These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One (These Are The Voyages series)
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One (These Are The Voyages series) book cover

These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One (These Are The Voyages series)

Paperback – November 15, 2013

by
Price
$29.95
Format
Paperback
Pages
668
Publisher
Jacobs Brown Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0989238120
Dimensions
7 x 1.51 x 10 inches
Weight
2.52 pounds

Description

"The level of research is astounding ... an incredible job ... The reviews are wonderful and well deserved." - LEONARD NIMOY."The definitive look at the original series hadn't been written - until now . An exhaustive, episode-by-episode history." - JEFF BOND, Geek Magazine .xa0"The best book ever written on Star Trek !" - SCOTT MANTZ, Access Hollywood ." Trek fans will die and get beamed up to heaven!" - BILLY HELLER, New York Post .xa0"Everything there is to know about TOS Season One . xa0A great read! xa0I guarantee it!" - WALTER KOENIG (Ensign Chekov) Marc Cushman interviewed Gene Roddenberry for a TV special about the Star Trek phenomenon in 1982.xa0 Cushman interviewed Roddenberry and again in 1989 when he pitched the story for the episode "Sarek," for Star Trek: Next Generation . Roddenberry gave Cushman all the Star Trek: TOS scripts and showed him the immense amount of documents he had saved from the production of the series. He suggested Cushman take the research for the TV special, expand on it by utilizing the gigantic "show files," and turn it into a book. Cushman was too busy with his own career as a screenwriter and director to begin work on the book until after Gene had passed, but, during those years, continued to collect interviews from the creative staff (Bob Justman, D.C. Fontana, John D.F. Black), as well as members of the production crew, the cast, and guest players. He began writing the book in 2007. And it was meant to be only one book. Six years later, filled with memos, production schedules, budgets, and Nielsen TV ratings, this "biography of a TV series" was over 2,000 pages in length, and had to be divided into three books (one for each season of TOS ). In the 1980's, Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman gave Marc Cushman permission to write the definitive history of the first Star Trek . They backed their stamp of approval by providing documentation never before shared with the public. These are the Voyages , published in three volumes - one designated for each season of TOS - will take you back in time and put you into the producers' offices, the writers' room, onto the sound stages, and in front of your TV sets for the first historic broadcasts. Included are hundreds of memos between Roddenberry and his staff, production schedules, budgets, fan letters, behind-the-scenes images, and the TV ratings, documenting the making of each episode of the "Classic 79" in staggering detail. Buckle your seat belts, the trek of a lifetime begins here. Marc Cushman is a WGA screenwriter, a television and film director/producer and an author. Gene Roddenberry took the pitch from Marc for "Sarek," the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation to feature a character from TOS thereby linking the two series together. Other TV assignments include scripts for Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction and Diagnosis: Murder , as well as feature films such as In the Eyes of a Killer and the award winning Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney . Marc co-authored the book I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • In the 1980s Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman gave Marc Cushman permission to write the definitive history of the first Star Trek. They backed their stamp of approval by providing documentation never before shared with the public. These are the Voyages, published in three volumes - one designated for each season of TOS - will take you back in time and put you into the producers' offices, the writers' room, onto the soundstages, and in front of your TV sets for the first historic broadcasts. Included are hundreds of memos between Roddenberry and his staff, production schedules, budgets, fan letters, behind-the-scenes images, and the TV ratings, documenting the making of each episode of the "Classic 79" in staggering detail. Buckle your seat belts, the trek of a lifetime begins here.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(335)
★★★★
25%
(140)
★★★
15%
(84)
★★
7%
(39)
★
-7%
(-39)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Best behind-the-scenes book about any TREK production, period

OMG, this is amazing. It's like Stephen E. Whitfield's classic THE MAKING OF STAR TREK on steroids. The level of detail is astonishing. The book covers the conceiving and making of the first two pilot and all the episodes of the first season, quoting hundreds of memos from Gene Roddenberry, Robert Justman, John D.F. Black, and others, and providing a wealth of information that I've never seen anywhere before.

As just one example of the fascinating level of detail: Robert Bloch's script for "What Are Little Girls Made of?" had to be rewritten because Bloch had heavily relied on three of his own older short stories in creating the script -- a fact not disclosed to the STAR TREK producers, but discovered by their outside research firm. No real problem, right? Except Bloch didn't own the copyright to those stories; the magazine they were published in did. There was also concern that the episode infringed on an earlier "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" episode, and so the twist ending -- that Korby was an android, too -- was added, and not by Bloch.

