New Book about TOS: These Are The Voyages

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by neoworx, Jul 13, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2005
    I might have to take you up on that horn-blowing sometime. :p

    The header on my blog could certainly use a little more pizzaz...
     
  2. plynch

    plynch Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2007
    Location:
    Outer Graceland
    Harvey, thanks for the compliment.

    I too use blogger, and I found you can create a banner-sized graphic in another program; or use a long photo and write text on it in an editing program . . . Then import said graphic and use as your banner title.

    Yours does the job, actually, and you're not going to drive or lose "sales" based on your header. Here is the photo-imported version of a Blogger header at my blog of encouragement for educators, http://upteach.blogspot.com

    Be well!
     
  3. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    Thought it was cool seeing just how much of a difference Roddenberry made to the Space Seed script. After so many chapters devoted to Gene Coon and the magic he was working on the show, it was nice to see Roddenberry prove he still had some good ideas in him as well.

    I just love his offhand suggestion that, instead of being common criminals who got shipped off to a penal colony, these people could maybe be dangerous, superhuman tyrants who had ruled much of the Earth. And it wasn't until his final script polish that the name Khan was used, or (according to Justman) that it became the great, streamlined classic it is today.

    And I never really thought of it before, but it's clear that with episodes like this, Charlie X, and Balance of Terror that TOS did bottle episodes better than probably any other Trek series. In fact most of the time they don't even feel like bottle episodes (which you definitely can't say about many TNG eps).
     
  4. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Location:
    I said out, dammit!
    What, better then A Night in Sickbay? Surely not!
     
  5. Indysolo

    Indysolo Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2001
    Location:
    Sunny California
  6. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 24, 2006
    Location:
    Escaped from Delta Vega
    Nice observation.
     
  7. feek61

    feek61 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2011
    Location:
    In the Sunshine!
    He did the same thing in "By Any Other Name" when D.C. Fontana was trying to come-up with a way the 4 Kelvins could take over and keep the entire crew under control. Roddenberry came up with the crew being reduced into those little styrofoam cube things which made the story work. I guess that will be in the next volume.
     
  8. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    Yeah it's clear that while Roddenberry's original stories weren't always the best (Return of the Archons, Omega Glory, etc), he was damn good at fixing and tweaking other people's stories to make them work as best as possible on screen. And also with getting the most out of the limited resources they had.

    Probably the biggest concern he seemed to have was with keeping the focus of the stories on Kirk and the main cast. It's amazing how many writers had problems doing something even as simple as that!
     
  9. Indysolo

    Indysolo Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2001
    Location:
    Sunny California
    A friend of mine on facebook discussed this book with D.C. Fontana, who had this to say...

    "Wait for the second edition,"

    My friend also went on to say, "It seems Writer Marc Cushman gave Dorothy a review copy too late to incorporate her notes, and she spotted numerous factual errors that she expects to be corrected in the next edition."

    I'm waiting until all 3 are released and e-versions are available.
     
  10. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2005
    Just finished the last touches to my review, which I'll be posting on my blog tomorrow.

    In short, though, I have to agree with D.C. Fontana. Wait for the second edition, and hope that it addresses the book's many problems.
     
  11. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Location:
    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    I look forward to reading it.

    I'm looking forward to Volume 2, but I'd pick up a revised edition of Vol. 1 only if it's at a really good price.
     
  12. EnsignHarper

    EnsignHarper Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2006
    Location:
    OCNY
    Any idea when Season 2 comes out?
     
  13. feek61

    feek61 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2011
    Location:
    In the Sunshine!
    Volume 2 is scheduled for a November release
     
  14. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    Unless they inject a bunch of new commentary from D.C. Fontana, I'll probably skip the revised edition. I'm not enough of a perfectionist that I need every detail in the book to be absolutely perfect.
     
  15. trevanian

    trevanian Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2004
    Are they going to call it THESE ARE THE real VOYAGES, honest?
     
  16. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Location:
    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    :lol:
     
  17. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Location:
    I said out, dammit!
    "These are the Voyages, Remastered."
     
  18. Indysolo

    Indysolo Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2001
    Location:
    Sunny California
    These Are the Voyages
     
  19. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2005
    Location:
    Real Gone
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2013
  20. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    It's a pretty fair critique, but for me the good in the book still far outweighs the bad. With such an immense project and with so much information to cover, I fully expect there will be the occasional factual error or instances where the author draws a conclusion or makes an assumption that isn't totally accurate.

    Ultimately, as much as I may love it, we're talking about the making of a TV show here. It's not a history of the Civil War or the Lincoln presidency or anything. ;)
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.