OUR FIRST TECHNICAL MANUAL

 

Name: Starfleet Technical Manual: Training Command Starfleet Academy  

Author: Franz Joseph

Publication Date: 11/1/1975

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Page Number: 192

Historian’s Note: sometime after The Counter-Clock Incident

Cast of Characters:  none

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Constitution NCC-1700, USS Saladin NCC-500, USS Hermes NCC-585, USS Ptolemy NCC-3801, USS Federation NCC-2100, unnamed starbases

Planets: none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Starfleet Technical Manual pretends to be a printed copy of some of the important documents that are used for training of Starfleet cadets.  A copy that somehow was displaced in time and found on Earth in the year 1970.  So that is why people in the modern time can read it. 

The book begins with a printed copy of the Articles of Federation, which is basically the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets.  It explains its government set up, the Federation Council and other bodies.  It covers the rights and responsibilities of the member planets of the Federation. Most importantly, for fans, it covers the establishment of the Starfleet.  

After the Articles comes the peace treaties with the Romulans and the Klingons that lead to the establishment of the Neutral Zones.  The Romulan Treaty was part of history introduced in “Balance of Terror” and the Klingon treaty was made during the series following the episode “Errand of Mercy.” The written treaties follow the events and explanations in those episodes rather well.  

We then have the various flags.  The Federation flag and the flags of various member planets.  The manual moves on to describe Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy with maps and designs for rooms, recreational places, and training facilities.   The reader moves on to some organizational charts for everything in Starfleet.  Everything from the Federation Council to Starfleet Command to all the subagencies of Starfleet.  Each Fleet Command operation has their own organizational chart describing their functions.  Then we even have some Starfleet uniform designs and explanations of badge insignia.  On top of that there are also space maps showing where all the great powers are.

Constitution-class 

Of course, everyone’s favorite part of this book is off course the ship designs.  Not only do we get to see the Constitution-class design that gave us the USS Enterprise and a list of all the ships of that design. They also have a Destroyer (Saladin class) and Scout (Hermes class) ship designs as well. (To be honest I can’t tell the difference between those two.) There are also Transport Tugs (Ptolemy class) and the types of containers they haul. We also have the soon-to-be-built Federation-class Dreadnought with an exciting design that is also featured on the cover.  The reader then moves on to the shuttle craft design and the bridge designs.  The bridge designs are fun with each station being covered as well as the overall design.  There are also tricorder and phaser blueprints.  The end of the book is paper that the students are supposed to use on their lessons.

Hermes class

Additional thoughts: Well, this little gem hit book shelfs in the fall of 1975.  For Star Trek fans the classic series had been gone for six years now and the animated series went off the air just the year before.  There were rumors of a comeback in the air but nothing clear as of yet.  Then this little book arrives role playing itself to be an actual manual misplaced in time.  However, the back cover gives the indication that our Earth is one of the many “fake Earths” as first seen in “Miri.” That the Federation is actually out there right not and won’t interact with us due to the Prime Directive.  I thought that part was weird but it didn’t interfere with the main parts off the book. 

I do have some other issues with this book, things that over the years have rendered it very inaccurate. One of the biggest things that sticks out is one that seems like a complete miss and not because of later canon material.  That is Vulcan not listed as one of the Federation primary members.  It has the flags of all these other members I have never heard of “The Star Empire of Epsilon Indii,” but not Vulcan.  When I think of Federation planets the first one I think of is Earth and the second is Vulcan.  How the heck did Joseph miss this?  Where is the flag of Vulcan? 

Some other inaccuracies the main deflector dish is not a sensor. (Although I don’t blame the author for thinking that as they look like a type of antenna dish.)  Then United Federation of Planets has a President not a “Secretariat.” It is also clear that Franz is one of those Star Trek authors that has no clue what an “ensign” actually is.  Many writers think it’s sort of like an army private when it’s really the equivalent to a second lieutenant.  Joseph shows himself as one of them when on the ship’s designs it lists the crew complement as officers and crew of the “ensign grade.”  Also, as fun as these ship designs are I don’t think we ever see any of them used outside of this book.

Federation-class

Now on the bridge design there is apparently a restroom on the bridge located to the right of the screen if you looked at from the captain’s chair.  I suppose that is good in case someone has to go during bridge duty.  I myself think you should probably go before your bridge duty but I suppose there are always emergencies.  The thing is though I find this hilarious.  Imagine they are engaged in a great space battle during which some poor sap who was trying to pass a turd is knocked out of the rest room as ship is rocked from being blasted.  The poor guy comes flying out, pants and underwear down, and crashes into the navigation consul!  In addition to that the poor crewman’s turd flies around the bridge finally hitting the captain's head!  

A rest room disaster waiting to happen!

On a more serious note, Starfleet does not use “II” or any other numeral in the names of Starships. When they build a starship that has the same name as an earlier starship, they just give it a new registry number.  They don’t call it “Intrepid II.”  I do like that when I went through the ships’ registries that I didn’t see NCC-1864 nor NCC-2000 being used.

Should it be canon:  Unless they want to print a new addition with updated and corrected information than I would say no.  Too bad because the book is a lot of fun.

Cover Art: The cover art is very nice showing off what is the book’s strength: the Starship blueprints.  On the cover is the impressive looking Federation-class Dreadnought both front and side. You can also see part of a transport container.

Final Grade: 3 of 5