Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary charts the major voyages of the Starship Enterprise and the rest of the Star Trek universe. It offers a detailed exploration of the strange new worlds (and old ones), the iconic characters, ships, equipment and alien species of all the Star Trek series. From Andorians to Vidiians, Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary illustrates the universe’s various races and includes detailed descriptions of their behaviour and culture...

This is an attractive looking white hard back book with full colour photographs through out. However this is not a dictionary. In a dictionary, one would expect that the entries would have been in some kind of alphabetical order. One would expect that one could flip the book open near the beginning and look up information on the Cardassians in the "C" section. One would think that if one had a question to be answered about an episode of Star Trek one would be able to read through the entry in this dictionary and gain a good working knowledge of subject with footnotes and references to other entries. One would be disappointed.

This is a "coffee table" book and quite a pretty looking one. This is an artefact; and let us make no mistake about this, that is definitely for the Trekkie or Trekker (you choose; to me this is two bald men arguing over a comb). It is lots of photographs of ships, props and cast members starting from a very brief explanation of the universe, a run through of the various major races, a quick foxtrot through the various series in chronological order (Enterprise to Voyage) and increasingly swift, military two-step through the minor races. Nothing in major detail but, once again, this is a "coffee table" book.

All in all quite a pretty little piece. Some of the photographs are a little blurred; the Gorn especially appears to have been roughly chopped from the background shot by a person who has had Photoshop explained to them over the phone... on a bad line... in the rain... in French, and the accompanying text is never going to threaten the word count on a dissertation however it is quite a desirable object and well produced for its intended market.

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D L Smales