Funny what sticks with you.
When I was 12 I cashed out a savings bond given to me by my grandfather. I used the proceeds to buy Star Trek books.
I still don’t regret it.
Whenever we’d go to the mall bookstores (remember when there were competing bookstores in a mall? Good times…) I’d hit the science fiction section and glance at the spines, always coveting the James Blish novelizations and admiring the photos inside the three primary non-fiction books always shelved nearby.
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield.
The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold.
Armed with cash, I grabbed all three.
These books transformed me. I read them multiple times, referred to them for details. Likely they are the exact reason that my favorite thing to read is non-fiction ABOUT my favorite TV shows rather than fictional stories et in those universes.
Anyway, David Gerrold’s World of Star Trek immediately impressed me with both its depth of knowledge and its forthright tone. Gerrold pulls no punches, pointing out the series’ numerous flaws alongside its many charms.
The phrase that stuck with me, because when I was 12 it was the single funniest sentence I’d ever read, came amidst Gerrold’s description of Star Trek villains: Klingons fart in airlocks.
It’s perfect. It tells you everything you need to know about Klingons while also making you (or at least me) laugh.
Star Trekking 