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 - Starfleet Technical Manual

ReviewImagesDatapointsQuotesMorals
TimelinePreviousNextYour View

Details

Star Trek - Starfleet Technical Manual
Title : Star Trek - Starfleet Technical Manual Star Trek - Starfleet Technical Manual
Writers : Franz Joseph
Published : 1975
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN : 0345340744
Rating : 4
Editions : The book has been reprinted, with identical content but a different cover.

Review

To truly get The Original Series Technical Manual you should think about the context. The book came out at a time when Trek television was dead and gone; the only written material being produced was fan-created - and this at a time when there were no DVD sets, nor even home video. Franz Joseph set out to create a book that would describe and flesh out the fictional world Gene Roddenberry had created, and in that he succeeded superbly.

The TOS TM is rather more wide-ranging that its TNG successor; note that this is the Starfleet manual, not the Enterprise one; in fact it barely touches on the Enterprise, giving us a few diagrams and some very basic specs along with a list of ships of the same class. But Joseph wasn't afraid to speculate; he created several new ship designs from a heavy combat ship through destroyers and scouts and even a tug; he gives us a copy of the Federation Constitution, uniform designs, details of what the different warp factors mean, a map of the galaxy... lots of fun facts.

In some ways the book is a Jack of all trades, master of none; it covers many topics, but we get very little information on any of them - indeed for much of the book there is little beyond large diagrams with labels on them rather than the pages of text in the TNG TM. On the upside, the manual contains that much less to be contradicted.

Contradictions have indeed crept in, though, and this is something of a controversial topic. Roddenberry co-operated with Joseph on the book, no doubt knowing that it would help promote the popularity of Trek and contribute to any continuation. However, when the Motion Picture arrived rumour has it that Gene decided that he didn't want Joseph getting the credit - or the royalties - for the use of the material he had created to "fill in the gaps" in the Trek universe. It's said that Gene specifically went out of his way to contradict the Tech Manual in as many ways as possible. For instance he issued a set of starship design rules which render every single one of Joseph's ship designs unworkable. He replaced Joseph's orbiting Starfleet headquarters with a surface base. He came up with a different version of the Federation seal seen in the book.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, the TOS TM remains a fascinating book and is well worth reading.

is one of my favourite books.
© Graham & Ian Kennedy Page views : 108,614 Last updated : 12 Apr 2020