The Making of Star Trek: First Contact

by Lou Anders

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

LOU ANDERS is the author of the novel Once Upon a Unicorn, the Thrones & Bones trilogy of fantasy adventure novels (Frostborn, Nightborn, and Skyborn), and the novel Star Wars: Pirate’s Price. He is the recipient of a Hugo Award for editing and a Chesley Award for art direction. In the tabletop roleplaying game world, Anders is the creator and publisher of the Thrones & Bones: Norrøngard campaign setting. He has also done game design for Kobold Press, River Horse, and 3D Printed Tabletop. In 2016, he was named a Thurber House Writer-in-Residence and spent a month in Columbus, Ohio, teaching, writing, and living in a haunted house. When not writing, designing, and editing, he enjoys playing roleplaying games, 3D printing, weightlifting, and watching movies. He lives with his wife, children, and two golden doodles in Birmingham, Alabama. You can visit Anders online at louanders.com or on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks.

Reviews

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

My literary appreciation of 50 years of Trek continues...

Did you know that at one point Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, the writers of FIRST CONTACT, were considering having the time-travel take the Enterprise crew back to the Italian renaissance, rather than from the post-WWIII period we eventually got?

That and other fascinating trivia can be found in this book, which delivers exactly what it promises, a fun behind-the-scenes look of the eighth Star Trek feature film, FIRST CONTACT. Having recently read THE MAKING OF THE TREK FILMS, which covers the first even movies in detail, this seemed like the logical choice to read next.

The presentation of the material is nice, with plenty of pretty pictures and a clear separation of topics (Production Design, Costumes, etc.) that makes finding tidbits later on easy. The writing is straightforward and breezy.

For full immersion I recommend reading this more or less in conjunction with the various commentary tracks on the film's Blu-ray release. (In a few cases people get things wrong or only half-right on the commentary track! Good thing we have this book, heh).

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

When it comes to a book such as The Making of Star Trek: First Contact one has to have rather low expectations because, at the end of the day, this is a promotional product. Lou Anders is not in the business or writing an in-depth critique of the movie 'Star Trek: First Contact' or a complete history of the movie's production, including detailed analysis and assessment of the film's values, themes, canonical importance etc. With loads of pictures and a mostly laudatory text this volume won't offer any too meaningful, too disruptive to the process of getting Trek fans on board with the first true Next Generation feature film.

There isn't anything really wrong or bad about this book, and I would expect that most dedicated Trekkers would appreciate having a copy in their libraries, or at least an opportunity to read it. Anders writes clearly, and aside from assumed knowledge as to who does what in the production of a film, no one will be that troubled by the complexity of his prose. Plenty of scope is given to covering the role of the production staff, including those who worked on the movie's costumes, special effects, make-up, soundtrack and direction. However, as already stated, because this book is designed first and foremost as a promotional text there is no real deep critical analysis as to the success and/or failures of the cast and crew. 'Star Trek: First Contact' is a highly worthy and well produced film from the 'Star Trek universe, and stands up pretty well in the sci-fi genre aside from its franchise roots. So it's not going to necessitate an enquiry as to what went wrong or what wasn't successful. Having said that perhaps a less laudatory approach from Adler would've been of value.

The illustrations from the film are used appropriately, though for some reason they are at times muddy and unclear as printed in my copy. I'm nore sure if this is because of how and where the images were sourced, or the relatively cheaper paperback nature of the book's publication and printing. The copies pictures mitigate against long and complex written passages, so readers can knock The Making of Star Trek: First Contact off quickly.

All up The Making of Star Trek: First Contact is not a bad book, but one deserves something different and better than just a fluff piece from the good folk behind 'Star Trek'. Perhaps there is already or will be a more nuanced, critical and in depth study of the making of one of the best movies in the 'Star Trek' franchise, but for now this will suffice.