Abrams Directing Star Wars

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies: Kelvin Universe' started by Kamdan, Jan 24, 2013.

  1. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It would make no sense if I said "In my opinion, people don't read as much any more". That isn't an opinion. An opinion would be if I said it was good or bad that people don't read as much any more.
     
  2. Photoman15

    Photoman15 Commodore Commodore

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    Forget that trilogy. First, JJ has NOTHING to do with the story. It is being written by someone else BASED on whatever concept/idea GL included in his sale to Disney.

    And not EVERYONE liked the trilogy.
     
  3. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, I'd say the majority of readers were satisfied by Zahn's trilogy and the fact everybody in this thread knows which books I'm talking about when this isn't even a Star Wars forum proves their popularity.
     
  4. Nagisa Furukawa

    Nagisa Furukawa Commander Red Shirt

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    I... think everyone here knows that. No one thinks Timothy Zahn was the original name for a young, coke-addled, gun smuggler before he found success in the TV series Felicity by murdering a man named JJ Abrams and taking his place. Nor does anyone think Abrams WILL adapt Zahn. Just that he'd do well to. Not that he will, not that DalekJim thinks he will. Just... that it would've been good if he did.
     
  5. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    They're popular enough that we know about them. A bunch of guys on a Star Trek message board of a little over 20,000 registered members isn't the general moviegoing public at large.

    And there are the timeline issues with the Zahn novels that I mentioned earlier.
     
  6. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    You're very lucky. I'm in the same boat but I have atrocious social skills and am therefore fair game for abuse. You have like... the best of both worlds by being autistic and being able to function socially with no problems at all.
     
  7. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Yes, yes it is. When you can point to a sample set substantially larger than your friends, you might have some ground to stand on.
     
  8. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Uh, OK. Well, I personally believe that due to the popularity of TV and film, as well as the online digital revolution, our country's priority has shifted vastly away from reading printed books.

    Apparently this is a controversial view that you take issue with, so I'll add a disclaimer saying this is only my opinion. It also happens to be backed up by the slump in printed book sales that increases per year but otherwise it's just like my opinion, man.
     
  9. Nagisa Furukawa

    Nagisa Furukawa Commander Red Shirt

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    Well on the downside, I'm damn near sociopathic in my ability to empathize with other human beings, even if I've gotten quite good at faking it to the extent that other people think I can. Social skills are simply a necessary tool to survive in the outside world, much as having a knife and a first aid kit would be in the jungle.

    Even if he's wrong, that still doesn't make it an opinion. If I said, "the sky is made of purple condoms," it'd be wrong, but it wouldn't be my opinion. Saying "In my opinion, the sky is made of purple condoms" would be wrong AND I'd look like a git for saying it's my opinion what color the sky is and what it's made of.
     
  10. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, this idea has been fairly well put to rest by others this afternoon, from a variety of angles. The idea that fans are illiterate is a non-starter; fans of the films may read, but just read other things besides EU stuff. I'm a huge fan of the films, but most of the EU stuff doesn't interest me. Yet I read. A lot.

    Also, there's this: If fans of the films are generally illiterate as you say, then there must not be a lot of EU fans to win over anyway. The smart money would be to win over the "non-fans," which is another point others have raised already.

    No it doesn't. Familiarity doesn't prove popularity, not at all. Just because fans might keep their ears to the ground to keep abreast of what's out there, that doesn't mean they actually like it.

    Practically every Star Trek fan has heard of Plato's Stepchildren, because it's been heralded for the interracial kiss scene, but that doesn't make that a popular episode. Similar remarks apply to Spock's Brain.
     
  11. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    This is a Star TREK forum where everybody in this thread has heard of or read the Thrawn trilogy and knows who Thrawn is. Go and start a thread on TheForce.Net asking people what Plato's Stepchildren is. None of them would have any idea what it was.

    That is the point I'm trying to make. None of you can say Thrawn is entirely unheard of outside Star Wars fandom when this is the opposite camp and all of us know what it is. Do you seriously think this many Star Wars fans could name a single piece of Star Trek literature?

    Not to mention the argument that not adapting a book because it isn't popular makes no sense. The Thrawn trilogy were best sellers. There are huge, hit movies based on far more obscure books.

    I think discounting the entire EU yet keeping The Phantom Menace as part of the canon is the wrong way to go about it.
     
  12. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    I'm a fan and I couldn't get more than a couple hundred pages into Heir to the Empire.

    It was incredibly dull and I read a lot.
     
  13. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Now Shadows of the Empire....there's a terrific SW novel.
     
  14. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I like the comic and the game but the book is just.... functional? Xizor was pretty bland and forgettable in comparison to Thrawn.
     
  15. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Contrary to common belief in this thread "Star Trek fan" and "Star Wars fan" are not mutually exclusive labels.
     
  16. YARN

    YARN Fleet Captain

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    Of course, not. It's just that there are a lot more Star Wars fans and they take less notice of Trek than Trek fans take of Star Wars. At least, this appears to the be point that DalekJim appears to be making.
     
  17. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Tie-in novels are read by approximately 2% of the fanbase.

    (this fact courtesy of Greg Cox)

    It may mean as much to them as the OT (just as many Trek novels hold as dearer place in my mind as the very best episodes and movies) but to the world at large? Nu uh.
     
  18. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I'm so lucky to have befriended a real life Patrick Bateman online :). Complete with Genesis signature ;).

    Myself, I just find it hard to interact with people. I can write really well and am getting excellent grades at university but sometimes simple things like a phone call can be nigh on impossible.

    Yeah, I did specify that I meant geeks. The wider audience wouldn't know what the fuck those books were about.
     
  19. M'Sharak

    M'Sharak Definitely Herbert. Maybe. Moderator

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    I've heard of it by way of hanging around this place, but I've never read it and haven't the vaguest notion of what it's about (other than it's something Star Wars and some people have said they thought it was good.)

    However, we at least seem finally to be sort of lurching back in the general direction of the topic, so keep that up, everyone.
     
  20. Nagisa Furukawa

    Nagisa Furukawa Commander Red Shirt

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    For nobody would understand! And you kill what FEAAAR! AND YOU FEEAAAR WHAT YOU dooon't uuuunderstand.