The View From The Bridge (Hardcover)

Nicholas Meyer is perhaps best known for gutting salvageable parts from the glum screenwriting junkyard of five crashed drafts and stitching together a fresh Frankenstein monster in 12 sleepless days.

Sure, this was just a Star Trek movie, but considering that The Wrath of Khan is widely considered to be the best of the 11 films, Meyer's last-minute labour puts the stone knives and bearskins of today's savage script doctors to shame. In less than two weeks, Meyer fused such disparate elements as the death of a major character, a terraforming torpedo, a secret son sired by Kirk, a vengeful villain fond of quoting Melville and chewing scenery, a submarine-like space battle in the Mutara Nebula, and a young careerist Vulcan played by a fetching Kirstie Alley into what was quite possibly the best science fiction flick of the early 1980s.