[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and White Owl in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary and Review
The author does a deep dive into Star Trek, watching the original series (TOS), the animated series (TAS), The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space Nine (DS9), Voyager (VOY), and Enterprise (ENT) in release order, one episode per day for almost two years. Initially his experience was blogged online, but now readers can be part of the journey in book form. This book only focuses on TOS, TAS, and TNG. Presumably a sequel will cover the rest.
The book covers some of the history of the franchise from Roddenberry’s early attempts to get the show produced to the return of Star Trek to television in the 80s with TNG – in addition to the episode reviews. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the episode entries. The “voice” of each one is fun and engaging. The author covers a lot of ground in just a couple paragraphs per episode.
One of the most fascinating pieces is watching the worldbuilding develop on the fly. The author points out things that show up for the first time or things that reflect decisions made later to define how the world of Star Trek will work. It was a cool addition to the episode reviews. I think fans will enjoy this – it would be great to work through this while doing your own episode review.
Rating: ♥♥♥♥*
*♥♥♥♥ – Great! Might re-read