Best of the Bantams?

[F. King Daniel]

I forgot World Without End. It's interesting because it gives us some Uhura backstory, and we get to meet (what's left of) her father.

Other than another novel that tells us she was in a fire when she was young (Faces of Fire?) I don't think any other novel (was allowed?) to tell us anything about her.

Not a masterpiece, but interesting.

 

[Christopher]

I forgot World Without End. It's interesting because it gives us some Uhura backstory, and we get to meet (what's left of) her father.

You're mixing up the two books with "World" in the title and artificial megastructures in the story. Uhura's father and backstory are from The Starless World by Gordon Eklund, the one about a Dyson sphere at the center of the galaxy.

Other than another novel that tells us she was in a fire when she was young (Faces of Fire?) I don't think any other novel (was allowed?) to tell us anything about her.

Alan Dean Foster gave her some backstory in the last couple of Star Trek Logs. And there was a story in William Rotsler's YA anthology Star Trek III Short Stories, I believe, that involved Uhura going back home. Bits and pieces were revealed in various other novels:

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Nyota_Uhura

 

[David A. Sobral]

The Galactic Whirlpool is top of the heap, and Planet of Judgment is second-best. Nothing else from Bantam is really on the same level. Spock Must Die! is imaginative but weird; as the first ever (non-YA) Trek novel, it's pretty far off in some respects. Trek to Madworld is an entertaining comedy. World Without End and The Starless World are decent, if mediocre. The two New Voyages anthologies are a mixed bag, like most anthologies, but they have some interesting stories, notably "Mind-sifter" in the first.

And, really, of all the screwy things about Spock: Messiah!, it was Scotty's hair color that got to you?

My favorite was "Planet Of Judgement" w/"Galactic Whirlpool" 2nd so, we're on the same page there. I ALSO liked "Vulcan" with that beautiful cover by Boris Vallejo. I remember being in love with the girl on the cover next to Spock (forgot her name) as well as the girl on the cover of "Battlestations" & "Dreadnought". Boris had the BEST "Star Trek" book covers! It'd be nice if they were available commercially. As far as the "New Voyages" collections, I liked them both but, the story that stood out was the one that had the actors trade places with their "real-life" counterparts...possibly an inspiration for the Tim Allen flick "Galaxy Quest"? Lots of similarities between those two stories. If you haven't seen GQ, go out & rent it! It's practically a "Star (Galaxy) Trek (Quest)" movie in its' own right!

 

[Christopher]

^That story, "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited," was meant to tell the "other side" of a famous fanfic story called "Visit to a Weird Planet," in which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beamed down and found themselves on the set of Star Trek in the 1960s. You can find that story online with a bit of searching.

As for Galaxy Quest, I think it's a mistake to call it merely a Trek parody. Trek is merely one of the SF shows it parodies/homages. It's also referencing Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and the like. After all, ST never had a preadolescent boy in the crew, for one thing. And Dr. Lazarus always reminded me of Hawk from Buck Rogers's second season, both in his look and his warrior ways.

 

[Mysterion]

After all, ST never had a preadolescent boy in the crew, for one thing.

But TNG had Wesley, and I think you could see Laredo as a Wesley parody without too big a stretch.

 

[Christopher]

No. That's missing the point. There's more to the SFTV universe than Star Trek, and plenty of it is worth mocking. Galaxy Quest is not exclusively about ST. Laredo is a riff on Will Robinson and Boxey and Gary Coleman in that Buck Rogers episode and other such characters. Wesley was a latecomer to the game, and far from the most extreme example.

 

[Therin of Andor]

as well as the girl on the cover of "Battlestations" & "Dreadnought".

Piper was based on photos of the author herself, Diane Carey. Her Vulcan companion was based on Carey's husband, Greg Brodeur. They also appear in cameo in the background of one of the covers of "The Captain's Table" series.

Boris had the BEST "Star Trek" book covers! It'd be nice if they were available commercially.

I seem to recall that several Boris ST cover originals once being available for purchase from a website. I think he and his ex-wife (Julie?) quibbled over ownership of many Boris covers during their divorce settlement.

 

[Scout101]

Other than another novel that tells us she was in a fire when she was young (Faces of Fire?) I don't think any other novel (was allowed?) to tell us anything about her.

Not a masterpiece, but interesting.

That one was "3-minute Universe".

As for Bantam books, screw it, I liked the Phoenix books

 

[Daddy Todd]

I ALSO liked "Vulcan" with that beautiful cover by Boris Vallejo.

The first edition of Vulcan! had a cover by the great Bob Larkin, not Boris Vallejo. And it is indeed a beautiful piece of Trek art, giant ants notwithstanding.

When the Bantam novels were reprinted in the '80's, they were all given new cover art EXCEPT this one. It wasn't until the '90's reissues that Vulcan! got new cover art by Kazuhiko Sano. Vallejo never did any illustrations for Bantam's Star Trek titles.

 

[ClayinCA]

Ah, Bob Larkin...I used to LOVE his covers (as I've said, especially Vulcan!)...he even did the cover for the second Superman/Spider-Man team-up. Whatever happened to him?

 

[Daddy Todd]

Ah, Bob Larkin...I used to LOVE his covers (as I've said, especially Vulcan!)...he even did the cover for the second Superman/Spider-Man team-up. Whatever happened to him?

This came out in February. Doesn't say if it has any of his Trek work.

 

[David A. Sobral]

I ALSO liked "Vulcan" with that beautiful cover by Boris Vallejo.

The first edition of Vulcan! had a cover by the great Bob Larkin, not Boris Vallejo. And it is indeed a beautiful piece of Trek art, giant ants notwithstanding.

