Which Trek novel would make the best film and why ?
- Thread starter craig keith
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. Destiny would need, at the very least, a mini-series to do it justice. It's so epic, that anything less would be uncivilized.
The Kelvin is all the evidence you need that the timeline they went back to was an alternate one. Design is far too advanced, uniforms look more like a post-TNG design than pre-TOS, stardate isn't even close, the list goes on.
My personal favorite is that the timeline Nero went back to is one where Archer failed to resolve the Temporal Cold War and things continued to deviate from what we saw in the first three seasons of Enterprise. The only unanswered question being whether Nero did, in fact, come from the Prime timeline (and Spock, for that matter), or if the whole thing started and ended in that alternate timeline and the Prime Star Trek timeline was never touched upon.
I'm working up a fanfic along these lines....
I disagree with u partly beacuse the ship actually looked like the logical step between the nx program and the constitution class and didnt look all that advanced ( although beautiful nonetheless ) and the bridge didnt realli look all that advanced ... the only thing is the uniforms looked very different ..... i quite liked them actualllli
anywaz were straying off topic here now .... Destiny as a 10 part band of brothers style mini series seems to be going down well ... any more ideas 
I think someone needs to put together a Vanguard proposal. NBC should be getting pretty desperate for programming in about a week or so for something to stick in that 10pm slot. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they uncanceled "Heroes" shortly after the Olympics wrap up.
I am thinking of a process of elimination here.
First, I don't believe Titan would work. The actors we know from TNG and VOY are all physically much older than the characters in the novel. For instance, while I may find the image of Riker on the floating island entertaining to my imagination, it would be totally unfair to expect Frakes to attempt it. Secondly, it is politically incorrect in its objectification of women. Even a redblooded American male such as myself is repelled at times by the blatant titillation of fanboy wet dreams.
To aid my point, here is a current image of Jonathan Frakes, who is one of my favorite Trek people!
http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/l/satrtrek%202%20140807/startrek_30_wenn5001731.jpg
It would be necessary to have constant special effects similar to the velociraptors of Jurassic Park.
Second, I have to eliminate Voyager relaunch for the same reason, or even the DS9 relaunch. Only 5 years have passed in the Star Trek universe since the end of Voyager, while 10 years have elapsed in real time. Plus, you won't win over any fans with a dead Admiral Janeway, unless she shows up with Suzy Q to assure them that she exists in some better life.
Third, the current TNG material is filled with problems. Again the urge to find the next Trek babe has turned more than half the crew into hotties. While this may appeal to young male fans, the allure of Trek on TV is the thoughtful nature of the stories. Do you really believe anyone would accept a smart-ass ensign who can't keep her clothes on as a Vulcan, or half-Vulcan/"Chinese". It's a mixed cliche. Trek exagerates ethnicity, and it has aliens that exagerate human personality traits. Since the term Chinese actually refers to about 1/4th of the humans currently on planet earth, and their economic power is on the rise, in 300 years it could well refer to the majority of human beings, and therefore mean nothing anymore. And nobody would believe that Picard would sort-of adopt this loose cannon, who obviously needs counseling, not an assignment as a bridge officer. Then there's the Hindu babe. Suffice it to say, if the people of India today get bent out of shape by Jethro Tull standing on one leg while playing a flute, image how upset they will be to see their rich religious traditions bandied about like hippy double-talk. And Beverly has to have a baby. The actress might be able to pull it off, but is this what Trek on TV is about? Soap operas? Do we really want Picard to come to grips with his personal life and ideas of fatherhood, or isn't that more of a theme for a novel than a TV show.
Fourth, Aventine, could actually work. Here we have a crew that can mostly be played by new people, and Nicole DeBoer has matured beautifully. I haven't seen her act recently, but I think, as long as the director doesn't let her do the cute little nose wrinkle giggle, she would be able to project the necessary authority. And Bowers... have you ever noticed that nobody ever mentions his skin color? I think he would be a great character if played by an African-American.
But the series that I believe would actually make the best transition to television is COE. For one, the stories are novellas, a bit shorter, which means there is less to leave out. And the other big reason for me is that this is a Trek kind of thing. They solve problems and fix things and travel around on a smaller ship. I would really like to see it.
Don't get me wrong, I like hot babes and cultural cliches, but it will not fly as television in today's developing pancultural society.
