Star Trek is one of those franchises that feels like it's been around forever, so when you hear that it's celebrating it's 60th anniversary it almost comes as a surprise because if you're anything like me you've never really considered its age; it's simply something that always has been. Having grown up watching re-runs of the Original Series on the BBC, and being old enough to appreciate the first airings of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, Star Trek always felt like a firm part of my childhood. I have strong memories of the first time that I saw Picard transformed into Locutus, when Worf moved onto Deep Space Nine and war broke out with the Klingons, and the day that Seven of Nine joined the crew of Voyager.
Star Trek was core to some very early memories of mine, it was something that I bonded with my peers about, and was a vehicle for me to find common ground with adults and realise that most grown-ups enjoyed escapism as much as kids did. Over the years I came to own most of the shows on either VHS or DVD, watching through them multiple times. I'd get the chance to meet and interact with some of the stars, including some now lost to us such as the wonderful René Auberjonois, and the lovely Leonard Nimoy, whose signed portrait I drew now hangs proudly on my wall. Star Trek has meant a lot to me over the course of my life, and I love learning more about the things that mean something to me; as such, Titan Book's latest release, The Star Trek Archive: 100 Objects and Stories from the Final Frontier, is the perfect read.
The book, by Ben Robinson, takes a look at some of the more iconic items from across the multiple shows that have appeared on screen over the last sixty years. With only a limited amount of space in the book, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to pick out only the small fraction of items that appeared here, having to leave behind so many things that fans would be clamouring to know more about. Where's Quark's Dabo wheel, the 90's era tricorder, the Defiant, the Delta Flier, and on and on? In all honesty, the book could be twice as thick and it still wouldn't even scratch the surface of the amazing props, make-up, and models that the franchise has given us over the six decades since it's creation. What we do get, however, is a mix of the iconic, the unusual, and the sometimes forgotten, but all of which get given the attention and love that they deserve.
Split into chapters that cover the main era's of the franchise (the shows), we begin with the Original Series, where we get some of the more memorable items, such as the three dimensional chess set (which I kind of still really want despite not knowing how you'd play this particular version), the iconic Lirpa that Spock and Kirk fight with in one of the most memed and referenced TV action scenes to ever exist, and even the adorable tribbles. Of course there's the absolutely necessary items that have to be included, the flip-up communicator, tricorder, and even Spock's ears, but it's the choices to include the Saurian Brandy bottle and Spock's Vulcan lute that makes me wonder how Robinson is picking these items, and if it might be down to personal preference for favourite episodes.
Surprisingly, there's a brief chapter that covers an era with little to no Star Trek, the 1970's. Only a brief few pages, it's worth the inclusion for the Spock Helmet alone, a piece of bizarre merchandising that became a beloved joke to the point where it made its leap to the screen in Lower Decks. Following this we move onto the Original Series films. A lot of fans will admit that these films are something of a mixed bag, with even Star Trek star Simon Pegg once saying in his sitcom series Spaced 'every odd numbered Star Trek movie is shit'. The book only briefly touches upon the first film, discussing Jerry Goldsmith's music before quickly moving on to give several pages to The Wrath of Khan, one of the most popular of the series of films. There's a decent focus on the Klingons in this section, as it was these films that introduced some of the biggest and most lasting changes to the iconic aliens, giving them their distinct new look with their forehead ridges, their new costumes, a huge revamp to the Bird of Prey, and even the origin of the Targ. As someone who isn't a huge fan of the movies, I have to give Robinson credit for the choices he made in this section, focusing on the more important parts, and the most popular films.
The Next Generation was where my love of Star Trek was really solidified, and is the entry point to many a lifelong fan. The chapter that covers TNG opens with the most important item, the new Enterprise, before discussing other iconic redesigns, such as the new badge form of the communicator, Geordi's Visor, the almost future predicting Padd tablet computer, and the drastically redesigned phasers. Some items from some key episodes also make the4 cut, such as the flute Picard receives in the amazing episode 'The Inner Light', and the prosthetics used to turn Picard into a Borg in 'The Best of Both Worlds'. Once again there are some strange choices for inclusion considering some of the items not here, such as a Dixon Hill novel, or the Echo Papa drone device (from an episode I honestly cannot even remember), but at lest the latter has an interesting story as to how the model was made from literal junk at the last minute.
