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It seems unlikely that a fourth edition of the ''Encyclopedia'' will ever be forthcoming. Editors from [[Pocket Books]] have indicated that they have little interest in continuing their line of ''Star Trek'' reference books, such as the technical manuals, the ''Encyclopedia'', and Okuda's earlier ''[[Star Trek Chronology]]'', due to the low sales such high-priced items engender. The only "official" exhaustive reference work that is still updated is the Library of [[StarTrek.com]], though this sometimes contains discrepancies.
  
It seems unlikely that a fourth edition of the ''Encyclopedia'' will ever be forthcoming. Editors from [[Pocket Books]] have indicated that they have little interest in continuing their line of ''Star Trek'' reference books, such as the technical manuals, the ''Encyclopedia'', and Okuda's earlier ''[[Star Trek Chronology]]'', due to the low sales such high-priced items engender. The only "official" exhaustive reference work that is still updated is the Library of [[StarTrek.com]], though this sometimes contains discrepancies.
   
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A popular and influential work, the official ''Star Trek'' franchise treats it, like the ''Star Trek Chronology'', as the primary quasi-[[canon]] source for all subsequent in-universe [[reference works]] print publications, and requires licensed works of this kind, published since then, to be in concordance with the information contained within the ''Encyclopedia'', such as the later [[GE Fabbri]] and [[Haynes Publishing]] ''Star Trek'' publications. As a consequence, the franchise has officially debunked previously licensed reference works written from an in-universe perspective, most notably [[Franz Joseph]]'s ''[[Star Fleet Technical Manual]]'' as well as [[Shane Johnson]]'s ''[[Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise]]'' and ''[[Worlds of the Federation]]''. Labeled "unofficial", these works were ''de facto'' demoted by the franchise to the apocryphal status of novels, comics and games. ({{STTM|2|11|71}})
 +
A popular and influential work, the official ''Star Trek'' franchise treats it, like the ''Star Trek Chronology'', as the primary quasi-[[canon]] source for all subsequent in-universe [[reference works]] print publications, and requires licensed works of this kind, published since then, to be in concordance with the information contained within the ''Encyclopedia'' and the ''Chronology'', such as the later [[GE Fabbri]] and [[Haynes Publishing]] ''Star Trek'' publications. As a consequence, the franchise has officially debunked previously licensed reference works written from an in-universe perspective, most notably [[Franz Joseph]]'s ''[[Star Fleet Technical Manual]]'' as well as [[Shane Johnson]]'s ''[[Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise]]'' and ''[[Worlds of the Federation]]''. Labeled "unofficial", these works were ''de facto'' demoted by the franchise to the apocryphal status of novels, comics and games. ({{STTM|2|11|71}})
   
 
===Cover gallery===
  
===Cover gallery===

Revision as of 12:24, 30 July 2014

Template:Realworld

The Star Trek Encyclopedia - A Reference Guide to the Future is the "definitive" Star Trek reference book, compiled by the production staff and officially licensed and endorsed by Paramount Pictures. An A-Z encyclopedia covering subjects from Andorians to Zefram Cochrane to Atoz, the Star Trek Encyclopedia was compiled by Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager staffers Denise and Michael Okuda. It includes summaries of all episodes, descriptions of all characters, rundowns of all locations, data on all lifeforms, and details on all starships that appeared in the Star Trek universe up to the fifth season of Voyager, and the final season of DS9 in the third edition.

While the first edition was still executed in black and white, the two subsequent editions were full color editions, with new color updated artwork by Doug Drexler. The first and third editions came in softcover and in hardcover in a dust jacket variants, the second edition only executed as hardcover.

Summary

From the interior book jacket (3rd. edition)
From 'audet IX [sic] to Zytchin III, this book covers it all. This is the ultimate reference book for all Star Trek fans !
Added to this edition are 128 new pages. This addendum highlights the latest episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine®, Star Trek: Voyager® and the newest feature film, Star Trek: Insurrection™.
The thousands of photos and hundreds of illustrations place the Star Trek universe at your fingertips, Planets and stars, weapons and ships, people and places are just part of the meticulous research and the countless cross-references that fill this book.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Background information

Not taken into account are officially licensed non-live action works - such as the various Star Trek novels, comics and games, which are considered apocryphal- as well as The Animated Series, which was not considered canon at the time of writing.

Some articles (generally only a paragraph or two long) contain little known facts from real world behind-the-scenes, annotated in italicized fonts to distinguish them from the overall in-universe writing of the work. Many also featured images created specifically for the Encyclopedia, including shots of barely visible starships like the Saber-class and Akira-class vessels, and a photograph of Cochrane's statue.

The authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia made several references to material that was never explicitly noted in canon (i.e. made up exclusively for the Encyclopedia) or that came from unspecified materials that have yet to be identified on screen. A majority of these references are related to Federation starships, notably their registries, class designations, and some of the classes themselves. The following classes appeared in the Star Trek Encyclopedia and are noted as conjectural, but not on what basis. Rigel-class was mentioned on a Starfleet Operations chart in "Brothers":

Two editions saw a Japanese-language release which, while largely faithful translations, were updated and expanded versions from their English-language counterparts. The only other known international release is the slightly abridged 1995 German-language first edition, published by Heel.

As stated in the 1999 third edition summary, the last published edition of the Encyclopedia featured a 128-page separate special section in the rear containing information from Insurrection, the final season of Deep Space Nine and the fifth season of Voyager. This was a cost-saving measure, as integrating this information alphabetically into the existing material would have resulted in a greater publishing expense and thus a higher price.

It seems unlikely that a fourth edition of the Encyclopedia will ever be forthcoming. Editors from Pocket Books have indicated that they have little interest in continuing their line of Star Trek reference books, such as the technical manuals, the Encyclopedia, and Okuda's earlier Star Trek Chronology, due to the low sales such high-priced items engender. The only "official" exhaustive reference work that is still updated is the Library of StarTrek.com, though this sometimes contains discrepancies.

A popular and influential work, the official Star Trek franchise treats it, like the Star Trek Chronology, as the primary quasi-canon source for all subsequent in-universe reference works print publications, and requires licensed works of this kind, published since then, to be in concordance with the information contained within the Encyclopedia and the Chronology, such as the later GE Fabbri and Haynes Publishing Star Trek publications. As a consequence, the franchise has officially debunked previously licensed reference works written from an in-universe perspective, most notably Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual as well as Shane Johnson's Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise and Worlds of the Federation. Labeled "unofficial", these works were de facto demoted by the franchise to the apocryphal status of novels, comics and games. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 11, p. 71)

Cover gallery

Further reading

See also

External links

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