The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers (Nitpicker's Guides) - Softcover
Six feature films, the wildly successful television spin-off Star Trek: The Next Generation, endless reruns, videotapes, conventions, a line of best-selling novels, and William Shatner's New York Times best-seller Star Trek Memories have kept the Star Trek spirit alive and well, even 25 years after its cancellation. Now this must-have book for all Trekkers -- which covers every episode of the original series, the pilot, and all six movies -- reveals all the bloopers, continuity errors, plot oversights, equipment malfunctions, and goof-ups that discerning, die-hard fans love to spot, but may have missed. Written especially for all those who find themselves thinking, "Hey, if the transporter is broken, why don't they just use a shuttlecraft?", this nitpicky volume includes Kirk's toupee watch; an examination of the logic of the miniskirted female crew members; number of times Kirk violated the Prime Detective and lots of trivia questions, fun facts, quizzes, and more. Live long and nitpick.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Phil Farrand is an award-winning computer programmer best known for the creation of Finale. He is also the author of The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers, The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Vol. II, The Nitpicker's Guide for Deep Space Nine Trekkers, and The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Greetings, fellow nitpickers! So now we turn our attention to classic Trek. In case you do not know, this guide is a follow-up to the earlier book, The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers. In my travels, I’ve come across an interesting attitude toward the original Star Trek series. I’ve found that many fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation view the original series like the crazy old uncle that no one wants to talk about at the family reunion. That’s unfortunate, because you can’t really understand NextGen unless you go back to its beginnings. And go back to the beginnings I have.
It has been my delight to spend four months revisiting the seventy-nine episodes of the most popular science fiction television series of all time, along with the first six Star Trek movies. There really is good work here. There really is a reason this series has survived for almost three decades. Once you get past the less polished sets and cheap-looking effects, you find great stories performed by talented actors. Stories worth discussing. Stories worth nitpicking. Stories that have spawned everything that we call Star Trek today—the movies, NextGen, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. So much has already been written about classic Trek, I feel very honored to add my little rock-throwing to the fray. As always, I’ve tried to be fair. After all, the series was produced almost three decades ago.
If you are unfamiliar with a Nitpicker’s Guide, let me offer a quick tour. In this book you’ll find reviews for all seventy-nine episodes of Star Trek; the first pilot, titled “The Cage”; and the first six movies. For each I will list the title, star date, and a brief summary. I’ll add a few ruminations along the way and offer my picks for great moments. Knowing how much Trekkers love trivia, I’ll even toss two questions your way. As readers of the NextGen Guide know, I like real trivia. Then it’s on to the good stuff! I’ve taken the nits for each review and placed them in one of four major categories: Plot Oversights, Changed Premises, Equipment Oddities, and Continuity and Production Problems.
Plot Oversights is a catchall. Anything that concerns the plot, or won’t fit anywhere else, goes here. Under Changed Premises you’ll discover that sometimes information given in one show directly contradicts information in another. In Equipment Oddities I’ll point out any technical problems I can find with the machinery of the Trek universe. Lastly, the section Continuity and Production Problems will expose errors in the actual creation of any of the installments of Star Trek that feature the classic cast.
The episodes of the television series contain two additional categories: Syndication Cuts and Closing Stills. As you probably already know, Star Trek originally aired on network television. The program content of each episode ran fifty-one minutes, including opening credits, the teaser for the next week, and the closing credits. For syndication, the creators cut the program content to forty-six minutes, thirty seconds—deleting the teaser and approximately four minutes of each episode. Often these cuts are simply establishing and reaction shots. However, some edits actually change the meaning of the dialogue and even remove nits. Most surprising, there are twenty episodes that contain no edits. They are the same as the ones aired on network television (see “The Unsyndicated” for more information). I will list each episode’s cuts under Syndication Cuts.
Under Closing Stills, I will identify the shots that serve as background for the closing credits. Since these change every week, I thought it would be fun to identify the episode from which the stills are taken. Interestingly enough, when the creators originally broadcast the episodes over network television, some of the stills in the closing credits came from episodes not yet aired. For instance, the first episode to air on network television, “The Man Trap,” has the garden scene from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” as a closing still. When this happened, the closing stills functioned as a sneak preview for later episodes. You will notice that there are a few stills I couldn’t identify. If you can identify them, write me at the address at the back of this Guide and become a member of the Nitpicker’s Guild (if you aren’t already).
