Star Trek Voyager Companion [Paperback]

Basically, it is just a detailed episode guide. There are a lot of picutres, but all are in Black and White, no colour shots are included.

Overall, I would say save your money, and go to www.startrek.com for episode descriptions.

While "The Next Gen Companion" never quite lived up to the depth and background provided in "DS9 Companion", it did at least have more details on the series and trivia about the making of the various episodes. It seems with each succeeding volume associated with a Trek series, that we get less information. By the time the one for "Enterprise" is ready for release, we'll probably only get a brief synposis and no pictures. It's a pity as "Voyager" deserves better.

While "Voyager" wasn't as initially groundbreaking as "Next Gen" nor as complex as "DS9", it recaptured the sense of adventure that was at the heart of the original series. The quality of the writing for "Voyager" was very high, indeed although the series itself got less respect than the others.

"Voyager Companion" provides a good overview of the series but lacks the detail and trivia that made "DS9" great as a companion book and even "Next Gen" with its background on the films. It's a pity as the series certainly more than held its own against both Trek series and other competition as well.

The Voyager Companion by Paul Ruditis follows all 7 years of the 4th incarnation of Star Trek, Voyager. The book is set out much like it's predecessor companions, giving details of each episode in production order, with accompanying stardates and production personnel and actors. The book does a fine job of giving all the details of the show, outlining the stories for each episode, and giving summaries at the end of the technical information and character development.

The book also features multi-page sections devoted to each of the cast members, occuring approximately one in each season, although some seasons feature two. The character sections are particularly good, and feature quotes from both producers and actors alike.

The Companion also includes a nice summary of Voyager's crew manifest, showing every named crewmember over the 7 years, with their accompany rank, affiliation (Starfleet or Maquis) and status (alive, dead, or departed the ship).

Where the book fails is with the behind the scenes information that made the other companions so good. Aside from the small introduction to each season and the character pages, there is virtually no behind the scenes information. And the comments of the production personnel are all positive, and do little to point out any mistakes in the show. Having such a sanitized book as this only goes on to prove that there were production problems with Voyager, problems that the producers want to hide. If the producers had the honesty to admit the problems with Voyager (there were some, not that many though) it would strengthen the show's repuation, at least in my mind. We're all human, we all make mistakes. Wisdom comes from accepting responsibility for mistakes and making provision for them not to occur again.

It would have been much more interesting to read a balanced view of the show, featuring detailed behind the scenes information in conjunction with the detailed episode data.

But overall, this is a fairly good book, and a fine tribute to the strength of the Voyager series. If you like Voyager, then you should read this book.