The book is illustrated with lots of small (although sharp) photographs, many of which are "trims" -- unaired beginnings and endings of scenes, or otherwise unused footage, often taken from old Lincoln Enterprise film clips; others are behind-the-scene photos or publicity shots from other series of guest actors.

I co-edited (with David Gerrold) a book about STAR TREK myself ([[ASIN:1932100873 Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles, And the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek (Smart Pop series)]] and I've read every previous making-of TREK book. I say again: none come close to this level of detail.

The book itself is a large-format, handsome, well-produced, print-on-demand edition, fully professional -- and worth every penny. Five stars.
66 people found this helpful
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Some freshman design student would have done a better job. It looks like it was formatted in ...

In all my years of reading, this trade paperback is the shitiest piece of professional - and I use that term guardedly - book design I have ever run across. Every standard layout rule, every possible thing you’re taught not to do, they do in scads. Here’s some of them: widows and orphans, inconsistent margins, inconsistent indentation, spelling mistakes, weird paragraph breaks, dropped sentences, poorly wrapped text that breaks to the right. You name it, it’s here. Some freshman design student would have done a better job. It looks like it was formatted in ancient Quark 3 and and someone made a series of editing mistakes that destroyed the book’s layout - easy to do if you don’t know Quark. They simply didn’t care enough to fix it; it’s for a niche market and there’s a built-in client base. My guess is it’s assumed we’ll just tolerate the mess. Why complain? It’s an expensive trade paperback, at least fifteen dollars more than other comparable trade paperbacks and it’s a headache provoking mess. I don’t know if the hardcover suffers from these defects but if you’re at all interested in this subject I want to
discourage you from buying this book in this format.
13 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Best book on the making of the original series; hands down!!

This is the most comprehensive book ever written about the original series . . . . and it only is the first season!! This book goes into great detail that has not ever been covered in "The Making of Star Trek" or in "Inside Star Trek." This book is on an entirely different level; it is a must have book for fans of the original series. The only problem with this book is at 600 pages; you won't get much done until you finish reading!! It is great and highly recommended.
10 people found this helpful
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Overrated by Amazon reviewers

I'm really surprised by the high rating of this really detailed, but really lengthy very-much-in-need-of-a-good-editor, book. If you're interested in the teleplay development and way-too-detailed shooting log of the first season - this is the book for you. Even so, this material needs the hand of an experienced editor. The book is simply 150-200 pages too long.

If you're looking for an even-handed historical recounting of the season one production - look elsewhere. This book could easily be titled The Gene Roddenberry Experience Season One brought to you by the Gene Roddenberry Fan Club.

I was very disappointed in the lack of the real drama and technical interest of TOS - the detailed visual effects production uber-dramas, the stories of the practical effects and props, and the herculean post-production struggles - you WON'T FIND ANY OF THAT ANYWHERE in the 650 pages collected here.

I fear it may be too late to collect those stories and study those documents and from that perspective I see this book as a horrendous lost opportunity...

Finally, not a single color picture in the whole book. All those beautiful Kodachrome pics from the Paramount, NBC, TV Guide, and Parade archives and not a single image reproduced in color. :(
9 people found this helpful
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It IS Revised and Expanded, and TREK's History Is Revealed Inside!

There have been a raft of books about the origins of STAR TREK by people like Van Hise, Gerrold, Justman & Solow, and many more. But this is the only one undertaken with the blessing of Great Bird Gene Roddenberry himself, and with assistance and interviews with nearly all the surviving cast, writers, and crew.

Marc Cushman also gives us TONS background on script ideas and development, chronicling ideas from pitch to script. The unproduced storylines are also described, along with a fascinating description of the contradictory character of Roddenberry himself. His livelihood depended on the TV and studio industry, but he could not refrain from snarkiness, pettiness, and trying to figuratively poke his bosses in the eye, time and again. In some way's Roddenberry was TREK's worst enemy.

Among the exclusive new information is information from the Nielsen ratings service that shows that STAR TREK was never the ratings failure NBC said it was. Sometimes it even won its timeslot!

And there are hundreds of quotations from in-house memos from producers, directors, and stars on everything from costuming to special effects to script development and editing. It's a fanboy's behind-the-scenes paradise for a longtime Trekker like me.

