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Spoilers TOS: Ishmael by Barbara Hambly Review Thread

Rate Ishmael

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    Votes: 12 31.6%
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"Big Foot," hmm? I don't think I've ever seen it written as two words before.

It's also anachronistic if they actually used that name in the episode. While indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest had legends of wild men and giants going back centuries under various names, "Bigfoot" wasn't coined until 1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot#History
 
Maybe they called it "Sasquatch" on the show?

Well, the article says that's one of many indigenous names, and that particular name and spelling weren't popularized until the 1920s. Also, it came from a people who lived in the Vancouver area rather than Seattle. So I think that would've been just as much of an anachronism.


It's interesting how recent much of our popular mythology turns out to be when you dig into it. Bigfoot is based on ancient legends, but didn't become a big pop-culture thing until the 1950s. The Loch Ness Monster myth dates only to 1933. "Flying saucers" weren't conceived until 1947, and the Roswell incident, though itself a response to the initial hype of those first sightings, didn't become a major part of UFO lore itself until the 1980s. The Bermuda Triangle myth was first propagated in 1950, prompted by the then-mysterious (but subsequently solved) disappearance of a flight of Navy aircraft in 1945. Ancient-astronaut lore dates to the late '60s and early '70s. Even in the "rational" modern age, we keep manufacturing new myths.

(The Yeti is rather older than most of these things; like Sasquatch, it's a centuries-old indigenous legend, and it began to be popularized in the West in the late 1800s. Even the term "Abominable Snowman" dates to 1921.)
 
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I read this fairly recently and really liked it. One of my favorites of the early numbered TOS books. I only have Netflix streaming which doesn't have HCTB so I just watched a couple clips I found on Youtube and read the wikipedia pages. That enabled me to enjoy get the HCTB connections so that helped.

I have no memory of watching HCTB during the original run but I've recently found out that doesn't mean anything. I was binge watching Adam 12 which I didn't really remember watching when it was originally on but I must have since I was constantly remembering scenes and was able to remember the ending of the scene or episode before it happened.
 
There was a Bigfoot episode?

Oh, yes. Antenna TV aired it on a weekend not long ago and it's first half was pretty well done (considering the show's premise, the setting of the show, and the era it was produced in) but it falls apart in the second half. Add it to the list of disappointing Bigfoot episodes that have sprung from American TV series in the last fifty years.
I was about to mention this actually. The new classic TV network Antenna TV shows HCTB on Sundays at 7AM Eastern /4AM Pacific. I haven't checked any episodes out myself, but I plan on watching at least one or two before I read Ishmael.
 
Actually, I found out about the Ishmael being a HCTB crossover after I'd read it the first time, but before I saw a single episode. Then I noticed it in strip-syndication, and saw a fair number of episodes.

Then, I read Bill Speidel's Sons of the Profits, and began seeing how HCTB wasn't all that different from the actual early history of Seattle: names changed, characters conflated, and a lot of it cleaned up for the network censors, but . . . .
 
I haven't read this one in years, and it isn't really my cup of tea, but I love how wide-open the Star Trek universe was in those days before TNG came along and everything got locked down. I mean, not only is this book a crossover with an old forgotten TV comedy-western, but it even has blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameos by Han Solo, Starbuck and Apollo from the original BSG, and a couple of Doctors Who! There's no way any of that would be allowed today.

I'm not complaining about the current editorial policy for the novel-verse, just waxing nostalgic for its more exuberant youth.
 
Actually, I found out about the Ishmael being a HCTB crossover after I'd read it the first time, but before I saw a single episode. Then I noticed it in strip-syndication, and saw a fair number of episodes.

Then, I read Bill Speidel's Sons of the Profits, and began seeing how HCTB wasn't all that different from the actual early history of Seattle: names changed, characters conflated, and a lot of it cleaned up for the network censors, but . . . .

Hah, I actually stumbled onto a copy of Sons of the Profits at a yard sale in rural Pennsylvania the other day. I admit I was a bit startled to see it there. I mean, I have a copy, of course, but this was a long way from Seattle . . ..

(For the confused, Sons of the Profits is a non-fiction book about Seattle's "colorful" frontier days.)

Did I ever mention that my great-grandfather actually held up a bank in old Seattle once? He threatened to blow the bank up with nitroglycerine unless they gave him all the money in the vault. Alas, the bank teller shot him instead--and the "nitro" turned out to be just plain water.

Too bad Spock wasn't around to resolve the situation with a handy nerve pinch!
 
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I'd never heard of the show before reading the book, but it didn't really effect my opinion of the book. I thought it was very average, with some really stupid moments but nothing outright horrible. I don't regret reading it, but I doubt I'd read it again.
 
I mean, not only is this book a crossover with an old forgotten TV comedy-western, but it even has blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameos by Han Solo, Starbuck and Apollo from the original BSG, and a couple of Doctors Who! There's no way any of that would be allowed today.

Well, technically, the crossover with HCTB wasn't allowed then either; it just slipped past the legal department somehow, perhaps because it was a pretty obscure show.
 
(For the confused, Sons of the Profits is a non-fiction book about Seattle's "colorful" frontier days.)
And that's NOT a typo; it really is Sons of the Profits. Because (at least according to Speidel's premise) that's a near-perfect description of most of the founders of Seattle.

And the book is heavily promoted by the people running the Bill Speidel Underground Tour. It's the Seattle history they don't teach in the schools.

Greg: You said "of course" you already had a copy. Are you originally from Seattle? Or a frequent visitor?
 
Well, technically, the crossover with HCTB wasn't allowed then either; it just slipped past the legal department somehow, perhaps because it was a pretty obscure show.

And people like network censors and the people running studio- and publishing house legal departments probably don't watch sitcoms. They don't have a sense of humor. Sort of like that Col. Flagg line, from an episode of M*A*S*H:
I've trained myself not to laugh or smile. I watched a hundred hours of the Three Stooges; every time I felt like smiling or laughing, I jabbed myself in the stomach with a cattle prod.
 
There's no way any of that would be allowed today.

Wanna bet?

You've forgotten all the not-Trek cameos in the much later "Khan Noonien Singh" trilogy. And even Vaslovik ("The Questor Tapes") in "Immortal Coil". Some of Worf's holodeck opponents have been in-jokes, too. Even Therin Park, New Therin Park, Shantherin th'Clane and the Andorian warship Therin are more obvious in-jokes for people who've seen "Starship Exeter: The Savage Empire" fan film.

The time period in which in-joke guest stars and references were frowned upon was the 1986-1991 period, when Richard Arnold was vetting the manuscripts. And, even then, he missed a few of Peter David's, such as Arnold's own name on a tombstone. But even PAD managed to squeeze in some "Bloom County" cameos that were approved.

Well, technically, the crossover with HCTB wasn't allowed then either; it just slipped past the legal department somehow, perhaps because it was a pretty obscure show.

As I understand it, they realised just before it went to press, but stopped panicking because it was a production of Paramount TV. But... then they found out that the rights to HCtB were more complicated because they rested elsewhere. (Reverted to the creator?)
 
I grew up down by Sea-Tac Airport. I moved East in the eighties to make my fortune, but my roots are still in and around Seattle.

You?

I've been to Seattle a few times, over the years. The initial draw was that I'm an organ geek (more specifically, a tracker-backer), and most of the recordings by my favorite living organist were recorded on the St. Mark's Cathedral Flentrop (which, thanks to Dr. Butler's hospitality, I've had the privilege of playing several times; it is truly amazing how somethng that big can be that responsive to subtle nuances of touch, especially amazing that it's that responsive even when a ham-handed beginner like myself is playing it).

Also, I have a cousin in the Puget Sound area: currently in Dupont, but formerly in Steilacoom (thankfully outside the insane asylum).
 
There's no way any of that would be allowed today.

Wanna bet?

You've forgotten all the not-Trek cameos in the much later "Khan Noonien Singh" trilogy. And even Vaslovik ("The Questor Tapes") in "Immortal Coil". Some of Worf's holodeck opponents have been in-jokes, too. Even Therin Park, New Therin Park, Shantherin th'Clane and the Andorian warship Therin are more obvious in-jokes for people who've seen "Starship Exeter: The Savage Empire" fan film.

The time period in which in-joke guest stars and references were frowned upon was the 1986-1991 period, when Richard Arnold was vetting the manuscripts. And, even then, he missed a few of Peter David's, such as Arnold's own name on a tombstone. But even PAD managed to squeeze in some "Bloom County" cameos that were approved.
Taran'atar also fought a certain Alien from a Fox franchise, and one of Titan's recurring character appears to be inspired by a Disney character.
 
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