek Encyclopedia received much praise from Star Trek fans when it was first released as it was the first encyclopedia of the Star Trek universe to be published with official authority from Paramount. The Encyclopedia contains information on TOS (all seasons), TNG (seasons 1 to 6) and DS9 (season 1 only). But like the Star Trek Chronology (1st ed.), all the photographs are in black and white. Although its information on TNG is only limited from seasons 1 to 6, the Encyclopedia provides some information on the then still in-production (at the writing of the book) TNG season 7 episodes. Or rather, perhaps information on only a couple of episode. The entries for "warp drive" and "warp factor" includes information on the "new" normal cruising speed of warp 5, established when it was found that speeds exceeding warp 5 could cause dangerous damage to the space-time continuum. This fact was only given in the TNG season 7 episode "Force of Nature" (TNG). The entry for "Kor" gave brief mention of the re-appearances of Kor, Kang and Koloth in "Blood Oath" (DS9), a DS9 season 2 episode then still in-production. Missing in the book are Greg Jein's conjectural designs for Earth's first warp-powered spacecraft and the early Romulan warship. They have presumably become disavowed. Also disavowed are information that Earth's first warp flight took place in 2061, and the idea that the Romulan Wars started in 2156 (the book only states that the war ocurred around 2160). The conjectural designs for SS Valiant and Dadedalus-class starships still remained in the Encyclopedia.

The listing of entries in The Star Trek Encyclopedia deserves some scrutiny as the authors chose to list entries on organization-associated topics ahead of the entry for the organization, eg. topics such as "Starfleet Academy" and "Starfleet Command" come before "Starfleet". Alphabetically, this is not correct, and this also caused some dissension since some fans would want to read about the organization first before learning about their topics. I had expected that every character entry would come with a photograph of the character, but realistically this could not be done. So only certain characters have their photographs in this book. The entry for "Adele, Aunt" includes a picture of Star Trek assistant director Adele Simmons, whom the character was named after. Following the trend of thanking fictional characters, you may find the names of 'Heywood Floyd', 'Kermit the Frog', 'Luke Skywalker', 'Cosmic Osmo', 'Max Headroom', and 'everyone at the Banzai Institute' in the acknowledgment section.

Star Trek Omnipedia CD-ROM (released August 1995)

The Star Trek Omnipedia CD-ROM is literally a Star Trek fan's ultimate dream. For the first time you can have access to information on the Star Trek universe on a computer, just like a crew member on the USS Enterprise-D using a computer console. Furthermore, the graphics on the Omnipedia utilize the LCARs format and Okudagrams, resembling a 24th century interface. The Omnipedia contains information on TOS (all seasons), TNG (all seasons) and DS9 (again season 1 only). Apart from an (almost) alphabetical index of Star Trek topics, there are also multimedia resources including colour photographs, video clips, pictures of starships and equipment, another chronology, an episode guide, and five special topics (careers of Kirk and Picard, history of Enterprise, Future, Star Trek) narrated by Mark Lenard, who protrays Sarek in TOS. As you can see, the cover for Star Trek Omnipedia is a variation of the cover for The Star Trek Encyclopedia (1st ed.), a design that will continue in subsequent encyclopedias. Although you may see the USS Voyager on the cover, the Omnipedia has scarcely any information on VOY since the show was only starting off at the time of writing. There are pictures of the Intrepid-class starship, only two photographs of Voyager, and only a brief mention of the loss of Voyager at the end of both Future and Star Trek topics.

In the chronology section, the authors decided to arrange the TNG season 6 and 7 episodes and DS9 season 1 episodes according to their airdates order, instead of production order as in Star Trek Chronology (1st ed.). The two shows overlap each other, and the only way for both shows to be consistent with each other was for the episodes to be listed in their airdates orders. The use of the airdate order comes under further scrutiny during the writing of the 2nd edition of the Chronology. The Omnipedia does not include information on Star Trek Generations in both the encyclopedia and chronology sections, although the movie had alredy opened in 1994, but only a sneak peak is given in the topic sections. Apparently, ST:G was tentatively set in 2294, and this was later changed to 2293. The Omnipedia purports to have information on all 7 seasons of TNG, yet there is no photographs from any TNG season 7 episodes. I can only say that the authors did a lacklusture job in writing the Omnipedia, since the product is so incomplete! Perhaps they were too pre-occupied with their work.

This is how the picture of the USS Voyager looks like in the Future topic.

There are numerous pictures avaliable in the Omnipedia, and here are some highlights: - All pictures for the Excelsior-class starships show the variant version of the Excelsior-class, first seen as the USS Enterprise-B in ST:G, instead of the original design seen in ST3 and throughout TNG. - The entry for "USS Intrepid NCC-38907" says that the starship is of Excelsior-class. However, it gives a picture of an Intrepid-class starship instead. This is wrong, although there is presumably another USS Intrepid which is the prototype for the Intrepid-class starships. - There are rare photographs of Lt. Ilia and Cmdr. Xon, two characters who were supposed to appear in Star Trek Phase II, a sequel series to TOS that was supposed to be produced in the 1970s before Paramount decided to cancel the series and produce the first Star Trek movie instead.

This is not the original design of the Excelsior-class starship, but is only a variant version.

- Below is a comparison of two Starfleet Academy emblems avaliable in the ST Omnipedia. To the left is a photograph of the Starfleet Academy emblem first seen in "The First Duty" (TNG). On the right is a picture of the same emblem, except that the wording of the Starfleet motto has been changed slightly, from "Ex Astra, Scientia" to "Ex Astris, Scientia". From what I read elsewhere on the internet, the right emblem has the correct wording. Evidently, the producers of TNG realised their mistake and had corrected the emblem in subsequent episodes and publications, unless the Academy motto had been wrong for over 207 years until someone in 2368 politely pointed out the error to Starfleet Academy (!). The encyclopedia states that Starfleet Academy was established in 2161, and I wonder if this date is still plausible since ENT has established that Starfleet had existed as early as in 2143 ("First Flight" [ENT]). It is possible that Starfleet did not have an academy in its early years but instead recruited its members from other space organizations, or that Starfleet could have had some training facilities but they were not referred to as an academy.

Lt. Ilia

Cmdr. Xon, a character intended to replace Mr. Spock.

Here's another upside-down picture in the ST Omnipedia.

The corrected Starfleet Academy emblem.

Starfleet Academy emblem as seen in "The First Duty" (TNG).

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