If you are a fan of STAR TREK, of pop culture, or of TV production history, you will want to read this book! For this edition,. it has been gone through from stem to stern, with additions, corrections, and straightlining of the text. It was already a stupendous amount of work in the service of fans and history. Now it is new and improved.

TRUTH IN REVIEWING: I am one of this edition's editors.
4 people found this helpful
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Loved It!

Wow! That is my initial thought after reading this thoroughly researched book about the making of the first season of Star Trek. My second thought is that I want to go back and watch all of the first series again, now that I know more about how each episode was produced.

This book tells it all-- the inner thoughts of the cast and crew, the battles with the network and the studio, and the miracle that the show even got on the air to begin with. Gene Roddenberry was constantly pushing buttons-- insisting on having an African American on the Bridge, insisting on having an alien as first officer, insisting on having an Asian on the bridge. He pushed to show women in leadership positions, pushed to show a diverse group of people in leadership positions, pushed the boundaries in terms of addressing modern day issues through parables involving aliens.

Roddenberry has always been one of my heroes and this book bolsters my image of him, while at the same time acknowledging his flaws-- and there were many. And this book gave me renewed respect for all the cast and crew of the show, particularly Gene Coon and DC Fontana who were greatly responsible for creating much of Star Trek canon. And I actually gained even more respect for Lucille Ball after hearing about her support for the show and how she was the one responsible for approving Star Trek's first year.

This book is a must read for any Star Trek fan. I found it impossible to put down!
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

The Most Immersive Behind-the-Scenes Book of its Kind

Thanks to unfettered access to production memos and drawings from Gene Roddenberry and Robert Justman, the author meticulously reconstructed almost a day-by-day account of the genesis of 'Star Trek' from story to pre-production to production to post-production and beyond. The research conducted by Marc Cushman was staggering. Included in this volume is background on each member of the cast and crew, including excerpts from trade paper reports, local newspaper reviews, and seldom read or re-published interviews with fanzines. It is disappointing that CBS/Paramount didn't get behind this project as the pictures presented throughout are from private collectors. And some of the pictures would be brilliant if presented in full color. But the book is a fascinating account that takes a brutally honest look at some of the people behind 'Star Trek'. It pulls no punches and spares no one from criticism, even Roddenberry himself. So glad I got this book and looking forward to reading the accounts of Star Trek's second and third season when they are published.
2 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Awesome! Marc Cushman did a great job with his research. Worth the $$$$
1 people found this helpful
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Excellent book, incredibly in depth research.

I purchased this on Kindle for myself and in softcover for a friend. This is by far the most well researched and interesting "making of" Star Trek book I've ever read. Reading this adds a whole new dimension to the experience of watching the original series (disclaimer: I'm a total Trek nerd and have seen each TOS episode at least a hundred times-literally, not figuratively). I'm learning a great deal about all the heart and soul, the battle of wills, and the network vs writers vs producers vs directors etc. etc. that went on in creating this brilliant and timeless show. To have it broken down episode by episode is just fantastic. The breadth of information about all those involved from actors to writers to directors is just amazing. The story of how they struggled desperately to meet budgets and deadlines, at times bordering on exhaustion and mental breakdown, all the while managing to still create a show that kept true to Roddenberry's vision is quite enthralling. For any of fan of Star Trek, or even any fan of nostalgic TV from the sixties, or perhaps even those who aspire to get into the business now from either side of the camera, this is a wonderful read.
1 people found this helpful
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Wow....Loved It!

I'm a huge Star Trek fan and when I found this book on Amazon I was astounded that someone had taken the time to write such a detailed account of the first season of Star Trek. The book did not disappoint. All levels of production are explored for each episode. The first 150 pages were a bit dull but the detail to each episode was fantastic.

One of the more interesting items that pops up over and over for several episodes was the rewriting by Gene and some of the other producers and writers to make the shows watchable and affordable for television. The most infamous is "The City on the Edge of Forever" episode. The original writer was honked off about the rewrite and this feud lasted for decades. I understand both points of view but in the end the show has to be workable and I felt that this particular writer couldn't get past his own genius to see what needed to be done to make it workable. By the way this is my favorite episode of Star Trek. Just fantastic.

One small gripe is the author's almost drooling and trying to make the episode seem better than it was. This wasn't necessary. I wouldn't be reading the book if I wasn't a hard core Trekkie. This book is for serious fans.

Just excellent.
1 people found this helpful

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