Kindle Price: $9.99

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek - The Motion Picture by [Preston Neal Jones]

Follow the Author

Preston Neal Jones

Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek - The Motion Picture Kindle Edition

by Preston Neal Jones (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

89 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$94.38

—

$94.38

Kindle
$9.99 Read with Our Free App
Paperback
$94.38

2 Used from $94.38

Creature Features Publishing presents a legendary, long-lost Making-Of movie book—RETURN TO TOMORROW: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, written by Preston Neal Jones.

RETURN TO TOMORROW is a stunningly detailed and candid oral history, going behind the scenes of one of the most famous films in not only Star Trek history, but all of science fiction and cinema.

In 1979, Preston Neal Jones was given unparalleled access to the cast and creators of Star Trek: The Motion Picture for what was intended to be a cover story for Cinefantastique magazine. Owing to the late completion of the film and ambitious scope of the manuscript, it was never published—until now.

This book is a priceless time capsule, an epic, 672-page oral history in the words of sixty of the film’s cast and creators, interviewed as the film was being prepared for release—and nobody had any idea if it would succeed or even be finished on time.

From the stars (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the entire cast) to the filmmakers (Gene Roddenberry, Robert Wise) to the brilliant visual effects artists, illustrators, model builders and technicians who realized the 23rd century on screen (costumes, sets, props, models, music, sound FX and more), no aspect of the film’s creation is overlooked.

The entire manuscript has been laboriously fact-checked and prepared for modern publication, while retaining all of the candid comments from 1979-80. The gorgeous cover art is the original painting by Roger Stine intended for Cinefantastique, courtesy of the Daren R. Dochterman Collection.

Go behind the scenes of this pivotal sci-fi masterwork and hear the unvarnished, uncensored truth of how it was created.

Print length

802 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

July 1, 2020
File size

2790 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Ben Robinson
428
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.82
Marv Wolfman
52
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99
Jack Lawson
10
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Marc Cushman
564
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $14.95
Edward Gross
381
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $10.89
Robert Wood
135
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $5.89

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08C9BPK5N
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Creature Features Publishing (July 1, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 1, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2790 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 802 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #683,196 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #157 in Video Direction & Production (Kindle Store)
- #182 in Movie & Video Direction & Production
- #547 in Movie & Video History & Criticism

Customer Reviews:
89 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Preston Neal Jones

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

89 global ratings

5 star		68%
4 star		20%
3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

W. David Lichty

Readable, engaging and authoritative - those don't often go together so well

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

What an interesting period in which to cover such a project. When this film was being made, Star Wars had just left screens, while Close Encounters and Superman: The Movie were still big happenings in movie theaters. Grand films were back, after having fizzled out in the 60s, but in a new direction, no longer historical, now futurist. Whatever one may think of today's Marvel factory, these were anything but churned out. This new format of an old form made the making process one of discovery, invention and frustration.

Also by this time, Cinefantastique magazine, which was founded to treat the genres of fantasy, sci-fi and horror seriously, had already given lengthy, in depth coverage to those three films as well as Planet of the Apes and Forbidden Planet. The publication continued doing these deep dives, one such, covering the making of Psycho, was turned into Stephen Rebello's book, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. That's how full they were.

This was to be one of those in depth pieces, actually two, so perhaps their most in depth, set to span two issues of the magazine in 1980. The story of creating this film is told by the creators, not looking back from today, but interviewed then, when it was fresh. It's not one interview at a time, but all of them edited into a whole story, and it's a great read, which is an unusual compliment to be able to give something which is also a solid reference work.

If you want pictures, they're Googlable, or grab a volume like Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects. Not having them is not a failing of this book.

Its only drawback is that turning the taped interviews, if they even were recorded, into this audiobook, would be a licencing and rights nightmare, but man, would I love to hear that!

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Randy Wilson

Fascinating and LONG, just as advertised

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

You’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about the film reading this. I’m about 2/3 of the way through and enjoying the heck out of it (can’t wait to get to the part where Jerry Goldsmith comes along to write the musical score). With that said, the reviews are accurate when they point out that this book is quite long and detailed. If that is your thing, you’re in for a treat. The breadth and depth of interviews with practically all the key players is super impressive.

Another element to consider is that the publishers did not seek clearance for the wealth of visual accompaniments that were originally gathered for this intended magazine article. The book is straight text and frequently refers to drawings or photos that aren’t included with the words. As often as not, though, a simple web search will take you to those same artworks online, so if it’s that vs not having this book at all, I for one am happy with what we got.

