Why do you suppose... ?

[Dukhat]

The ‘90’s TV movie adaptation of The Stand combined the characters of Rita Blakemoor and Nadine Cross into one person (Nadine, with the drug-addict problem that Rita originally had.) In my opinion, this was an excellent choice, as Rita, while linked to Larry Underwood, was basically an irrelevant character that should have been excised in a final draft of the book. And this is a Stephen King novel.

My point? Sometimes adaptations can actually make a story better than its original form.

(However, the new Stand TV movie chose to put Rita back in, and it was painfully obvious how irrelevant she was to the plot. )

 

[Jedi Marso]

The Stand TV movie was a gigantic bowl full of suck. I have spoken.

 

[Dukhat]

The Stand TV movie was a gigantic bowl full of suck. I have spoken.

Which one? There were two.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Which one? There were two.

The newer, more recent one.

 

[valkyrie013]

If you come out and say "we're adapting X" for tv etc. Then people would expect a faithful adaptation ( or at least try to be) but you get Hollywood writers thinking they can "do better" and totally change it (recent Flash movie example) and completly craps the bed.

 

[fireproof78]

Expecting a faithful adaptation from Hollywood is begging for disappointment. Practically demanding it.

All artists think they can "do better" when they approach a work. That's how we got TWOK was Meyer took various drafts, binged TOS and and went with what he thought was the most memorable villain for a storyline. Every artist I have worked with always has that viewpoint that they can "do better," be it adding their own spin, adding different subplots or nuance, or even just specific scenes as an homage to their favorite works.

That this continues to surprise people is far amazing to me than adaptations making changes.

 

[Vger23]

What’s the point of doing a creative adaptation if you don’t believe that you can improve upon it in some way?

 

[The Wormhole]

Hell, I remember Robert Kirkman, writer of The Walking Dead comics responding to complaints about things that were changed in the TV show. He asked "who actually wants to watch a show that's an exact carbon copy of a comic they already read?"

Granted, adaptations should still share something in common with the source material. You don't want something that's so completely different it might as well be something original, like Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune.

Or then you have adaptations which are really similar to the source material with the few deviations made not really making that big a difference in the narrative. The Expanse was guilty of this at times, at other times they made changes which resulted in the show being hella darker than the novels they were based on.

In the end, adaptations are a balancing game. You want something that's meaningfully different from the source material but not so different that it might as well be something original.

 

[Jedi Marso]

In the end, adaptations are a balancing game. You want something that's meaningfully different from the source material but not so different that it might as well be something original.

Some changes almost always have to be made to adaptations anyway, as almost no book ever translates perfectly to the big or small screen as written. LOTR is probably the most famous example of this.

My overarching point, however, is that much of the Trek novel-verse and SW EU material is far superior as a storyline (or foundation, if you want to call it that) than a lot of the original stuff we get for TV and movies instead.

And a side note on Disney using Thrawn's Trilogy: they really didn't. They took Thrawn the character, and sort of rebooted him into the milieu at a much earlier time. It is a testament to Tim Zahn, that Thrawn was actually too good a character to just relegate to forever decnanonized status. How much of the Heir to the Empire trilogy is adapted into Ahsoka is a question we begin answering TONIGHT!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

That is how I treat every single adaptation. I Iearned that at 13.

Not good to maintain perceptions held at 13. Just sayin'.

In any case, the point is that an adaptation with no producer/writer/director endorsement of how faithful it is to the source can stand or fall on its own (e.g. The Omega Man, Logan's Run, Bullitt, the Browning Dracula, etc), as opposed to adaptations where its selling point is all about being a tight representation of the book.

That's how we got TWOK was Meyer took various drafts, binged TOS and and went with what he thought was the most memorable villain for a storyline

Harve Bennett was the one who screened TOS, and selected "Space Seed" as the best foundation for a film story.

 

[fireproof78]

Not good to maintain perceptions held at 13. Just sayin'.

At 13 I was angry at adaptations, treated them like shit and cursed out writers who messed it up.

I learned from that angry 13 year old that an adaptation is a change process, not a word for word depiction. I learned something very difficult. Don't need the condescension of how I learned.

In any case, the point is that an adaptation with no producer/writer/director endorsement of how faithful it is to the source can stand or fall on its own (e.g. The Omega Man, Logan's Run, Bullitt, the Browning Dracula, etc), as opposed to adaptations where its selling point is all about being a tight representation of the book.

