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 50 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 TOS' 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 franchise, 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. 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 ,  , 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 current title is Editorial Manager of Global Developments, and he manages 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, , 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.  

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.

"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 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".  

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.

Footnotes

External links 
 
 
 
 
  (on his reference books)

Star Trek reference authors
Star Trek literature authors
Star Trek publication editors
Merchandise staff