When the Bantam novels were reprinted in the '80's, they were all given new cover art EXCEPT this one. It wasn't until the '90's reissues that Vulcan! got new cover art by Kazuhiko Sano. Vallejo never did any illustrations for Bantam's Star Trek titles.

Really? I could have SWORN it was a Boris cover. Now, I'll have to double-check the book. My copy is a Bantam First edition. Sure LOOKED like Boris' style, though!

 

[David A. Sobral]

as well as the girl on the cover of "Battlestations" & "Dreadnought".

Piper was based on photos of the author herself, Diane Carey. Her Vulcan companion was based on Carey's husband, Greg Brodeur. They also appear in cameo in the background of one of the covers of "The Captain's Table" series.

Boris had the BEST "Star Trek" book covers! It'd be nice if they were available commercially.

I seem to recall that several Boris ST cover originals once being available for purchase from a website. I think he and his ex-wife (Julie?) quibbled over ownership of many Boris covers during their divorce settlement.

Actually, his first wife's name was Doris (cute, no?) & she was the model for many of his pieces. First time I saw his work was on the cover of Future #3 (1978). She's every bit as beautiful as her paintings, too plus, she's an author of childrens' books ("The Boy Who Saved the Stars" comes to mine by both Doris & Boris). You may be thinking of Julie Bell. I don't know if they're married but, her style is VERY similar to Boris'. They've done several artbook collections.

 

[David A. Sobral]

^That story, "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited," was meant to tell the "other side" of a famous fanfic story called "Visit to a Weird Planet," in which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beamed down and found themselves on the set of Star Trek in the 1960s. You can find that story online with a bit of searching.

As for Galaxy Quest, I think it's a mistake to call it merely a Trek parody. Trek is merely one of the SF shows it parodies/homages. It's also referencing Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and the like. After all, ST never had a preadolescent boy in the crew, for one thing. And Dr. Lazarus always reminded me of Hawk from Buck Rogers's second season, both in his look and his warrior ways.

True but, it's mainly a parody of "Star Trek". The title alone is (obviously) a play on the name "Star Trek". It DID parody many other SF productions but, was mainly a "Star Trek" parody because of its' depictions of the fans & conventions. Dr. Lazarus/Mr. Spock, Weaver's character/Uhura, etc. I loved near the end when Tim Allen & Sigourney Weaver were crawling through the ships' ductwork & she says "Ducts...Why does it ALWAYS have to be ducts?" An obvious play on "Alien" & "Aliens".

 

[Christopher]

^Yes, obviously it's largely an ST parody; that doesn't need to be pointed out. I simply think that people overlook the other things it's parodying.

And the ducts thing is a play on every adventure show ever made. Film and TV heroes are always crawling through ducts.

 

[Therin of Andor]

crawling through the ships' ductwork & she says "Ducts...Why does it ALWAYS have to be ducts?" An obvious play on "Alien" & "Aliens".

"Snakes...Why does it ALWAYS have to be snakes?"

Alien?

 

[Rosalind]

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David, posting three times in a roll is considered spam on this board, in the future please use the multiquote function to reply to several post or edit button to edit in more comments.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

The best of the Bantams for me was the 2 Phoenix novels. I know I'm in the minority but I saw it as great attempts at characterization instead of slash with Kirk and Spock. It got a little too wordy with all the moralizing but it made me think. That's what i like about Trek.

Planet of Judgment had an interesting premise with some nice insights into Spock and McCoy in the flashbacks. It got a little gruesome with some of the violence but it did have an interesting sf plot.

Trek to Madworld was a nice laid back "comedy" reminiscent of Tribbles or "Piece of the Action."

I know Galactic Whirlpool is big with a lot of people and it had an interesting concept and developed the "away team" idea...but I like my TOS Trek to center around the main cast and not so much on Riley and Specks. The story tended to get sidetracked onto little "throwaway" scenes like explaining the plaque about Kirk surrendering the ship and the history of the "alien" ship that it gets bogged down for me and i have to force myself to keep reading through it without skipping pages.

 

[T'Girl]

Both of Kathleen's novels Vulcan and Death's Angel were great. The cover of Vulcan really capured Spock's eyes. I was troubled by the nazi ss charactor in Angel, does key in to some folk's posts that the federation is a socialist state.

Please do yourself a favor and skip the adaptations by James Blish, they're awful.

Some, not all, of the fanfic in New Voyages is pretty good, one called The Sleeping God is the best.

I thought Galaxy Quest was a fine parody of the show. Love the scene where Tim Allen has just beamed back to the ship and the Spock charactor says "Noticed you manage to lose your shirt again!"

 

[Christopher]

I was troubled by the nazi ss charactor in Angel, does key in to some folk's posts that the federation is a socialist state.

The Nazis weren't actually socialists. They only called themselves the National Socialist Party because nationalism and socialism were popular ideologies and they wanted to fool people into supporting them -- classic Hitlerian Big Lie propaganda. (Godwin's Law doesn't apply when you're talking about the actual Nazis, right?)

And people who think the Federation is socialist don't understand economics. Socialism is a system where the sources of wealth are state-owned and distributed according to need. What the Federation has is something totally different, a post-scarcity economy where wealth has become irrelevant. A post-scarcity economic system could not be either capitalist or socialist, since both those economic models are based on the assumption of scarcity. If resources are effortlessly attainable by everyone, if anyone can get everything they need out of a replicator, then there's no need for the state to own and distribute wealth in order to engineer economic equality.

Please do yourself a favor and skip anything by James Blish, they're awful

I can't agree there. Blish was an acclaimed science fiction author, and while his early adaptations and Spock Must Die! may have diverged heavily from Trek continuity as we understand it, they were certainly imaginative and distinctive.