Search
Cookie Usage Statistics Colour Key Sudden Death Monthly Poll Caption Comp eMail Author Shops
Ships Fleets Weaponry Species People Timelines Calculators Photo Galleries
Stations Design Lineage Size Charts Battles Science / Tech Temporal Styling Maps / Politics
Articles Reviews Lists Recreation Search Site Guide What's New Forum
Bioship Planetbuster Assault Ship Fighter Emissary Kendra Pagh Prophet Solar Sail Additional Cube Probe Singularity Ship Sphere Tactical Cube Transwarp Prototype Yacht Dreadnought Freighter Galor Hideki Keldon Breen Frigate Attack Ship Battlecruiser Battleship Dreadnought Karemma Ship Air Tram Akira Ambassador Antares Centaur Challenger Cheyenne Class F Shuttle Constellation Constitution Constitution Daedalus Danube Defender Defiant Delta Flyer Endgame Nova Endgame Shuttle Excelsior Excelsior II Excelsior Variant 1 Federation Class Raider Scout Trainer Freedom Gagarin Gage Galaxy Galaxy Yacht Griffin Hermes Holo Ship Intrepid Kelvin Luna Miranda Nebula New Orleans Niagara Norway Nova Oberth Olympic Orbital Shuttle Peregrine Polaris Prometheus Ptolemy Raven Refit Galaxy Reliant Rigel Ross Saber Sagan Saladin Shelley Sovereign Sovereign Yacht Soyuz Springfield Steamrunner Sutherland Sydney Travel Pod Trident Type 3 Shuttle Type 6 Shuttle Type 7 Shuttle Type 8 Shuttle Type 9 Shuttle Type 10 Shuttle Type 11 Shuttle Type 14 Shuttle Type 15 Shuttle Type 17 Shuttle Type 18 Shuttle Warp Sled Wells Work Bee Yeager Additional D'Kora Additional Ares Conestoga DY-100 Intrepid J Class Neptune NX Class NX Test Ship Saturn V SS Enterprise The Phoenix Type 0 Shuttle USS Enterprise Valiant Y Class Additional Raider Predator Additional B'rel D'tai D-5 D-7 Early Bird of Prey K'pak K'T'Inga Bird of Prey Cargo Ship Tanker Negh'var Raptor Regency Voodieh Vor'cha Additional D'Deridex Early Bird of Prey Narada Norexan Bird of Prey D7 Science ship Scout Shuttle Scimitar Scorpion Additional Battleship Collector Destroyer Additional Cell Ship Module Ship Salvage Ship Additional Observation Ship War Ship Additional D'Kyr Sh'Raan Suurok Vahklas Lander Additional Aquatic Cruiser Arboreal Ship Insectoid Assault Ship Insectoid Fighter Insectoid Warship Primate Ship Primate Shuttle Reptilian Warship Additional Dauntless Doomsday Machine Kumari class Angosian Ship Cravic Ship Yonada Hirogen Ship Husnock Ship Krenim Patrol Krenim Timeship Krenim Warship Malon Ship Mawasi Cruiser Eymorg Ship Nihydron Ship Pralor Ship Promellian Battlecruiser Tarellian Ship Early Tholian Ship V'Ger Whale Probe Varro Ship Zahl Ship Additional

Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future

ReviewImagesDatapointsQuotesMorals
TimelinePreviousNextYour View

Details

Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future
Title : Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future
Writers : Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda
Published : 1993
Publisher : Pocket Books
ISBN : 0671536109
Rating : 5
Editions : There are two editions; the first is on plain paper and has black and white illustrations. The second is more up to date, printed on glossy paper with full colour illustrations. As with the encyclopedia, a third edition would surely be appropriate now that Enterprise has finished.

Review

Next to the Encyclopedia this is probably one of the most useful of the Trek reference manuals. What the Okudas have done is go through every episode and movie and compile every single date ever mentioned, no matter how obscure. And not just specific dates - if a character so much as mentions that he hasn't done something in twenty years, track back twenty years before the episode and you'll find it listed there.

The wonderful thing about the Chronology is that it makes it clear just how well the Trek universe hangs together. Fans love to nitpick - I enjoy it myself - but considering that there have been over seven hundred Trek episodes produced, the degree of internal consistency in the back history of the show is nothing short of staggering.

One slightly controversial note is that the book is built on a few core assumptions. For instance, no clear date was ever given for when the original series was set. What hints we did get ranged from the twenty second century up to many centuries later. The Chronology takes the stand that TOS happened exactly three centuries after the show was originally broadcast, which contradicts some of the episodes and movies. However, the chronology dates have since been confirmed in many episodes - it's clear that the writers are using it as a reference in producing the show and it's become clear that this is the "real" timeline, for better or worse. The book also assumes that all dates given are exactly as stated - if a character says something hasn't happened in a thousand years, the chronology assumes that this means it last happened exactly a thousand years ago. While people are not generally so precise in their language, the Okudas could hardly have done anything else but take statements at face value - simply substituting their own random dates would hardly be satisfactory.

In the rear of the book we get condensed timelines for each of the main characters, with some discussion of what we know and don't know about them by the writers. There's also some discussion of major events such as wars, the advent of major inventions such as the transporter, etc.
© Graham & Ian Kennedy Page views : 95,399 Last updated : 12 Apr 2020