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
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.
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.
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.