First, I don't believe Titan would work. The actors we know from TNG and VOY are all physically much older than the characters in the novel. For instance, while I may find the image of Riker on the floating island entertaining to my imagination, it would be totally unfair to expect Frakes to attempt it. Secondly, it is politically incorrect in its objectification of women. Even a redblooded American male such as myself is repelled at times by the blatant titillation of fanboy wet dreams.
To aid my point, here is a current image of Jonathan Frakes, who is one of my favorite Trek people!
http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/l/satrtrek%202%20140807/startrek_30_wenn5001731.jpg
It would be necessary to have constant special effects similar to the velociraptors of Jurassic Park.
Second, I have to eliminate Voyager relaunch for the same reason, or even the DS9 relaunch. Only 5 years have passed in the Star Trek universe since the end of Voyager, while 10 years have elapsed in real time. Plus, you won't win over any fans with a dead Admiral Janeway, unless she shows up with Suzy Q to assure them that she exists in some better life.
Third, the current TNG material is filled with problems. Again the urge to find the next Trek babe has turned more than half the crew into hotties. While this may appeal to young male fans, the allure of Trek on TV is the thoughtful nature of the stories. Do you really believe anyone would accept a smart-ass ensign who can't keep her clothes on as a Vulcan, or half-Vulcan/"Chinese". It's a mixed cliche. Trek exagerates ethnicity, and it has aliens that exagerate human personality traits. Since the term Chinese actually refers to about 1/4th of the humans currently on planet earth, and their economic power is on the rise, in 300 years it could well refer to the majority of human beings, and therefore mean nothing anymore. And nobody would believe that Picard would sort-of adopt this loose cannon, who obviously needs counseling, not an assignment as a bridge officer. Then there's the Hindu babe. Suffice it to say, if the people of India today get bent out of shape by Jethro Tull standing on one leg while playing a flute, image how upset they will be to see their rich religious traditions bandied about like hippy double-talk. And Beverly has to have a baby. The actress might be able to pull it off, but is this what Trek on TV is about? Soap operas? Do we really want Picard to come to grips with his personal life and ideas of fatherhood, or isn't that more of a theme for a novel than a TV show.
Fourth, Aventine, could actually work. Here we have a crew that can mostly be played by new people, and Nicole DeBoer has matured beautifully. I haven't seen her act recently, but I think, as long as the director doesn't let her do the cute little nose wrinkle giggle, she would be able to project the necessary authority. And Bowers... have you ever noticed that nobody ever mentions his skin color? I think he would be a great character if played by an African-American.
But the series that I believe would actually make the best transition to television is COE. For one, the stories are novellas, a bit shorter, which means there is less to leave out. And the other big reason for me is that this is a Trek kind of thing. They solve problems and fix things and travel around on a smaller ship. I would really like to see it.
Don't get me wrong, I like hot babes and cultural cliches, but it will not fly as television in today's developing pancultural society.
Sure, but I was going for something I think could fit specifically into the movie format.
And Sci (quoted below), pretty much summed up why I think that specific duology would fit said format.
I think it all comes back to the same thing, Star Trek is a television format, and doesn't work all that well in movie form. It's only natural that the tendency is to try and translate it back into its natural form.
Where does this come from? I haven't noticed anything that horrible in the books. Sure they do have more sex in them than the TV shows did, but I haven't seen where any of it is that objectionable.
Maybe I'm a complete moron, but I actually like Tyrss and Choudhury. As for your objections to Tryss, that really kind of the point of the character, and IMO what makes her fun. She's not supposed to come across as your usual spit and polish Starfleet officer, and she's not supposed to act like a Vulcan. So you objection about her being Vulcan is pretty much the same as somebody complaining because Spock doesn't work as a human character. As for your whole Chinese thing, all I can say to that is... who care. As we've seen for the past 40 years of Trek pretty much all of the modern nationalities and races are still around, so I really don't understand you're problem.
Actually Bowers has been described in the books as being dark skinned many times.
Now here I actually do agree that SCE/COE would be a great TV series.
Barrett & de Lancie perform well together on the Simon & Schuster Audioworks production!