A word about the resources I used while constructing this guide. I purchased a complete set of video rental tapes from Paramount through my local Blockbusters. These tapes included the network versions of the seventy-nine episodes and “The Cage.” I also purchased the six-pack of Star Trek movies from a local wholesale club. Some of these tapes contain additional footage not seen in the theaters. The copies of the syndicated episodes were taped here in Springfield, Missouri from regular television over the past several years. (It airs only once a week.) It is possible that the episodes are syndicated differently around the world. However, I have it on good authority that the masters used by my local television station came from Paramount. In addition, Jeanne Cavelos, my editor, loaned me a few of her tapes—recorded ten years ago in Syracuse, New York—and a spot check revealed that they had edits identical to the ones recorded locally.
Diehard fans of classic Trek will immediately realize that I do not discuss the television episodes in production order. Instead, I have listed them in their original air date order. (Believe me, I can hear the howls ascending even as I write this! Wink, wink.) I realize that all the other reference materials list the episodes in production order. (Then again, I’ve never been one to follow the crowd quietly.) Certainly, Jeanne and I had more than one discussion on this topic. As a purist, I felt it was important to view the episodes as the creators originally offered them to the fans. I understand that for the past twenty years television stations have played them in production order. Television stations also play Star Trek: The Next Generation in production order. This method results in “Skin of Evil” playing before “Symbiosis” because it was produced before “Symbiosis.” So Yar gets killed in “Skin of Evil” and then magically resurrects in “Symbiosis.” (In addition, “Unification II” was actually produced before “Unification I,” but the television stations play that particular combination in air date order, not production order.) Because of these types of problems, I listed the episodes in air date order in the NextGen Guide. For consistency, I did the same in the classic Guide. Having said all that, let me add that someone at Paramount seems to agree with my air date approach. After the twelfth episode in the original television series—“The Conscience of the King”—all the teasers on the prerecorded tapes for the “next voyage” of the Enterprise are in air date order (except when they’re just plain wrong). Of course, this raises an interesting point for dyed-in-the-wool nitpickers. For instance, the tape I purchased from Paramount unequivocally states that “Who Mourns for Adonais?” follows “Amok Time.” Yet the reference materials from Pocket Books say that “The Doomsday Machine” follows “Amok Time.” What are we to believe? The printed word? Or that which we see with our own eyes on a copy of the original version of the episode that aired on network television? (Oh, the grand tribulations of being a nitpicker.)
In any order, if you happen to have the episodes on videotape, pull them out and grab the remote as you work your way through the Guide. If you find something I missed, disagree with a nit I picked, or even find an error in the classic Guide itself, drop me a line at the address at the back of this book. That entry will make you a member of the Nitpickers’ Guild.
As always, the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive remains in full force. However, it has been significantly modified. The main rule of nitpicking now reads, “All nits picked shall derive from sources the creators consider canonical.” In other words, anything that Paramount claims is authoritative can be nit-picked. Before I tell you what Paramount claims as authoritative, a brief word of explanation for this change. The Nitpicker’s Prime Directive—as stated in The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers—originally read, “The information in this book comes solely from the television series.” At the time, there were 152 hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation available. I felt that everything the creators needed to tell us about NextGen could be told somewhere in those 152 episodes. On the other hand, there are only 79 episodes in the original series. The creators really didn’t have time to tell us everything they might have intended to tell us about the Star Trek universe. Reference books can fill in these gaps as long as the contents are approved by Paramount. In addition, any television show would soon get bogged down in minutiae if the creators took the time to explain every little piece of equipment. Reference books can help here as well, as long as the explanations match what is shown on the screen (and the creators use the devices in a consistent fashion).
So, what does Paramount consider authoritative? I’ve heard the same list from several different sources. Any of the television episodes in any incarnation of Star Trek are canonical. So are the movies and the reference materials available from Pocket Books. In addition, I consider the blueprints of the original Enterprise—drawn by Franz Joseph Designs and approved by Gene Roddenberry himself—authoritative. Not only do they bear the mark of the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, they are actually displayed on the bridge science station in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
On the other hand, the creators do not consider the Star Trek novels authoritative. Those stories have never actually happened. Trying to prove a nit by citing a passage from a novel violates the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive. And, as you know, nitpickers never violate the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive. Please believe me when I say that I, as the chief nitpicker, am as dedicated to the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive as the captains of the Enterprise are to Starfleet’s Prime Directive. After all, violating the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive could get me kicked out of the Guild!
