I recently picked up the new edition of “Star Trek Stellar Cartography” and thought I would do a comparison between the new 2018 edition to the original 2013 edition.
2018 Edition and 2013 Edition:
(Note, I will be added some additional photographs, links, and some notes on a comparison of the Poster Maps in the near future)
The descriptions on Amazon for the two products are identical:
The Starfleet Reference Library: Stellar Cartography collects together ten original, never-before-seen large-format maps of the Star Trek universe. Pulled from the cartography archives of Starfleet Academy, these beautifully reproduced maps provide a rare opportunity to view the expanse of Federation space (and beyond) through the multiple lenses of the Galaxy’s key players.
The maps include an ancient Vulcan map, a Klingon Empire map from the pre-Organian Peace Treaty era (in the native Klingon), an official Romulan government map of the Empire, a native Cardassian Union map from the Bajor occupation, along with Federation maps from the modern era. Housed in a handsome clamshell case and paired with a fully-illustrated reference book providing detailed information on planets, systems, and topography, this exclusive collection showcases the Star Trek universe like never before.
Product Features:
- A tri-fold clamshell case
- 48-page 8” x 10” hardcover book
- Ten 24” x 36” removable maps
I did read somewhere that the new edition has been updated with information up to season 1 of Discovery
First I looked at the book. The cover is slightly different between the two. The Table of Contents is identical and both books have 48 pages.
Pages 9 and 10 which have a small copy of Map II – Alpha Quadrant are different between the two books, the new book has several additional systems, Starbases and even at least one additional nebula. Presumably these match changes on the poster maps as well.
Page 13, which describes Map II has added a couple of additional paragraphs near the end.
Strangely, the small copy of Map III, Beta Quadrant seems to have lost a bunch of Systems along the left hand side, including Alpha Centauri, Babel, Wolf 359, Procyon (Andoria), 40 Erindani (Vulcan), P3 Orionis (Orion), Coridan, and Organia. Although the star representing Organia is still on the map, and a few additional items have been added. They do all appear on the Poster map though.
The text on page 18 has been modified to include some reverences to “T’Kuvma” and the war from season 1 of Discovery.
The Cardassian Union map in the book doesn’t seem to have changed, although it would be hard to spot any small changes., Likewise for the text on the pages following, and the Vulcan map and the pages of text accompanying it.
The Klingon Map in the book looks slightly different, but I think they just shifted the portion they used from the poster up a little which picked up a couple extra systems along the bottom edge, although the text (in Klingon) does look different in a few places so there may be some other minor changes as well.
Again, the text on the pages following the map have been altered a little to include some information from Discovery.
The second Klingon map has a few additions in the upper left area but is otherwise very similar.
Map VII – Romulan Star Empire looks identical, as does the text on the pages following and The Romulan War map and text.
Map IX – The Dominion War and it’s text also don’t appear to have any changes.
Map X – Federation Historical Highlights is so dense it’s hard to tell what may have changed. I did notice the addition of “U.S.S. Defiant Lost (2268) an First Contact with Tholians (2268) and a couple other entries in yellow that look like they are new additions. It may be easier to tell on the poster map. The new one also includes some route lines from the poster map that the older edition didn’t include in the book.
One of the paragraphs on the following page has some minor alterations but is otherwise identical.