Your Favorite TOS Movie Era reads?

[TheAlmanac]

A number of her novel characters (such as Naraht, Harb Tanzer, Kerasus, and Burke) also appear in her stories for DC's TOS comic, "Double Blind" and "The Last Word," though it's hard to tell whether those are really consistent with the Duane novels since they're set in the post-ST III era, and one would've expected those characters to advance more in rank in that time.

IIRC, the art showed all of those characters with Commander rank pins (and Naraht was in charge of the bridge on the night shift), so I think we were supposed to swallow the notion that these characters had stayed on the same ship through their rank advancement. (This is slightly more plausible since they were all on the Excelsior, where Scotty was already canonically supposed to be Captain of Engineering.)

In the Duaneverse, it always seemed like her characters were supposed to be an extension of the Big Seven, sticking together with that group from mission to mission and ship to ship (always just offscreen in the filmed material, I guess). If Duane had ever written a story set aboard the 1701-A, I'd expect those characters to be there, too.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I always thought Yesterday's Son was set towards the end of the original 5YM. No?

That's correct. It's said to be two years after "All Our Yesterdays," which would be the last year of the 5YM if it's assumed to have begun with the first season. (Although that's a bit iffy these days, since VGR: "Q2" put the end of the 5YM in 2270 and "All Our Yesterdays" is generally assumed to be in 2269.)

The sequel, Time for Yesterday, is very much in the movie era, taking place shortly before TWOK.

To be fair, though, they really threw people off back then with those covers featuring the movie uniforms, when the story was supposed to be taking place during the 5 year mission, or vice-versa. I bet that frustrated the authors to no end.

 

[Christopher]

To be fair, though, they really threw people off back then with those covers featuring the movie uniforms, when the story was supposed to be taking place during the 5 year mission, or vice-versa. I bet that frustrated the authors to no end.

I doubt they cared that much. It's all Star Trek, and the stories and characters matter more than what uniforms people are wearing. And the reason for the movie uniforms on the covers was because the movies were coming out at the time and the movie uniforms and ship had a higher profile, making them more likely to grab the attention of buyers in the bookstore. And if it got more copies sold, I don't think the authors would've felt frustrated by that.

 

[TheAlmanac]

To be fair, though, they really threw people off back then with those covers featuring the movie uniforms, when the story was supposed to be taking place during the 5 year mission, or vice-versa. I bet that frustrated the authors to no end.

I doubt they cared that much. It's all Star Trek, and the stories and characters matter more than what uniforms people are wearing. And the reason for the movie uniforms on the covers was because the movies were coming out at the time and the movie uniforms and ship had a higher profile, making them more likely to grab the attention of buyers in the bookstore.

I'd be more willing to buy that argument if the "vice-versa" mentioned above wasn't also the case. The novel covers of that era bounced back and forth between TOS, TMP, and TWOK depictions of the main cast, regardless of the period(s) in which the actual novels were set.

And if it got more copies sold, I don't think the authors would've felt frustrated by that.

So, you wouldn't have cared if the cover of Ex Machina had shown the "wrong" images of the TOS/TMP cast?

 

[Therin of Andor]

The novel covers of that era bounced back and forth between TOS, TMP, and TWOK depictions of the main cast, regardless of the period(s) in which the actual novels were set.

The "wrong uniform" artwork almost always tried to cash in on the release of the next/recent movie. "Yesterday's Son" was quite hilarious. Spock is in a blue uniform because it's a 5YM story, but the style is of the ST II wine-red jackets, the then-current movie release.

BTW, do you realise that the original cover of "Perry's Planet", a TOS novel from Bantam, but published after TMP's release, actually features Kirk in his TMP white T-shirt (with Perscan device)?

you wouldn't have cared if the cover of Ex Machina had shown the "wrong" images of the TOS/TMP cast?

That's a bit different, because that novel was specifically promoted as a TMP sequel, although the cover is inspired by the early painted publicity poster for TOS that was used on the cover of the first Bantam episode adaptions volume.

 

[USS Intrepid]

I like Peter Morwood's Rules on Engagement a lot. It seems to be a somehat over-looked and under-rated book, but I like the sort of Tom Clancy-ish feel to the story. It's almost a Star Trek version of The Hunt for Red October in a way, IMO.

I remember it well. That was by far one of my favourite movie era novels.

