These Are the Voyages: Tos: Season 3 (Star Trek: These Are the Voyages)
Reviews (93)
You will be surprised
This whole series goes above and beyond. This is NOT recycled stuff from other ST books, this is new stuff. This person took the time and energy to do it RIGHT.This is WORTH every fan of TOS to read. All three books. The first behind-the-scenes books in a LONG time I felt were truly worthwhile. So much so that I was waiting, and checking often, for the third season one to come out. And bought it the instant it did. I've been... less than complimentary about other ST books. For reason. You may or may not agree with my reasoning. THIS WHOLE SERIES... has been very good and a breath of fresh air. Offering NEW information. For a change. I have a huge problem with others just... feeding off the Star Trek food-tank WITHOUT actually creating anything NEW. So many so-called "authors" have just, well, for lack of a better term, regurgitated... information that is readily available in, in some cases, MANY other places. This ENTIRE SERIES does NOT do that. It does, from time to time, re-tell a few of the ST stories.But by and large, no. What you get is a different look at Trek and some of it will surprise you. It surprised me. LOVE this series of books.
A Book About The Disastrous 3rd Season That Killed TOS
Bought the Kindle version. There were a few minor errors, but nothing like the first edition of the first book. The only drag was the chapter in this book that drones on repeatedly about the Nielsen ratings on the show. All that really needed to be said is that NBC lied about the ratings to kill the show. I finally just skipped the rest of that section -- I couldn't stay awake. The funny thing is that though it's true that Freiberger helped kill the show due to his unfamiliarity, it was really Roddenberry that killed it by hiring Freiberger in the first place instead of promoting Justman, and then essentially ditched the show to write and produce the colossally bad film, Pretty Maids All in a Row. So it was a good but depressing book that shed light on how bad things really got in the 3rd season, and why.
Extremely nuanced and detailed
Each of the three volumes of this series is the most incredibly detailed and nuanced episode-by-episode and blow-by-blow description of what went on behind the scenes of the making of the original 'Star Trek' TV series. Sometimes the accounts you've heard about the principals involved, good and bad, turn out to be overly simplistic. With access to all the original memos, and interviews both past and specifically for this book, a very complete picture is presented. What's impressed me in all three volumes is how much effort and trouble went into taking a good 'Trek' story and making it better, and still doing it affordably. In this, the third season, where several chances to get a better time slot than the Friday 10pm graveyard are one by one taken away by bad luck, and the network obviously wants to kill the show, you do see that start to slip. With a bare-bones budget, a new producer, and chances of renewal getting dimmer by the week, the principal players start to walk away, either fully or in a day-to-day sense. Still, the third season produced some real gems.
Thank You Marc Cushman!
What an accomplishment! These three volumes go episode by episode in excruciating (or, for me, ecstatic) detail. I always thought these stories sprung from the author's head mostly fully formed -- this could not be further from the truth. Marc Cushman has put together a fascinating look at the creation of one of the most iconic TV shows of all time. Each volume is based on hundreds of sources, including magazine articles dating back to the 60s, his personal interviews with dozens of actors (even those with minor parts) and crew, and lots more. If you are a hardcore fan like me that is into this stuff, this, along with its two companion books, is the ultimate in behind-the-scenes Star Trek.