No idea what you're talking about here. There's no such urge. If anything, the various TNG authors independently decided to add new female characters in order to compensate for the male dominance of the original crew. I don't know where you're getting "babe" and "hottie" from; as far as I know, only Dina Elfiki, a minor character, has been specifically described as beautiful. T'Ryssa is described as "tomboyish" and "cute," and Jasminder Choudhury is an elegant, fortyish woman. As for thoughtfulness, Jasminder is a highly contemplative and philosophical character, and T'Ryssa is a genius when she focuses herself.
You could just as easily ask "Do you really believe anyone would accept a coldly logical science officer as a human?" Spock is a human-Vulcan hybrid who embraces the behavior of a Vulcan. It stands to reason that there could be a human-Vulcan hybrid who embraces the other half of her heritage.
The fact that the majority of humans are Asian is exactly why it makes sense to include more characters of Asian ethnicities in Star Trek, rather than just the rare token Asians we get canonically. It makes no sense to call something a cliche when it's so heavily underused.
And when has T'Ryssa demonstrated any "ethnic" personality traits? The only references to her ethnicity have been her surname and a brief description of her facial features. True, in Greater Than the Sum she demonstrates familiarity with Chinese astronomy, but that's an important part of history so any well-educated character could have such familiarity. If anything, Trys's personality is far more "Western" than Chinese. So you're making a much bigger deal out of her ethnicity than the books ever have.
He adopted a 15-year-old boy as a bridge officer. He assigned bridge officer posts to an android and a Klingon. Picard has a history of giving opportunities to unexpected people.
So you seem to be saying, first, that in order to avoid sexism, Star Trek should not add female characters to the cast, and second, that in order to avoid racial intolerance, Star Trek should not add nonwhite characters to the cast.
Maybe I'm not hip to the new way of thinking, as the Abramsverse seems utterly exploitive of women, too. So maybe the fanboy wet dreams that permeate some of these Trek books are better raw material, not worse, and a guy like me is just meant for a more politically correct era. *shrug* I doubt any of it could withstand a feminist critique.
p.s. I am not offend by this, your THIRD ATTEMPT to call me a racist. I know myself. I am proud of my work. And I don't care about the judgement of sexist people like you!
p.s. I am not offend by this, your THIRD ATTEMPT to call me a racist. I know myself. I am proud of my work. And I don't care about the judgement of sexist people like you!
Years ago, when they were both at Starfest Denver, they did a section of it live. Great stuff.
I guess you never saw any episodes with Ro Laren.
^Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Ro. She's a good analogy for T'Ryssa. My intent was for T'Ryssa to be a similar type of character to Ro, someone who comes into the orderly TNG crew and doesn't play by the same rules and shakes things up.
Actually I like T'Ryssa, I am just talking about a pattern I see. In TOS, people could barely touch each other. Now it seems we have to keep making girlfriends for Worf. There are a lot of soap operas on TV. Trek should be intelligent.
And you know, I am not kidding when I say that Hindu people do not hold hands in public. You can get away with that tucked into some short-run tie-in novel, but if you did this on TV, there would be a backlash. I'm am not calling Leisner insensitive. What I am saying is, these are not for TV. Especially Christopher's frequent naked people. Sure it's in a tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip Jose Farmer, and other awesome writers, but it's not for TV.
craig keith said:
Well, it's not as though the notion of adapting a novel for the screen is new or anything
That said, the chances of anyone actually adapting a Trek novel for the screen are about as good as Diane Lane calling me up for a date. But, there's no harm in dreaming
Dude, she did call. I was supposed to give you the message. Sorry.
I tend to agree that Star Trek works best in a TV format. Movies are a very different animal and not everything that is "Star Trek" translates well to two hour action adventure format. So when adapting the concept to Film something has to give. (For better or worse). I think the same can be said when adapting a novel to film or a TV show to a novel. A lot of Trek novels would lose too much when making the leap to the large or small screen
That said Vanguard has many qualities current TV shows share. A "mystery", a large cast and various subarcs that can play along side the main one.
That said Vanguard has many qualities current TV shows share. A "mystery", a large cast and various subarcs that can play along side the main one.
If "intelligent" means "ewww, kissing is gross, and naked people are disgusting," I'd rather be a blithering fucktard. Fortunately, in the real world, intelligent people have relationships and intelligent people write intelligently about them, sometimes even on soap operas.
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