The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

By: Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

Narrated by: Aaron Landon, Alex Hyde-White, David Stifel, Eric Martin, James Cronin, Jason Olazabal, John Rocha, Julie McKay

Length: 34 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is the true story behind the making of a television legend. 

There have been many books written about Star Trek but never with the unprecedented access, insight, and candor of authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Having covered the franchise for over three decades, they've assembled the ultimate guide to a television classic. 

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek, told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words - sharing the inside scoops they've never told before, unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek, and chronicling the trials, tribulations, and tribbles that have remained deeply buried secrets until now. 

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its spin-offs: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise as well J. J. Abrams' reimagined film series. 

The full list of narrators includes: Aaron Landon, Alex Hyde-White, David Stifel, Eric Martin, James Cronin, Jason Olazabal, John Rocha, Julie McKay, Martin Hillier, Nate Aldrich, Steve Marvel, and Susan Hanfield. 

Narrated by:

Aaron Landon
Alex Hyde-White
David Stifel
Eric Martin
James Cronin
Jason Olazabal
John Rocha
Julie McKay
Martin Hillier

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

Learn to pronounce!

What would have made The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams better?

This was an interesting story but the mispronunciation of multiple "Star Trek" universe words was very distressing. I think if I read the book it would have been fine. Part of the time I didn't understand what the reader meant because words were so badly mispronounced. It was sad.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

There be Light Here

My review covers the entire 50 year work, both the First 25 and the next 25. Together they add up to over 50 hours of Star Trek listening goodness.

I thought I knew a lot about Star Trek before I listened to this mammoth undertaking but my knowledge was a rain drop in a mud puddle. It's like Ken Burns does Star Trek. The Star Trek Universe, its spin offs, reboots, the lean years, feuds, Legends, its impact on Society, Technology, and the future are all there, warts and all.

My only complaint was each section began with a glossary of the people involved in Star Trek and the list is so large listening to the whole thing takes an entire hour. Being an Audiobook, it's hard to retain the list's information and it's very awkward to try and reference back to it. That said, it is easily skipped

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

The narrators are not Trek fans

Priceless stories! But the narrators pronounce many key names inconsistently and incorrectly. Nitpickers will hate that. Star Trek is it's own universe. It pulls fans out of the Trek world when we hear names pronounced incorrectly. We have spent two decades of watching and re-watching. As an example, "Betazed" does not rhyme with "amazed". But beyond that, this book is well worth spending your Audible credit.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Very entertaining book; not-bad performance

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I listened to this book, Vol. II, after listening to Vol. I, so I knew what I was getting into. I enjoyed it overall. I like oral-history storytelling; If you don't like the multiple points of view and diffused nature of oral-history stories, then this isn't for you. My only complaint about the book itself is that there was no mention of the controversy about similarities between Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. It would have been interesting to hear what the people involved with DS9 had to say about it.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

As so many people have pointed out, the producers of this audiobook were negligent in letting each narrator choose his or her own pronunciation of names and characters in the story; it was particularly noticeable when three readers were featured, back and forth, pronouncing Diana Muldaur's surname alternately Mull-Dore, Mull-dower, and Mull-dawr. It isn't that hard to call the subject's agent and ask, and then instruct each performer on the correct pronunciation.There was one reader's style that grated; she over-emoted and as a result it had the tone of a preschool teacher relating juicy gossip stories, which didn't work well, for me, with the tone of the speakers who were quoted.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

SOOOOOO much drama! Who knew?

Overall, my review of volume 1 applies equally to this one: It’s an ABSOLUTE MUST for Trek Fans and totally lives up to its promise in the title of being complete and uncensored; it’s one of the best Behind-the-Scenes type books I have ever read.

Specifically, I preferred volume 2 much more than the first because I’m a TGN & Voyager fan, and I can’t believe how much drama went on behind the scenes! It was fascinating to read.

Your interest in this book will correlate directly to your interest in the various TV series and movies.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Captivating.

The next 25 years is an insight into the continuing evolution of Star Trek. This volume gives you an overview of the creators struggle to get the franchise back on TV in the late 80's and to keep the franchise alive decades after the creators death.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Shocking problems with organization and narration!

What disappointed you about The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams?

I felt little thought had been put into transitioning this into an audiobook. This recording literally begins with A FULL HOUR in which the narrator reads - in alphabetical order - the names and short bios of the enormous number of people who are featured in the book. This list of "dramatis personae" is obviously meant to be a useful reference to leaf back to as you read, but no-one in their right minds would listen to this entire list, especially not before they had even heard the book!!Even the narrator seemed to be getting bored, and his reading sounded more and more stilted and computer-y as the list droned on.

