The Star Trek Interview Book

by Allan Asherman

Interviews with people connected with the original "Star Trek" series, including Gene Roddenberry, bring forth a wealth of information and trivia about the popular television show

Genres: Star Trek, Nonfiction, Reference

278 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Allan Asherman is an author and researcher of several genre-related projects. His Star Trek-related projects include The Star Trek Compendium, The Star Trek Interview Book and The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

He has also authored dozens of magazine and newspaper articles on films and television. An authority on the classic TV series The Adventures of Superman, he has worked in several capacities at DC Comics, was a film booker for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and taught homebound students in the New York City school system.

His other interests include studying music written for TV and movies; researching his favorite TV series (including The Lone Ranger, The Untouchables, Science Fiction Theatre, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger and Men into Space), and uncovering new information on his favorite films (including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Things to Come, This Island Earth', Jason and the Argonauts, the 1959 version of Ben Hur, and various sound serials). He provided the supplementary material for the Criterion Collection's special Forbidden Planet laser disc (and subsequent DVD), and the Topps Official Collectors' Magazine for Batman Returns. Allan and his wife, Arlene Lo (the proofreader at DC Comics), live on Long Island, NY.

Reviews

[Chris Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential but still manages to fall flat. There are interviews with giants like Gene Roddenberry, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and others, and rather than asking about really interesting things, the author stuck with standard questions that you could ask any actor.

The book also could have used some editing. It’s important to understand that this is written as a literal transcript of the interviews. Three examples:
1) When asked if there was anything he wanted to say to the fans of Star Trek, William Shatner takes a half page to say not really or I don’t know how. Maybe just eliminate that question?!?
2) At one point, the interviewer responds “Right, right.” And that’s included within the Text of the book. Ugh.
3) “You worked with Name 1 and Name 2 on that one. “Yes.” Then nothing more on that line. For God’s sake, do some editing!

There are some good and interesting interviews included. The highlights for me:
- The Stars: James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and Grace Lee Whitney. Leonard Nimoy was mildly interesting. (For the record, the opening portion with Gene Roddenberry just confirmed for me that, while I love his creation, I don’t like the man.)
- The Pilots: Robert Butler)
- The Writers: None (Pretty boring and full of ego)
- The Producers: None
- The Directors: None. (In both the producers and directors sections, it’s the same questions to different people over and over. All of them stroking their egos that they were the reason Star Trek was successful. Talking about details about people nobody knows.)
- Guest Stars: Tasha Martel
- Technical Crew: Jack Finley, Joseph Sorokin and Douglas Grindstaff
- The Movies: Robert Fletcher, James Horner, Harve Bennett

A lot of this book focused more on “the business” than on Star Trek. That made it mostly boring for me (except those I mention above), which is why I had to give it “the business”.

[Taaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the interviews revolve around name dropping and questions about other shows that people on this side of the ocean never even heard about. This might be interesting for people who were working in Hollywood in the 60s, but for non-American non-actors most of it is rather dull and hasn’t that much to do with Star Trek.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book interviews all of the major players on Star Trek, and a delightful number of the minor ones. A good read, and highly informative.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for the actor interviews. That's about it. I appreciate this book included EVERYONE, down to the stage crew. However, it was a bit rambling. They asked the same questions to everyone so you heard the same story about ten different times. It was informative, but VERY hard to get through. Took me half a year to even motivate myself to finish.

I'd get it used, but really, it doesn't have anything new that the autobiographies of the actors don't mention. It's just an almost pointless addition to my Star Trek collection.

Three stars because the actor interviews were interesting.