The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years

By: Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman, Seth MacFarlane - foreword

Narrated by: Helen Litchfield, Alex Hyde-White, Jason Olazabal, Susan Hanfield

Length: 23 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is the unauthorized, uncensored, and unbelievable true story behind the making of a pop culture phenomenon. 

The original Star Trek series debuted in 1966 and has spawned five TV series spin-offs and a dozen feature films, with an upcoming one from Paramount arriving in 2016. 

The Fifty-Year Mission is a no-holds-barred oral history of five decades of Star Trek, told by the people who were there. Hear from the hundreds of television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast as they unveil the oftentimes shocking story of Star Trek's ongoing 50-year mission - a mission that has spanned from the classic series to the animated show, the many attempts at a relaunch through the beloved feature films. 

Make no mistake, this isn't just an audiobook for Star Trek fans. Here is a volume for all fans of pop culture and anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of a television touchstone. 

©2016 Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Best book I've ever heard on making pop culture

This book is a real achievement. For anyone interested in what making movies and TV is really like, and for anyone who loves STAR TREK, this is essential in the full meaning of that word.

I've read a lot of books on the making of my favorite shows and movies. This is far and away the best. If I'm ever lucky enough to teach a class in film or TV, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION would be the textbook. In depth and wide-ranging, it truly digs into the real forces, the dreams and the pressures, the petty strife and the inspiring hopes that are baked into any great piece of filmed culture.

What Ken Burns did for THE CIVIL WAR and Ezra Edelman did for the OJ Simpson saga with OJ: MADE IN AMERICA, Mark A. Altman and Ed Gross have done for one of the most enduring pieces of pop culture, STAR TREK. It is both thoroughly revealing and deeply interesting. It does more than tell backstage gossip or hit the highlights of a oft-told story. Altman and Gross give a deep and thoughtful examination of the day to day workings of the Hollywood system and how all the forces in that strange town have produced something as enduring, as inspiring, as plain weird as STAR TREK.

What best, from my listening point of view, is instead of boiling it all down in a dry retelling of old actor anecdotes, Altman and Gross knit hundreds of interviews together to form a quickly moving, deeply revealing oral history that is synched together like the best edited documentaries. This really is a honest, revealing history story as told by those who lived it, who were enriched by it, and who were broken by it. For me, this book equals then surpasses Tom Shales' LIVE FROM NEW YORK.

For most of my life, I've been driven to know how the stories I love are made. STAR TREK was my first, favorite piece of culture. One of my earliest memories was of my father trying to talk me into seeing STAR WARS by telling me it was like STAR TREK.

I've been lucky enough to work on the periphery of the industry, and take home two minor Emmys. A close listen to this book will tell you everything you ever wondered about how good shows are made, why they leave the air, why the same creative team makes something so good, then something so awful, seemingly back to back. It intertwines how ego, fear, ambition and hopes can create the TV and movie images which live with us forever, and what happens with those same factors unmake what we all love.

I think I've gushed enough. Now all that's left is to go and listen for yourself.

LARGE

Where does The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

it is the longest audiobook I have ever listened to .by far

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years?

the backstory of this space adventure ,almost not getting off the ground ,was fascinating

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

so many voices from the past from the founders of this classic series grouped togetherwill keep me amused for a long time

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

itt wasn't that kind of book

Any additional comments?

I was born in 1956,so when star trek came out it was the first adult thing I had ever seen. imagine a 10 year old boy with only cartoons in my life .then BOOM i am the first to see kirk and Spock ..they were almost gods to my eyes this wasn't bonanza or the prisoner which were great in their own right but something completely new .even my parents could feel it so I had the privelidge to be there in the beginning and in COLOR

Much More than a 5 Year Mission

If you like Trek, read this. If you are interested in the history of television, read this. I learned things about the show I'd never known. Since it is told using a series of quotes from the people involved, it is an interesting account. The authors conducted hundreds of interviews. This is the first in a 2 book series. I can't wait for the next one. This is one of the most interesting television/movie histories I've ever read.

Some good info, but structure was rough

Before listening to this I listened to "American Icon", another history of type of book. The structure was so much better in that book. You can basically skip ahead to chapter five before anything starts on this one. I think an entire chapter was devoted to all the people they pulled quotes from, and some were so pointless.

They had a single quote from Chris Pratt, who basically just said he was a Star Trek fan. Which is great, but stuff like that just seemed to take up time and space.

I also wasn't a fan on the reliance on quotes to tell the story. I find I can stay more connected when the story is told with quotes sprinkled where they enhance the story. This was like story by quotes, which seems lazy and provided a constant jumping around in time periods, and sometimes unanswered questions, like how did Leonard and Shatner respond to Gene's harsh letter about their behavior? Just went on to more quotes.

Skip the first 1/3 of this....

The first third is just names and resumes of everyone involved with all of star trek. ugh. The stuff covering the 3 original seasons is largely redundant of These are the Voyages ... if u want a good read about the first three years ... Voyages has you covered. The info regarding the first 6 movies here is good but I kept feeling like there could have been more depth.

A must for fans

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Amazing interviews with the people associated with Star Trek. You also get an inside look at TV production.

Who was your favorite character and why?