Why not place this information at the end, where liteners can choose whether or not they want to hear it? Or better yet, make it an attached PDF so readers can check back as they listen to read about who is who.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Star Trek has got so many fans who are also actors - couldn't they find anyone to read this who has actually seen Star Trek? This narrator clearly has no idea how to pronounce many of the people's names, nor the names of the characters they played. This seems an especially shocking oversight considering the audience for this book is likely to be overwhelmingly made up of people who do know how these names should sound, and who care very much about the franchise that is the subject of this book.

In light of that, and since this whole book is supposed to be a celebration of Star Trek, the least I would expect a professional to do is ask how these words are meant to be pronounced. One slip would have been understandable, but consistently, regularly mispronouncing name after name just seems lazy and disrespectful - to the creators of Star Trek and to its fans.

17 of 20 people found this review helpful

Great Information, Bad Pronounciation

They mispronounced Kazon. Several times. I don't understand how you can have a book geared towards hardcore fans and not give your narrators a pronunciation guide. They mispronounce several key names, but usually it's just one person and one time. Talking about the Kazon was the worst offence and it drove me crazy.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Good book, mediocre producing

Many glaring pronunciation errors hurt otherwise solid narration, I blame the producers/directors, maybe_they_shoulda_watched some Trek....

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Mainly for fans of Star Trek

The book appealed to me because I am a long time fan of Star Trek from TOS. The disturbing part of the experience was the character and place name pronunciations which were used in the show. I often found myself yelling at the speaker with the names as they were pronounced in the show. Quite disconcerting for a fan.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

SHOCKING!

O-M-G ! If the first 25 years was problematic, watch out! Here comes The Next Generation! The book really comes to the head during these years. GR goes from being bad ass to just being bad. If there's one thing you'll leave in the head after reading this book, it's the notion that Star Trek was a success because of Gene Roddenberry.

And if you are too far gone into the Star Trek Fandom scheme, watch out! This book will stuff your head in the head and give it a good cold washing.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fascinating insight, with some frustrations

Overall, I've enjoyed both parts of this book and would definitely recommend them for any die hard Star Trek fans, or people curious to know what might have been and what goes on behind the scenes.

Some of the stories I'd heard before, many of them I had not. Some of them make for uncomfortable listening when it becomes pretty clear that people you'd admired and/or defended aren't quite so great after all.

A few things that did start to bother me, however, particularly in the second half of the book:

- One of the performers sounds very bored when it's his turn to read, which I suppose is understandable after such a long book but it comes across in the reading.

- Some of them start to do 'accents' for people they're representing, which are distracting as those accents weren't done earlier in the book (particularly the guy born in Germany who apparently speaks with a strange Chinese/French accent!).

- There are some awkward pronunciations of character and place names, especially during the DS9 section. Admittedly this will probably only irritate Star Trek obsessives like me ... but surely they could have had somebody to guide them during the recording?

Overall - it can be quite a dry book that casual listeners might struggle to get through. But for a Star Trek fan who loves behind the scenes gossip and information, especially hearing about what might have been ... it's an essential purchase.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good story, poor narration.

An informative book, good for any Star Trek fan, but let down by awful narration.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

interesting listen.

I found it to be an interesting listen, recounting the thoughts and ideas behind the franchise. this may not be for everyone but for me a fan of all things 'trek' I loved listening to the creative essence of the episodes, in particularly the thoughts of the creators, actors and crew. we hear from the writers and producers from time to time but this was much more in depth.
I enjoyed the listen to both this and the first book. They are very long, but cover each film or t.v. programme in depth. Die-hard fans will enjoy!

Pretty Good, actually

This is good, I've listened to it a number of times now and it goes in deep behind the scenes. However, one thing that did jump out at me is that the narrator does not appear to know how to pronounce Betazed - Deanna Troi's home planet.
It's pronounced 'Beta-Zed'... it does not rhyme with 'Dazed'

Gloriously detailed and essential for every ST fan

I have read IT ALL but this book has so much i didnt know. Facinating & Fabulous

Interesting, with terrible narration

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration in this volume is often awful. Several of the narrators are people who it would be difficult to listen to in normal conversation, and yet apparently they are prolific narrators of audio books. One woman in particular drives me up the wall. She attempts to speak with personality and passion, but she reads everything with a horrible smirk (and invariably trailing syllables at the end of each sentence) that makes everyone she reads for sound obnoxious or foolish.Pronunciations are also laughably bad (Voyager's first officer is apparently someone called 'Shah...COTAY' and their principal enemies in season one were the Kah Zon). Pronunciation is very bad throughout. It's bad enough that I considered just giving up.

Trek explained

I found those book fascinating as I am a trekki. lots of useful inside information and a brilliant listen.
a little hard to follow sometimes as it moves though the cast very quickly however you get used to it and I have looked forward to every chapter

Excellent insight

Wonderful encyclopaedic history of Trek giving some wonderful insights into what it was but crucially what it could have been under different management and guidance.

A Bible for Trekkies

if you love Star Trek, you will love this audio book! the reading was excellent.

it goes through all the TV shows in detail, told by the actors and folks who wrote and directed them.