Recommended for fans of the movie, or anybody with an interest in what guys like Doug Trumbull were doing around this time in the world of special effects. Bonus for fans of Goldsmith’s music.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alan

Like the Movie the Book is About, It Would Benefit from Editing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

I like Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I really do. I have a fascination with it. But even the Director's Cut features a sequence which is 10 minutes long and has no dialogue. I'm not exaggerating: it's 10 minutes of special effects and reaction shots from the crew, but without any dialogue. And this book, while exhaustively written, suffers from the same problem, about the same thing: special effects.

When the book is discussing the writing of the film, or the production of it, it's interesting. But once you get into the post-production, special effects heavy portion of the book, it just drags. Often there will be a lengthy quote from someone about a particular special effect, followed by a quote from someone else about the exact same thing, usually going over the same points. It's extraneous.

If you're Mark A. Altman, you'll love this book. But for the rest of us, chances are you'll be skimming through the last third of it.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

A picture is worth a thousand words

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is an extremely long, very detailed book, however it has one glaring fault. There is not a single image in it. There are pages and pages of descriptions of devices, inventions, processes, models, props, sets, costumes but not a single picture of anything. In some cases, multiple people describe something, often in very different ways, so you really have no idea what they're talking about. It seems many of the interviews are from old magazine articles, and in several cases, people in the interview will say something like "As you can see in this illustration" or "From the artwork shown here" or something similar, when there is no artwork or illustrations. I came away from this with more questions than answers. What is Compsys? How does it work? What about all these moire pattern generators? They are described about 35 different ways but I still have no idea how it works. This book needed a bit less talking and a LOT more showing.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

johcafra

If You Like To Look At the Pictures

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

...you won't find any. Not even a line drawing or pen-and-ink portrait. It's an "oral history" alright, with nothing but words to show for what amounts to a compilation of interviews with just about everyone who was anyone associated with the film. And yet it all works, in places with surprising insight and humility...consider what they were aiming for...while the sheer effort to conduct, collate, and convert to a comprehensive and chronological narrative all the memories and mental imagery makes the book worth the purchase price and merit a place on a "Trekkian's" bookshelf.

Reading it also has a perhaps-odd side effect: Now I wish to first re-view the original theatrical release, then its later "Director's Edition" that principally reflects Robert Wise's decades-after ability to digitally enhance and further edit and complete scenes of the film as originally intended and described in the book while not effectively hamstrung by the studio's demand to meet a release date.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

D

Loved this

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Long, detailed, and fascinating journey through the creation of ST:TMP told through interviews. I was hesitant at first but read this every chance I had until I was finished.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Dennis Sisterson

If you thought the film was too long...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

Phew, what a marathon. There can't be much left to say about the making of this film. Most of those involved are interviewed here at great length about their experience working on the film and how they felt about the result. All that's missing is input from Robert Abel, the FX men who was let go just a year from the release date, leaving Douglas Trumbull and others to start over and complete (after a fashion) the visuals in record time. The effects work is covered in such depth that the absence of any photos is a drawback, especially in several places when the interviewee is talking about a particular image and apparently showing it to the interviewer, but it's so exhaustive that I don't think there's a single shot in the film that I won't see in a new light when I next watch it, and with a new appreciation of the skill and work involved. My only other criticism is that it could have been trimmed heavily with no significant loss... often the interviewees ramble a little or become repetitive. Anecdotes are repeated near-identically by different people. Walter Koenig talks for a couple of pages about a writing job he had on a series I've never heard of. Having said that, every interview is an interesting read, and you can't fault it for not being thorough. If, like one reviewer, you though that the Jeff Bond's recent book about the art and effects of TMP wasn't as in-depth as it might have been, this is the book you need to fill the gaps, and all the other gaps you didn't even know were there.

2 people found this helpful

Andrew C

In depth examination of the production struggle to bring Star Trek back to life in the seventies.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Gloriously detailed, sometimes almost to the point of overkill. Every aspect of the return of Star Trek is covered by this well researched volume.
A must read for fans, and anyone wishing to understand the Hollywood production process of the seventies.

One person found this helpful

C

EVERYTHING you could ever want to know

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book goes into incredible detail - every single facet of making a film, making this film, and how Star Trek worked in the 70s is examined here. I'd give this five stars except the book in parts is _too_ long, wearing the reader down if you don't skip chunks

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek - The Motion Picture Kindle Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

Videos

About the author

Preston Neal Jones

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries