Santa forgot your Trek? Quick, get the Costumes book!

Good on my old friends and colleagues Paula Block and Terry Erdmann for being such a holiday hit: Their new must-have coffeetable book Star Trek: Costumes, Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier was smack front and center (right) in the foyer at my local Barnes & Noble this season!

So, if your Christmas haul didn't include enough of a Trek fix, and maybe somehow the "real" James T. Kirk story is not your cup of tea… maybe you need a heavy-duty dose of Star Trek's incredible costume history… in coffeetable book form (i.e., tons of big photos).

And that's just what you get in Star Trek: Costumes—the other early entry in the book bash for Trek's 50th anniversary.  A huge tome of reprinted, rare and exclusive all-new photos of Trek's finery for any cosplay need out there, this must-have is fresh from Paula & Terry via Insight Editions. Due to our distantly uncrossed paths I can't get you a vidchat here yet (as with David Goodman and other authors in recent months) but take it from me: This is amazing. Including a wonderful intro by TV and film Trek's longtime costume maestro Bob Blackman about his daily life for 16 years, four films and four TV series.

Star Trek: Costumes is 208 pages in 9 1/4 x 12 3/4-inch hardback format, over an inch thick, and covers it all— like the subtitle says, from "The Cage" through Into Darkness. Most of all, Paula and Terry have not only done a host of new interviewing but, for those giants of Trek tailoring and modeling who have passed—led by the great original series' costume designer and motif-maker, Bill Theiss of course—they have pulled together nuggets and insights from others as well from a zillion scattered sources to accompany these vivid, living images. 

The photos are incredible—including all the new imagery of mannequin-adorned iconic designs—but the text is every bit the insight icing on that costume cake. 

The best part is, as with any good Trek research effort, they have have come up with bits that were news to me, too. Anyone who can still give me a fanboy moment after all these years digging in Trekland myself is hardly a dunsel in my book! One was bellydancer/actress Tanya Lemani's revelation that her Kara outfit was a plastic skirt and her own bra, adorned with even more plastic to cover cleavage at studio insistence. Or that the original Motion PIcture Klingon uniforms had been out on loan and tour for five years and had to be rebuilt or recast from tatters for ST III. 

Most of all, I was tickled and very appreciative to Paula and Terry for a shout-out in the thank-yous, and for annotating some writing of mine from some hot-and-heavy details-talking time with Bob and the film costume designers. Thanks, guys! We'll do that vidchat AND I'll get mine signed then.

Yes, you'll want this one for your shelf for ages. It may even be up in after-holiday sales, now.

Here's some sample spreads, including memories from our lovely friends Mike Forrest and Barbara Luna: 

STV: David Goodman edits Kirk's bio! —Part 1

Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays?

If you didn't already grab a copy of David Goodman's The Autobiography of James T. Kirk from Titan Books, maybe now's the time! Available everywhere live and online, it's David's second foray into non-fiction gap-filling, after FEDERATION: The First 150 Years in 2012. (And you know how I am about Trek gap-filling.)

In fact, I grabbed David once again in the off-hours at his office as Family Guy writer-producer to talk about the tome in a new vidchat: his choices, the process, and even fan feedback after Federation. 

WARNING: Loaded with all kinds of sidelong and unexplained Trek references, of course.

SECOND WARNING: Watch for the remainder of this chat in follow-ups in coming days!


FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access.

You found your way here: It's Stellar Cartography day!

I'm already hearing... from reviewers, from fans lucky enough to get an early delivery...

For today, finally, is the birth of my latest baby, Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, from 47North/Amazon and Becker&Mayer, a trio of talented artists, and concept folks who approached me about it last winter.
And I expect, for this newest generation of JJ/Bluray-borne Trek fans of the past decade, this title will really put Star Trek star-charting on the map.

So far, the early word has been great: "Lords of Kobol, these maps...I think I am going to need more walls...!" my twitterbud @StarbaseUGC declared Monday when his set arrived early ... his franchise-mixing forgiven.


"I have my set all over the floor—it has taken over my house!" an interviewer from WIRED magazine/website confided to me.

Did you reserve your copy on pre-order? (We'd love it if you used our link—and it's gift season, you know.) I'm just bracing for the reaction from all levels of fandom: canonistas, tech heads, art fans, armchair fans, Klingon fans, DS9 fans (see photo left), TOS fans... even general pop culture fans and map fans (yes, map fans).

(NOTE: These grabs are made from low-res pdf files;  actual printing is MUCH sharper.)

Now, nothing is perfect; I know in thousands of data points (and "gap-filling" in lieu of others) there are things we missed, or with a third or fourth voice might have tweaked a little differently. And yes, these are couched as being the Top 10 Most Viewed maps at Memory-Alpha—and having 2-D maps in a 3-D century is a bit of stretch.. but hey.  But this project is built on the sturdy and well-tested shoulders of those who have gone before; we didn't so much re-invent the wheel as come up with some new upholstery fabric, some antique accessories, and all-new foreign materials to make the body out of.

Need some details? Well...
I first talked about "Maps 2013", my own nickname—as opposed to Maps 1977, Maps 1980, and Maps 2002!—in this Trekland post. We did a preview at Vegas Trek, and startrek.com has carried both my thoughts and an interview with artist Ian Fullwood, who tackled six of the maps; the magazine and website 3DArt Direct carried an interview with Ali Ries, the other talented artist who completed three of the alien maps (at right). Sometime I hope to get some thoughts from my old star-map buddy Geof Mandel, who I've worked with on ALL of those projects to one degree or another—and who contributed the "kitchen sink history map" in this set.


Everyone who agonized over the limited book format of "tiny" pages in Geof's 2002 classic Star Trek Star Charts should love our ten varied 2x3-foot posters here—and you even get a LOCATOR INDEX for the main maps, this time around! My guidebook is not as sexy as the maps, but there's a ton of new observations, conclusions, imaginings—and, finally, real sense made of the Dominion War's "astrography,' which turned out to be my biggest single all-new contribution here (aside from figuring out how the heck the Delphic Expanse once fit into local space.)

In coming weeks online and live at cons I'll be talking about some of the hundreds of snap-decisions on "gap-filling" I made here, at times consulting the think tank when needed—our good friend John van Citters at CBS, and of course under the wrangling of Becker & Mayer editor Dana Youlin, who survived another sprawlingly dense Trek backgrounder after David Goodman's Federation: 150 last Christmas, and art editor Rosanna Brockley.

But for right now, I'd appreciate hearing what YOU think, no matter what slice of fandom you hail from. Please sound off here, if you will!  I already suspect we overlooked a beloved TOS "guest planet" that got clipped from the 2002 book (we did re-include many more of them); there's likely others, so we'll start a to-do list for the Next Iteration. At the same time, the text and maps (and a few name in-jokes) in this set will keep you scouring for hours... and, I'll bet, adding some 2x3 poster frames to your shopping list. Ali and Ian's maps are all somewhere between cool and gorgeous and deserve to be the works of art they were dually intended. And better get Geof's map framed as well: it'll save inevitable wear and tear from the fingerstains of constant use.

Yes, original and cool-concept Trek backgrounding is back, baby! Merry Christmas!

My secret's out and you can order it now: The Starfleet Stellar Cartography maps/book set

UPDATE: Just need to pre-order now? Quick link is here!


Yes, I can finally say it. The big Trek "secret project" I've teased but stayed mum on in recent months is out there: the Star Trek Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library poster map set and guidebook is now on Amazon for pre-order, as ballyhooed on the front page of startrek.com today. In case there was any doubt—Star Trek non-fiction is BACK, baby!

I do not know what is cooler: that we finally got to do evolved-canon star map posters suitable for framing, that we got to do starmaps from not only various historical eras but from various alien origins ... or that I got to update and "massage" some background gaps that have bugged canon fans like me for years.

Look, I don't want to spoil everything here—there's a lot in the press release, which you can see below—but just know that we didn't reinvent the wheel. We took the bedrock work of Geof Mandel in the 2002 Star Trek Star Maps as our touchstone—indeed, we got Geof back for a massive "historical" UFP map in the set of 10—and then got artists Ali Ries and Ian Fullwood to help take it from there for the various vibes needed. Together, they sweated a lot of our details—and that cover you see here does not begin to reveal the depth of what we get into.

You get the set of ten 2x3 maps I oversaw, plus the hardback guidebook I authored (at left)—all in the guise of a curated collection from the analog and digital archives of Memory Alpha. In those pages, we update for the Prime universe since 2002 (real-time) as of 2386 (canon time), we tie together a lot of threads like that whole confusing "Alpha Quadrant powers" thing, and we even deal with the onetime "Delphic Expanse" of Enterprise and, in a special update, JJ's Romulan subspace supernova.

What I may be most singly proud of, though, is for the first time finding a way to choreograph the known elements of the Dominion War onto that grid in a way that makes sense—including all that "threatened Federation homeworlds" business—and not only illustrate some major canon battles but make sense of those onscreen DS9 wall maps, too.

You guys who have read my "Fistful of Data" column in Titan's UK-turned-US Star Trek Monthly magazine since 1998 know my belief that most all canon hiccups can really be solved—and more simply than you think. This is actually my fifth time to work on a Trek maps project—the last four all with Geof in some way, amazingly, and the last three licensed ... and in all of them I got to put my credo into practice for that era.

I am so proud to have my name on this monster, and for everyone who worked on it—including my very patient becker&mayer! book editor Dana Youlin and art director Rosanna Brockley, plus CBS' John Van Citters, of course. They are veterans of lots of projects both in and out of franchise properties, including fellow background nerd David Goodman's incredible Federation: ... 150 Years book last year... but this was the most intense title for Dana and Rosanna yet. You'll soon see why!

The only bummer on the whole thing is that it won't release until Dec. 3, 2013—just in time for holiday gift-giving, of course—but you can pre-order now, exclusively at amazon.com (and no money due til it ships!). If you do hurry up and jump on now, every pre-order sends a signal to CBS and Amazon, etc., that we want more of this new-wave creative but intense non-fiction "gap filling," as I call it—since it may be some time before we get any on-screen Prime Universe backgrounding again. (For one thing, I do know that tabletop or paper-and-dice Trek space gamers will just have to have a set.)

We'll talk more, but for now know this:  If Stellar Cartography floats your boat and you are headed to Vegas Khhaaann in August, please stop by the panel already planned on this book and fire away on your questions. There'll be lots more to say and detail as we go along.


FULL PRESS RELEASE:

47North and becker&mayer! announce STAR TREK^TM Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library

Officially licensed, georgeously illustrated collection featuring ten original, fully removable large-format maps of the Star Trek universe

From the publishers of Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years comes a stunning new map collection straight from cartography archives of Starfleet Academy: STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library (47North/becker&mayer! On-sale: December 2013; ISBN-13:, ISBN-10: 1, $79.95).  These beautifully reproduced maps provide a rare opportunity to view the expanse of Federation space (and beyond) through the multiple lenses of the Galaxy's key players—visually expanding the Star Trek universe in never-before-seen ways. Compiled by Star Trek expert Larry Nemecek (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) with illustrations by Ian Fullwood, Ali Rees and Geoffrey Mandel, STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library will release in December 2013.

The original maps include an ancient Vulcan map, a Klingon Empire map from the pre-Organian Peace Treaty era (in the native Klingon), an official Romulan government map of the Empire, a native Cardassian Union map from the occupied-Bajor era, along with Federation maps from the modern era. Housed in a handsome clamshell case and paired with a fully-illustrated reference book providing detailed information on planets, systems, and topography, this 48-page collection, licensed by CBS Consumer Products, will have something for Star Trek fans of all ages.

No Star Trek fan will want to miss this definitive collection. Visit www.amazon.com/StellarCartography to find out more about STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library and to pre-order this deluxe special edition book in advance of December. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Nemecek is an author, editor and Star Trek consultant. He wrote the New York Times bestseller Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion. Nemecek edited the Star Trek Communicator magazine for eight years, contributed to Star Trek Fact Files in the UK, and served as a consultant on Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. He lives in Burbank with his wife, Janet.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATORS

Ian Fullwood lives and works in rural Herefordshire, England, and has clients both at home and in the USA. With more than 20 years of experience in technical illustration and commercial art, Ian's love of the technical has taken him from traditional earth bound engineering type illustrations to the far flung galaxies of the Sci-Fi genres, illustrating more recently the maps of the Star Trek Stellar Cartography and previously Star Wars Vehicles, Weapons, Droids and Planets.

Ali Ries is a 3D digital artist from Salem, Oregon. Coming of age in the NASA era of Gemini and Apollo anchored her artist roots in space. Like many children of the Sixties she was mesmerized by Neil Armstrong’s historic first moonwalk, wishing she could be standing beside him in the grand adventure.

When Star Trek premiered on network television her future was paved with dream of some future in the world of Sci-Fi and Fantasy art or special effects. With the equivalent of a mental Hubble platform, Ali began creating astronomical star scapes, nebulae, and other space scenes as real as the night sky.

Today her work is used on book covers, television projects and other media around the world, including the recent SyFy network project, BSG: Blood and Chrome, Riddick 3 and Star Trek Fandom movies.

Geoffrey Mandel began his career as an art department P.A. on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Since 1995 he has worked as a graphic designer for films and TV shows, including many projects in the Star Trek franchise and various genre shows, such as The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, and the 2005 film Serenity, a spin-off the cult sci-fi series Firefly. In his spare time, Mandel designs and illustrates props, blueprints and star maps for various science fiction franchises, including the Serenity blueprints, and maps of the Star Trek, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica universes.

™ & ©2013 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About 47North

47North is an Amazon Publishing imprint specializing in books for readers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  47North offers a wide array of new fiction and cult favorites, from urban fantasies to space operas, alternate histories to gothic and supernatural horror.

About becker&mayer

For over 30 years, becker&mayer! LLC, the largest book packager in the U.S., has created hundreds of innovative nonfiction books and book-plus products for adults and children in formats that integrate paper components, digital content, electronics, audio, and other specialty features for publishers worldwide. www.beckermayer.com

STV: Gap-filling Star Trek with David Goodman and "Federation: The First 150 Years," Pt. 2

I'm rushing this into print because I hope you late shoppers still needing a cool Trek gift might see this and still do something about it!

That, and I just want to get more of this interview out, after our Part 1—because David Goodman and I had such a hoot. My very first reaction to Star Trek*, after posters and model kits, was the urge to fill up those annoying background gaps when it seemed we might not get any more on film--but to do it in a smart and agreeable way.

And with our fallow period of new Trek now in the Prime 'verse, and a return to Star Trek non-fiction looking better than ever, finally, David was the first true background fan to get a big chance again. I'm STILL jealous—and it has nothing to do with his time writing on Enterprise, or Futurama, or the MacFarlane Empire like Family Guy and American Dad—or just selling a new animated series to FOX, Murder Police.

So just hit that play button, because while I may even get an interviewee to cry, I rarely get them to curse at me. And rip me off on camera!

And know too: There is a Part 3 coming—one last entry about Trek canon and his gap-filling choices—plus a Part 4: apart from "FEDERATION: 150," David's prognostications on Trek now and future and my reaction to them. Keep staying tuned ... and for starters, listen to David's answer to the Eugenics War Conundrum ... the Cloaking Dilemma ... and Trill vs. Vulcan Parallelism...





*And I don't mean in 2009 ...

STV—"Federation" canon gap-filling, with David Goodman

Trek Background lovers, take note! You finally get your place back in the sun.

Star Trek Cool Week continues—as does our erstwhile focus on the new FEDERATION: The First 150 Years non-fiction book, capped now as promised by Part 1 of an extended and EXCLUSIVE vidchat with author and onetime Enterprise writer-producer David Goodman.

Oddly, it's the American Dad offices where we caught up with David to talk about his little history baby, FEDERATION: The Cool Book, and this look in brief at the beloved (by some of us) art of Trek "gap filling" that has gone on since the 1980s—and seems to blossom especially in time of "fallow production" (ie, a movies-only era, as then and now).

