From 1994: the British edition of the STAR TREK book GREAT BIRDS OF THE GALAXY, published by Boxtree... and entirely unlicensed.
The title, sure to confuse the book trade and the casual browser alike, was a nod to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's honorific (and presumably fan bestowed) title of "the great bird of the galaxy".
In addition to profiling Roddenberry, the book also profiled the other principle guiding lights of the franchise up to this point. Its good to see behind-the-scenes creative talent given their moment in the spotlight.
This is a nice reminder of a time when TREK was popular enough to spawn its own mini publishing industry of unoffcial tomes of wildly varying quality dedicated to pretty much every aspect of the franchise. Fans lapped them up in the pre-internet age and the studio seemed powerless to stop the deluge... which must have annoyed Pocket Books no end.
I have never heard this phrase. When has Roddenbery ever been referred to as The Great Bird of the Galaxy? It sounds like a kind of "Ace" Rimmer thing that someone at Boxtree hoped would catch on. That's so fetch!
ReplyDeleteKrusty , the phrase originated from an early trek episode called the man trap. Sulu says to Janice rand :
ReplyDelete" may the great bird of the galaxy bless your planet. "
It was a nickname given to Roddenberry and one that stuck.
I have this book and many others like it from that time when every angle of trek was exploited.