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Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion

Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion

List Price: $18.00
Your Price: $12.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Poorly Edited Captain's Log
Review: The latest edition of The Star Trek-TNG Companion is something of a disappointment. Written once again by Larry Nemecek, the book takes readers from TNG's inception, through its seven years on T.V., to Nemesis, the latest feature film. Like the previous editions, the book offers episode synopsies, season overviews, film plots, credits, black and white photos and behind the scenes interviews and trivia. Sounds comprehensive right? It's not. The basic problem I have with the book is that it has a lot of inaccurate information. As an example, the entry for The Naked Now on page 32, mentions another episode called Attached. It states that the latter was a sixth season show. But later has the Attached entry in its rightful place as a seventh season show. Clearly, this is a mistake that should have been picked up by someone, an editor maybe? I would be able to overlook one or two errors like this, however, there are several more, just like that one. Another issue that bothers me is the fact that some of the entries for certain episodes are still outdated. There is no mention of the passing of actors classic cast DeForest Kelly, or Mark Lenard. Both men appeared on the show. I know this probably sounds minor to some. But when one thinks about what these men did for Star Trek in general, you would think something more would have been mentioned as a tribute...

It seems as though Nemecek and his editors just wanted to concern themselves with updating the end of the book and the last 3 films. The book reads like "a rush job" I expected the same amount of care that went into the DS9 Companion with this book. While it does have a lot of interesting stuff about TNG within its pages, I have read better researched episode/film guides about the show. Recommended read only if you must The book has 372 pages, a new introduction by Nemecek, and several indices

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very good companion!
Review: The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion is a very good companion in my opinion. It is especially helpful now that we are finally getting all the seasons on DVD. The one complaint that I could register is all the pictures being black and white. They could've put color pictures in and I'm sure everybody would've paid a little more for it. It includes brief but worthwhile synopsis's of all 176 episodes, very good notes on each season and a detailed chapter on Star Trek Generations. Overall, a very good companion, if you're a Star Trek fan and you've not picked this up, do so before they go completely out of production and your stuck paying a higher price for a used one down the road.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very good companion!
Review: The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion is a very good companion in my opinion. It is especially helpful now that we are finally getting all the seasons on DVD. The one complaint that I could register is all the pictures being black and white. They could've put color pictures in and I'm sure everybody would've paid a little more for it. It includes brief but worthwhile synopsis's of all 176 episodes, very good notes on each season and a detailed chapter on Star Trek Generations. Overall, a very good companion, if you're a Star Trek fan and you've not picked this up, do so before they go completely out of production and your stuck paying a higher price for a used one down the road.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Short, sweet compliment to the DVDs
Review: The synposis of the plots are quick and to the point--which is what a synposis is supposed to do provide a brief snapshot of a film or television episode. I love having this book around as I can never remember the title (or season) many of my fav episodes are on (Hollow Pursuits was one I couldn't recall for example and this book pointed me to the right DVD). By all rights an abridged version of this should have been included for each season of the DVDs.

The pictures are plentiful and although I would have preferred more backstory on the making of each episode (as well as behind the scenes photos), the info on each episode is fascinating. While this book doesn't sweep out all the dirt on the difficulities of Next Gen (for an accurate, well rounded story of the difficulties during Gene Roddenberry's second series I'd recommend Joel Engel's informed and well researched biography of the Great Bird of the Galaxy), there are a number of comments that hint at the difficult birth of Next Gen among them the large number of writer/producers that came and went prior to the arrival of Michael Pillar.

Next Gen really hit its stride during it's third and fourth season maintaining the quality for the bulk of the run of the series. Nemecek honestly asseses some of the worst episodes and the best. His comments from many of the writers also provides insight into the community writing method used to keep the quality high on Next Gen scripts. While this could and did work against some fine episodes, it also enhanced many of the best shows.

There is an exhaustive credit list of the writers/directors and guest actors for each episode. While this isn't the perfect Next Gen companion (perhaps an unoffical one will dig a little deeper into the struggles of the show and it's creative apex), it does provide a brief overview of each episode, credits and fairly objective overview on the various episodes strengths and weaknesses.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent guide to the fan
Review: This book gives detailed synopses of each episode (with backstage notes for each one, including trivia, effects insights, and thoughts of the creators) and also includes the feature film "Generations" as a bonus. An excellent guide and a must have for anyone who enjoys collecting the episodes. It's a great coffee-table style book, fun to thumb through, and has pictures from each episode. All in all, an excellent buy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Ultimate TNG guide!
Review: This book is an absolute must-have for all TNG fans, from the most casual viewer to even the most die-hard Trekker. Beautifully written, extremely well-organized and cross referenced, this guide takes you on a tour of TNG's 7-year stint, complete with show information, plot outlines, and incredible behind-the-scenes information on every episode. Add to that the excellent introductory chapters which chart TNG's growth from idea to reality, and brief overviews of the important history behind each season, and you have a TNG guide to satisfy everybody's appetite. This book is a supreme treat.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must for trekkies
Review: This book, or should I say companion, covers all seven seasons of Next Generation and Generations with great details of on- and off- the screen of each individual episode. Even you just like Next Generation but like to know more, this is a must.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent reference guide for Next Generation Trekkers!
Review: This is a great guide to the excellent Next Generation series. Complete listings of all the episodes plus informative and humorous stories about the cast and show. Makes a great reference book but is also a good read!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I bet you didn't know that!
Review: Wow. This is the most comprehensive episode guide I have ever seen for any show. EVER. A good episode synapsis followed by some interesting preductin notes makes this one of the best books associated with Star Trek. I picked this book up, along with my copy of the Rules of Aquisition at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas *PLUG PLUG*, so I don't know about availability. But, let me tell you, if you like the Next Generation, and you have every episode on tape (like me), you need this book. Buy it now! (By the way, I bet you didn't know that Geordi's origional shipboard specialty was like as the "starship school for children.")


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