Template:Realworld Stephen Edward Poe (18 March 1936 – 6 January 2000; age 63) was a successful author who has written the very first specialized reference book on the behind-the-scenes aspects of a Star Trek production, The Making of Star Trek
In 1966 Poe, an employee of an advertisement firm, was hired by model kit company Aluminum Metal Toys (AMT) as a consultant for marketing and communications purposes. In that capacity he was instrumental in brokering a deal between Desilu and AMT for the latter to acquire the rights to produce model kits based on the new Star Trek show, starting a decades long association between that company and the franchise. In return AMT was to help out the studio with the construction of set pieces when required. Also, Poe was given free access to the studio which in 1968 resulted in the publication of The Making of Star Trek, a book he wrote under the name Stephen E. Whitfield, his stepfather's surname. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is credited as co-author for the book, although his contributions were minimal. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story) For many years, this was the only book on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the production of Star Trek. Roddenberry has always been appreciative of Poe's contribution and has expressed this when he presented the second tooling master model of the D7-class studio model to Poe after the series wrapped, which he was forced to offer up for auction in 1998, in order to cover medical expenses.
During his stay at Desilu, he met and interviewed the show's production designer, Matt Jefferies, whom he befriended. Together with Jefferies, Poe developed in 1968 the Strategic Space Command concept for Poe's employer AMT, being a themed science fiction model kit line AMT wanted to introduce in order to capitalize on the huge success of their first two Star Trek model kits, the USS Enterprise (No. S921) and the Klingon Battle cruiser (No. S952). [1] The first model kit of the line, the Leif Ericson (No. S954), designed by Jefferies, was a commercial failure, and the project was dropped by AMT.
Thirty years later, he published his second Star Trek book, A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, this time under his own name. While writing the book, Poe was already battling cancer, to which he would succumb two years later. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, p. 84)
He worked with Alcoholics Anonymous, compiling A Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous (published in 1990) with his wife Francis.
Bibliography
- The Making of Star Trek, 1968 - Author
- A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, 1998 - Author
Further reading
- "Stephen Poe's Books", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, May 2000, pp. 82-84