Broken Bow novelization issue?

I've wanted to read some of the later Enterprise novels and kept putting it off until I was all caught up with the other relaunches and the current chronology. That happened a year or so ago and I found myself in between books the other day so I thought I'd finally start reading the Enterprise series. I plan to read them all and started with Diane Carey's novelization of Broken Bow. It seems like a pretty straight-forward novelization. I'm about half done and there doesn't seem to be much extra written into it like some novelizations sometimes have. The only issue I have with it is that she keeps referring to Trip as Charlie. I don't think I've ever heard Trip referred to as Charlie. It was always Trip or Charles. It sounds like a really small issue but it really takes me out of the story since it's so out of character. It's like reading an Original Series novel and having the author continually refer to Kirk as Jimmy.

It makes me wonder when this novelization was actually written. Had the shows started airing before the novelization was completed? The book was released in October 2001 and I know the pilot aired in September 2001 so I guess it was written before the show actually started. Still, I mean, she must've had a copy of the script, so where the heck did Charlie come from? Did anyone else notice this or have an issue with it?

- Byron

 

You think that's weird, read her first original TNG novel, Ghost Ship. "Bill" Riker actively scorns Data all book long. It is super strange.

 

Could that be one of those things that was in the series bible, but was changed by the time the show was actually on the air? I know that was the case with Thrawn's TNG example.

 

In the script "Trip" is called "Charlie" throughout. It seems the novelization was based on the script

 

And there we have it. If that's the case, then it makes perfect sense that she keeps using it. It only seems strange years later after the show has aired and I know he was never called that. Back then, when the show first started and the novelization was first published, who knew?

Thanks for the info.

- Byron

 

These sorts of glitches happen when tie-ins are written early to ensure they can be released in a timely fashion. They're often based on series bibles and early scripts and so they reflect an unfinished idea of what the series will be. The glitches in Ghost Ship have been mentioned. The first few Voyager novels referred to the Doctor as Doc Zimmerman, because the producers originally thought that he'd adopt that name after a few episodes.

In the Enterprise bible, not only was Tucker referred to as Charlie, but he was a lieutenant and his nickname was Spike. Along with Captain Jackson Archer, Subcommander T'Pau, and Joe Mayweather.

 

So, what you're saying is, it could've been a lot worse!

Thanks for the insights Christopher. Hopefully I'll get to your contributions to the series soon.

- Byron

 

^Well, JD asked whether "Charlie" was from the bible rather than the pilot script. I was sort of trying to suggest that if the book got the other character names right, then it was probably going from the script rather than the bible.

 

The book came out a few days before "Broken Bow" aired. The publication date inside the book is always a month after it actually goes on sale.

I seem to recall an interview with Carey where she said she had less than a week to write the book. It probably would have been written in the summer of 2001. June or July, maybe.

 

Exactly. You want a novelization to hit at the same time as the show/movie so they're almost always written before the show airs, based on early versions of the script. The author almost NEVER sees the finished the product before the book has to go to press.

You're basically writing a 300-page description of a show you haven't seen yet!

 

Well, after seeing all the other craziness that Christopher suggested from the series bible, I see how much worse things could have been. Suddenly, dealing with a handful of Charlie's here and there doesn't seem so bad.

Thanks guys.

- Byron

 

There were all sorts of glitches of this nature in Blish's short story adaptations of the TOS episodes, especially the early ones. In at least three cases ("The Man Trap" becoming "The Unreal McCoy," "Charlie X" becoming "Charlie's Law," and "Spectre of the Gun" becoming "The Last Gunfight"), even titles changed. Probably the most famous of the Blish glitches was in "The Trouble with Tribbles," where Blish was given a script from before George Takei's "The Green Berets" commitment made it necessary to give his lines to Chekov.

Especially in the first few volumes, Blish was writing adaptations of episodes he'd never actually seen. Even though they'd aired in the US, they hadn't in the UK.

Incidentally, I'm almost certain that there are two separate versions, ON FILM, IN RELEASE PRINTS, of the bar scene in SG, where Scotty is trying to order Scotch, and the bartender only carries Bourbon: there's the familiar, canonical, ". . . unless you want corn whiskey" version of the scene, but I swear, when KTLA-5 had the strip syndication license for Los Angeles, their print had ". . . unless you want GIN" (which matched Blish's adaptation). I can only conclude that it was some sort of "export version" for English-speaking countries where the people wouldn't have a clue what "corn whiskey" was.

Then, too, I can't recall whether it was Blish, or another early Bantam author, but I know that somebody made Scotty a redhead, and somebody gave him an absentee wife.

 

Peter David gave Scotty a hitherto-unknown wife in DC's third annual. Not sure if anyone did it in the books before that.

 

I've heard the comics gave Pulaski a daughter too.
For some reason Scotty having an ex wife makes a lot more sense than Pulaski as a mother. I don't really see her as being all that maternal. Scotty having an ex wife works I think. He was an older man, and very handsome and charming, an ex wife in his past just fits well I think. It's a nice break from all TOS crew, except for McCoy (and Kirk if you count his one episode wife) being unmarried.

 

I don't think you have to be "maternal" to have a child.

 

Of course you don't, although it is a good idea to be maternal if you're going to be a mother. And maybe I'm being unfair. I don't think Pulaski would be a bad mother, I just find it shocking and jarring to learn that she has a daughter. Maybe it works better in the comic than it does in my head.

 

Pulaski has so many ex-husbands that it would seem odd to me if she didn't have at least one child.

 

Somebody had to have, because I remember it (might have even been in Spock Must Die), and I wouldn't know "DC's third annual" if it fell in my lunch. (Other than the Gold Key ST series, I have hardly even glanced at any ST comic books.)

 

I read Spock Must Die two or three months ago, and I don't remember any mention of Scotty's ex wife there, or in any other novel. I do like when continuity cross pollenates like that though.