So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Christopher]

Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and Young Frankenstein, aren't revisionism; they're parody.

I agree about D&LI, but I consider Young Frankenstein a legitimate sequel to at least the first three Universal Frankenstein movies. It's very authentic to the source (not perfectly consistent with them, but they aren't consistent with each other to begin with), and good enough to be considered a worthy continuation rather than just a lampoon.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Regarding YF, I would consider it both a legitimate sequel and a gentle parody. Just as Blazing Saddles manages to be both a cornball comedy and a serious statement on racism. Which is probably why they're considered to be the top two Mel Brooks movies.

 

[Christopher]

Regarding YF, I would consider it both a legitimate sequel and a gentle parody.

Yes, of course, that's the point. The best parodies are done as well as the things they parody, and YF is a sterling example, a parody done with such sincerity that it works as a genuine sequel.

Just as Blazing Saddles manages to be both a cornball comedy and a serious statement on racism. Which is probably why they're considered to be the top two Mel Brooks movies.

What often gets overlooked about Blazing Saddles is that it's also essentially a live-action Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's a Warner Bros. film, there are blatantly Looney Tunes-style gags and reality-breaking in it, and Sheriff Bart handles crises with the same comic cleverness as Bugs.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is another of my favorite Brooks films, since it's a better Robin Hood movie than the Kevin Costner one it's largely riffing on. Although one that disappoints me is High Anxiety. It parodies the superficial forms of Hitchcock movies, but the plot is very simple and straightforward with none of the clever twists or surprises of a Hitchcock film's plot, so it feels a lot dumber than the thing it's making fun of.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

And reading about the Saberhagen is enough to where it seems a tad too revisionist for my taste.

I read about half of the Saberhagen series -- not in order, and not consistently -- about 20-25 years ago. The only one I really had a problem with was The Holmes-Dracula File, which does some things with Sherlock Holmes that irritated me. For the sequel, which I think is A Sharpness on the Neck, though that might be the Ben Franklin book, come to think of it, the things Saberhagen did with Holmes were present, but that was this series' status quo, so it didn't bother me as much. My basic impression of the Saberhagen Dracula books is that they're somewhat similar to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germaine novels -- the adventures of a vampire in history throughout his long life -- though with more of an action-adventure focus than romance.

The gold standard, if you will, in Sherlock Holmes/Dracula crossovers will always be Loren D. Estleman's Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count, which is about what Sherlock Holmes did during the events of Dracula. Esteleman breaks one thing in the text of Dracula so Holmes can do something decisive, but the narrative style of Dracula permits it, because Dracula is a self-interested tale of the part a group of friends played in driving a vampire from England, and Sherlock Holmes is very definitely not a part of that group.

More recently, Mark Latham's Betrayal in Blood is very good, a sequel to Dracula that sees Holmes investigating the events of Dracula at the behest of Mycroft and the Foreign Office because Van Helsing and his merry band of vampire slayers may have caused an international incident.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is another of my favorite Brooks films, since it's a better Robin Hood movie than the Kevin Costner one it's largely riffing on

"Because unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."

 

[Christopher]

Esteleman breaks one thing in the text of Dracula so Holmes can do something decisive

Reminds me of how Godzilla: King of the Monsters! broke one thing in the text of Gojira so Raymond Burr could do something decisive. (His character Martin talked the female lead into making a decision she made on her own in the original. Otherwise, it works surprisingly well as a parallel story about Martin and his translator watching the events of the original film from the sidelines.)

 

[Falconer]

I read The Wounded Sky (1983) and My Enemy, My Ally (1984), both by Diane Duane.

In The Wounded Sky, Duane unleashes to excess all her powers of flowery prose, science, and imagination. The Enterprise uses a new kind of engine to jump to another galaxy, in the process creating a rift to another universe, which they must fix or else our universe will be destroyed. The end result feels a lot like TMP—over ambitious and psychedelic and weird. But not cold. My biggest specific complaint is the plethora of species she places aboard the Enterprise, most of them non-humanoid. That’s very different from TOS. The second thing I thought was weird was a battle against Klingons in which Sulu calls all the shots. Nevertheless it is quite well done. So, overall this book overshoots the mark, and while I wouldn’t want every Trek book to read like this, it’s still glorious and likable. Duane writes the characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy…) well, which is paramount.

