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.

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Trek explained

I found those book fascinating as I am a trekki. lots of useful inside information and a brilliant listen.
a little hard to follow sometimes as it moves though the cast very quickly however you get used to it and I have looked forward to every chapter

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interesting listen.

I found it to be an interesting listen, recounting the thoughts and ideas behind the franchise. this may not be for everyone but for me a fan of all things 'trek' I loved listening to the creative essence of the episodes, in particularly the thoughts of the creators, actors and crew. we hear from the writers and producers from time to time but this was much more in depth.
I enjoyed the listen to both this and the first book. They are very long, but cover each film or t.v. programme in depth. Die-hard fans will enjoy!

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Gloriously detailed and essential for every ST fan

I have read IT ALL but this book has so much i didnt know. Facinating & Fabulous

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Excellent insight

Wonderful encyclopaedic history of Trek giving some wonderful insights into what it was but crucially what it could have been under different management and guidance.

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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.

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3 people found this helpful

Good story, poor narration.

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

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1 person found this helpful

An eye opening look at Star Trek!

This book was, to quote Mr. Spock, "fascinating". I'd heard a few of the stories before, but quite a lot of it was candid and quite illuminating. However, some of the reader's mispronunciations of common Star Trek names and phrases and actor's names was quite irritating. Some of the readings were quite comical as when one reader read Colm Meany's comments in a dreadful Irish accent! The reader who read Winrich Kolbe's comments started in a standard American accent then switched to a hilariously bad German accent mid way through the book!!! And the reader who read Brannon Braga's comments started every reading by saying "Brannon Braga!" in a creepy voice. Overall, a must for any Star Trek fan interested in the behind the scenes stories.

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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.

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2 people found this helpful

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.

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