A Little Bit of Love For Diane Carey

[Damian]

Not so much in Stargazer's case. The 6 books we got are basically a complete "season" with an arc that's resolved in the final volume. I think it was planned out as just those 6 books, with the option for continuing them afterward. It's just that the option wasn't exercised.

A shame as well. It's true the original 6 books does come to a conclusion in that there are no major story threads left hanging (though, of course, there was always room for more). But there are a lot of years between the last Stargazer book and you're Lost Era tie-in, "The Buried Age." At the conclusion of the last Stargazer book Captain Picard is the undeniable captain, with no more interference from the Starfleet brass. It'd be interesting to see them continue. Plus, Jack Crusher was not yet part of the crew in those earlier books and of course he had already died some time before "The Buried Age," so we never really go to see much of their friendship, outside a few mentions here and there in flashbacks of other novels.

While I'm not holding my breath, the renewed interest in Captain Picard thanks to the Picard show perhaps will reinitiate some interest in reviving the novel series. Other than the other doctor we see on Picard (which could probably be easily explained and brought into line with the existing series) there's probably not much chance of major contradictions since Stargazer is decades before Picard.

Personally, I'd nominate Christopher for that , assuming something like that would interest him of course. He already touched on that a bit with "The Buried Age" which definitely felt like it could have been in the same 'universe' as Friedman's earlier Stargazer novels. And I always thought Christopher and Friedman had some similarities in their novels, both like world building, continuity building and character development. I could see him adding and building on the existing characters from the earlier novels and adding new characters as well (as well as giving us more details about Crusher once he joins the crew). It's one reason I always felt Christopher's "The Captain's Oath" had a similar "feel" to Friedman's "My Brother's Keeper" trilogy--even if the narratives don't fit all that well--for instance, they both depicted Kirk's earlier career with a similar philosophy, not as a maverick, but quite the reverse.

 

[historypeats]

Profound thanks to @Dayton Ward, @Allyn Gibson, and @Christopher, all of whom provided me with new and fascinating information! Sorry to be seeing these replies so late; posts like these are the main reason I still love this forum after twenty years.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I only know her from the thread here where they were talking how cheeky she was for using the Broken Bow novelisation to critique some of the stupid moments in the episode. I thought what she did was hilarious.

And unprofessional.

It's because of the Broken Bow novelization she hasn't written any Trek novels since then.

I can't blame Pocket for that. If I were in their shoes, I'd do the exact same thing.

I was actually surprised Pocketbooks released it as it was. It came through pretty clearly, at least for me, that she hated that episode.

I'm sure it was a tight deadline issue. You want to have the novelization of the premiere episode out around the same time as the episode.

It was a situation where they were coming up on a very close deadline, Diane Carey was an experienced author who could deliver with no editorial oversight, so they stayed out of her way and just printed the manuscript as is when she handed it in. It was after it was published and Brannon Braga read it and put a complaint in with Pocket over it that all the trouble started.

Makes total sense.

I mean, a gig is a gig, but Carey is so clearly just a TOS fan (with a workable take on it, as Allyn said, recognisable if distinct from how others like Duane or McIntyre interpreted the series at the time) that one wonders why she'd keep writing for the later series when she wasn't interested in diligent research and her only "enjoyment" came from undermining those characters in the text itself.

Didn't she also get the order of some TNG episodes wrong? I have a vague memory of Ship of the Line saying that Picard's torture at the hands of Gul Maldred in "Chain of Command" came before Picard was turned into a Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds." Am I correct in thinking that?

The editorial approach is even more confusing, though--surely, there were other writers available who were familiar with this milieu and could also meet a tight deadline?

You'd hope, but she was really writing 10-20k words a day, maybe not.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Didn't she also get the order of some TNG episodes wrong? I have a vague memory of Ship of the Line saying that Picard's torture at the hands of Gul Maldred in "Chain of Command" came before Picard was turned into a Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds." Am I correct in thinking that?

Yes. And the extended prologue for the book -- the Bozeman in the 23rd-century -- doesn't fit with "Cause and Effect" at all.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Yes. And the extended prologue for the book -- the Bozeman in the 23rd-century -- doesn't fit with "Cause and Effect" at all.

That I knew. It's truly hilarious that there was only about 30 seconds' worth of stuff established about the sector of space the Bozeman came from* and the bridge crew of the ship** -- And Carey contradicted it all!

*Unexplored region vs. Populated

**All male crew vs. two female crewmembers seen right next to Kelsey Grammer!

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Also how the Bozeman in her novel went missing in the middle of a heated battle with Klingons, but there’s no indication of a red alert or combat from the state of the Bozeman bridge on screen...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

All male crew vs. two female crewmembers seen right next to Kelsey Grammer!

I've had this low-key crush on the unknown extra standing behind Grammer's left shoulder for, what, thirty years now? Ten seconds of screen time, no dialogue, low-key crush.

 

[David cgc]

I'm sure it was a tight deadline issue. You want to have the novelization of the premiere episode out around the same time as the episode.

IIRC, the desire for faster turnaround times for episode novelizations is what led to "Endgame" being published as a very thin trade paperback, and the Enterprise novelizations being released in hardcover. Now that we've left the era of the MMPB behind, I've noticed that in general announcements of novels are happening closer to their release dates, and authors are no longer mentioning that they've finished their books a year or more before publication. I'm not sure why MMPBs took so much longer to publish than other formats, maybe there was higher demand on the printers so they had to be ordered further in advance?

