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sfian's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Firstly, I'm not sure where the 320 page count (mentioned here for the books details and in the afterword of the book itself) as my copy only has 295.
There's no denying that the book is a visual treat. What I find strange is that parts of it don't fit the title. There's a quote from a review of The Final Frontier in the section dedicated to that film, which includes, "It ain't art, but it is peculiarly satisfying." And that summed up my feelings towards the book itself.
There's a lot to cover. The authors admit that and also admit that they discarded more than they included. Why, then, include a picture of Tribbles from Wrath Of Kahn? There's no accompanying design or concept piece. Or bottles from Quark's on DS9? And these are just two examples. I can see the value of, for example, a photo of Neelix in costume next to a design of that costume, so we can see the development from the origjnal art but there are many examples where we just see the finished product and, in those cases, we might as well be reading "The Props of Star Trek".
I guess it comes down to your definition of "art" but I wanted more storyboards, concept paintings, film posters, etc and less pictures of things I get in other volumes on Star Trek.
Also, and this is a minor criticism, double page spreads don't show off art terrifically well, if the book doesn't open out enough to show the whole thing.
Other than that, though, a lovely visual history.
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