Star Trek Writer Allan Asherman Is Dead at 76
Image: Pocket Books / Unsplash
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023 – He was perhaps best known as the author of The Star Trek Compendium, an official guidebook to the Star Trek universe, first published in 1981. He also published other Trek nonfiction as well on other franchises. Despite keeping a low public profile, he was known amongst older generations of comics and science fiction fans. Allan Asherman died unexpectedly last Friday after a fall. He was 76.
Asherman was born in 1947. According to a remembrance by Star Trek author and former DC Comics editor Bob Greenberger, he began writing about SF in college for the campus paper and contributed regularly to the fanzines of the time. By the late ‘60s had become a major Star Trek fan. He became a regular attendee and panelist at conventions. After college Asherman continued to write for SF magazines and was an editor and librarian during different stints at DC Comics.
In addition to other publications about Trek and other franchises, Asherman eventually published The Star Trek Interview Book and The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Asherman said in a 1978 interview, “There’s a certain feeling that you get when you see your name in print, and it’s a disease. You can’t live without it once you’ve seen it. I caught it, so I know.”
Greenberger remembers that “Allan had a sly sense of humor, which didn’t reveal itself often, and he did a marvelous imitation of George Takei’s voice, so good it could fool people.”
“Dr. Trek,” Larry Nemecek, noted that Asherman was “one of those who later inspired me to do what I do, and why.”
Greenberger concludes, “He was forerunner of the fans and writers who followed, a knowledgeable and talent journalist whose passion for the subjects was always evident.”
Please join us here at Daily Star Trek News in offering our condolences to the friends and family of Allan Asherman.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
