STARTREK ENCYCLOPEDIA

An A-Z encyclopedia covering subjects from Andorians to Zefram Cochrane to Atoz, the Star Trek Encyclopedia was compiled by Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager staffers Denise and Michael Okuda. It includes summaries of all episodes, descriptions of all characters, rundowns of all locations, data on all lifeforms, and details on all starships that appeared in the Star Trek universe up to the fifth season of Voyager, and the final season of DS9 in the third edition. Not taken into account are officially non-canon works - such as the various Star Trek novels, games - and The Animated Series. Some articles (generally only a paragraph or two long) contain little known facts from behind-the-scenes, presented in italicized fonts. Many also featured images created specifically for the Encyclopedia, including shots of barely visible starships like the Saber-class and Akira-class vessels, and a photograph of Cochrane's statue. The last published edition of the Encyclopedia was the 3rd edition in 1999. This edition features a 128-page special section in the rear containing information from Star Trek: Insurrection, the final season of Deep Space Nine and the fifth season of Voyager. This was a cost-saving measure, as integrating this information alphabetically into the existing material would have resulted in a greater publishing expense and thus a higher price. It seems unlikely that a fourth edition of the Encyclopedia will be published. Editors from Pocket Books have indicated that they have little interest in continuing the popular line of Star Trek reference books, such as the technical manuals, the Encyclopedia, and the Star Trek Chronology, due to the low sales such high-priced items engender. The only "official" exhaustive reference work that is still updated is the Library of StarTrek.com, though this sometimes contains discrepancies.