In My Enemy, My Ally, Duane reigns in most of her excesses and tells a more grounded story set in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Most of the weird aliens mostly fade to the background, save a new character—Naraht the Horta—who is very entertaining. And there are Romulans, of course. Duane invents a language for them (Welsh-like, it seems to me), and some smatterings of history and culture which seem congruous and interesting enough for my taste. Overall this was a wonderful novel with great characterizations, satisfying setups and payoffs, and just enough twists. There was a good balance between action and dialogue and science/tech and introspection.

I’m glad I read these two novels back-to-back, because there’s an inner continuity in Duane’s novels (mainly noticeable in recurring characters and obviously unity of authorial voice) that makes MEMA more satisfying if you have first read WS. And WS is made more lovable in its over-the-topness thanks to the relief or contrast provided by the more down-to-earth MEMA.

 

[Christopher]

My biggest specific complaint is the plethora of species she places aboard the Enterprise, most of them non-humanoid. That’s very different from TOS.

One: That's the whole point of doing Trek in prose -- so you aren't restricted by the budgetary, technological, and practical limitations that a TV series is bound by and can have the unfettered freedom to tell the kind of stories they couldn't have told on TV.

Two: Duane's novels were written post-TMP, and her depiction of the Enterprise was implicitly something of a transitional phase between TOS and TMP, closer to the latter. Recall that TMP's rec-room scene showed a plethora of nonhuman extras in the crowd.

 

[Commander Troi]

I read The Wounded Sky (1983) and My Enemy, My Ally (1984), both by Diane Duane.

In The Wounded Sky, Duane unleashes to excess all her powers of flowery prose, science, and imagination. The Enterprise uses a new kind of engine to jump to another galaxy, in the process creating a rift to another universe, which they must fix or else our universe will be destroyed. The end result feels a lot like TMP—over ambitious and psychedelic and weird. But not cold. My biggest specific complaint is the plethora of species she places aboard the Enterprise, most of them non-humanoid. That’s very different from TOS. The second thing I thought was weird was a battle against Klingons in which Sulu calls all the shots. Nevertheless it is quite well done. So, overall this book overshoots the mark, and while I wouldn’t want every Trek book to read like this, it’s still glorious and likable. Duane writes the characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy…) well, which is paramount.

In My Enemy, My Ally, Duane reigns in most of her excesses and tells a more grounded story set in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Most of the weird aliens mostly fade to the background, save a new character—Naraht the Horta—who is very entertaining. And there are Romulans, of course. Duane invents a language for them (Welsh-like, it seems to me), and some smatterings of history and culture which seem congruous and interesting enough for my taste. Overall this was a wonderful novel with great characterizations, satisfying setups and payoffs, and just enough twists. There was a good balance between action and dialogue and science/tech and introspection.

I’m glad I read these two novels back-to-back, because there’s an inner continuity in Duane’s novels (mainly noticeable in recurring characters and obviously unity of authorial voice) that makes MEMA more satisfying if you have first read WS. And WS is made more lovable in its over-the-topness thanks to the relief or contrast provided by the more down-to-earth MEMA.

I'm fairly sure I read both of those, but I definitely read and loved Wounded Sky. Duane's books were consistently among the best of that era.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I would regard DD as the most gifted ST novelist of her era.

And I, for one, would love to see more Sulamids. Tentacled dodecaploid nonhumanoid sentients, all twelve genders of which claim to be male (especially the ones who bear the children): what's not to like?

********
Finished Dracula yesterday. Dracula's final demise seemed almost anticlimactic. Especially compared with the Mel Brooks version.

Surprised, given all the interaction between Dracula and Renfield in DD&LI, (did Knock interact with Orlok in Nosferatu?), that Dracula and Renfield were never shown (other than in Renfield's dying declaration) in the same room together.

 

[ronny]

I've read read the first Trek books in awhile. I'm finally into single digits as far as the number of the old books I need to read until I'm all caught up to the point where they started publishing books in trade size in about 2017.

