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

De: Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

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

Duración: 34 h y 27 m

Resumen del Editor

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

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.

Boldly going

The oral history of Star Trek from TNG to Beyond. As a big trek fan I even learned some new things about the production of the shows. I recommend this book

Name pronunciation.

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

That was long, but so is 50 years

If you are a Star Trek fan, These two books are a necessity. Great recaps of all of the time segments of the Star Trek universe. I loved the presentation as several narrators read clips from people actually associated with the film. Great Job!

many many hours of very entertaining information.

many many hours of very entertaining information. made my many many hours commuting to work and back bearable.

Risk Is Part of the Game

Picking up directly after the close of the previous volume, The Fifty-Year Mission: The First 25 Years, The Next 25 Years has an awful lot of ground to cover over the course of its nearly 35 hour run-time. If the previous era of Star Trek was defined by The Original Series’s cancellation and subsequent resurrection as a film franchise a decade later, and one in which studio support was generally a cold shoulder, then the next era is best characterized as a resurgent franchise, one where the very same studio, under new leadership, recognized the cash cow of the Trek brand, that eventually grew so over-saturated the death-knells of Star Trek began ringing loudly again.

This 25 year period saw the development and success, both creatively and financially, of Star Trek: The Next Generation, its leap to the silver screen following a seven-year television run, and subsequent spin-off TV series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and the prequel series, Enterprise (later re-branded as Star Trek: Enterprise) set a century before The Original Series, and the rebooted film franchise helmed by J.J. Abrams.

Given the amount of material covered here, 34 and a half hours almost seems too short. The prior volume had plenty of room to breath during its exploration of The Original Series three-year run and six films, and authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross were able to spend a lot of time on the intricacies of story development, the actors and their relationships, and the history of the series and its formation. Having to cover what amounts to a total of 25 television seasons, plus seven films between the TNG and reboot franchises, the oral history delivered here feels truncated even with the longer running-time.

This, however, is not to say that The Next 25 Years lacks depth or breadth, as there is still plenty of interesting material to cover, all of it told from first-hand accounts from the actors, directors, and writers involved. And, best of all, the stories being told don’t hold back, as the speakers approach their recollections with much-appreciated frankness. The writer’s let you know when they failed, the actors speak out about the material they liked and didn’t like. None of the behind-the-scenes drama is hidden away, and nearly everyone involved is very open about the missteps taken at various points along the way, or how harshly some actors treated their cast-mates. Several Voyager cast members speak out about the catty jealously between Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan, who joined the show’s fourth season as Paramount Studios demanded the show get sexed up a bit, as a ex-Borg crewmen seeking to rediscover her humanity while wearing a skin-tight silver suit that left little to the imagination. Others speak about the difficulties in bringing the prequel series to life and being hampered by studio executive demands, only to be cancelled just as the show seemed to be finding its legs, and delivering an alienating series finale that upset fans and cast and crew alike by focusing on TNG characters in the 24th Century, rather than the 22nd Century regulars.

The ratings drop Voyager suffered over the course of its run, the premature cancellation of Enterprise, and the box office failure of the final TNG movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, gave the ready appearance the Star Trek franchise was finally finished. Once again, though, it was resurrected due to fan support – this time from within Hollywood, as those writers and directors who grew up on Trek found themselves in positions to take the reins and give the franchise new life, beginning with the 2009 movie, Star Trek, featuring a young James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, both fresh to Starfleet.

Like the prior volume, The Next 25 Years is narrated by a full-cast. Unfortunately, none of them are the actors, writers, crew, and directors themselves. I will say, though, that one of the narrators does a stellar impression of Malcom McDowell when reading the actor’s lines during discussion of the TNG film debut, Star Trek: Generations. The production side of things leaves a little to be desired, though, as several of the narrators have trouble pronouncing the names of various characters. Deep Space Nine’s Gul Dukat and Voyager’s Chakotay proved to be particularly problematic for the readers, and these names get mauled in various ways nearly every time they come up. The audio, at least, is clear, although the reading of this oral history can be a bit dry at times.

Given the turbulence involved in keeping the starship Enterprise aloft, it’s seems somewhat surprising that the Star Trek franchise has survived fifty years. This is, if nothing else, a testament to the love and loyalty of those involved in the series production, as well as the support of the fans across generations. Whether or not it will survive another fifty years is questionable, but with the resurgent film series and the launch of a new streaming series, Star Trek: Discovery, on CBS All Access in spring/summer 2017, there is at least room for hope. And hope has been the central enduring characteristic of Star Trek itself for half a century.

Good book, mediocre producing

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

Amazing book for fans!

Awesome read for fans of Trek lore! My only minor critique is that there's a good amount of mispronunciations with some of the character names, species and planets.