Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams cover art

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

By: Edward Gross,Mark A. Altman
Narrated by: Aaron Landon,Alex Hyde-White,David Stifel,Eric Martin,James Cronin,Jason Olazabal,John Rocha,Julie McKay
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years cover art
Secrets of the Force cover art
Hollywood vs. The Author cover art
Revenant cover art
Star Trek: Spock vs. Q (Adapted) cover art
Star Trek: The Return (Adapted) cover art
The Last Best Hope cover art
Born with Teeth cover art
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country cover art
Star Trek: Nemesis (Adapted) cover art
Alien: Covenant Origins cover art
The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway cover art
Marvel Comics cover art
The Making of Doctor Who cover art
Why Does the Screenwriter Cross the Road? cover art
Moonlighting cover art

Summary

This is the true story behind the making of a television legend. 

There have been many books written about Star Trek but never with the unprecedented access, insight, and candor of authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Having covered the franchise for over three decades, they've assembled the ultimate guide to a television classic. 

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek, told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words - sharing the inside scoops they've never told before, unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek, and chronicling the trials, tribulations, and tribbles that have remained deeply buried secrets until now. 

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its spin-offs: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise as well J. J. Abrams' reimagined film series. 

The full list of narrators includes: Aaron Landon, Alex Hyde-White, David Stifel, Eric Martin, James Cronin, Jason Olazabal, John Rocha, Julie McKay, Martin Hillier, Nate Aldrich, Steve Marvel, and Susan Hanfield. 

Narrated by:

Aaron Landon
Alex Hyde-White
David Stifel
Eric Martin
James Cronin
Jason Olazabal
John Rocha
Julie McKay
Martin Hillier

©2016 Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    77
  • 4 Stars
    29
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    80
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating insight, with some frustrations

Overall, I've enjoyed both parts of this book and would definitely recommend them for any die hard Star Trek fans, or people curious to know what might have been and what goes on behind the scenes.

Some of the stories I'd heard before, many of them I had not. Some of them make for uncomfortable listening when it becomes pretty clear that people you'd admired and/or defended aren't quite so great after all.

A few things that did start to bother me, however, particularly in the second half of the book:

- One of the performers sounds very bored when it's his turn to read, which I suppose is understandable after such a long book but it comes across in the reading.

- Some of them start to do 'accents' for people they're representing, which are distracting as those accents weren't done earlier in the book (particularly the guy born in Germany who apparently speaks with a strange Chinese/French accent!).

- There are some awkward pronunciations of character and place names, especially during the DS9 section. Admittedly this will probably only irritate Star Trek obsessives like me ... but surely they could have had somebody to guide them during the recording?

Overall - it can be quite a dry book that casual listeners might struggle to get through. But for a Star Trek fan who loves behind the scenes gossip and information, especially hearing about what might have been ... it's an essential purchase.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

SHOCKING!

O-M-G ! If the first 25 years was problematic, watch out! Here comes The Next Generation! The book really comes to the head during these years. GR goes from being bad ass to just being bad. If there's one thing you'll leave in the head after reading this book, it's the notion that Star Trek was a success because of Gene Roddenberry.

And if you are too far gone into the Star Trek Fandom scheme, watch out! This book will stuff your head in the head and give it a good cold washing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, poor narration.

An informative book, good for any Star Trek fan, but let down by awful narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Informative but not well directed

I have found this "book" entertaining. It's interesting to hear about the behind scenes animosity that was present. It's odd for a show that tries to portray the future as a utopia, to have such turmoil in its production, especially from the man who invented it!

As for the production of this book, I appreciate the amount of research likely needed to compile all these quotes and attribute them correctly, but they really needed a director at the time of recording, preferably one that's actually watched Star Trek before. So many cringe mispronunciations. "EN-SIGN" instead of "EN-SUN", "Be-TAZED" instead of "BETA-ZED". I could go on. It doesn't ruin the book, but it's a shame.

This isn't a narrative book as much as it is a collection of quotes. There's an attempt to give it some natural progress through time, but if you're looking for a book that explains the process and what Star Trek is etc, this isn't it. Buy this book if you want to hear directly from the mouths of the people it involved, in front and behind the camera.

Edit: Upon getting to the "Voyager" section... the accents are atrocious, borderline offensive. I'm not personally offended, but I can imagine some people being taken aback by how daft it is. Unnecessary. Just read the text.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The iniquities of Hollywood executives

This was a fantastic book. But Star Trek could have been incredible had it not been for the mental illnesses (primarily sociopathy and misogyny) suffered by those creating it. Constant stories of men (and I say that very specifically) who failed in their duties to put their own pride aside and ensure everything they did was for the franchise and not themselves. A lot of this book is a sad indictment of human failings of leadership.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Warts and Glory: Part II

Really great book, just as good as the first. I know a lot of 'behind the scenes' about Star Trek but there were a lot of things in both books I didn't know. It's amazing having such contrasting views expressed about actors, episodes, and behind the scenes politics. Fascinating and enlightening. A few new voices with a few issues. For the first book the narrators felt as natural and passionate as if they had written it themselves. However, moving into the technobabble era there were issue. Mispronunciations of names could be distracting. They also tried to give quotes English actors an English voice but instead of making them feel more accurate they felt like insulting bad impressions. Overall though, I love it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect Trek Fan Background Audiobook

I got this wondering if would like it and really enjoyed listening to the patchwork story of the entire trek saga. Lots of insight into the creative process and how much the actors respected the work. I could of done with double material when they were talking about the creation of TNG ds9 and voy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Book 2 delivers more

If you have a desire and interest in the making of Star Trek both this and the 1st book are great. Both respectfully acknowledge these are interviews and that some time memory can be fallible but by having such a range of POV it helps build a picture that you can consider yourself. There are a few recaps of the series that are inaccurate by the editors -eg saying Trip dies before the final episode of Enterprise (but I think this is more miscommunication in that originally he was going to die before the final episode). The performances are ok but annoying that the directors haven’t made sure that that the actors know how to pronounce names correctly of stuff from the show but more importantly peoples actual names involved in production. It’s not a major issue however.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Loved this book real insight into the making of the shows but hated the mispronunciations of character/actor names seems like something that could have been checked

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Worth the 34+ hours, though it has... moments

The content is not at issue; it's an oral history and the vast majority of people listening will be Trekkers and will almost certainly enjoy the material. The thing that will have people pausing because they can't quite believe what they heard will be the pronounciations and accents.

Be-tazed is apparently Deanna Troi's home planet (the one that also fell to the Dominion during In The Pale Moonlight). There are other howlers that could fairly easily have been avoided, had anyone involved with the production of this audiobook (well, maybe not the narrators, I guess they just sit in their booths and read the way they're told to) thought to get even minimal guidance - every Star Trek script had a pronounciation guide at the beginning, and Trek fans aren't exactly a rare breed.

Borderline offensive, though, is the attempts at accents. Winrich Kolbe is indeed German. I've no idea what he sounds like, but there's no need for the narrator to put on such an awful accent. Similarly, Karl Urban is a Kiwi. The accent used for his quotes seemed to wander around the antipodes by way of East London. There was no narrative benefit to that, and I'm still at a loss to come up with a reason as to why anyone thought it was a good idea.

Overall, I don't regret using a credit to buy this audiobook, though if I want to refer back to it, I'll invest in the paperback and try to forget the worst of this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!