This is the index and introduction for Trek reference sources.
Books/Blueprints[]
The following books and blueprint sets were officially licensed for publication by Paramount Pictures or CBS Consumer Products, aka "The Franchise":
Companions[]
A "Companion", also on occasion referred to as "Compendium" or, more to the point, "(Episode) Guide" concern reference works that collects information on productions that are produced/released sequentially as part of a series. The defining characteristic of such a work is that its contents is organized on a per episode/outing basis – either by their production, or by their release chronology in the series. Companions can consist of a simple (non-in-universe POV) recapitulation of each individual series' outing (either television, film, or both, where motion picture productions are concerned), as indeed most such works started out as, typically as fan productions, be it licensed or unlicensed.
However, from early on it has become commonplace to greatly enhance such works with elaborate production POV background information, while still organized around, and adhering to, the established chronology. Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance unlicensed fan production was actually the very first such work thus enhanced where the Star Trek franchise was concerned (becoming officially licensed after-the-fact, incidentally), and served as the template for Allan Asherman's later officially licensed The Star Trek Compendium, which set the stage for ever more enhanced such works (mostly officially licensed) to have followed suit since, with Marc Cushman's three (unlicensed) These Are the Voyages: TOS volumes as the high water mark for the time being.
While it is most obvious that the vast majority of the published companions only concern themselves with on-screen productions, there actually is one notable exception; the 2006 Voyages of Imagination book does not deal with the live-action franchise, but rather with the Star Treknovelsprint franchise.
1 A title endowed with the "sub-series" qualifier, indicate a work that consists of more than one volume.
2 While strictly speaking a magazine, the fact that the British edition was endowed with an ISBN warrants its inclusion on this list.
The "Companion" format was not restricted to books only, as the genre magazine Cinefantastique, became renowned for its Star Trek series-themed issues in the 1990s, which featured series episode guides with heavy background information coverage on the season in question. The magazine actually outperformed the official franchise (both book and magazine) publications in the production background information department by far during that decade.
Scripts[]
Several script collections have been published, some by Pocket Books, and some by Roddenberry Productions.
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| The Q Chronicles | Various |
| Becoming Human: The Seven of Nine Saga | Various |
Other works[]
The following books contain critical reviews of Star Trek, acadamic treatises on Star Trek, and compilations of references from Star Trek, but were published by parties other than Paramount Pictures and its licensees; in other words, they are "unofficial publications":
International works[]
The following books are reference works that do not have English-language counterparts, and are therefore foreign-language originals. These concern both officially franchise licensed as well as unofficial publications:
| Title | Original Language | Author(s) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Das Star Trek Universum | German | Ralph Sander | 1998 |
| Die Philosophie bei Star Trek: Mit Kirk, Spock und Picard auf der Reise durch unendliche Weiten | German | Henrik Hansemann | 2013 |
| Die Philosophie in Star Trek | German | Olivia Vieweg, Klaus Vieweg | 2016 |
| Die STAR TREK Physik | German | Metin Tolan | 2016 |
| Roddenberrys Idee – Die Star Trek–Originalserie im Wandel der Zeit – Kritischer Episodenführer | German | Jan Schliecker | 2014 |
| Trek Science | German | Stephan Thiesen | 1997 (1st), 2001 (2nd), 2009 (3rd) |
| Unendliche Weiten: Lösungsorientiert denken mit Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock und Dr. McCoy | German | Simone Stölzel | 2012 |
| Star Trek: Official Guide 1 - Star Trek The Next Generation | Japanese | Dullmax | 1995 (1st), 2002 (2nd) |
| Star Trek: Official Guide 2 - Star Trek Deep Space Nine & Star Trek Voyage | Japanese | Dullmax | |
| Star Trek: Official Guide 3 - Official Database | Japanese | Osamu Kishikawa | 1998 (1st), 2004 (2nd) |
| Star Trek: Official Guide 4 - Mechanics | Japanese | Osamu Kishikawa | 1999 |
| Star Trek: Official Guide 5 - The Ultimate | Japanese | Dullmax | 2001 |
| Le Droit selon Star Trek | French | Fabrice Defferrard | 2015 |
CD-ROMs[]
- Star Trek Omnipedia
- Star Trek: Captain's Chair
- Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library
- Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Guide
- Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library
Biographies/Autobiographies[]
Most (auto-)biographies are unofficial publications, as they allow their author(s) to freely voice more critical opinions if they feel that such is warranted. The only five known officially licensed (auto)biographies are To the Stars (1994), Beam Me Up, Scotty (1996), and From Sawdust to Stardust (2005) biographies, as well as Walter Koenig's earlier 1980 Chekov's Enterprise autobiography, dealing with his personal experiences on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Lisabeth Shatner's 1989 Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier biography dealing with her father's experiences on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier as both an actor as well as a director. In contrast, William Shatner's own, and – as per his well-known character trait – more outspoken, autobiographies are all without exception unofficial, precisely because they are all more critical of the franchise.
Yvonne Fern's 1994 Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation biography constituted an oddity, because it became officially licensed after-the-fact in 1996.