Here's what I've read in the last month:
#66 · From the Depths · Victor Milan
#69 · The Patrian Transgression · Simon Hawke
#72 · The Better Man · Howard Weinstein
#75 · First Frontier · Diane Carey & Dr. James I. Kirkland

Nothing amazing here but I feel good this is the last Diane Carey novel I needed to read. I'm just not a fan. This plot was better than most but I just have trouble getting past how I think she writes dialogue how sailors talk and not how people talk on the show.

I'm currently reading #61Sanctuary by John Vornholt. I normally like Vornholt but this one just starts off in an annoying fashion. They are chasing a criminal who lands on a planet, transporters don't work or something so they chase in a shuttle craft. Only it's just Kirk, Spock and McCoy for some reason. No security people even though they are chasing a ship with pirates. Then they crash on a planet where technology doesn't work. My idea of fun science fiction isn't people being survivalists because there is no technology around.

What's Next:

The Coda Trilogy - I've read Available Light, the only trade size I have read but I still need to read Collateral Damage and To Lose The Earth THEN I can get to the trilogy to finish off what has been an amazing several years of books taking place after all the series. This is 3rd on my list.

Picard - I'm not a fan of the show. I watched Season 1 and stopped. But my wife wanted to see season 3 because they brought all the cast back so we started over. I still don't like season 1. I found this Picard novel reading order page https://www.shastrix.com/books/star-trek-picard-reading-order.php which includes which episodes you should see before reading the books and thought I should read the Picard novels while the series is fresh in my mind because I I doubt I'm ever watching it again. We just started season 2 so I'm starting the novels to catch up here while intermixing it with the last of the old numbered books. Then I'll circle back to the Coda books

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Nothing amazing here but I feel good this is the last Diane Carey novel I needed to read. I'm just not a fan. This plot was better than most but I just have trouble getting past how I think she writes dialogue how sailors talk and not how people talk on the show.

I never noticed that about her (aside from a generally more military feel than any other ST novelist, past or present). What I have always noticed about her was a tendency to put her own hard-libertarian biases into the mouths of established characters. No question that she's an acquired taste. Although I do like her "Piper" novels and her "Robert April and Geordie Kirk" novels.

I confess that I had to re-read the above-quoted passage 2-3 times before it clicked: Oh, Diane Carey. Initially thought you were maligning Diane Duane.

 

[I am not Herbert]

One: That's the whole point of doing Trek in prose -- so you aren't restricted by the budgetary, technological, and practical limitations that a TV series is bound by and can have the unfettered freedom to tell the kind of stories they couldn't have told on TV.

Not necessarily-- not for every viewer/reader and (I assume) not for every writer, either. I would gladly read a series of bottle 'episode' novels in which the writer imposed upon themselves the rough limitations of a 1970-1972 'budget,' if there was a corresponding increase in the attention paid to storytelling, character development, and exploration of speculative fiction, philosophical, and/or moral themes. For me, Star Trek is (like early Twilight Zone) at its best when it's closer to a theater piece than a big budget movie. I can get 'cinematic' a lot of places, especially nowadays. It's the other thing I have a hard time finding. And I know that I am setting up a false dichotomy here, but my experience reading ST books has been that (generally speaking) the more cinematic the story, the worse the storytelling and the greater the departure from what (for me) made the show interesting in the first place.

 

[Christopher]

Not necessarily-- not for every viewer/reader and (I assume) not for every writer, either. I would gladly read a series of bottle 'episode' novels in which the writer imposed upon themselves the rough limitations of a 1970-1972 'budget,' if there was a corresponding increase in the attention paid to storytelling, character development, and exploration of speculative fiction, philosophical, and/or moral themes.

I don't see the value of such a thing. The people who made the show didn't settle for those limitations because they wanted to, but because they had no choice and had to dial down their ambitions. If they'd had unlimited budget and resources, they would've surely had far more aliens in the crew, more exotic worlds, bigger stories and situations, the kind of things where prose fiction exceeds the potential of television, because the imagination is unlimited. Asking a prose writer to pretend to be as severely straitjacketed as a TV writer is like hiring a race car driver to take a high-performance automobile onto the track while limiting themselves to 35 MPH.

