R.I.P. Allan Asherman

I was sorry to hear of the passing of Allan Asherman, the author of many classic Star Trek reference books—in particular, the seminal Star Trek Compendium.

I don’t know if younger fans will appreciate how life-changing this book was for a budding Trekkie in the 1980s. This was before the Internet, so the only reliable way to get a list of all the Star Trek episodes—not to mention who wrote and directed them—was this book!

There were different updated editions over the years, with new movies and information added (and different color covers), and I know I had at least two of them. I’m pretty sure I read one so thoroughly, the binding fell apart.

There have been numerous Star Trek books and websites delving into the making of each episode (like the TNG book, above, by Larry Nemecek)—but this was the granddaddy of them all.

Asherman also published at least two excellent interview books, one on TOS and another on TWOK—and included composers, one of the first authors to do so. Those interviews became priceless when we were doing work on liner notes for the more recent CDs.

In other news...here is the list of remaining CDs in Brent Armstrong’s collection. Everything must go!