Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual

Technical information about the milieu of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, written from an entirely in-universe point of view before the conclusion of the Dominion War.

Summary

 * Unlock the secrets of Terok Nor!


 * It was once a battered Cardassian ore-processing facility orbiting the planet Bajor. But Terok Nor took on new life when the Cardassians evacuated and were replaced by Starfleet personnel. With the discovery of a nearby stable wormhole connecting the Alpha Quadrant with the Gamma Quadrant, the newly christened Space Station Deep Space 9 became one of the most important installations in known space.


 * Filled with hundreds of schematic diagrams and illustrations, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual is essential for anyone interested in the ships, technology and weapons of Starfleet and the many different species, who frequent the station, including the Klingons, the Bajorans, the Romulans, the Cardassians, and the Jem'Hadar.


 * As an added bonus, four full-color gatefolds have been specially created for this book. In addition to providing an in-depth look at the exteriors of the station, these illustrations also show the Promenade, and highlight the U.S.S. Defiant.


 * Turning the ravaged outpost into a fully operational station involved much more than a simple name change. The transformation represented an arduous challenge to the Starfleet engineers who were required to merge two divergent technologies. How they achieved that feat, and how the Federation helps the Bajoran government keep the station running smoothly, is revealed in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.

Written by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine creative staff members Rick Sternbach, Herman Zimmerman and Doug Drexler, this technical manual describes the Starfleet, Bajoran, Cardassian, Dominion, Klingon and Romulan technology during the Dominion War era, with a focus on the Deep Space 9 station, its runabouts, the USS Defiant (2370), and allied and enemy combatants.

Introduction

 * Introduction by Ira Steven Behr
 * Authors' introduction

Section I: Deep Space 9

 * Chapter 1: DS9 Introduction
 * Chapter 2: Station Structures
 * Chapter 3: Command Systems
 * Chapter 4: Computer Systems
 * Chapter 5: Power Generation Systems
 * Chapter 6: Utilities and Auxiliary Systems
 * Chapter 7: Communications
 * Chapter 8: Transporter Systems
 * Chapter 9: Science and Remote Sensing Systems
 * Chapter 10: Tactical Systems
 * Chapter 11: Environmental Systems
 * Chapter 12: Personnel Support Systems
 * Chapter 13: Emergency Operations

Section II: Starfleet, Allied and Threat Vessels

 * Chapter 14: Starfleet Support Spacecraft
 * 14.1: USS Defiant (2370)
 * Chapter 15: Allied Spacecraft
 * Chapter 16: Threat Force Spacecraft

Acknowledgments & Afterword

 * Acknowledgments
 * Afterword by Ronald D. Moore

Foldouts

 * Deep Space 9 schematics
 * USS Defiant schematic

Background information
Several illustrations from this guide were used in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine DVD releases.

As the manual was published by Pocket Books, then Chief Editor Margaret Clark had a say in it, or as she recalled, "'I have to edit Rick Sternbach [on the TNG and DS9 Technical Manuals] and go, 'Rick, I can tell you this book has got to make sense. What are you trying to say here?' I'd say to them, 'This, this, and this happened in this episode. Why?' Then they'd go back and try to figure out why it worked that way. That's how the Tech Manuals really work; you try to make the science work with what they showed on the show.(...)Usually, the writers and I work back and forth and it works fairly well. For instance, the 'DEEP SPACE NINE Technical Manual' originally wasn't a technical manual. Rick couldn't figure out how to do that without rehashing the stuff that was done on the 'TNG Technical Manual', and I basically said, 'You've graduated from Starfleet Academy, you know absolutely positively everything there is about how to run a starship, then they put you on this Cardassian station. That's the direction you should take for this book.' It became, 'OK, that's how we'll do it.' There have been some modifications on phasers, and PADDs, and things like that. Talk about that. You also tell us how to get from Quark's to Garek's' (, p. 60)" Sternbach himself has over the years taken a slightly different view on Clark's editing, as evidenced in his 2009 remark, "''I was also not entirely pleased with what Margaret Clark had done with the editing on the DS9 TM; I may be in the minority, but I believe her text changes dumbed down the tech nature of the book; e.g., where I had written an entry like "150+ troops" the text was changed to "150 plus troops" which to me altered the meaning. The TNG TM came across much better.''"

While generally well received by its readership, it has received some criticism from the fan base where Section II was concerned, especially in regard to the various stated dimensions of the ship classes mentioned, the kit-bash models, introduced for , in particular. Author Sternbach was not entirely happy with that section himself as evidenced by a remark he made in March 2009 on Illustrator Doug Drexler's, "Regarding the DS9 ships section issues – No, I can’t say I ever accepted the kitbash designs as anything more than wildly different shapes to be seen in the backgrounds of some scenes. Yes, we have ortho art and specifications of a sort, but I’ll be the first to say that I wish we didn’t have those ships in the book. I’d also love to be able to go back and rework the dimensions and other specs for the rest of the ships that make sense. It wouldn’t be that difficult to issue new numbers in a text file done in the same fonts as those in the book, and let folks make slip-in sheets or sticky labels.(...) I think out of all the kitbashes I’ve seen, I think I like the Centaur best. I seemed to be quite a plausible variant. ", at a later time , "I suspect most of what you say is true about people want to see more ship material, but if I had been forced to spend more than a tiny amount of time analyzing the kitbashed monstrosities and maybe a couple of the ILM vessels, I would have gone completely and irreversibly mad.(...)It occurred to me after I read that again, that if Doug or I didn’t have a handle on all of the ship material, then -nobody- did."

In Drexler's Trek Radio Q&A interview session of 22 January 2011, Editor Clark stated that the manual never broke even. It was part of the reasons why a Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual follow-up never came to fruition.

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