Book Review: Fun With Kirk and Spock

funwkirkspock

Welcome to your childhood, with some adult panache! Robb Pearlman sends up the very best of Star Trek (and its worst as well) in the new hootfest of a Star Trek parody book that is "Fun with Kirk and Spock."

REVIEW: Star Trek: Fun with Kirk and Spock

On the very first page of  the new parody book "Star Trek: Fun With Kirk and Spock," the reader is teased with a glorious image of the Starship Enterprise, and some otherwise very basic, kiddie book text. Don’t be deceived, what follows is master comedy on an interplanetary scale. Oh yes, poor redshirts get to take their fair share, but can you imagine comedy centering on the likes of Gorgon or Abraham Lincoln? All this, and more, is present, tended to by the art of Gary Shipman.

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Page sample from "Fun With Kirk and Spock"

Shipman’s stylistic approach is unique and definitely draws the reader in quickly. Sure, there are some continuity glitches with little bits of the art (the cover features Spock in Lieutenant Commander’s stripes and Kirk with the braid of a Commander; another page mentions a Klingon science office on the Enterprise bridge, an apparent reference to Mara from "Day of the Dove" but depicts Kang instead) but they are easily overlooked because the quality of the prose is just way too much fun to care.

Fans of Classic Trek will instantly fall in love with this book… it’s the perfect love letter to the series. That said, while the back cover mentions "cadets of all ages" as the target for the volume, some of the text is a bit beyond what I am ready to discuss with my children (ages 4, 2, and newborn). Adult fans who are introducing their younger children to a limited diet of Trek may wish to review the book first before deciding if they want to share the book with their kids. Personally, I’d probably wait until my oldest was about eight before I let her read the book… but that’s based on my own biases of what my children are ready for. Your experience, of course, may differ. I don’t want to explain the moral message of "And The Children Shall Lead" to her just yet; in parody or episodic form!

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2-Page spread sample from "Fun With Kirk and Spock"

For me, as an adult fan, this book was one laugh after another… I read through it three separate times the day my review copy arrived, and it had me in stitches each time. Even yesterday, reading it at lunch, I had to shut my office door… perhaps I’m just nostalgic for my old tube TV and the nightly 5 PM Trek rerun on local TV, but this is quite simply the funniest and most authentic send-up of Trek I have seen… ever! And that, at least to me, is definitely a good thing.

Now, when is the Next Generation version coming out…

"Star Trek: Fun with Kirk and Spock"
Written by Robb Pearlman, Illustrated by Gary Shipman
Hardcover: 64 Pages (also e-Book)
Publisher: Cider Mill Press
Available: July 29, 2014
List Price: $14.95
(pre-order at Amazon currently discounted to $9.95)

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"Fun with Kirk and Spock" cover

For the littlest Trekkies

If you did want a book for the littlest of Trekkies, you could check out the 2011 book "Star Trek Book of Opposites" from Quick Books. Available from Amazon for just $7.95 the picture book has an age range of "baby and up."


cover and sample page from "Star Trek Book Of Opposites"

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Are we not reviewing Trek merchandise anymore? Whatever anyone wants to just throw out there, it’s fine, even if it devalues the franchise?

You can’t do a parody of Trek! Take it back!

Star Trek Into Darkness Yes! But not my beloved classic Trek!

This is in the high(or low)tradition of MAD magazine.

Kirk and Spock? What about McCoy??? DISASTER!

Speaking of parodies…when are we going to see ‘MJ – The Even Grander Return!’ back on these pages?

My son loves “Star Trek Book Of Opposites.” He calls it the ‘Prise Book.

Yeah, I pre-ordered the book as soon as I saw it. Looks like a fun read and there are more Treks to poke at like this.

LOL, took me right back to the grand ol’ days of MAD magazine. Looking forward to it, eventually!

I love this kind of stuff, and thought the book was fun. My kids got a kick out of it, as well.

I agree with #1. This kind of book utterly devalues the franchise by poking fun at Gene Roddenberry’s unique vision of the future. It’s simply a naked cash grab, and I would imagine that Roddenberry, as well as James Doohan and DeForest Kelley, are all rolling in their graves right now at this level of disrespect. And it gets a positive review on TrekMovie! For shame.

In addition, this “reviews” demonstrates that the book presents a number of blatant continuity errors to impressionable young minors.

1.) The most egregious error is that Nomad, Mara, Subcommander Tal, Charlie and Gorgan were never on the bridge at the same time. This shows an utter disrespect to the story lines of each individual episode and confuses the messages that Roddenberry was trying to hard to convey in the show.

2.) Kirk and Spock were not the only crew members to discover Khan. Not only that, Spock is missing his tricorder, and neither of them have their phasers.

3.) There is no way that a security officer would be allowed to serve in Starfleet if he was missing his legs below the knees. It wasn’t until the 24th century that paraplegics could serve in multiple capacities in Starfleet, but that didn’t include security.

So, poster #1 is absolutely correct. This kind of product has no place on TrekMovie.com.

#1. Darrell – July 25, 2014, 10. Marvin the Martian – July 26, 2014

Unfortunately:

http://www.funwithkirkandspock.com/about.html

“This is an officially licensed book by Cider Mill Press Book Publishers LLC.”

for your estimation, CBS apparently doesn’t see it that way.

For what it’s worth, my kids love the Trek “Book of Opposites” too.

#10… Wow, speaking of parody… you had me going until your third list item…

I honestly can’t tell if some of these comments are serious. Or are too serious.

It’s a parody. It’s for fun, for giggles.

The only thing devaluing the franchise are the fans who take even the obviously silly stuff too far. I love Star Trek and TOS specifically as much as the next TOS fan, but I have to agree that there’s plenty of room to poke fun at it too with all the Trek tropes it created.

So I’m going to go with the assumption that the “it devalues Trek” criticisms are made to poke fun at the more over-the-top fans by parodying them.

You Gene’s Vision people are kidding, right?

If not, then, jeez, maybe Orci was right about you guys.

*teehee. I knew Orci wasn’t right about you guys.

The force is strong with this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Darth-Vader-Jeffrey-Brown/dp/1452128308/ref=pd_cp_b_0

Parodies of franchises are the equivalent of comedy roasts of well-loved celebrities. They can go overboard, but what the hell. It’s part of the fun.