 

[Christopher]

Now that we've left the era of the MMPB behind, I've noticed that in general announcements of novels are happening closer to their release dates, and authors are no longer mentioning that they've finished their books a year or more before publication. I'm not sure why MMPBs took so much longer to publish than other formats, maybe there was higher demand on the printers so they had to be ordered further in advance?

I don't think they're getting published any faster. My three Trek TPBs so far have all taken from 7-8 months between manuscript delivery and publication, which is roughly the same as the typical range for my earlier MMPBs, at least as far back as I checked. However, they do seem to be getting announced considerably later. It used to be that my books were often announced before I finished writing them. In this case, there was no announcement ahead of the title and blurb being listed on book vendor sites, which was 3 months after I turned in the manuscript.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've had this low-key crush on the unknown extra standing behind Grammer's left shoulder for, what, thirty years now? Ten seconds of screen time, no dialogue, low-key crush.

At one time, she was to have been Kirstie Alley returning as Saavik.

Had Kirstie said yes, I am sure she'd have had lines.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

At one time, she was to have been Kirstie Alley returning as Saavik.

Had Kirstie said yes, I am sure she'd have had lines.

Maybe one or two. There's not a lot of need for more dialogue there. And that may be why she didn't do it. Kelsey getting two lines of dialogue for a cameo is one thing. Kirstie getting two lines of dialogue as a returning Star Trek actress is something else entirely.

 

[Christopher]

At one time, she was to have been Kirstie Alley returning as Saavik.

Which wouldn't have worked out unless they'd changed the date, because the Bozeman was lost seven years before TWOK.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Which wouldn't have worked out unless they'd changed the date, because the Bozeman was lost seven years before TWOK.

Wouldn't have been the first time a reference on TNG screwed up the timeline in the TOS era.

 

[publiusr]

Oh well. I loved her books immensely

 

[GeorgeKirk]

Final Frontier is one of my all-time favorites, and I like some elements of her other books, like the scene in one of the New Earth novels where Chekov takes command of a civilian ship and helps to save them from Orion pirates. I was very happy to have her novelization of DS9's Season 6 Dominion War arc, since I wasn't able to see those episodes when they aired and they weren't out on video yet. It bugged me how she wrote her personal disdain for Jake Sisko into the story, though.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I found her writing the Sisko subplot in those books bothersome - the point of his plot in the episode “Behind the Lines” was about him being put behind a desk and being uncomfortable with it. She added some elements to make it into some grand master plan on his part.

It’s been something I’ve really picked up, rereading her novelizations. When she doesn’t like a character’s plot, she DOES get very prone to including all this narrative text to undermine it - I mentioned before, feeling this discomfort with her portrayal of Crusher in command of the Enterprise during Descent, and I found it really weird that she would include a bit where Worf thinks to himself near his introduction in Way of the Warrior that it felt good to wear a Starfleet uniform again when he admits almost immediately that he’s been considering leaving Starfleet.

Honestly, having been picking up on all these little asides, it starts feeling a little surprising that it wasn’t brought to the attention of the producers sooner - I get that she was prolific and profitable enough to keep giving her contracts, but when she’s clearly adding in a level of discomfort and even disdain for the scripts she’s adapting, it seems like someone should have maybe suggested an alternative.

Though maybe I’m just picking all of this up through the lens of hindsight, that these were things that were given a pass at the time, and it’s only by knowing what I do now that they stand out so clearly.

 

[JD]

So the whole Broken Bow thing didn't happen totally out of the blue then?

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Definitely seems like a 'straw that broke the camel's back' situation to me, though it might also be that Berman was significantly more involved in the production of Enterprise as opposed to the other Treks under his run, so that when he found out about all these moments that were easily interpreted as jabs about what he was trying to do and wanted it stopped.

 

[Stevil2001]

So the whole Broken Bow thing didn't happen totally out of the blue then?

Definitely seems like a 'straw that broke the camel's back' situation to me, though it might also be that Berman was significantly more involved in the production of Enterprise as opposed to the other Treks under his run, so that when he found out about all these moments that were easily interpreted as jabs about what he was trying to do and wanted it stopped.

Her Equinox novelization also has a lot of scenes where Janeway says something (a piece of dialogue from the script) and then immediately thinks to herself that that was a stupid thing to say.

Carey probably drew attention to herself and the Broken Bow novelization by giving an interview around the same time where she criticized the script and show pretty harshly. I know when I had started my short-lived stint as a writer of Trek fiction and posted a critical take on "Bound" on my LiveJournal, another writer sent me an e-mail about Diane Carey as a cautionary tale about being circumspect online.

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

Her Equinox novelization also has a lot of scenes where Janeway says something (a piece of dialogue from the script) and then immediately thinks to herself that that was a stupid thing to say.

Carey probably drew attention to herself and the Broken Bow novelization by giving an interview around the same time where she criticized the script and show pretty harshly. I know when I had started my short-lived stint as a writer of Trek fiction and posted a critical take on "Bound" on my LiveJournal, another writer sent me an e-mail about Diane Carey as a cautionary tale about being circumspect online.

You’re not the only person who was troubled by “Bound.”