The world of Star Trek by David Gerrold

I don't usually write about books here but since this one is St and this is were I talk about it, here it is :).

This was the first ST book I read after I started getting my hands on everything Trek that I could find. And boy, I don't think I could have find a better or more exhaustive one. The author, who apparently wrote what is considered the most popular episode of the original series, The Trouble with Tribbles, writes with humor and has a gift for vulgarisation and summarizing. From what I understand, a first version of this was written in 1979; the edition I got from the library was revised and updated in 1984 to include information about the first 3 movies. In this book you find all the relevant facts of the ST phenomenon, anecdotes about the cast, crew and shooting of both the TV shows and first 3 movies, pictures, in-depth analysis of the show on the bases of believability, scientific accuracy, and televisual efficiency, and more.

The amount of information I learned from this book alone is staggering. That Spok is half-human (no, I didn't know before). That the show became popular, amazingly, AFTER it was cancelled, when it was sold to local TV stations where the ratings, previously unremarkable, exploded. That the third season happened at all only because of a massive letter campaign led by the fans. That Nalini Singh actually didn't invent the idea of a race of beings who completely shut down their emotions. And I now know a ton of tidbits about the story and making of varied episodes I haven't even seen yet. How weird. And now that I've discoevered so much about the canon, I realize a lot of other references to it that were in the movie and escaped me then. Just take the nerve pinch, for instance; I thought it was a really cool move that fit that impassible, stern man to perfection, but I didn't know it was such classic Spock. How much more thrilling must it have been for long-term fans to see Spock use it, and on JIM? Lol. I wish I hadn't learned that Spock died at the end of movie 2, but then at this point I'm sure would have come across the information somewhere else anyway.

It was "fascinating" to see Mr Gerrold reveal the mechanisms of a TV series and see him place it among its genres, explain what works and doesn't work, what makes sense and what was bullshit. Some of his remarks could be considered rather scathing yet his love of the world and characters is obvious. Those kind of analysis I am normally unable to read for long but this time I was so swept away by this new passion that I read right through the whole book like it was a novel. I was in that anticipatory period where I drink everything I can find avidly and it's better than reading the book after I'd seen the shows, because then it would have felt déjà vu and I wouldn't want to dissect them, so as not to lose the magic. So a fantastic read, and I hope I can find myself a copy because I would definitely love to add this to my library.

Bonus points to the author for this line: "Paramount Pictures will probably produce Star Trek movies as long as there is an audience willing to go see them." I'm sure even he couldn't have guessed how absolutely right he was, and that even 40 years after the original premiere the ST fever still lives.