The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion [Paperback]

Larry Nemecek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995 | Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

"The Star Trek: The Next Generation® Companion" is the complete guide to the series that brought " "Star Trek" ®" ® back to television for seven extremely successful seasons. Episode-by-episode summaries, credits, and behind-the-scenes notes that shed intriguing light on the production of the show. This edition is updated to include information on the film "Star Trek Generations." Indexed by episode number, by writer, guest stars, and directors, it's the one book that brings all this information together between two covers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Star Trek: The Next Generation^® Companion is the complete guide to the series that brought Star Trek^®® back to television for seven extremely successful seasons. Episode-by-episode summaries, credits, and behind-the-scenes notes that shed intriguing light on the production of the show. This edition is updated to include information on the film Star Trek Generations. Indexed by episode number, by writer, guest stars, and directors, it's the one book that brings all this information together between two covers.

About the Author

Larry Nemecek is a widely respected expert on Star Trek who was for several years the editor of the US magazine Star Trek: Communicator. He is a consultant on the Star Trek Fact Files and is known to UK Star Trek fans for his regular column in Star Trek: Monthly in which he answers readers' questions on all aspects of Star Trek. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek; revised edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671883402
• ISBN-13: 978-0671883409
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,117,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good companion!, September 5, 2002

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K. Wyatt "ssintrepid" (Cape Girardeau, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion (Paperback)

The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion is a very good companion in my opinion. It is especially helpful now that we are finally getting all the seasons on DVD. The one complaint that I could register is all the pictures being black and white. They could've put color pictures in and I'm sure everybody would've paid a little more for it. It includes brief but worthwhile synopsis's of all 176 episodes, very good notes on each season and a detailed chapter on Star Trek Generations. Overall, a very good companion, if you're a Star Trek fan and you've not picked this up, do so before they go completely out of production and your stuck paying a higher price for a used one down the road.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly Disappointing, January 18, 2003

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cpen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (Paperback)

My advice: Don't read the DS9 Companion before reading this one. Why? Because you'll agree with my review title.
The DS9 Companion weighs in at a hefty 800 pages, while this REVISED TNG Companion is a mere 384 pages, and that includes about 10 hours more source material than the DS9 one (the four movies and 2 episodes). The missing 416 pages comes from a smaller, compressed font used in certain areas (cast lists, episode notes, and movie summaries), but most of it is due to shorter summaries and notes than used in the DS9 one. I noticed many factoids and behind the scenes anecdotes that could have been included but weren't. The biggest disappointment, I think, came from the Nemesis section which didn't answer certain things (i.e., what were their plans for Seven, and who is this Cmdr. Martin Madden listed in the credits).
That having been said, I have been and always shall be a TNG fan, since I practically grew up on it, so this book provided an interesting perspective on the series. My only real problem with it lies in the fact that sometimes it seems that a little more work could have been put into it (i.e., typos in normal words and in proper nouns, a few mixed-up facts).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Short, sweet compliment to the DVDs, March 3, 2003

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (Paperback)

The synposis of the plots are quick and to the point--which is what a synposis is supposed to do provide a brief snapshot of a film or television episode. I love having this book around as I can never remember the title (or season) many of my fav episodes are on (Hollow Pursuits was one I couldn't recall for example and this book pointed me to the right DVD). By all rights an abridged version of this should have been included for each season of the DVDs.

The pictures are plentiful and although I would have preferred more backstory on the making of each episode (as well as behind the scenes photos), the info on each episode is fascinating. While this book doesn't sweep out all the dirt on the difficulities of Next Gen (for an accurate, well rounded story of the difficulties during Gene Roddenberry's second series I'd recommend Joel Engel's informed and well researched biography of the Great Bird of the Galaxy), there are a number of comments that hint at the difficult birth of Next Gen among them the large number of writer/producers that came and went prior to the arrival of Michael Pillar.

Next Gen really hit its stride during it's third and fourth season maintaining the quality for the bulk of the run of the series. Nemecek honestly asseses some of the worst episodes and the best. His comments from many of the writers also provides insight into the community writing method used to keep the quality high on Next Gen scripts. While this could and did work against some fine episodes, it also enhanced many of the best shows.

There is an exhaustive credit list of the writers/directors and guest actors for each episode. While this isn't the perfect Next Gen companion (perhaps an unoffical one will dig a little deeper into the struggles of the show and it's creative apex), it does provide a brief overview of each episode, credits and fairly objective overview on the various episodes strengths and weaknesses.