Star Trek The Next Generation Companion (Paperback)

It's not that I didn't enjoy reading how certain special effects were done on a particular episode, or how casting for a particular part was done. This companion book contains many interesting behind-the-scenes facts and was, overall, very enjoyable to read.

The disappointment I have with the book comes from the many errors I saw in the episode summaries. You would think that these summaries would be the easiest part of the book to write. Just watch the episode and then write the summary. It appears that whoever wrote these summaries did so from memory. Unfortunatley, that memory seems to be slipping.

One example is the summary for the "Star Trek Nemesis" movie. The summary makes it seem like Captain Picard does not realize that it is Data who has freed him from the lab on Shinzon's ship until after they leave the lab (supposedly he thinks he is being taken by B-4 to Shizon). However, Picard realizes that it is Data while still in the lab when Data renders the guard in the lab unconscious.

In addition to inaccurate summaries, there were also summaries that, while technically accurate, failed to completely describe the episode. In other words, they were too short. "Deja Q" is an example of this. There was quite a bit that happened in this episode, but the summary makes it appear that this was nothing more than a simple, basic show.

Although there was a lot more that could have been done to make this companion book better, it is still one of the best one out there for the TNG series.

The pictures are plentiful and although I would have preferred more backstory on the making of each episode (as well as behind the scenes photos), the info on each episode is fascinating. While this book doesn't sweep out all the dirt on the difficulities of Next Gen (for an accurate, well rounded story of the difficulties during Gene Roddenberry's second series I'd recommend Joel Engel's informed and well researched biography of the Great Bird of the Galaxy), there are a number of comments that hint at the difficult birth of Next Gen among them the large number of writer/producers that came and went prior to the arrival of Michael Pillar.

Next Gen really hit its stride during it's third and fourth season maintaining the quality for the bulk of the run of the series. Nemecek honestly asseses some of the worst episodes and the best. His comments from many of the writers also provides insight into the community writing method used to keep the quality high on Next Gen scripts. While this could and did work against some fine episodes, it also enhanced many of the best shows.

There is an exhaustive credit list of the writers/directors and guest actors for each episode. While this isn't the perfect Next Gen companion (perhaps an unoffical one will dig a little deeper into the struggles of the show and it's creative apex), it does provide a brief overview of each episode, credits and fairly objective overview on the various episodes strengths and weaknesses.

It seems as though Nemecek and his editors just wanted to concern themselves with updating the end of the book and the last 3 films. The book reads like "a rush job" I expected the same amount of care that went into the DS9 Companion with this book. While it does have a lot of interesting stuff about TNG within its pages, I have read better researched episode/film guides about the show. Recommended read only if you must The book has 372 pages, a new introduction by Nemecek, and several indices