The chapter for The Next Generation movies is quite small in comparison to that given to the Original Series, and completely excludes the last two films. Instead there's a single page given over to Generations, likely because the film just reused sets and props from the series but with worse lighting to make it seem like a movie. The item chosen for this film is the Picard family album, a key item from one of the most important scenes in the movie, and a pivotal scene in the entirety of Picard's time in the franchise, that is not really given much attention in the movie because of the importance of everything else in the scene. There are a few pages that also look at First Contact, though I did feel that this was too brief as it's my personal favourite of the Star Trek films.
Whilst The Next Generation revived the Star Trek concept and updated it Deep Space Nine threw the rulebook out the window and did everything different. It stayed in the same place, forcing the show to have evolving storylines that built on what came before, it asked moral questions by having it's second in command be a terrorist/freedom fighter (it's all about perspective), and even brought war to Star Trek for the first time. Deep Space Nine was bold in it's storytelling chances, but also in it's designs, taking us way from Federation aesthetic to that of the Cardassians. The book addresses this with a look at the design and creation of Deep Space Nine itself, as well as the first real interlocution of money into the franchise in the various forms of Latinum that the show would include, as well as Cardassian tech, and religious objects in the form of the Bajoran Orbs. Deep Space Nine could (and I'd argue should0 get a whole book going into the design of the sereies, and whilst we don't get long with it here the objects chosen to focus on are some of the most iconic, and the most important. Even the inclusion of the pulpy sci-fi magazines from the episode 'Far Beyond the Stars' which might not seem too important at first glance matter hugely, as it brings attention to what might be the best episode of Star Trek ever made.
The section on Voyager is perhaps one of the most interesting in the book, but only because it feels delightfully unhinged; though likely because Voyager itself was so all over the place. The show with some of the most potential for dramatic, encaging serialisation, the series absolutely fumbled the ball on what it could have been; thankfully we got an even better version of what it could have been when Ronald D. Moore left the show to create Battlestar Galactica because he couldn't make the most out of Voyager's potential. This chapter picks some unusual items, and on one page you can get Janeway's coffee mug, a fairly plain looking metal mug, and the next is Nelix's bizarre and ugly chef's hat, or the nightmarish salamander creatures that Janeway and Paris turned into and had babies together in one of the most outlandish and repressed episodes of the show. The fact that Robinson even gives a whole page over the Harry Kim' ensign pip, discussing how he never got promoted and how this became a running joke and plot point in Lower Decks says to me that Robinson is the kind of fan who gets how outlandish the franchise is, and kind of loves it.
Enterprise, a show that gets way too much hate, sadly only gets a few pages and includes items like the jumpsuit uniform, the phase pistol, and Doctor Phlox's Osmotic Eel, yet misses so many of the things that made Enterprise on of the most striking shows design-wise. Thanks to a somewhat shaky start, Enterprise wasn't given much of a chance by a lot of viewers, but I think grew into a great show. Much like Deep Space Nine, I think that Enterprise could fill a whole book and more, and it's a hug shame that it has such a small chapter here.
The newer Star Trek series, Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, Starfleet Academy, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and even the Kelvin Timeline films get what would be one chapter length for the other shows between them, and a lot of stuff has to be excluded in order to not make the book even longer. I'm hoping that this is in part because the older series are the more iconic ones, and that Robinson feels there's not a huge amount of objects from these shows that stand up against the others, but I can't help but feel some of the lesser known and important items could have been removed from the other chapters to give more room to these ones.
I don't envy Robinson's job here, no matter what items you pick there's no way to make everyone happy. I'd even argue that you can't make anyone happy, as there will always be that one thing that has to be left out because picking just 100 things from the entire franchise feels like an impossible riddle. For the most part there are some fantastic picks here, and those that I wouldn't have chosen are probably dear favourites of other fans. As it is, there's a ton of great stuff in the book, and Robinson goes into fantastic detail on each item, giving the reader background information to go along with it, both in universe info and behind the scenes production facts.
If you're a fan of Star Trek and love diving into the franchise this book is one that you're going to want to have a look through. It's size makes it something that can really go into detail, and Titan have printed in with a great deal of care and attention that makes this a fantastic coffee table book.
The Star Trek Archive: 100 Objects and Stories from the Final Frontier is out now from Titan Books for £39.99.
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