Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary: The Ultimate Guide to Characters, Aliens, and Technology Hardcover – March 18, 2013

This book is larger than the usual DK "Eyewitness Handbook" guides, which I have always loved for their uniquely effective layouts, well-chosen images, and concise "almost-everything-you-need-to-know" summaries of each aspect of the given subject. Far more than I anticipated receiving for such a fair price, I think this is not only the perfect book for Trekkers/Trekkies/Trek fans (laying out everything for you from Andorian--my personal favorite--to Xindi!), but also for allowing non-fans to peruse to obtain a fun, reasonably easy-to-understand overview of the entire universe. (And not to *mention*, showing them what they're missing!!)I love that this dictionary covers everything; it unites the five series in order, introducing each captain, crew, ship or space station, alien race/species, weapon, planet/location, language, event, concept, and other significant detail. As always, large, full-color photographs are given little "pointers" to label and explain certain bits. It's great to have all of the key information summed up so neatly (including, for instance, the simple explanation for the appearances of TOS Klingons!)-- very enjoyable to read through, and then use as a super-handy reference. And naturally, because it covers the entire known history of the universe from Archer's time onward (and also addresses the histories of species and worlds), it accounts for the events of the TOS and TNG movies. ;) Even a die-hard fan who can't hope to learn too much more "new" information would probably want to own this great-looking book.So far I've found no factual errors. I did have to question the statement that joined symbionts are the dominant personality; it seems to vary. That was definitely the case with Odan (the symbiont who was seriously into Crusher on the TNG episode "The Host"), but didn't appear so for Jadzia or Ezri. (If Jadzia and Dax were about even, Ezri seemed dominant.)Few important things are missing here. I thought that Armus would have been a good creature to include under "Alien Threats" or "Non-Humanoids." And I suppose it would have been awesome if they'd tried to span the bridge between dictionary and encyclopedia by including a few more pages, enumerating -every- last little creature/species that was seen or mentioned in a single episode--but, maybe they can save that for a revised edition someday! Yes, with very minor exceptions, this is all of Star Trek in one beautiful nutshell.The only other things unaddressed are the brief animated series and the two TOS prequel films from J.J. Abrams, but I would not even think those latter two necessary to reference. They only show what have been accepted as "alternate universe," and therefore slightly different, younger versions of the TOS crew (not a *bad* idea, although not done exactly as I think it should have been)--who are of course already covered in this book, which reliably includes the 100% true, actual canon of the "real" timeline. (The old animated series, while a cool supplement, is not canon. I suppose the author could have devoted a page or two to summarizing it as well, but I will not fault him for not having done so.) Thus, it is quite complete. There's a wealth of lovely imagery and well-written, informative text, plus an extremely beautiful and touching foreword from John de Lancie.

This book is like a visual history of all the series' and their casts, technology, and featured aliens. Seeing a piece of technology on screen is nothing like getting to pore over every detail in a photo. And every object and character featured is generously labeled, pointing out all important features. Explanations are also given as to the 'why' of all the entries. The reader is offered a broad assortment of items that may have been missed on screen and their reason for being is explained in an entertaining and understandable manner. Each series is touched upon including the crews and the aliens encountered in each series. This is one of those must-have books that will give the reader a greater understanding of their favorite character or alien species. You'll get to view the shows and movies in a whole new light. A real "souvenir" of the Star Trek universe. I highly recommend it.

All of the Star Trek Series -- original, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, receive due coverage in these pages. This visual dictionary showcases major characters, alien races like the Andorians, Ferengi, Klingons, and much more! A truly comprehensive work on all aspects of Star Trek would be a near impossibility, but this visual dictionary certainly hits the high points, with superb photography and other excellent details. A must have for any Star Trek fan's library!

This book is nice and it has a lot of details, but a with most things based on a television show and/or movies, it doesn't have many things. But that is okay, what they do have is pretty cool and maybe an addendum will be created to include those that didn't get in this time.

The subtitle ("The Ultimate Guide to Characters, Aliens, and Technology") is pretty darn misleading. I would hardly call this the "Ultimate Guide" to anything other than a cliff-notes guide to Star Trek. Don't misunderstand me, I knew the book was only 96 pages - so I wasn't expecting a novel of info - but I was expecting more than what was printed. Some of the people that they covered were multiple pages of info... but they were ones we already know a good deal about. I'd have rather had more info on other species The info that IS in the book is great, the photos are great also. I feel the older Star Trek Encyclopedias were more informative... but... they didn't have nearly the pictures that this Visual Dictionary does.

Another typical DK visual dictionary but not nearly big enough to cover everything Star Trek. There should be one book per series. My biggest gripe is all the out-of-focus pictures. In this day and age of digital everything could the publishers not find enough decent photos to reproduce? Did they not even bother to ask the studio for high quality prints? I am sure if they asked a Trekkie somewhere they could have got some better shots than the crappy ones they used throughout the book. Mostly it is the characters that are fuzzy which is a shame as all the weapons and other stuff have great quality images.

My 5-year old is so full of questions about Star Trek I couldn't pass this up. It's great for nightly reading with him and really helps round out all the details of the Star Trek universe. Pictures are great. Covers a lot of what you'd expect and quite a bit of what you don't. Delves in to the histories of the major characters and brings back a lot of awesome episode memories. Only wish it were thicker.

This is a nice book for any Star Trek fan. It was larger than I expected it to be. The pictures are all very clear and vibrant. This was an impulse buy so I wasn't looking for anything in particular. If you're just looking for a nice coffee table book, a simple gift or just am impulse buy like me, I don't think you'll be disappointed! I would recommend this to any Trekkie.

Excelente !!! Capa dura , ilustrações perfeitas. E muita informação

Diccionario visual muy completo, con datos sobre todas las especies y tripulaciones de las series más antiguas. Ideal para todo fan de Star Trek, que puede aumentar su conocimiento de la serie con este diccionario.

Il libro è molto curato sotto ogni aspetto, è facilmente comprensibile anche a chi non conosce l'inglese (come sempre è impossibile trovare queste pubblicazioni tradotte in italiano). La grafica è eccellente e sono trattati tutti gli aspetti principali delle varie serie di Star Trek (ovviamente as eccezione di Discovery che viene trasmessa ora). Consigliatissimo.

As usual, DK does a fabulous job and covers virtually every Star Trek show, movie, character and prop ever seen on screen (and in print!). So much packed into such a modestly sized book, yet nothing seems to have been overlooked. Awesome DK editors did a fantastic job. Every Trek fan should be pleased to have this compendium in their collection.

Eine wirklich gute Zusammenstellung der optischen Ausstattung der StarTrek Serien. Man sieht an wie viele Details liebevoll gedacht wurden. Es geht von sehr einfache Masken (Gorn, aber kultig) bis zu den Borg. Vielleicht etwas kurz und bei manche Beispiele hätte ich mir mehr Auswahl gewünscht. Aber in Angesichts des Preises ist das sehr gelungen. Es macht sehr viel Spaß, die einzelnen Requisiten aus den Staffeln wieder zu erkennen.