The Unfettered Critic – April 2020

You may recall that back in October we announced we were writing another book. At the time, we withheld the subject matter—but now the time has come for the Big Reveal!

Drrrrummmmm roll….

It’s a Star Trek book!

(Was there ever any doubt in your mind?)

Yes, Star Trek. Sometimes we write about other things, but face it—Star Trek has true universal appeal, and that’s the subject that makes our phones ring with offers we can’t refuse.

In the past we’ve written about Kirk and Spock and “Beam me up, Scotty,” and Captain Picard and his team from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and still others that you may be less familiar with. Our latest literary topic is The Art of Star Trek: Discovery. The series Star Trek: Discovery debuted in 2017 on CBS All Access, a streaming service that requires a viewer subscription. We used to balk at signing up for such services (what happened to free TV?), but eventually we realized that the whole television industry is changing and, sad to say, there’s no going back. Seeing that we really like Star Trek, we gave in.

We’re glad we did! Star Trek: Discovery is an action-packed show that moves much faster than previous Treks. The protagonist is a woman, and she’s not a ship’s captain. She’s a science officer—a human woman (played by the dazzling Sonequa Martin-Green), orphaned at an early age and raised on Vulcan, a planet where, you may recall, everyone is extremely logical. That Vulcan training gets her into big trouble when she attempts to employ extreme logic to avoid a conflict—and winds up triggering an interplanetary war. Ouch.

Our mandate for our tome was not to trace its fascinating storyline. It was to invite readers into the world of the artisans who create the show’s stunning look, and in so doing, produce a lavishly illustrated guide. Thus, over the past year, we’ve interviewed dozens of people who work on the show, from Discovery’s creators/producers to the incredibly talented men and women responsible for every visual aspect of Discovery: the scenic designers and the set builders; the sculptor responsible for makeup design and the prosthetic technicians responsible for transforming humans into nonhumans; the costume creators; the prop masters; the visual effects team responsible for every star, every phaser blast, and every creature that isn’t actually there; and even the design firm responsible for the series’ gorgeous opening credits. And what fun it has been!

At the time we started working on this book, Discovery was the newest kid on the block, and in fact, the only Trek series in production. But it was successful, meaning there are now more Star Trek shows on the horizon. One of them—Star Trek: Picard, featuring the remarkable Sir Patrick Stewart of The Next Generation fame—began airing in January. Still more series are waiting in the wings: Star Trek: Section 31, about Starfleet’s top secret “black ops” division; Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated comedy focusing on underling members of a starship crew; and an as-yet-unnamed animated series for Nickelodeon said to be aimed at a younger crowd.

What this all points to is the fact that production of Star Trek is entering a renaissance phase, when, after a long dry spell there is suddenly quite a lot of Star Trek in the pipeline.

This doesn’t surprise nerds like us. It just makes us wonder if the phone will ring— again—while we’re out walking the dogs.

The Art of Star Trek: Discovery will be in bookstores (and available online) June 2, 2020.