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Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI is an unauthorized reference book published in 1992 that focuses on the making of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Summary[]

From the book jacket
"This may very well be the best book ever written about Star Trek."
– Mitch Rubinstein, Galactic Journal Magazine
"Highly recommended."
Advanced Comics Magazine
The best selling authors of New Voyages: The Next Generation Guidebook take you behind the scenes of the final Star Trek film, The Undiscovered Country. Together, Mark A. Altman, Ron Magid and Edward Gross trace the history of the project from preproduction to the premiere, with exclusive and candid interviews with those who created it, including:
William ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest Kelly [sic] • Michael DornJames DoohanWalter KoenigNicholas MeyerRalph WinterNext Generation's Rick BermanSteven Charles Jaffe [sic] • Mark RosenthalKim Cattrall • The ILM Special Effects Team • Greg JeinCliff EidelmanHarve BennettDenny Martin Flinn • The Make-up Team • Hiro NaritaGeorge Takei • And more!
Discover how the best of Star Trek films was brought to life in less than a year, as well as the Trek voyages that never made it to the screen, including the controversial prequel, Starfleet Academy and the unfilmed Klingon adventure, "Kitumba".
Re-live the making of The Undiscovered Country as told by those who brought the film to life, and examine the missing footage that would have re-introduced the cast and Carol Marcus, the astounding special effects which transformed Iman into William Shatner, Saavik's last stand, and learn what went wrong with Star Trek V as candidly recounted by its director, William Shatner.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Contents[]

  • An Introduction
  • Chapter One: "The Devil and Bill Shatner"
  • Chapter Two: "Starfleet Academy"
  • Chapter Three: "On the Beach"
  • Chapter Four: "The Gang's All Here"
  • Chapter Five: "Wanted: Master Thespians"
  • Chapter Six: "Starfleet's Sexiest Vulcan"
  • Chapter Seven: "The Human Adventure is Just Concluding"
  • Chapter Eight: "Somebody's Got to Shoot the Future"
  • Chapter Nine: "ILM Gets 'A Piece of the Action'"
  • Chapter Ten: "Designing the Future"
  • Chapter Eleven: "Of Molds and Monsters"
  • Chapter Twelve: "Propping Up a Starship"
  • Chapter Thirteen: "Scoring the Undiscovered Country"
  • Chapter Fourteen: "Bridging the Generations"
  • Chapter Fifteen: "This is the End....Or Is It?"
  • Appendix A: "Kitumba"

Background information[]

  • The book was not an original piece of writing but an edited variant collection of pieces the authors themselves, as well as others, have written for various contemporary magazines. In some cases though, longer versions of author interviews were now presented, which had originally been edited for brevity for the magazine publications. The magazine publications included:
    • Cinefantastique, Vol 22 #3, 1991
      • "Star Trek VI: The Last Hurrah?", Sheldon Teitelbaum, pp. 23, 60
      • "Nicholas Meyer Franchise Mr. Fix-It", Sheldon Teitelbaum, pp. 24-26
      • "Saavik: Enterprise Exile", Sue Uram, p. 26
    • Cinefantastique, Vol 22 #5, 1992
      • "The Making Of The Undiscovered Country". Mark A. Altman, pp. 24-25, 27-28, 30, 32, 35-36, 38, 43-44, 46, 48, 51-52, 54
      • "The Undiscovered Prologue", Mark A. Altman, p. 26
      • "The Unmaking of Starfleet Acadamy", Mark A. Altman, pp. 28-29
      • "The Search for Saavik", Mark A. Altman, p. 31
      • "Creature Feature", Ron Magid, pp. 33-34
      • "Mutiny On The Enterprise", Mark Altman, pp. 36-37
      • "Gene Roddenberry & Other Great Birds", Mark A. Altman, pp. 39-42
      • "The Importance Of Being Valeris", Mark Altman, pp. 44-45
      • "Directing The Last Hurrah", Ron Magid, p. 47
      • "ILM's Effects Final Frontier", Ron Magid, pp. 49-50
      • "Bridging The Generation Gap", Mark Altman, pp. 52-53
      • "Designing The Final Frontier", Ron Magid, p. 55
    • American Cinematographer, January 1992
      • "Star Trek turns 25", Ron Magid, p. 33
      • "Where No Show Had Gone Before", Jan Alan Henderson, pp. 34-40
      • "Narita Leads Enterprise Camera Crew", Ron Magid, pp. 42-50
      • "Director Meyer Explores Familiar Country", Ron Magid, pp. 52-56
      • "ILM Gets 'Piece of the Action'", Ron Magid, pp. 58-65
      • "Specialized Departments Add Artistic Touches", Ron Magid, pp. 66-75
      • "TV Sci-Fi Hits Warp Speed With The Next Generation", Stephen Pizzello, pp. 76-87
  • While the magazine articles were profusely illustrated with photographs, both in color and in black and white, the book itself was only sparsely so, and the few featured, only in low photocopied black and white quality.
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