Star Trek: First Contact - The Making of the Classic Film

Published in October 2022, Star Trek: First Contact - The Making of the Classic Film is a reference book chronicling the production of Star Trek: First Contact. The book was released for the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary. [1]

In essence it is a vastly improved do-over of Titan Book's own December 1996 The Making of Star Trek: First Contact reference book covering the same subject matter, but which merely consisted of an incoherent collection of articles originally published in the various Titan Magazines releases. Nonetheless, and despite the huge success of the film, no such work has ever been released by a home market publisher, with both titles remaining UK originals.

Summary[]

Publisher blurb,

An in-depth look at the making of Star Trek: First Contact, featuring rare and previously unseen production art and new and exclusive cast and crew interviews.

Twenty-five years ago, Star Trek: First Contact saw Picard, Data, and the Enterprise crew go back in time to stop the Borg before they could prevent Earth's first contact with an alien species and assimilate the entire planet.

Celebrate this landmark anniversary by taking a deep dive into the stories behind this beloved film. This beautiful coffee-table book is full to the brim of archival material, behind-the-scenes photography, concept art, production designs, and much more, and includes new and exclusive interviews with cast and crew, including Jonathan Frakes, Alice Krige, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, Marina Sirtis, Herman Zimmerman, and Michael Westmore.

Contents[]

• Federation, 1994: Introduction, pp. 6–9
• Engage: Setting Up the Film, pp. 10–21
• Captain's Log: The Hunt for a Director, pp. 22–31
• Set Course for Earth: Writing the Story, pp. 32–41
• Starfleet: Building Enterprise-E, pp. 42–73
• History of the Future: Creating 2063, pp. 74–89
• We Are Borg: Recreating an Old Enemy, pp. 90–117
• Make It So: The Visual Effects, pp. 118–139
• First Contact Day: Shaping a Legacy, pp. 140–159
• Acknowledgements, p. 160

Background information[]

• The book is a hardcover in dust jacket release, executed in the oversized (12.31"×0.73"×11.04") coffee table format.
• The title was originally slated for a 5 April 2022 release in order to coincide with the second "First Contact Day" event, [2] but was delayed due to the aftereffects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Author Joe Fordham was no stranger to writing about Star Trek films production as he had been tenured associate editor of the visual effects magazine Cinefex for which he had submitted articles on two of the Kelvin timeline films, even though he had not been involved with the magazine's piece on First Contact. The First Contact book was Fordham's first Star Trek specific reference book title.

External link[]

• Review at TrekCore