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

The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek

By: Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White, Jason Olazabal, Nate Aldrich, Steve Marvel, Susan Hanfield, James Cronin, Aaron Landon, Martin Hillier, David Stifel, John Rocha, Eric Martin, Julie McKay

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: Volume Two 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 scoop 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: Volume Two 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.

Critic reviews

"[T]his is an absolute must for the serious fan." -AudioFile Magazine

Amazing!

I have never heard the things that they put into this book before. I could never have told you about the problems on Voyager because we never saw it on screen. this book is just unbelievably amazing. The only negative thing I have to say is that there are a lot of names, both of people and of characters that get badly mispronounced. and that's just a small thing. it was wonderful. it was a nice, long, long trip through Trek ille. I would recommend it to anybody who loves Star Trek.

Name pronunciation.

Perhaps, the readers would be better served to ask the Actors how they pronounce their names.

A great ride!

Lots of interesting background stories. But it was clear some of the narrators were not familiar with Trek as they mispronounced the names of various characters. Overall it is well worth the time!

Excellent oral history. Beware dreadful pronunciations!

I really enjoyed this thorough history. After listening to the first 25 years I had to finish the story. Writing this as an oral history gives it a real personal feel from many perspectives. I thought is was very thorough and just wonderful. However... BEWARE. I read all the reviews about the mispronunciations and thought, how bad could it be. The first 35 years wasn’t too bad, but this next 25 years was simply Dreadful! Really. Didn’t anyone do any research on how to pronounce people’s names? Obviously no one did a QC before releasing the audio. It got so bad I contemplated ditching the book unfinished but thankfully I did not. One gritting example: Robert Beltran’s character on Voyager is named Chakotay. cha-KOH-tay. It was butchered over and over again as CHA-ka-tay. Sounds like the character from Land of the Lost. My advise, be prepared for this and try to ignore the errors. You wouldn’t want to miss out on how the next 25 years turned out.

Some of these narrators suck

What made the experience of listening to The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams the most enjoyable?

Getting the behind-the-scenes scoop on the shows and the people involved.

What did you like best about this story?

Getting the behind-the-scenes scoop on the shows and the people involved.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

It was like some of them had never watched the show. The way that they butchered the names of some of the characters and the people involved. They could not even agree on pronunciation of names between themselves as they were narrating. And some of them were completely clueless about nicknames, ie "Montgomery Scottyscott" and "Leonard Bonesmccoy." What the hell was that?

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

Only to the narrators. Some of them were extremely bad.