Good Behind the Scenes Books

[Steve Roby]

I've read Gerrold's script, though I don't know if he's still selling copies through his website. It was definitely not anywhere near as bad as "Code of Honor," though I don't remember it being a lost masterpiece. I haven't seen the adaptation one of the fan productions did of it, but considering how many years later that happened, it was probably rewritten. Again.

 

[David cgc]

Marc Cushman is not my idea of a bright guy. When the following appeared in the first edition of the first book, people pointed out that this was a not a real book cover but a fan creation. He refused to believe that and asked how anyone could prove it wasn't real. I posted in the discussion that not only have I been collecting Star Trek books since the early 1970s, not only did I have the first exhaustive Star Trek books website, I am also a professional librarian who's familiar with resources like Bowker's Books in Print. If Bantam had published this book, it would be in BiP, it would be in OCLC WorldCat, it would almost certainly be in ABEbooks, etc. His response was basically, well, that's just your opinion, I think it's real. It was still in the Expanded and Revised Edition.

View attachment 51816

I wonder how he could’ve found it outside the context of it being fan art imagining Star Trek as a book rather than TV series, as when it was originally posted on this very board.

The U.E.S.P.A. Series of books...

This is a project that celebrates it's tenth anniversary this year. It started as an entry into a 2004 TrekBBS Art Challenge, which was to create a book cover based on a Star Trek episode. My entry was done in the style (or as close as I could manage it at the time) of the old Bantam editions...

www.trekbbs.com

 

[Maurice]

We know it's fan art because @The Lensman on this very board said he made it back in 2004, as mentioned at the top of this 2014 thread in which he posts a lot of faux novel covers.

This is the original cover that started it all from 2004:

And then he revised it.

Here's the "remastered" cover for "Arena", despite the fact that the original has been nagging at me for so long, I finally got around to doing it.

"As I said," Cashy Cashy is a crap historian.

 

[Firebird]

I've read Gerrold's script, though I don't know if he's still selling copies through his website. It was definitely not anywhere near as bad as "Code of Honor," though I don't remember it being a lost masterpiece. I haven't seen the adaptation one of the fan productions did of it, but considering how many years later that happened, it was probably rewritten. Again.

I’ve got the first and second drafts of the script, plus the horrid rewrite Herb Wright did where he made it a zombie story instead.

Gerrold’s drafts are okay, but the characterizations are very wide afield of the TNG cast as we know them. It’s a good enough story, and the gay element really wasn’t that significant. Literally just a line or two of dialogue, and that’s it. Probably would’ve been a decent enough episode, but not too memorable.

 

[Maurice]

Do those Gerrold scripts have dates? I never saw the Wright version.

 

[The Lensman]

I wonder how he could’ve found it outside the context of it being fan art imagining Star Trek as a book rather than TV series, as when it was originally posted on this very board.

The U.E.S.P.A. Series of books...

This is a project that celebrates it's tenth anniversary this year. It started as an entry into a 2004 TrekBBS Art Challenge, which was to create a book cover based on a Star Trek episode. My entry was done in the style (or as close as I could manage it at the time) of the old Bantam editions...

www.trekbbs.com

I remember someone suggesting that it was sent to him as a prank and never told him the truth.

We know it's fan art because @The Lensman on this very board said he made it back in 2004, as mentioned at the top of this 2014 thread in which he posts a lot of faux novel covers.



And then he revised it.



"As I said," Cashy Cashy is a crap historian.

It was mildly amusing when it was published the first time. But to publish it again without crediting me (after he'd been confronted by IndySolo and others about it) with a "well, we'll never know...it's a mystery!" or something like that was just

Especially annoying for me was that IndySolo (iirc) engaged Cashman on Facebook over it, with screencaps of me saying that the cover was created for a TrekBBS art contest and instead of just saying "oh, I goofed". He blathered on more about a "lost book" then after IndySolo kept at it, Cashman essentially said that I had manufactured "a hoax".

A hoax.

Despite IndySolo providing him with my own words saying it was for a bloody art contest!

Dude just couldn't say "hey, I made a goof with this "book", it's not real, but shout out to the artist aka The Lensman over at TrekBBS, no harm intended" or some variation thereof. I'm a pretty forgiving guy and wouldn't have thought much beyond it. But...yeah.

