Starfleet Technical Manual
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| Author | Franz Joseph Schnaubelt |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
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Publication date
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1975 |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 14393425 |
The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual (, Ballantine Books 1975, reprinted 1986, 1996, 2006) is a fiction reference book by Joseph Schnaubelt Franz, about the workings of Starfleet, a military, exploratory, and diplomatic organization featured in the television series, Star Trek.
Although it is fiction, the book is presented as an in-universe collection of factual documents, describing the 23rd century Starfleet and United Federation of Planets, and it is described as having been accidentally sent from the future to the 20th century—specifically, when as described in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," the Enterprise was accidentally propelled back in time in a freak mishap, causing the manual's contents to be accidentally downloaded into the main computers of the now-closed Omaha Air Force Station.
The book provides some detail on the workings of technology used in the original series, including its ships, phasers, tricorders, universal translators, and medical equipment, and even diagrams for a working communicator built using 20th century electronics. It also contains plans for 3-dimensional chess, and lays out some basic game rules.
In 1973, Franz and his daughter joined a San Diego Trek appreciation society called STAR, the members of which spent time making their own Trek props and costumes. Using his aerospace design talents, he began making technical drawings of phasers and tricorders. He quickly amassed a large collection and sent copies to a very impressed Roddenberry, whose wife Majel Barrett's company, Lincoln Enterprises, was producing Trek memorabilia at the time. Though he considered the franchise dead, Roddenberry encouraged Joseph to seek Barrett's help in creating a manual, a project blessed with privileged access to original props and carpenter's blueprints.
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