Review: Star Trek Lost Scenes by David Tilotta and Curt McAloney

With Star Trek: The Original Series first airing in 1966, it's easy to think we've learned everything we can about the series. After all, there were only seventy-nine episodes, and most of us have watched them multiple times. We even have our favorites we return to time and again, but some of those favorites have deleted scenes we don't know about. There are images we haven't seen, and we have no idea how an effect was performed in that decade even though we'd like to. Now you can with Star Trek Lost Scenes by David Tilotta and Curt McAloney.

Published in 2018, this hardcover book takes you behind the scenes of the three seasons of The Original Series and provides information we never knew we needed like a detailed listing of the exterior filming locations used, along with never before seen images shot during filming, what the actors were actually seeing when they were staring at a screen, how some of the aliens were created, and how the stunt doubles were used.

There are detailed script scenes that were deleted from the aired episodes for various reasons, many of which clear up things that just don't make sense in the episode. For instance, in The Enemy Within, fans have often wondered why Scotty wasn't avidly working on the transporter to save Lt. Sulu and the others from the freezing planet. Star Trek Lost Scenes reveals that there was such a scene, but the scene was deleted. This puts Scotty in a better light.

Star Trek Lost Scenes includes brightly colored blooper images from deleted scenes with the cast clearly having a good time, which is great to see considering how much controversy there has been about how well the cast got along onset.

Overall, Star Trek Lost Scenes is 5 out of 5 stars book that belongs on every Star Trek fans' bookshelf.