It's a grossly false dichotomy to say it's a choice between that kind of freedom on the one hand and character and philosophy on the other. Yes, in film and TV, a limited budget can be beneficial in encouraging a focus on character and ideas rather than spectacle, but in prose, budget is a non-issue either way. Prose can easily focus on both spectacular concepts and thoughtful character and philosophical work, because they're both just words on the page, so there's no difference -- and because novels are much longer than TV episodes and have far more room to develop ideas in detail.

Besides, whether or not there are aliens in the crew is not a matter of how big or spectacular the story is. You can tell compelling character stories with alien characters just as much as with human characters. One of the most beloved and well-developed characters in Diane Duane's novels is Naraht, a Horta.

 

[Falconer]

I don’t see that there has to be an absolute correct or false position, here. I’d say it stands to reason that people who like TOS may have a million different reasons for doing so, and if a novel hews to the TOS format and tells a good story within those constraints, it’s bound to be well-liked. I thought Yesterday’s Son did that well. It’s a TOS episode in a book. I’m very happy to read novels like this.

The Wounded Sky runs to the opposite extreme and risks jarring the reader out of the story by really pushing the envelope and questioning everything all the time. I love The Wounded Sky; like I said, I think it succeeds gloriously in its excess and idiosyncrasy. I knew going into it that Duane was trying to do something new with Star Trek—that it was her vision of Phase Two rather than a “Classic Trek” novel. I just love it all the more knowing that she was later able to rein in her excesses and produce something more familiar and grounded in My Enemy, My Ally. It’s a nice middle ground. I wouldn’t want every Star Trek book to be its own Wounded Sky.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

One of the most beloved and well-developed characters in Diane Duane's novels is Naraht, a Horta.

Yes, and one of my favorites. Not that I'd mind seeing Athendë again. And kudos to KRAD for at least mentioning Sulamids.

 

[Christopher]

The Wounded Sky runs to the opposite extreme and risks jarring the reader out of the story by really pushing the envelope and questioning everything all the time.

Don't speak for all readers. Many of us like books that go beyond the show rather than artificially staying within its limitations. That, again, is the whole point of doing stories in a different medium. If you're writing a story for a novel, it should be a story that needs to be a novel, that can't be anything but a novel. The same if it's a story for a comic book, or for an audio drama, or whatever. That's the whole point of having different formats -- the fact that each format gives you a distinct experience. And the point of having tie-ins in different formats is to explore different ways of telling stories about a given series and its characters.

I love The Wounded Sky; like I said, I think it succeeds gloriously in its excess and idiosyncrasy. I knew going into it that Duane was trying to do something new with Star Trek—that it was her vision of Phase Two rather than a “Classic Trek” novel. I just love it all the more knowing that she was later able to rein in her excesses and produce something more familiar and grounded in My Enemy, My Ally. It’s a nice middle ground. I wouldn’t want every Star Trek book to be its own Wounded Sky.

I think it's unfair to My Enemy, My Ally to claim it's so much less than The Wounded Sky in its level of imagination. I find the two to be very much of a piece with one another in the way Duane depicts the universe and tells the story. And of course The Romulan Way is profoundly unlike a story you could've seen in 1960s TV.

To me, the weakest of Duane's novels were the later Rihannsu "revival" books that focused more on politics and warfare than the big imagination and worldbuilding of her early books.

 

[Falconer]

I read a book and posted an obviously subjective review. I guess it’s up to you if you want to lecture and scold me about what I as a reader ought to want and like, but it feels to me like you are fighting old battles rather than engaging in good faith with what I’m actually saying. It makes for an unwelcoming atmosphere.

 

[youngtrek]

Recent comics reads (comic book collected editions):

Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop (a.k.a., Hawkeye by Fraction and Aja: The Saga of…) Trade Paperback (Marvel, 2021). Writer: Matt Fraction. Artists: David Aja, Javier Pulido, Steve Lieber & Jesse Hamm, Francesco Francavilla, Chris Eliopoulos, Annie Wu, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer. Color art by Matt Hollingsworth, Francesco Francavilla, Jordie Bellaire, Paul Mounts. Reprints: Young Avengers Presents #6 (August 2008), and Hawkeye #1-22 and Annual #1 (October 2012 to September 2015). Read: 7/22/23 to 8/16/23. Opinion: Excellent! First Marvel material that I’ve read from this period in a very long time, so I was a bit unfamiliar with Hawkeye’s (Clint Barton’s relationships with the other Avengers (including Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Spider-Woman, who all appear here), but it didn’t take long to figure out that this was an entirely “side thing” to whatever else was coming out at the time. Barton here is a complete slacker and loser, relationships wise, here, although he fiercely protects the building he’s bought and lives in along with its fellow residents from the “Tracksuit Maffia” and their underworld bosses who desire to own the building. Meanwhile, Barton at least for a time takes fellow Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, on as a partner (although partway through the series she gets fed up with him and goes off to California on her own for awhile). This series is the basis for the 2021 “Hawkeye” Disney+ series and shares a few common scenes but the two are very different from each other as the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Clint Barton played by Jeremy Renner is a family man and no where near the loner loser figure that this version of the comics Barton is. And also because the tv version (which I also loved) is about establishing the character of Kate Bishop, while, in the comics, Bishop was introduced separately from Clint Barton prior to this material, in the first “Young Avengers” series that started in 2005 on the heels of the controversial “Avengers: Disassembled” story line. (This collection does start off with the first time the already established as “Hawkeye” Kate Bishop first meets Clint Barton (at the time going by his “Ronin” identity) in Young Avengers #6.) Again, I really liked this, especially the issues drawn by David Aja. Unfortunately, it becomes very apparent as reading this collected edition that Aja couldn’t keep up with a monthly schedule because there are numerous fill in issues by other artists, including the whole “Kate in California” side plot (which are all enjoyable but not nearly as much as the Matt Fraction and David Aja issues). I ended up giving this one four out of five stars on GoodReads. (Would have been five stars if Aja could have drawn more than half of the run, and the at times disjointed effect that had.)

Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writers: Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson. Artist: Angel Hernandez. Color art by J.D. Mettler. Reprints: Star Trek: Picard: Stargazer #1-3 (August 2022 to November 2022). Read: 08/16/23 to 08/18/23. Opinion: Okay/average. Story takes place (and came out between) seasons two and three of the Paramount+ “Star Trek: Picard” series which this is obviously a tie-in to. Story is basically supposed to be about Seven of Nine, carrying her from where we see her at the end of season two to her being back in Starfleet already at the start of season three. Here, she still has her doubts about joining Starfleet and sticks with being a Fenris Ranger despite Picard’s attempts to lead her likewise. But then a mission to check up on a planet that Picard once visited decades earlier while Captain of *his* U.S.S. Stargazer (traveling there aboard the new version we saw in season two of the show) unexpectedly brings him and Seven back together again in a life or death situation, one that Picard is at least partially responsible for due to his actions the last time he was there (and involving Romulans). I thought it was an okay enough little story but pretty forgettable in the end. I don’t know if I would have thought differently if I read it back when it first came out, in between the two tv seasons, or not. I think I still would have felt it was a mostly irrelevant “filler” story. Everything was “okay” but not exceptional, including the art by Hernandez. (I felt his depictions of Seven were very inconsistent, though.) And my main “gripe” with this series is, why did they name this story “Stargazer”? Yes, the two versions of the Starfleet ship and their crews both appear, but not nearly enough to make the story about them. Again, while a fun little side adventure for Jean-Luc Picard, this is clearly a Seven of Nine story. I ended up giving it three out of five stars on GoodReads.