Listen as we hit some of the issues that fervent Trek canonistas care about—and I can say that, being one!—that he had to tackle and make choices.

And remember, this is just Part 1 with David... there is SO much more to come... in Part II!

It's FEDERATION DAY—exclusive art from the new non-fiction Trek book, on sale today

Well, this is exciting.

All joshing aside, as when we "opened our box" to unwrap the incredible FEDERATION: The First 150 Years:  I've known author David Goodman mainly from his day job—from when he signed aboard ENTERPRISE for its two middle seasons off the strength of his comedy writing for the classic "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" Trek homage on Futurama. Since then, of course, he's gone on to the Seth McFarlane Hit Factory and worked on both Family Guy and now American Dad.  

And just TODAY came news David's pilot for another animation comedy MURDER POLICE has just sold to series by Fox—so congrats, busy man.


But for today's EXCLUSIVE bit here: This original artwork of the founding UFP ambassadors and Charter signers—a full-page piece* by Mark McHaley, and just one of those to be found in FEDERATION amid a slew of original art concepts and graphic documents (click it open for it's full glory!).

To explain: That "unwrapping" vidpost is also where I told the improbable and personal story of all those various names that David uses here surrounding the Federation Charter ... and a refresher on its origins. And it's why FEDERATION's publishers and promoters allowed us the honor at Trekland of unveiling it for you. Suffice to say, I WISH I could tell my dad he had such a hand in Federation history ... and that my son really does not argue quite as much as a Tellarite.  And to think I owe it all to the TNG Companion and Penny Juday, the art department coordinator for Generations who said, "Hey, we can use some cool filler for the Picard scrapbook! Everyone is pitching in!" See how these goofy life stories snowball?

So to sum up: a must-have book with a cool concept (an anniversary exhibit on Memory Alpha), plus great artwork and removable goodies ... including this one, with an unexpected bonus personal "1994" touch for me. Just one more chink in the millions of stories that make up the Trek City. (And this one comes in time for gift-giving, of course, via Amazon.com).

And if this awesome art and our "unwrapping" tease are not enough—tomorrow follows with  another Trekland surprise: our EXCLUSIVE vidchat with David Goodman, in two parts. Stay tuned...




*The caption for McHaley's Page 90 chapter-opening artwork reads:  
Jonathan Archer speaking at the signing of the Federation Charter. Behind him, left to right, are Ambassadors T’Jan of Vulcan, Gort Sarahd of Andoria, Admiral Douglas, and Ambassador Natha Kell of Tellar

STV: Unwrapping! The 150 Years of FEDERATION (spoilers)

This box showed up on my porch a while back ... so let me show you what happened next.

To be truthful, I kinda had an idea... but it was still exciting to do this. Especially since the guy involved is a good guy.  And we'll be back with more of David Goodman, direct from Hollywood, to talk about it on camera prior to the Tuesday, Dec. 4 release date.

As you'll see, it's totally new and unseen. This book and I had never met each other before this show:

(WARNING!: This should have been in two parts, but I wanted to get it all to you now. So "Part 2" the second half  is full of SPOILERS, oh my!  And some unexpected surprises even beyond that ...

STV: IDW's Scott Tipton: The Zombies are coming...at Warp 7?

When it comes to today's big trendy-wendy pop story fads of The New Millenium, zombies are right up there with vampires, pirates and steampunk to provide a goofy twist on everything. So it comes as no surprise there's been buzz for some time now about this wacky mega-crossover conjured up by IDW Comics: bringing zombies to interwoven stories involving four of IDW's licensed franchise comic lines—including Star Trek.

Say what?

Well, I'll let IDW's lead Star Trek writer, Scott Tipton, say it all. The fan world has been all a-twitter (and more) regarding the idea of how zombies work in a "straight" universe like Trek, but here's Scott to talk about it. We chatted recently at Hollywood Xpo, but the two Star Trek "Infestation" chapters are only now just coming to stores this month—this Wednesday, Feb. 9, and then Feb. 23. Liston too for Scott's other recent IDW projects ...