Customer Reviews

The Star Trek, The Next Generation Companion

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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).

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.

This book gives detailed synopses of each episode (with backstage notes for each one, including trivia, effects insights, and thoughts of the creators) and also includes the feature film "Generations" as a bonus. An excellent guide and a must have for anyone who enjoys collecting the episodes. It's a great coffee-table style book, fun to thumb through, and has pictures from each episode. All in all, an excellent buy.

This book is an absolute must-have for all TNG fans, from the most casual viewer to even the most die-hard Trekker. Beautifully written, extremely well-organized and cross referenced, this guide takes you on a tour of TNG's 7-year stint, complete with show information, plot outlines, and incredible behind-the-scenes information on every episode. Add to that the excellent introductory chapters which chart TNG's growth from idea to reality, and brief overviews of the important history behind each season, and you have a TNG guide to satisfy everybody's appetite. This book is a supreme treat.

ST:TNG was a great series, and frankly it deserves a better companion than this one. While there are many interesting production tidbits and (often mundane) cross-references included, the summaries of the individual episodes are way too short, and annoying errors still remain (e.g., some 'Force of Nature' end notes appear in the 'Inheritance' section).

My impression is that the author simply dumped a bunch of info together to create this book without putting in the extra effort to make it special. If you'd like to see what a top-notch companion book should look like, check out the magnificent ST: DS9 publication (to be fair, that author was on board from day one, while Nemecek had to come into the fray at a later date).

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad that I own this book, and do recommend it to fans of the series. Still, when looking at things objectively (i.e., take off those rose colored Star Trek glasses), this is a mediocre book, and it is far from being the definitive work that it sets out to be.

I recently completed my collection of all 7 TNG seasons on DVD, but couldn't remember the exact title of some of the episodes i wanted to watch. The TNG companion was perfect for my problem. It's a must to go along with your DVD collection and it covers all TNG movies as well. For every episode, you get a detailed plot summary, behind the scenes notes and interviews, and a list of guest stars for that specific episode. The photos are all in black and white, but that's the only downfall, and that's not much. I recommend this to any TNG fan in general, and especially to those with all the seasons on DVD.

I agree with one of the other reviewers. The Next Gen. Companion pales in comparison to the DS9 Companion.

The photos in the Next/Gen companion are poorly printed. The episode summaries are minimalistic.

Overall it seems the Next/Gen Compannion was rushed. I guess its good if you need to look up a quick/basic fact about an episode, but it doesn't have the WOW factor that the DS9 Companion has

Just a quick note on this new January 2003 revised edition. This new revision now contains references to all four TNG movies including Trek X: Nemesis! And as most Trek fans may know, this seems to be the last TNG movie, so this new revised edition should be the last one you'll ever need.

Any Next Gen fan would be remiss not to own a copy of this exhaustive and loving tribute. Nemecek combines concise episode synops and production details with ample helpings of related trivia and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. In short, it's a treat.This book (especially its second edition, which covers the complete seven-season run of Next Gen) is regrettably understocked at most bookstores, and hence, I suspect, woefully overlooked. Ask your store to order you a copy, or better yet, hit up amazon.com to the task. It's well worth the effort (and the wait).