One final note: At times in this Guide, I have picked nits in Star Trek: The Next Generation by using information in the original series and vice versa. This “interseries” nitpicking is certainly not exhaustive. There were just a few things that jumped out at me or that fellow nitpickers submitted. I thought you might find them interesting if you are also a fan of NextGen.
Happy nitpicking!
It has been my delight to spend four months revisiting the seventy-nine episodes of the most popular science fiction television series of all time, along with the first six Star Trek movies. There really is good work here. There really is a reason this series has survived for almost three decades. Once you get past the less polished sets and cheap-looking effects, you find great stories performed by talented actors. Stories worth discussing. Stories worth nitpicking. Stories that have spawned everything that we call Star Trek today—the movies, NextGen, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. So much has already been written about classic Trek, I feel very honored to add my little rock-throwing to the fray. As always, I’ve tried to be fair. After all, the series was produced almost three decades ago.
If you are unfamiliar with a Nitpicker’s Guide, let me offer a quick tour. In this book you’ll find reviews for all seventy-nine episodes of Star Trek; the first pilot, titled “The Cage”; and the first six movies. For each I will list the title, star date, and a brief summary. I’ll add a few ruminations along the way and offer my picks for great moments. Knowing how much Trekkers love trivia, I’ll even toss two questions your way. As readers of the NextGen Guide know, I like real trivia. Then it’s on to the good stuff! I’ve taken the nits for each review and placed them in one of four major categories: Plot Oversights, Changed Premises, Equipment Oddities, and Continuity and Production Problems.
Plot Oversights is a catchall. Anything that concerns the plot, or won’t fit anywhere else, goes here. Under Changed Premises you’ll discover that sometimes information given in one show directly contradicts information in another. In Equipment Oddities I’ll point out any technical problems I can find with the machinery of the Trek universe. Lastly, the section Continuity and Production Problems will expose errors in the actual creation of any of the installments of Star Trek that feature the classic cast.
The episodes of the television series contain two additional categories: Syndication Cuts and Closing Stills. As you probably already know, Star Trek originally aired on network television. The program content of each episode ran fifty-one minutes, including opening credits, the teaser for the next week, and the closing credits. For syndication, the creators cut the program content to forty-six minutes, thirty seconds—deleting the teaser and approximately four minutes of each episode. Often these cuts are simply establishing and reaction shots. However, some edits actually change the meaning of the dialogue and even remove nits. Most surprising, there are twenty episodes that contain no edits. They are the same as the ones aired on network television (see “The Unsyndicated” for more information). I will list each episode’s cuts under Syndication Cuts.
Under Closing Stills, I will identify the shots that serve as background for the closing credits. Since these change every week, I thought it would be fun to identify the episode from which the stills are taken. Interestingly enough, when the creators originally broadcast the episodes over network television, some of the stills in the closing credits came from episodes not yet aired. For instance, the first episode to air on network television, “The Man Trap,” has the garden scene from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” as a closing still. When this happened, the closing stills functioned as a sneak preview for later episodes. You will notice that there are a few stills I couldn’t identify. If you can identify them, write me at the address at the back of this Guide and become a member of the Nitpicker’s Guild (if you aren’t already).
A word about the resources I used while constructing this guide. I purchased a complete set of video rental tapes from Paramount through my local Blockbusters. These tapes included the network versions of the seventy-nine episodes and “The Cage.” I also purchased the six-pack of Star Trek movies from a local wholesale club. Some of these tapes contain additional footage not seen in the theaters. The copies of the syndicated episodes were taped here in Springfield, Missouri from regular television over the past several years. (It airs only once a week.) It is possible that the episodes are syndicated differently around the world. However, I have it on good authority that the masters used by my local television station came from Paramount. In addition, Jeanne Cavelos, my editor, loaned me a few of her tapes—recorded ten years ago in Syracuse, New York—and a spot check revealed that they had edits identical to the ones recorded locally.