 

[Therin of Andor]

"In the Name of Honor" is a great post-ST V novel, with Klingons, the return of Garrovick and a cool new Efrosian character.

 

[Christopher]

I'd be more willing to buy that argument if the "vice-versa" mentioned above wasn't also the case. The novel covers of that era bounced back and forth between TOS, TMP, and TWOK depictions of the main cast, regardless of the period(s) in which the actual novels were set.

Actually we didn't see TOS uniforms on a cover until The Wounded Sky (#13), although Triangle (#9) featured the TOS Enterprise over TMP-era images of Kirk and Spock. After that, the next TMP-uniform cover is Corona (#15), and from then on it's TOS uniforms clear through Demons (#30), which features TWOK uniforms despite a TOS setting. After that, the covers accurately reflect the era, with the exceptions of Ice Trap (#60) and The Better Man (#72), which use TOS uniforms despite post-TMP settings.

So it wasn't really "bouncing back and forth." It was consistently movie-era uniforms for the first 10 original novels (though only 3 were actually post-TMP), then was consistently TOS uniforms for 14 of the next 16 original books (with the movie-era uniforms in Corona and Demons being erroneous), and from then on was mostly period-accurate uniforms with rare exceptions. (I don't count the TOS uniforms in the Rihannsu books and Pawns and Symbols as erroneous, because those books all implied a TOS setting despite being well into what we now know as the movie era; the chronology was less well-defined then.)

So, you wouldn't have cared if the cover of Ex Machina had shown the "wrong" images of the TOS/TMP cast?

Therin answered that as well as I could. And it's a poor analogy, because there wouldn't have been a marketing advantage to using the wrong uniforms.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I must admit though, when I'm reading a Trek novel, I like to 'see' it in my head. And when I'm not sure how it's supposed to look - because of, for example, the uniforms - I do find it somewhat frustrating.

 

[seigezunt]

I must admit though, when I'm reading a Trek novel, I like to 'see' it in my head. And when I'm not sure how it's supposed to look - because of, for example, the uniforms - I do find it somewhat frustrating.

Bingo! That is my only problem with the Duane novels, which are otherwise excellent.

 

[Paris]

My favorite TOS-movie era books are:

1) Ex Machina
2) The Captain's Daughter
3) Forged in Fire
4) Time for Yesterday.

More books in between the various movies would be most appreciated. One can hope...

 

[mbruno]

I'm surprised no one has mention the one by Denny Martin Flynn that was written as a sequel to The Undiscovered Country(unfortunately, the title escapes me at the moment).

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm surprised no one has mention the one by Denny Martin Flynn that was written as a sequel to The Undiscovered Country(unfortunately, the title escapes me at the moment).

"The Fearful Summons" doesn't have many fans.

 

[Paris]

I haven't read "The Fearful Summons", but i've heard that it was a major disappointment (the main reason why I haven't read it). Too bad, considering that I really enjoyed TUC ...

 

[seigezunt]

I haven't read "The Fearful Summons", but i've heard that it was a major disappointment (the main reason why I haven't read it). Too bad, considering that I really enjoyed TUC ...

Something about it being way too Kirk-centric, as I recall. Still haven;t read it.

 

[Paris]

^I'm a Kirk kind of guy. I can't be worse than the Shatnerverse books, can it? This is the book that has Kirk in a sweater on the cover with Sulu in uniform and the Excelsior there as well, right?

 

[JoeP]

^ Yep, that's the one. I remember picking it up a LONG time ago but not actually getting to it. But from what I've read of it, it sounds like I wasn't missing much.

 

[ClayinCA]

It's one of the worst Star Trek books--no, actually, one of the worst books I've ever read, full stop. The plot's a mess, characterization is all over the place (Spock, in particular, is egregiously out-of-character), and appears to have been neither proofread nor copy-edited, as there are not only grammatical and spelling mistakes throughout, but also instances of characters changing rank from one page to another and back again.

It's truly, truly terrible. Don't waste your time.

 

[Paris]

2 truly's!! Well forget it. Consider my time not wasted. I'll erase the book from my "want" list

 

[Therin of Andor]

I haven't read "The Fearful Summons", but i've heard that it was a major disappointment (the main reason why I haven't read it). Too bad, considering that I really enjoyed TUC ...

Some hilarious Amazon reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Den...ts=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending