Star Trek Encyclopedia

The Star Trek Encyclopedia - A Reference Guide to the Future is the "definitive" Star Trek reference, compiled by the production staff and officially recognized by Paramount Pictures.

While the first edition was still executed in black and white, the two subsequent editions were full color editions, with new color updated artwork by Doug Drexler. The first and third editions came in softcover and in hardcover in a dust jacket variants, the second edition only executed as hardcover.

Two editions saw a Japanese-language release which, while largely faithful translations, were updated and expanded versions from their English-language counterparts. The only other known international release is the slightly abridged 1995 German-language first edition, published by Heel.

Summary
An A-Z encyclopedia covering subjects from Andorians to Zefram Cochrane to Atoz, the Star Trek Encyclopedia was compiled by Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager staffers Denise and Michael Okuda. It includes summaries of all episodes, descriptions of all characters, rundowns of all locations, data on all lifeforms, and details on all starships that appeared in the Star Trek universe up to the fifth season of Voyager, and the final season of DS9 in the third edition.

Not taken into account are officially non-canon works - such as the various Star Trek novels, games - and The Animated Series.

Some articles (generally only a paragraph or two long) contain little known facts from behind-the-scenes, presented in italicized fonts. Many also featured images created specifically for the Encyclopedia, including shots of barely visible starships like the Saber-class and vessels, and a photograph of Cochrane's statue.

The last published edition of the Encyclopedia was the 3rd edition in. This edition features a 128-page special section in the rear containing information from, the final season of Deep Space Nine and the fifth season of Voyager. This was a cost-saving measure, as integrating this information alphabetically into the existing material would have resulted in a greater publishing expense and thus a higher price.

It seems unlikely that a fourth edition of the Encyclopedia will be published. Editors from Pocket Books have indicated that they have little interest in continuing their line of Star Trek reference books, such as the technical manuals, the Encyclopedia, and the Star Trek Chronology, due to the low sales such high-priced items engender.

The only "official" exhaustive reference work that is still updated is the Library of StarTrek.com, though this sometimes contains discrepancies.

Background information
The authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia made several references to material that was never explicitly noted in canon (i.e. made up exclusively for the Encyclopedia) or that came from unspecified materials that have yet to be identified on screen. A majority of these references are related to Federation starships, notably their registries, class designations, and some of the classes themselves.

Ship classes
The following classes appeared in the Star Trek Encyclopedia and are noted as conjectural, but not on what basis.