Why The Enterprise Crashed
Cushiman completes his 1000+ page, three-volume magnum opus with this run-down of STOS's third season, which was awfully run down itself. In many ways this and his complementary volume on Season One are the most interesting: they detail how the series was born (in great travail) and died (with a whimper). A special feature of this volume, unprecedented in its predecessors but highly appropriate here, is a section Cushman crafts for chapters on particular episodes, such as the execrable "And the Children Will Lead" and the infamous "Spock's Brain," entitled "What Were They Thinking?" In brief he takes you from the germ of a decent, even good idea that made sense in 1967 and '68, then shows you all the twists and turns before those episodes flew straight off the rails. Also of value in this volume is the detail with which Cushman captures the anguish behind the scenes: Roddenberry, AWOL; Justman, finally so disheartened that he could no longer endure it; Nimoy's clever, legal stratagems to preserve the character of Spock despite the putrid script for "Whom Gods Destroy"; skinflint Douglas Cramer at Paramount (which, when it took over the series from Desilu, had as much to do as NBC with killing the show). Finally, I gained sympathetic insight into Fred Freiberger, who had done a masterly job of styling "The Wild Wild West" before being bathed in blame for STOS's third season. Cushman gives an even-handed portrait of a good producer who made mistakes but was handed an impossible job. At one point he (or his son) remembers Freiberger as saying that he had been captured by the Nazis during WW II and had endured the wrath of ST fans; the second was worst than the first, because the latter never ended. In a word: Cushman's volume is essential reading for fans and a lot more entertaining than "Star Trek" was in 1968-69.
WORTH THE PURCHASE
There is just enough here to recommend you purchase this book. It has a lot of fluff such as episode synopsis, quotations, ratings, reviews, etc. It has a lot of substance, too, such as script evolutions, stories about episode production, etc. But the part that makes it worth the price is a lot of good information such as guest star biographies plus their comments about working on the show and interactions with the Star Trek actors. You also get the dirt, come on you know you want it, yes the dirt from the Star Trek actors including their comments about working on the show and interactions with others. A lot of it is very candid. A lot of it is not nice, that is what you want, isn’t it, be honest. My knowledge of Star Trek is probably not up there with a fanatic who may find nothing new here, but for a near fanatic there is a lot of stuff you probably didn’t know. One thing I learned that surprised me was how Shatner was much more disliked than I thought but I actually saw it from his side when I finished the book. I came to understand why he the way he was and why it rubbed the others wrong but it wasn’t because he was a jerk. Read all three books and see if you agree. I won’t get detailed to avoid spoilers.
THE Gold standard reference book series for the "true" Making of the original Star Trek series
This series of books are excellent historical reference books on the true making of the original Star Trek episode by episode. The third season reference book appears,from my quick overview ( I am still reading the second season volume), not to disappoint. This three volume set of reference books are THE Gold standard reference publications of the "real" day to day and episode to episode making of a new and ground breaking 1960’s science fiction series called Star Trek. These 3 volume publications are a serious eye and mind opener. For those original series Trek fans who think they know everything about how this series was made, you only know a small percentage of information and some of what you think you know may only be based in just years and years of fan perpetuated rumors and errors in information and facts. Buy and read these books. You will NOT be able to stop reading these once you start and you will learn what really happened everyday on producing and airing the original Star Trek on a weekly schedule.
Extraordinary Three Year Voyage
For many fans, the third season of Star Trek did not seem to be as high a quality as the first two. There are many reasons this was so, and this book dives into them all. It's done with great care and love, however, absolving, for the most part, the new producer who was charged with putting the show out ON BUDGET, and been scapegoated every since. It does not wholly absolve "Saint Gene" Roddenberry, who made some questionable decisions which also impacted the quality of the show. But it finds something praiseworthy in every episode, even "Spock's Brain" and "The Turnabout Intruder." If you read this book, and then watch each episode, as I did (yay streaming video!) you will get a lot more appreciation for the show, the writers, the cast, the crew. Truly an extraordinary voyage.
Red Alert...This Book is Fantastic!
Being a long time fan of Star Trek's original series, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the behind the scenes activities that helped produce the show that we still love today. No punches are pulled when it comes to Roddenberry's relationships with writers or actors with each other. A good read!
I really enjoyed reading this and the other two seasons that he ...
I have read most books about Star Trek, including some of the stars autobiographies. Marc Cushman gives you so much fascinating information about each episode with out being mundane. I really enjoyed reading this and the other two seasons that he wrote about. Would I buy this again, ABSOLUTELY. I can't say enough how much I learned and enjoyed by reading this book. All three books are a must for any Star Trek fan.
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