Ben Robinson

Ben Robinson is the English writer and editor of several Star Trek-related reference works and projects.
The son of a television producer father and English teacher mother, Robinson is the grandson of Bernard Robinson, most notably known as the production designer of most films made from 1957 until 1968. 
A 1991 University of York graduate holding a Master's degree in English and Related Literature, Robinson was a fan from an early age. He remarked, "I can't even remember the first episode of Star Trek I saw. I've literally been watching since before I can remember. I must’ve been watching re-runs in the 70s when I was a toddler." As a child, Robinson played with Mego Star Trek action figures.
As of 1997, Robinson's first two years of working as freelancer in the employ of Midsummer Books Ltd. for GE Fabbri saw him serve as one of the editors(-in-chief) and writers of the comprehensive and long-running Star Trek Fact Files partwork magazine. He worked alongside Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Marcus Riley, Penny L. Juday, Larry Nemecek, Guy Vardaman, and Tim Gaskill on this project. 
Following the tremendous success of the Fact Files and sales of more than fifty million copies, Robinson was reassigned to edit its US successor, , in 1998. One of Robinson's most notable contributions to this publication was his in-depth interview of ' Art Director, Matt Jefferies, which was published over five issues during the 2000-2002 run of the magazine and is widely viewed as the most comprehensive first-hand account of the legendary designer's work on the and Star Trek ever published. 
Later, Robinson followed this up with an interview featuring Andrew Probert, Jefferies' successive art director for the next television incarnation of the , likewise spread over several issues. Over this period, he conducted interviews with many of the actors, designers, directors, writers, and effects artists involved with the franchise. Robinson has stated that Nicholas Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, and Robert Wise were among his favorite interviewees. While Robinson was sometimes sent to the US on extended assignments, he conducted most of his interviews over the telephone from the editorial offices of Midsummer Books (initiator, joint venture partner, and copyright holder of The Fact Files/The Magazine) in Hammersmith, London, UK, which proved to be a challenging task due to time zone issues. 
Robinson has claimed to be the first Star Trek publication editor to fully realize that the computer generated imagery produced for live-action Star Trek projects, especially imagery of studio models, was singularly well-suited for illustrative purposes in licensed print publications.Major Fact Files contributor Larry Nemecek begged to differ with Robinson's recollections however, as he has claimed that it was he who took the initiative to utilize the production CGI files for print purposes. He explained that he approached Foundation's Senior Supervisor Ron Thornton with the request to come up with a cost-effective way to provide the publication with CGI assets for print purposes. He has credited Thorton for coming up with the protocol of instructing his digital modelers (which included Bonchune) to simultaneously create orthographic views and a ¾ beauty view of a model for the partwork, whenever they were working with the model for a live-action production. Nemecek had a point in all fairness though, as the first production-used CGI model already appeared in a 1998 Fact Files issue (#69), over a year before Robinson even set foot in the USA to co-head The Magazine with Trisha Palmer, whereas Nemecek as Files writer/consultant/researcher had been stationed state-side from beginning to end. Foundation Imaging's Robert Bonchune became an enthusiastic and willing confederate as Robinson pursued this approach. 
In 1998, production-used CG imagery premiered in issue 69 of The Fact Files and was seen in all subsequent issues (and in its US magazine successor). In turn, Bonchune, together with his supervisor Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz, garnered the inspiration to produce the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendar series using similar illustrations.
Around 2004, shortly after The Magazine had run its course, Robinson permanently switched over to Fabbri as a tenured production staffer, and put all of the experience he had gained working on the two Star Trek publications to use by helping to create new products based on other entertainment properties for his new employer: like Midsummer Books, Fabbri did not have experience with this type of publication prior to its involvement with the Fact Files. At Fabbri, Robinson became the project manager for the Star Trek: The Figurine Collection partwork that was briefly test-marketed by the company in 2006. The various other entertainment properties collections that Robinson near-concurrently helped to develop, such as the , Robinson has had no hand in the very similar Star Trek: The Collector's Edition and Star Trek: The Original Series - The Collector's Edition collections, because they, as Fact Files spin-offs, were still developed at Midsummer Books (whose employ Robinson had already left by then) for Fabbri under the aegis of Tim Leng, Robinson's successor on The Fact Files. , and the collections, became much more successful though.
When Haynes Publishing sought advice on creating the USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual, Robinson was one of those approached through CBS Consumer Products, ultimately leading to him writing the manual in its entirety, apart from one chapter. Robinson again approached Marcus Riley to assist him with some writing and editing, alongside Michael Okuda as technical consultant and co-editor. Once again, Robinson solicited the input of Rob Bonchune for the preparation of the CG starship imagery.
In 2012, Robinson subsequently authored much of Haynes' follow-up publication, the Klingon Bird of Prey Owners' Workshop Manual, where he enlisted the talents of Rick Sternbach and CG modeler Ed Giddings.
Robinson was until August 2022 employed by partwork publisher Eaglemoss Publishing as senior project manager, following its merger with GE Fabbri in 2011, a position he had held ever since.
His ultimate title at Eaglemoss was that of Editorial Manager of Global Developments, as such managing a number of licensed product lines based on entertainment properties, including Doctor Who, (these two expanding on the experience gained on the originating 2006-2007 collections for Fabbri), Battlestar Galactica, Marvel Comics, Back to the Future films feature an Andy Probert-designed Delorean time machine. Robinson oversaw Eaglemoss' 1:8-scale model partwork of the car., The Orville, and .
