Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual [Paperback]

Rick Sternbach (Author), Michael Okuda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1991

The Star Trek: The Next Generation^® Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, the technical advisors to Star Trek: The Next Generation, provides a comprehensive schematization of a Galaxy-class starship. From the bridge to the shuttlebays, from the transporter room to crews' quarters, this book provides a never-before-seen glimpse at the inner, intricate workings of the most incredible starship ever conceived.

Full of diagrams, technical schematics, and ship's plans, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual also takes a detailed look at the principles behind Star Trek^®'s awesome technology -- from phasers to warp drive to the incredible holodeck.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Star Trek: The Next Generation^® Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, the technical advisors to Star Trek: The Next Generation, provides a comprehensive schematization of a Galaxy-class starship. From the bridge to the shuttlebays, from the transporter room to crews' quarters, this book provides a never-before-seen glimpse at the inner, intricate workings of the most incredible starship ever conceived.

Full of diagrams, technical schematics, and ship's plans, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual also takes a detailed look at the principles behind Star Trek^®'s awesome technology -- from phasers to warp drive to the incredible holodeck.

Product Details

• Paperback: 183 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 1st edition (November 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671704273
• ISBN-13: 978-0671704278
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars User's guide to a true "ship of dreams", February 2, 2004

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual (Paperback)

Although the success of Star Trek's many incarnations -- from the 1966-69 Original Series, the 1979-2002 feature films, and the four television spin-offs -- is due to the humanity of the characters (even the alien ones!), it's the various starships that have taken the captains, crews and, of course, the audience on incredible journeys across the galaxy. After all, where would James T. Kirk be without the USS Enterprise, or Kathryn Janeway without the USS Voyager? For many Star Trek fans, it's the starship that is the true star of the series, with Kirk (or Picard, or Janeway, or Archer) and Co. as the human "supporting cast" that represents the dreamers who want to "boldly go where no one has gone before."

Although dedicated fans and role-playing game designers had written, illustrated, and even published unofficial Technical Journals of Star Trek's primary starships, Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda's Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual was the first really detailed "owner's manual" to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) "done by folks who actually work on Star Trek." Published in October 1991 (halfway through The Next Generation's seven-year run) and featuring Gene Roddenberry's last published words in his special introduction, the Technical Manual is the first volume of a trio of "official" Star Trek references that include The Star Trek Chronology: A History of the Future and The Star Trek Encyclopedia.

The Technical Manual's conceit is that it is a 24th Century reference work, perhaps as a Starfleet public relations publication or in-house orientation manual. The tone the authors adopt (with the exception of the "out-of-the-Star-Trek-scenario footnotes, which are insightful and often humorous) is very similar to a NASA shuttle operator's guide, matter-of-fact, dry, and -- of course -- like a technical journal. Starting with "1.0 USS Enterprise Introduction" and ending with "17.0 Conclusion," this 183 page book tells the reader everything he or she wanted to know about a Galaxy-class starship, but was afraid to ask.

Want to know, for instance, about the Enterprise-D's warp drive and the theory of warp propulsion? It's all there in "5.0 Warp Propulsion Systems." Does transporter technology turn you on, as it were? "9.0 Transporter Systems" tells you how and why a transporter works, complete with a three-page list of every detail of the five seconds that elapse between autosequence initiation and the signaling of a successful transport. All of the familiar operations we have seen on the show's many episodes and the Enterprise-D's final appearance in 1994's Star Trek: Generations are explained in "authentic" detail.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual is generously illustrated with ship's blueprints, deck charts, line drawings of equipment, operations panels, readouts, and weapons. There is even a chart showing the five Starships Enterprise with a brief (one paragraph) history of each incarnation of the NCC-1701. (Star Trek fans who purchased this book when it hit the bookstore shelves in October of '91 got their first hint about the plot of Star Trek VI; the entry for the Enterprise-A not only reveals that the starship had once borne the name USS Yorktown and renamed after the Whale Song crisis, it also mentions the Khitomer conference, "which had such a profound impact on the political climate of this part of the galaxy.")

Star Trek fans -- either "old hands" who were Trekkies in the 1960s or "rookies" just catching up to Next Gen on the Spike Channel -- will probably enjoy this book...assuming it is not already on their bookshelves!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars USS Enterprise 1701-D....Inside and out, November 8, 2002

By 

Rachel Watkins "Rachel Watkins" (Joshua, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual (Paperback)

If you're a trekker, and would just love to know all the information about life aboard the Enterprise you'll love this book. This book coveres Warp Drive, Turbolifts, Bio-beds in the Sickbay, Tricorders, Hull Material and construction, Holodecks, impulse drive engines, phasers, facts about the Utopia Planitia shipyards, and even the system of addressing crew quarters and such. There is so much information here it's great.

The book also has footnotes throughout about different hapenings on the set of ST:TNG. It is well organised with diagrams and plans for many of the parts of the Enterprise. This really shows the planning which is put behind the world of Star Trek, and how they do thier best to make sure the stories fit technical plausability and cohesion.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great book, horrible reprint quality, September 8, 2006

By 

William Pou III (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

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

I originally purchased this book in the early 1990s when it was first published. It is an awesome "reference" to the Star Trek: TNG technical world. Having lost the book in a move several years ago, I decided to purchase a new copy.

I wish I had read the reviews before I bought the book. The print quality is terrible, and indeed looks like it was done on a copy machine. The text is adequate quality, but the color is gone from highlights. Even worse, the wonderful color graphics are now simply terrible. They aren't blue either, so no longer can you call them "blueprints." No crisp lines, the previously fine details now run together. Graphics with text in them are almost unreadable.

Very, very disappointed.