Books › The Making of Star Trek
The Making of Star Trek
416 pages
A meticulously detailed time capsule that pulls back the curtain on the birth of a television legend.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a bustling 1960s television studio, surrounded by the hum of typewriters and the scent of fresh blueprints. It is a deeply immersive, nostalgic journey that captures the sheer industriousness required to build a science fiction universe from scratch. The steady, journalistic pacing allows readers to savor every memo, technical diagram, and character sketch, creating an atmosphere of earnest optimism and creative triumph. Rather than a simple retrospective, it reads like a live dispatch from the trenches of television history, vibrating with the enthusiasm of creators who know they are making something special. It will thoroughly delight pop culture historians and devoted fans eager to explore the granular mechanics of a beloved phenomenon.
- Mood
- nostalgic
- industrious
- optimistic
- immersive
- Tone
- earnest
- informative
- enthusiastic
- reverent
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- creative struggle · television history · visionary optimism · collaborative art · world-building
- The writing
- Journalistic and meticulously detailed, blending straightforward narrative with fascinating primary sources like memos and technical diagrams.
- The arc
- Begins with the daunting uphill battle of pitching an impossible idea and builds into a triumphant celebration of creative ingenuity.
- Who it's for
- Die-hard science fiction fans and television history buffs who love diving into the granular, behind-the-scenes mechanics of world-building.
About the book
> The Biography of the Leading Science Fiction TV Program > > STAR TREK! The long, hard battle of television's first tentative step > toward adult science fiction, with the complete story of how the U.S.S. > Enterprise was designed, her weaponry, equipment and power > resources, the original concept behind the show, how the continuity is > maintained, backgrounds of the characters, biographies of the stars, > and pictures, diagrams, illustrations -- the whole authentic history.
Although Gene Roddenberry is listed as a co-author, the book was written by Whitfield. Roddenberry's only contribution seems to be the lyrics to the Star Trek Theme on page 7.
Description from Open Library.
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