He is also the project manager for the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection partwork and has enlisted the participation of a number of veteran Star Trek artists including Rob Bonchune, Doug Drexler, Greg Jein, Adam Lebowitz, and Mike Okuda. Robinson co-authors, co-edits, and oversees the preparation of the magazine, and he supervises the team responsible for creation and decoration of the starship miniatures and the commissioning of new CGI models. Eaglemoss/Hero Collector's Development Manager John Ainsworth has assumed most of Robinson's oversight duties for the production of the miniatures, after the first 120 Trek starships were manufactured. 
Ben Robinson also oversaw the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection, Star Trek: The Official Busts Collection, Star Trek Online Starships Collection, Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, Star Trek: The Next Generation Build The USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, and Star Trek: Lower Decks The Official Starships Collection partworks for Eaglemoss/Hero Collector.
Robinson has authored, co-authored, edited, and/or co-edited the Designing Starships, Shipyards, and Illustrated Handbook series of Star Trek reference books. The first two of these series are principally compiled from content included in the magazines from the three Official Starships Collection partworks, while the latter incorporates updated material from the Star Trek Fact Files after the copyrights were acquired from Robinson's former employer Midsummer Books. The first three books from the first series were first published and retailed by Eaglemoss Publications, subsequent to their republishing (in revised editions) by Eaglemoss under their Hero Collector imprint, through Penguin Random House's Publisher Services division.
He is also the author of Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration for Hero Collector, and a co-author of Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry (with Dan Curry) for Titan Books, which were released in 2020. He followed this up as co-author of Star Trek - The Original Series: A Celebration in 2021, also for Hero Collector.
After more than twenty years of research and many hours of interviewing the artists associated with the franchise's many incarnations, Robinson has amassed a sizable archive of (reproduced) concept and production art. Independently compiled by Robinson, most of this material is not in the possession of Paramount's own Star Trek archives.The Paramount archives had once been extensive, but were whittled down considerably in the 2006-2008 wave of Star Trek auctions, greatly diminishing its value as a relevant franchise production archive. Where the production design print materials are concerned, Robinson's personal archive may well have surpassed Paramount's in relevance over the years.
==="Journey's End"===
In August 2022, Robinson's twenty-five year association with Star Trek partworks and reference books, came to a sudden and unexpected end when Eaglemoss went out off business without any kind of notification. Like his customers he had been profusely communicating with trough his Twitter feed, Robinson was completely taken unawares – he had never been part of the upper management echelons – when Eaglemoss filed a "Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator", typically done under the UK Insolvency Act (meaning a company is no longer able to pay off its debts) on 12 July 2022, which was followed by a bankruptcy of . Robinson was fired from the now no longer existing company three days later. During this time he was slapped with a gag order and was forced to stop communicating with the outside world, which was entirely kept in the dark on the company's going-ons.
After he was released from the obligations to keep silent, it was Robinson who took it upon himself to make up for the complete lack of communication by Eaglemoss by giving several interviews to social media outlets, as well as to several Star Trek news sites such as and , trying to explain what had transpired at the company in his opinion and expressing his hopes for the future. He clarified that he suspected that the company failed in the end because "(…) the owners of Eaglemoss pursued a strategy of very aggressive expansion and aggressive growth – with the intention of making the company as attractive to a potential buyer as possible. The way it feels to me is that they over-egged it." Apologizing to the customer base for his former employer's total communications black-out, he further stated that he was on personal title in process of talking with third parties ostensibly "interested" in taking over some of the product lines with the buildup lines (such as the Build The USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D collection) given absolute priority, as he "(…) hate[s] the thought of anyone being left with an incomplete model (…)", though conceding that he was unable to give any guaranties, merely that he was "hopeful" and "optimistic". When discounting the fact that Robinson as a mere unemployed British subject had no formal say whatsoever left (which was now the purview of the Eaglemoss administrators, and only the administrators; Robinson's only play was to privately talk third parties into contacting the administrators), his optimism might have appeared utterly misplaced as well, since Eaglemoss' bankruptcy could not have come at a worse time for the frustrated customer base. Still reeling from the economically adverse after-effects of the 2020-2021 , the entire western world was confronted by the which started directly thereafter, and which could have entailed far worse financial consequences. That war has resulted in double-digit inflation rates not seen in the developed western world since World War II, meaning that because of the rapidly declining consumer buying power, a severe economic recession had been a distinct possibility for 2023, in Europe especially.That Robinson harbored doubts in private himself at that point in time, despite him putting on a brave face in public, was exemplified when he shared a tooled prototype model picture of the cancelled Lower Decks . The prototype model was gifted by Robinson to Lower Decks creator, Mike McMahan in itself an indication that Robinson personally did not really believe at that particular point in time, that cancelled Eaglemoss partwork issues would ever see the day of light.
It remains to be seen though. if Robinson will in the future be able to find gainful employment that allows him to stay actively and officially involved in the Star Trek franchise in a tenured position – though nothing is preventing him to continue working on Star Trek as freelancer, like he has done with his writings for Haynes and Titan Books.
On 9 February 2024, it was announced by Heathside Trading that Robinson was hired as the new senior "Brand Manager" for their (new) Master Replicas brand under which the company had taken over the remainder stock of the bankrupt Eaglemoss. Robinson incidentally, had already served Master Replicas in a voluntarily advisory role immediately after their takeover of the Eaglemoss stock. Master Replicas though, had not succeeded in procuring a license to produce follow-up Star Trek partworks themselves; that license went to competitor De Agostini, which quite possibly heralds the end of Robinson's quarter of a century old (formal) involvement with the Star Trek franchise.
== Footnotes ==
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* (on the first year anniversary of the Official Starship Collection)
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Category:Star Trek reference authors
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Category:Star Trek publication editors
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