Diehard fans of classic Trek will immediately realize that I do not discuss the television episodes in production order. Instead, I have listed them in their original air date order. (Believe me, I can hear the howls ascending even as I write this! Wink, wink.) I realize that all the other reference materials list the episodes in production order. (Then again, I’ve never been one to follow the crowd quietly.) Certainly, Jeanne and I had more than one discussion on this topic. As a purist, I felt it was important to view the episodes as the creators originally offered them to the fans. I understand that for the past twenty years television stations have played them in production order. Television stations also play Star Trek: The Next Generation in production order. This method results in “Skin of Evil” playing before “Symbiosis” because it was produced before “Symbiosis.” So Yar gets killed in “Skin of Evil” and then magically resurrects in “Symbiosis.” (In addition, “Unification II” was actually produced before “Unification I,” but the television stations play that particular combination in air date order, not production order.) Because of these types of problems, I listed the episodes in air date order in the NextGen Guide. For consistency, I did the same in the classic Guide. Having said all that, let me add that someone at Paramount seems to agree with my air date approach. After the twelfth episode in the original television series—“The Conscience of the King”—all the teasers on the prerecorded tapes for the “next voyage” of the Enterprise are in air date order (except when they’re just plain wrong). Of course, this raises an interesting point for dyed-in-the-wool nitpickers. For instance, the tape I purchased from Paramount unequivocally states that “Who Mourns for Adonais?” follows “Amok Time.” Yet the reference materials from Pocket Books say that “The Doomsday Machine” follows “Amok Time.” What are we to believe? The printed word? Or that which we see with our own eyes on a copy of the original version of the episode that aired on network television? (Oh, the grand tribulations of being a nitpicker.)
In any order, if you happen to have the episodes on videotape, pull them out and grab the remote as you work your way through the Guide. If you find something I missed, disagree with a nit I picked, or even find an error in the classic Guide itself, drop me a line at the address at the back of this book. That entry will make you a member of the Nitpickers’ Guild.
As always, the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive remains in full force. However, it has been significantly modified. The main rule of nitpicking now reads, “All nits picked shall derive from sources the creators consider canonical.” In other words, anything that Paramount claims is authoritative can be nit-picked. Before I tell you what Paramount claims as authoritative, a brief word of explanation for this change. The Nitpicker’s Prime Directive—as stated in The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers—originally read, “The information in this book comes solely from the television series.” At the time, there were 152 hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation available. I felt that everything the creators needed to tell us about NextGen could be told somewhere in those 152 episodes. On the other hand, there are only 79 episodes in the original series. The creators really didn’t have time to tell us everything they might have intended to tell us about the Star Trek universe. Reference books can fill in these gaps as long as the contents are approved by Paramount. In addition, any television show would soon get bogged down in minutiae if the creators took the time to explain every little piece of equipment. Reference books can help here as well, as long as the explanations match what is shown on the screen (and the creators use the devices in a consistent fashion).
So, what does Paramount consider authoritative? I’ve heard the same list from several different sources. Any of the television episodes in any incarnation of Star Trek are canonical. So are the movies and the reference materials available from Pocket Books. In addition, I consider the blueprints of the original Enterprise—drawn by Franz Joseph Designs and approved by Gene Roddenberry himself—authoritative. Not only do they bear the mark of the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, they are actually displayed on the bridge science station in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
On the other hand, the creators do not consider the Star Trek novels authoritative. Those stories have never actually happened. Trying to prove a nit by citing a passage from a novel violates the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive. And, as you know, nitpickers never violate the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive. Please believe me when I say that I, as the chief nitpicker, am as dedicated to the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive as the captains of the Enterprise are to Starfleet’s Prime Directive. After all, violating the Nitpicker’s Prime Directive could get me kicked out of the Guild!
One final note: At times in this Guide, I have picked nits in Star Trek: The Next Generation by using information in the original series and vice versa. This “interseries” nitpicking is certainly not exhaustive. There were just a few things that jumped out at me or that fellow nitpickers submitted. I thought you might find them interesting if you are also a fan of NextGen.
Happy nitpicking!
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0440506832
- ISBN 13 9780440506836
- BindingPaperback
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