Selling points are bullshit. I put no stock in them.

It either works or it doesn't. Don't market it to me; show me.

Harve Bennett was the one who screened TOS, and selected "Space Seed" as the best foundation for a film story.

Thank you for the correction. I believe Meyer had to take multiple drafts and work them together.

 

[SalyutBuran]

Expecting a faithful adaptation from Hollywood is begging for disappointment. Practically demanding it.

All artists think they can "do better" when they approach a work. That's how we got TWOK was Meyer took various drafts, binged TOS and and went with what he thought was the most memorable villain for a storyline. Every artist I have worked with always has that viewpoint that they can "do better," be it adding their own spin, adding different subplots or nuance, or even just specific scenes as an homage to their favorite works.

That this continues to surprise people is far amazing to me than adaptations making changes.

This runs with the narrative that narcissism has run rampant in Hollywood.

Not really a brilliant conclusion as it's been a thing since hollywood existed but it is a reminder of the problem.

It's a mega franchise you need to treat it like you would a redesign of a 747.

Each generation needs a better adherence to the fundamentals than the previous.

It's why Burma or a burman type is so necessary. Ds9 went off the rails when it drifted too far into a ww2 narrative.

Season 7 to me was the weakest because it was about total war. Ds9 was at it's best when it was more of a middle east, Yugoslavia, Vietnam allegory. Where the good guys were trying to avoid being dragged into a larger conflict.

 

[SalyutBuran]

Harve Bennett was the one who screened TOS, and selected "Space Seed" as the best foundation for a film story.

It's funny to me because balance of terror doesn't get brought up enough

 

[fireproof78]

This runs with the narrative that narcissism has run rampant in Hollywood.

In humans.

 

[Timofnine]

So, now that we have discussed the minutia and technicalities of producing a movie or future series episode based on a book written by an established past Trek author, why do we not now begin to pick our favourite potential novel adaptations?

I will start;

The Romulan Prize - Simon Hawke
Vendetta - Peter David

I have more on my list, but I do not want to be greedy, offering up all the best choices for TV/movie adaptation in one go. I think that these two books would fit well in to a Seven of Nine spin-off, though they would need to be changed somewhat as a result of 25th century politics/JJ-verse/Matalas stuff.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I'll go with my original one: Instead of the movie Generations, they adapt Federation and that becomes the crossover / passing the torch movie. Plus, the Zephram Cochrane elements serve to cockblock those elements in First Contact- an added bonus.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

As a "Voyager" fan, I am eternally grateful that they did *not* put the novel continuity to screen. No disrespect to any of the authors. But magically curing Seven of being Borg, and instantly retconning all the developments in "Endgame," was just engaging. It basically felt like someone was trying to handwave all the contributions of "Voyager" out of the saga's continuity. I'm so glad the new shows chose to do exactly the opposite, and build off of the progressions of "Voyager."

 

[Ovation]

The only novel I’d be interested to see adapted is John Ford’s The Final Reflection. I’ll not be holding my breath.

 

[Farscape One]

So, now that we have discussed the minutia and technicalities of producing a movie or future series episode based on a book written by an established past Trek author, why do we not now begin to pick our favourite potential novel adaptations?

I will start;

The Romulan Prize - Simon Hawke
Vendetta - Peter David

I have more on my list, but I do not want to be greedy, offering up all the best choices for TV/movie adaptation in one go. I think that these two books would fit well in to a Seven of Nine spin-off, though they would need to be changed somewhat as a result of 25th century politics/JJ-verse/Matalas stuff.

The Romulan Prize and Vendetta were really good. And Peter David does know how to write for tv... among other things, he wrote a couple of BABYLON 5 episodes.

I would have liked his NEW FRONTIER books adapted into a series.

 

[Timofnine]

After thinking about this long and hard, I think that the next Star Trek movie should be based on the book Ishmael. All of the dated 1960-80’s pop culture references can be replaced with ‘current day stuff’. Alternatively, they could make it as a retro 80’s movie stylistically, complete with an electronic synth beat music soundtrack. But I am not sure what such a movie would be able to ‘cross over’ with from present day pop-culture? It cannot be Here Come the Brides, as no one knows what that show is these days, not even me. So perhaps it can crossover with Family Guy? There is precedent for this.