I appreciated all the heads up from the peeps here who alerted me to it back then. Ya'll don't miss anything!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I've read Gerrold's script, though I don't know if he's still selling copies through his website. It was definitely not anywhere near as bad as "Code of Honor," though I don't remember it being a lost masterpiece. I haven't seen the adaptation one of the fan productions did of it, but considering how many years later that happened, it was probably rewritten. Again.

Well, since it was revised to take place in the TOS era instead of during the 1st season of TNG (complete with Kirk's nephew Peter being half of the gay couple)... Yes.

 

[Maurice]

Well, since it was revised to take place in the TOS era instead of during the 1st season of TNG (complete with Kirk's nephew Peter being half of the gay couple)... Yes.

And it sucked bloodworms. So bad.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

And it sucked bloodworms. So bad.

Having attended Part One's world premiere in Cockeysville, I disagree most vigorously.

 

[Maurice]

Having attended Part One's world premiere in Cockeysville, I disagree most vigorously.

Klingons watch TV for half the show. One guy keeps screaming after his lungs are gone. The pace is awful. YMMV

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Klingons watch TV for half the show. One guy keeps screaming after his lungs are gone. The pace is awful. YMMV

I concede Point Three. Peter's lover's death was quite protracted...so much so, the music was extra-repetitive. As for Point One, perhaps it was an accidental homage to THE MENAGERIE.

 

[Firebird]

Do those Gerrold scripts have dates? I never saw the Wright version.

Story: January 1, 1987
1st Draft: May 13, 1987
2nd Draft: June 2, 1987
"Much Rev. 2nd Draft": June 22, 1987 - this is the "Blood and Ice" rewrite. The title page still has Gerrold's credit on it, but the work was done by Wright. I think DG was already gone from the TNG writers' room by then.

 

[Ssosmcin]

He absolutely trashed Lost in Space. I'm mean, like this was a moral conflict and he was fighting evil. It was a bit much.

"When I think of how many people that series touched" was a little over the top. And he said it ran five years rather than three. As a kid, I was excited to read that and looked forward to the reruns of the fourth and fifth seasons. Thanks for nothing, David

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Coming this September:

Exclusive: Titan Releasing Book On The Making Of ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’

John and Maria Jose Tenuto return for another Star Trek book, finishing out the "Genesis trilogy."

trekmovie.com

 

[Maurice]

Coming this September:

Exclusive: Titan Releasing Book On The Making Of ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’

John and Maria Jose Tenuto return for another Star Trek book, finishing out the "Genesis trilogy."

trekmovie.com

The Tenutos are good people. They're a little hamstrung in the reporting history department because those coffee table books are all about the pictures and less about the text, so they can't always get the full story in there. Good books, though.

 

[Ceridwen]

Ok, I've been digging through my books and ordering some new ones and here's what I have by way of Star Trek non-fiction now:

The Fifty Year Mission (The First 25 Years and The Next 25 Years) by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
The Longest Trek by Grace Lee Whitney
The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman
Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble
Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology by Stan and Fred Goldstein
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Inside the Art and Visual Effects by Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki
The View from the Bridge by Nicholas Meyer

And my housemate let me borrow two DeForest Kelley biographies he has: From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux and A Harvest of Memories by Kristine M. Smith.

Not that all of these will be of use for the project, some of them are just fun to have like the old Concordance. And thanks to this thread I have a bunch more to look for. Today I found a used copy of Inside Star Trek on Thriftbooks that I ordered. I hope it's in good shape; new copies were out of my budget right now.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

The Fifty Year Mission (The First 25 Years and The Next 25 Years) by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross

One of those books has a cameo quote or two by one of our Muddiest posters.

 

[Maurice]

One of those books has a cameo quote or two by one of our Muddiest posters.

Who doesn't it quote?

 

[Firebird]

The Tenutos are good people. They're a little hamstrung in the reporting history department because those coffee table books are all about the pictures and less about the text, so they can't always get the full story in there. Good books, though.

Indeed. I was glad to have helped them out on the research for their TWOK book. Still tickles me that I've got a shout-out in an official Star Trek publication.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Who doesn't it quote?

Yourself, myself, Cool Eddie, hundreds of others....