Star Trek Volume 1: Godshock Hardcover (IDW, 2023). Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing. Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, Erik Tamayo. Color art Lee Loughridge. Reprints: “Star Trek #400” (“A Perfect System” story, September 2022) and Star Trek #1-6 (October 2022 to April 2023). Read: 08/19/23 to 08/21/23. Opinion: Very good. This is the start of a new ongoing “Star Trek” series featuring a combination of characters from several separate series: Captain Benjamin Sisko from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, Data and Doctor Beverly Crusher from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, and Tom Parris from “Star Trek: Voyager” (plus, at least for awhile, Worf, from “TNG” and “DS9”). Oh, yeah, and a certain chief engineer with a Scottish accent. Plus a couple (younger) new characters. The time frame is, I believe, 2378. Soon after the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager made it safely back to Earth in the same year, and three years after the events of the TNG film, Star Trek: Insurrection and the end of the “Deep Space Nine” series. Something very powerful is killing the known “god like” beings of the galaxy. (The teaser short story from the “Star Trek #400” special issue shows this happen to Gary Mitchell, James Kirk’s friend from the original series second pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.) The Prophets return Benjamin Sisko to his corporeal form to stop this. He goes to Captain Picard for a ship and Picard sets him up with a brand new experimental ship, the U.S.S. Theseus. He insists that Sisko take Data on as his first officer on this mission (and Dr. Crusher eagerly volunteers to go along too as Sisko’s return is a medical mystery). The others I mentioned are already part of this new crew or join up along the way. I really liked this. It’s very “comic booky” in all the right ways: the whole “crossover” element of blending characters from the separate series, and the universe threatening circumstances and powers that are much larger than life. The art (a tag team of alternating artists to keep the book on its original monthly schedule) is very appropriate for the type of story being told here. (My one real gripe is that the artist who draws the issue where Worf comes aboard apparently either cannot draw a Klingon that looks anything even remotely resembling Michael Dorn, or perhaps didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be him. I swear, when we see him I immediately thought Sisko was meeting an entirety different Klingon character and was somewhat shocked when Sisko called him Ambassador Worf. The artists in the following issues do manage to draw him better though.) These first six issues (plus the teaser) did exactly what it should do, which is make me look forward to the next collected edition later on this year. (Worf goes on his own part way through the story, by the way, leading into a second series titled “Star Trek: Defiant”, which has its own “all star” blending of characters: Worf, Spock, Lore, and Ro Laren. That will also be getting its first collected edition soon, as well.) I gave Godshock four out of five stars on GoodReads.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Trade Paperback (IDW, 2023). Writer: Ryan North. Artist: Chris Fenoglio (including the colors, I’m assuming, as no separate color artist credited). Reprints: Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-3 (September 2022 to November 2022). Read: 08/21/23 to 08/30/23. Opinion: Very good. If you like the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks” Paramount+ series then I think you will like this comic book mini-series. (Although I saw one reviewer on GoodReads give it only two stars because he doesn’t like “holodeck stories”. Oh, well.) The ensigns accidentally create a sentient version of Dracula (that looks exactly like Boimler), similarly to what happened with Moriarty on “The Next Generation” (and, this being “Lower Decks”, they make numerous references to that earlier episode). While this is going on, the captain, chief of security, and doctor all embark on a second contact mission that ends them up, at first, about to be burned at stakes for being “witches”. Then, they are put on trial for (accidentally) violating that planet’s leading government’s own version of the Prime Directive (for their accidental encounter with the planet’s other, primitive, culture). They face execution for it, and a fleet of warships will destroy the Cerritos (if they can’t get out of it). Lots of fun Star Trek in jokes (just like on the series) and the artist does a very good job of making this appear visually like just another episode of the animated series. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads. I would like to see IDW do more “Lower Decks” comics.

— David Young

 

[I am not Herbert]

I don't see the value of such a thing. The people who made the show didn't settle for those limitations because they wanted to, but because they had no choice and had to dial down their ambitions.

But I do see the value in such a thing. And that was my (rather modest) point-- that not every reader necessarily shares your perspective that the point of TOS lit is (or should be) to exceed the practical limitations of the show.

As for what were the ambitions of the individuals who made the show, this is irrelevant to me. I am a fan of the show that was actually made. How Bob Justman would have tricked out the salt monster had he had his druthers in 1966 has about as much impact on my enjoyment of TOS as Roddenberry's desire to have Troi have three breasts (or however that story goes) has on my appreciation of TNG.

And yes, it is of course entirely possible for a star trek novel to have both unfilmable-in-1966 'spectacle' and storytelling/character development/exploration of interesting themes. But I have found that too often the emphasis seems to be on the former as opposed to the latter, and after the initial frisson of imagining the crew in a submarine, or on an ice cliff or falling through a crevasse in the earth or whatever I begin to wonder why I'm reading this thing that bears so little resemblance to the show on which it is ostensibly based.

But perhaps that is just because I have been reading the books in roughly chrono order. Maybe I should jump ahead a bit and see what kind of balance you've struck in yours. How's that for a compromise solution