In the days before the Federation, did the great tyrannical star empire dominating Earth's quadrant originate on 1) Romulus; 2) Bajor; 3) Vega; or 4) Alpha Centauri? And will Brannon Braga bother to watch "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" to find out, since he obviously didn't watch "Metamorphosis" before writing First Contact? Ah, the problem with writing a "historical" show is that there's already so much Trek history to study, and it's not even consistent from series to series.

Hence, Jill Sherwin's new Definitive Star Trek Trivia Book (Pocket Books, $14.95) is entertaining, but hardly feels definitive. I still don't know how many people died in World War III, an event about which the original series and the next generation provided conflicting information. I was pleased to learn that Kai Winn had been romantically involved with Jaro Essa, but that's not something that was firmly established on the series - the pair were scheming together, but if one can make guesses about sexual behavior based on how friendly the characters seem to be, I'm returning to my original belief that Janeway and Chakotay were lovers in "Resolutions" even though later Voyager canon contradicted that belief.

The Definitive Star Trek Trivia Book is quite fun, especially if you read it with friends so you can get into discussions about such fine points as whether or not Janeway suffers from HTDS (holotransference dementia syndrome, the condition of spending so much time in a holoprogram that one mistakes it for reality), or whether Spock's romance with Droxine counts as "shon-ha'lock" (love at first sight, the only Vulcan term on the quiz which stumped me). I found that I could answer three out of every five questions without blinking, and most of the rest with a little thought. The ones that were too tough for me involved ship's serial numbers, Starfleet regulations, the correct order of Dax's first six hosts, the name of Bajor's fifth moon (Jeraddo, something I know only from having read the Millennium books recently), and the spellings of assorted alien names, diseases, solar systems, technobabble, and Talaxian delicacies.

The book has a good mix of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and matching questions, though I wished there was an index somewhere with a list of all the planets and ships because I have no idea of the numbers that follow most of them, not to mention the names of everyone's relatives (does anyone here know how to spell Ezri's brother's names off the top of your head?) A few of the questions should have been essay questions, like whether Kira and O'Brien really developed mutual attraction while she was pregnant and whether the "Threshold" salamander babies really count as Janeway/Paris offspring.

Want to try your luck? Here are some of the questions that I couldn't get without looking them up. Answers below.

1) What medical substance were the people of Ornara addicted to in "Symbiosis"?
2) Name the brand and vintage of the champagne used to christen the Enterprise-B.
3) At which Cardassian settlement did Bashir find Tain in "The Wire"?
4) Name Balok's ship.
5) What pre-industrial species believed for a time that Picard was a god?
6) Name the Klingon weapon Worf began using instead of the more traditional bat'leth.
7) Tuvok recited part of what Vulcan folk song to soothe the children to sleep in "Innocence"?
8) At the time of "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges," who was the Romulan Praetor?
9) Name Leonard McCoy's father.
10) What was Lwaxana Troi's full title on Betazed?

Trivia Answers

1) Felicium
2) Dom Perignon 2265
3) Arawath Colony
4) Fesarius
5) The Mintakans
6) Mek'leth
7) "Falor's Journey"
8) Neral
9) David McCoy
10) Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.

All questions from 'The Definitive Star Trek Trivia Book' are copyright Pocket Books.