This book is not about one person but the collective of people associated with Star Trek The way it is writen does not lead to a single chaaracter. Except maybe Gene the Great Bird Roddenberry.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The varied views regarding why it remains popular after 50 years.

Any additional comments?

This ia an absolute must for trekers and people intersted in pop culture.

Die hard fans will enjoy this book. Casual fans?

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I wouldn't say it was time well spent. But, I would say that it was a book you could read when you had nothing else to do, or, if you have some time to kill.

If you’ve listened to books by the authors before, how does this one compare?

This is the only book I've listened to by these authors.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

There are multiple narrators. They all did a good job, though there were some reviews that were a little disappointed. I thought they did fine.

Do you think The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. This book pretty much covers it.

Any additional comments?

This book is written for die hard fans. Casual fans will enjoy parts of this book, and fall asleep in others. There are two chapters that list the name and job of anyone who did anything with Star Trek. Two chapters of "Jane Doe, script writer, John Doe, floor sweeper, Joe Blow, light bulb changer in so and so's dressing room". etc. Com'on man. In the beginning of the book? Put it at the end at least. Do yourself a favor, Unless you want to devote an hour of your life listening to the credits, skip it. that part. There are several parts of the book that get too detailed oriented, or, just is too much information.

Hard core fans will love the detail. Casual fans will go "really? Why did they put that in there?".

An ABSOLUTE MUST for Trek Fans

What a terrific book! An ABSOLUTE MUST for Trek Fans.

Your interest in this book will correlate directly to your interest in the various TV series and movies. I particularly like Next Gen and Voyager and so I am EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA annoyed that volume 2 is not out yet!

This book lives up to its promise in the title of being complete and uncensored - I think it’s one of the best Behind the Scenes type books I have ever read.

Hurry up people! I want more!!! Get to work on the audio production of Volume 2!

Unfinished

The book is missing a narrative voice.

This book is nothing more than a pile of interviews, chopped up by subject with multiple readers. It changes quotes so often that you lose track of who's talking, or even what the subject is.

Instead of using the interviews as research and writing a book, the authors just spliced interviews together. This is just a few perspectives you can keep up with. There are dozens of interviews all chopped up into little quotes and paragraphs by subject.

The book in this form is exhausting to try to keep up with. So the information is good, but it's like reading the end-notes of a term paper. For instance, there are entire sections of just names. It's like if someone decided to do an audio book just reading the credits at the end of a movie. What could have been fun, ends up being almost incomprehensible mush.

The book feels unfinished. As if all the research was done, and then instead of using that research to write a great book, the authors just published their research.

Performance detracted

The directors, or editors, or whoever was in charge of the production really dropped the ball on this and Vol II of this two volume work. It's bad enough that no one made sure that the narrators knew how to pronounce some of the unique to Trek words, names, and titles (many of them didn't). They even dropped the ball when it came to coordination of said Trek words. There were instances where the same word or name was pronounced in more than one way...all incorrect.

Very sloppy production and lack of attention to detail detracted from an otherwise very interesting set of books.

Style takes getting used to

At first I thought ‘what the hell is this’ because I didn’t want to listen to 10,000 clips of people speaking, but once I had gotten used to it, it was incredibly well crafted.

Each quote moves the story on slightly and builds into a fascinating story.

A Detailed History

What did you like most about The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years?

Very comprehensive look that focuses on the writing and casting etc. Any Trek fan, like me, will know about 80% of the facts quoted here. I would say that the performances were a little hit and miss. There were some different pronunciations of names that I feel should have been standardised and one or two voices became a little irritating after awhile. But overall, an interesting listen that passes the time

Awesome if you're as much of a TrekNerd as I am.

There are lots of interesting insights into how Trek was made that you won't find anywhere else, except for the These Are The Voyages books but they don't include the movies.

No single truth

Im a trekkie through and through, so am delighted to listen to such a detailed account. There is no overarching narrative here. What there is, is a number of often conflicting accounts. Sociologically and from a project management point of view this hydra of a story is, as Spock would say, fascinating.

Warts and Glory

A great representation of the personal stories behind the iconic series' and movies' . Unique perspectives of people and events that show both sides of the personalities and events. So many stories of, not just what was filmed or written, but also what wasn't. I feel the performance gives a true flavour behind each sentiment. Considering how much information is in it and how many contributors there are, it is well constructed. Great listen.

Very interesting

Great to hear the behind the curtain going ons of the original cast of Star Trek

Great Listen

A good balanced view from behind the scenes, I think this is pretty much essential listening.

Interesting, if flawed

Like the people that made Star Trek, I suppose.

Except that they could pronounce the names properly. Takei rhymes with gay - George has said so himself - and many other mispronounciations were very jarring all the way through.

The other thing I found troublesome was that after a while I couldn't remember who was being attributed with the quote in question; the person named before or after. A lack of chapter breaks compounded that.

However, the narrative as a whole was interesting and shed light on some stories I'd heard about, or half heard about.

star trek

I'm a life long fan of star trek and I found this fascinating some of the story ideas for the movies were so awful the people who thought of them should of been fired nick Meyers is a genius compared to them , also in hindsight the story for four and five were awful too

Really?

Having read this book about everything that happened on Star Trek, I have to wonder... how did this show become such a success?