The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek

By: Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman

Narrated by: Aaron Landon, Alex Hyde-White, David Stifel, Eric Martin, James Cronin, Jason Olazabal, John Rocha, Julie McKay

Length: 34 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the true story behind the making of a television legend.

There have been many books written about Star Trek but never with the unprecedented access, insight, and candor of authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Having covered the franchise for over three decades, they've assembled the ultimate guide to a television classic.

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek, told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words - sharing the inside scoops they've never told before, unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek, and chronicling the trials, tribulations, and tribbles that have remained deeply buried secrets until now.

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its spin-offs: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise as well J. J. Abrams' reimagined film series.

The full list of narrators includes: Aaron Landon, Alex Hyde-White, David Stifel, Eric Martin, James Cronin, Jason Olazabal, John Rocha, Julie McKay, Martin Hillier, Nate Aldrich, Steve Marvel, and Susan Hanfield.

Narrated by:

Aaron Landon
Alex Hyde-White
David Stifel
Eric Martin
James Cronin
Jason Olazabal
John Rocha
Julie McKay
Martin Hillier

©2016 Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Name pronunciation.

Perhaps, the readers would be better served to ask the Actors how they pronounce their names.

A great ride!

Lots of interesting background stories. But it was clear some of the narrators were not familiar with Trek as they mispronounced the names of various characters. Overall it is well worth the time!

Excellent oral history. Beware dreadful pronunciations!

I really enjoyed this thorough history. After listening to the first 25 years I had to finish the story. Writing this as an oral history gives it a real personal feel from many perspectives. I thought is was very thorough and just wonderful. However... BEWARE. I read all the reviews about the mispronunciations and thought, how bad could it be. The first 35 years wasn’t too bad, but this next 25 years was simply Dreadful! Really. Didn’t anyone do any research on how to pronounce people’s names? Obviously no one did a QC before releasing the audio. It got so bad I contemplated ditching the book unfinished but thankfully I did not. One gritting example: Robert Beltran’s character on Voyager is named Chakotay. cha-KOH-tay. It was butchered over and over again as CHA-ka-tay. Sounds like the character from Land of the Lost. My advise, be prepared for this and try to ignore the errors. You wouldn’t want to miss out on how the next 25 years turned out.

Some of these narrators suck

What made the experience of listening to The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams the most enjoyable?

Getting the behind-the-scenes scoop on the shows and the people involved.

What did you like best about this story?

Getting the behind-the-scenes scoop on the shows and the people involved.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

It was like some of them had never watched the show. The way that they butchered the names of some of the characters and the people involved. They could not even agree on pronunciation of names between themselves as they were narrating. And some of them were completely clueless about nicknames, ie "Montgomery Scottyscott" and "Leonard Bonesmccoy." What the hell was that?

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Only to the narrators. Some of them were extremely bad.

Boldly going

The oral history of Star Trek from TNG to Beyond. As a big trek fan I even learned some new things about the production of the shows. I recommend this book

Good book, mediocre producing

Many glaring pronunciation errors hurt otherwise solid narration, I blame the producers/directors, maybe_they_shoulda_watched some Trek....

Amazing book for fans!

Awesome read for fans of Trek lore! My only minor critique is that there's a good amount of mispronunciations with some of the character names, species and planets.

are you done being bitter?

This book is absolutely fabulous I think the great Gene Roddenberry would be proud!

A significant look at Star Trek

This oral history is a must for fans. Only complaint: inconsistent pronunciation of names.

That was long, but so is 50 years

If you are a Star Trek fan, These two books are a necessity. Great recaps of all of the time segments of the Star Trek universe. I loved the presentation as several narrators read clips from people actually associated with the film. Great Job!