As I said, that's often a problem for me -- if it's a dialogue scene, I tend to just focus on the characters and forget to visualize the scene. Or if I have a setting in mind, I sometimes forget that I haven't described it on the page.
Novels that would make great movies
- Thread starter Damian
- Start date
As I said, that's often a problem for me -- if it's a dialogue scene, I tend to just focus on the characters and forget to visualize the scene. Or if I have a setting in mind, I sometimes forget that I haven't described it on the page.
I wrote a short story (six pages, so perhaps very short story) once in which I barely described what the protagonist looked like beyond gender, and was a little amused when people seemed to really enjoy it and nobody called me out for something I would have called myself out for if I was editing.
I guess like anything everyone has their own style and needs. And it probably depends on the scene. If you have an intense action scene it's probably more important to visualize the scene and even explain it then it would be for a scene of dialogue.
I can tell you from personal experience it's not something I've picked up on when reading your novels. I've never had to think about 'hmm, I wonder where this is taking place'. And of course after reading numerous novels by different authors I've pick up on the different styles (unless it's a new author of course), which is a good thing. It adds variety so every novel, even when they are part of a continuing storyline, has a different feel. Some writers are more action driven, some character driven and so on (and even episodes are like that--keeps things from getting boring)
Last edited:
I relied heavily on that when writing my Enterprise-A stories.
So I guess you liked TNG Conspiracy - I hated it. And the Germans cut out the head exploding scene. For me horror must be more subtle instead of gory.
Funny story: Decades ago, a fan at a convention congratulated me on the gay love scene in one of my early stories. I appreciated the kind words, but was confused since I didn't remember writing a gay love scene (not that there would be anything wrong with that.) Then it hit me: the story was written in the first-person and I had never specified the gender of the narrator. So I guess this reader saw the male byline on the story, assumed the protagonist was a guy, and visualized the love scene somewhat differently!
Needless to say, it wasn't a terribly explicit love scene.
I would have liked Conspiracy a lot more if Gene Roddenberry hadn't made them change it. (Originally, there wasn't going to be anything about slugs that take over people's bodies. It was just a military coup within Starfleet. But Gene wouldn't allow anything like that, so he forced the alien possession angle that we saw.)
We saw enough political thrillers in the novels..... 'Does anyone remember the time we were still explorers?'
So as a movie I wouldn't take one of the mini series novels. A single adventure would be enough for my liking.
Assignment Eternity as movie would be nice. But all the characters would have to be recast of course.
It was ok. The head exploding scene was a bit gratuitous I'll admit (it was shown in all its glory here in the US believe it or not when it was first shown). It was a bit creepy, which was new at that point in Star Trek on TV. There was indications that there would be further stories on screen but nothing ever came of it (of course the novels finally picked up that thread).
I thought it was one of the better 1st season episodes, but it would be far surpassed by later episodes.
I read somewhere that the exploding scene was Roddenberry's way of showing his annoyance at US censors for their knee-jerk tendency to immediately clamp down on any slight hint of sexuality in TV content but doing absolutely nothing about increasingly violent content.
Kor
Kor
I remember being shocked by "Conspiracy", complete with head @splosion, and wondering whether that signaled a new tonal direction for TNG. I'm rather glad they didn't actually go into that realm too often.
Easily one of the best episodes of the season, and I liked that it was prefigured with "Coming of Age", and I kind of wish we'd gotten to see some of those characters again at some point. Especially Remmick.
Easily one of the best episodes of the season, and I liked that it was prefigured with "Coming of Age", and I kind of wish we'd gotten to see some of those characters again at some point. Especially Remmick.
Would have loved to see if "The Final Reflection" could have been filmed. The depiction of the Klingons were more TOS than TNG of course.
And could "Uhuras Song" have been filmed? CGI Eeiauoans could be done nowadays, but would have loved to see the TOS cast do this one.
And could "Uhuras Song" have been filmed? CGI Eeiauoans could be done nowadays, but would have loved to see the TOS cast do this one.
I remember being shocked by "Conspiracy", complete with head @splosion, and wondering whether that signaled a new tonal direction for TNG. I'm rather glad they didn't actually go into that realm too often.
Easily one of the best episodes of the season, and I liked that it was prefigured with "Coming of Age", and I kind of wish we'd gotten to see some of those characters again at some point. Especially Remmick.
I had less problems with the parasites being featured in the DS9 Relaunch. Except
the gigantic/huge spawn mother at the end of Unity.
I wonder what movies are being filmed based on novels and episodes in the alternate timeline where the "Conspiracy" aliens were advance guard for the Borg?
Yeah. I agree. The backstory in the DS9 novels gave them more depth, and a reason for what they were doing. I suppose had TNG picked up that thread later in the series then the original episode may have been viewed a bit differently.
I liked the conspiracy angle and the overall creepy feeling. But some of it was gratuitous, the eating worms, exploding head, that was just shock value mostly. I actually agree with Roddenberry in the sense that I couldn't see a wide ranging conspiracy in Starfleet without some outside influence. I just wish they had fleshed that out more and carried the story on later like the novels did, and not have left it hanging.
For excitement's sake I recommend the Section 31 novels, especially by David Mack.
I'm wondering what would be more interesting as a movie: a Bashir as spy movie or another Section 31 adventure. The latter is more innovative. I don't think that we need another Jamed Bond stand-in.
As far as novels being adapted for screen what about John Vornholt's Genesis Wave books? That was another wide ranging 4 books series (the first 2 being the best books of the 4). It was also a follow up in a lot of ways to TWOK and TSFS from the Genesis device angle.
But that was another story I really enjoyed, and I always sort of looked at those books as the 'beginning' of TNG relaunch. I know technically it begins after Insurrection but it always seemed to me to be the starting point of the continuing TNG storyline in the novels--with some flashbacks to his Gemworld novels.
But that was another story I really enjoyed, and I always sort of looked at those books as the 'beginning' of TNG relaunch. I know technically it begins after Insurrection but it always seemed to me to be the starting point of the continuing TNG storyline in the novels--with some flashbacks to his Gemworld novels.
I figure she probably recognized him by sight.
Yeah, that's certainly how I think about it. I try not to judge the past by the standards of the present. Any actor who had any sort of "exotic" look back then was cast as pretty much any non-white ethnicity.
I think that part of the appeal of the 5YM era is that it's the really iconic one, the default version that we tend to think of when we think of Kirk and his crew. That's when they were all in their prime, after all. The movie era is more an epilogue to the TOS era adventures, more often than not.
The TOS era also offers the advantage of having a certain status quo that just doesn't exist in the movie era. If you're doing a movie era story, you have to establish exactly where it takes place in the timeline. "Okay, this story is set shortly after Kirk returned to Starfleet following his brief retirement with Antonia in 2282 but before he took the Enterprise on the training cruise seen at the beginning of TWOK, so it's after Spock reconciled his human emotions as a result of his mind meld with V'Ger in 2273, but before Dr. McCoy got that hangnail after helping Scotty through his "wee bout" at that shore leave..."
With a TOS/5YM story you can just dive in. All you have to explain is what the Enterprise's current mission is.
Last edited:
Similar threads
