1108. The Nitpicker's Guide for Deep Space Nine TrekkersPUBLICATION: Dell, 1996
CREATORS: Phil Farrand
STARDATE: Covers the first four seasons Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
SUBJECT MATTER: The last of of Phil Farrand's Star Trek Nitpick books, using the format we're well used to by now - synopsis, plot oversights, changed premises, equipment oddities, production problems, trivia questions, favorite lines and moments, humorous essays and "toteboards" that count things like the number of women Sisko's kissed (5 in the first four seasons), etc.
CONTINUITY: Massive amounts. That's the whole point, isn't it?
DIVERGENCES: Actually no, THIS is the point.
SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - A controversial find. Can YOU see Spock's face whizzing by in the opening credits?
REVIEW: With the Nitpickers Guild well established at this point, Farrand has a lot of outside material coming in and manages to make four seasons of Trek fit in a book of comparable size to his first 6-season opus. He's also grown more confident since the first volume and includes more "ruminations" than before. I like that there's a certain measure of commentary to the book (but then, it's all I do, so I would). And DS9 IS my favorite version of Trek. My main criticism about this book has nothing to do with its contents. No, it's that it never got a follow-up. We have the first four seasons, but never the last three. Not only does that leave me hungry, but I'm also sure a Nitpicker's eye view of the temporal implications of Sisko becoming a Prophet would have been very insightful. I also wish the series had covered Voyager, which would at least have given me a reason to watch it with any kind of joy. Farrand's website does publish fan nits, but it's not the same...Next for the SBG Book Club: Warped (DS9), No Surrender (SCE), World Without End (TOS), A Rock and a Hard Place (TNG).
Comments
I had a friend who worked in publishing at the time who said that it was actually the publishers who pulled out. There were some other unofficial Trek books that were getting trodden by the Paramount marketing machine, and they got scared. (This was despite the fact that the Nitpicker books were held up as an example of the sort of unofficial thing you could actually do). I dunno how true that all is, though.
I believe Farrand noted on his site at the time that the increasingly-grey legality of these kinds of books made his publishers too shy to continue releasing new ones. Really too bad.
Despite being quite clear that the books were commentary (all too legal in copyright/trademark law), Paramount's legal department could still have sued the publisher and made them prove they weren't violating the studio's rights. Most parties just cease and desist because they can't afford the initial legal fees let alone the long fight that can result when a case goes to trial.