B stories to expand TAS episodes, etc

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How would you expand a TAS episode to make it a legit TOS episode?

Sidenote - if Xerius had frozen the Klothos, it might have looked something like this years later? http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Emissary_(episode)

 

[uniderth]

While I don't have any ideas for you, this is something I've been considering too. I don't accept TAS as canon. Instead I accept what they would be had they been live action episodes, as canon. Also in my mind I swap some episodes around and modify some dialogue to make them fit better.

 

[wayne66]

Sounds good to me. I always wanted to see TAS as an hour long series. Shatner, Takei, Nichols and Koenig are still around. I am sure they could do some new voicework. It would make the show more of an ensemble. Also recast the guest starring characters with new actors. Diversify the voice pool so every other character does not sound like James Doohan and Majel Barrett.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suspect that most of these would have been fleshed out with philosophical jousting, fight scenes, or kissing.

 

[DrCorby]

In his Star Trek Log TAS episode adaptations back in the 70s, Alan Dean Foster did expand many of the episodes into longer stories, a few even novel-length. It's been a loooong time since I read any of them, but I remember them being pretty enjoyable, some better than others. I don't think they were just fluff, but subplots or even secondary stories that took place after the episode. You might want to check them out.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In his Star Trek Log TAS episode adaptations back in the 70s, Alan Dean Foster did expand many of the episodes into longer stories, a few even novel-length. It's been a loooong time since I read any of them, but I remember them being pretty enjoyable, some better than others. I don't think they were just fluff, but subplots or even secondary stories that took place after the episode. You might want to check them out.

I got the impression from reading about some of the details that it was more of an informational expansion, not a plot-based one. But suppose you could do it another way than the books showed?

Did the books mention/portray what the rest of the Enterprise crew were doing during the events of The Slaver Weapon?

 

[DrCorby]

I got the impression from reading about some of the details that it was more of an informational expansion, not a plot-based one. But suppose you could do it another way than the books showed?

Did the books mention/portray what the rest of the Enterprise crew were doing during the events of The Slaver Weapon?

Looking online to refresh my memory, I think the additional story elements take place after the events from the episode. Kirk, Spock, Sulu, & Uhura have their minds switched into each other's bodies via a transporter accident (possibly tied to Slaver technology, but it's hazy), just before a conference with Klingons.

Foster may not have been allowed to mess with the episode storyline much, since it was based on a short story by Larry Niven ("The Soft Weapon"). I think I've heard there were rights difficulties with doing an adaptation of the episode in the first place because of publication rights issues, which is why it was the last episode adapted. Took a while to resolve. So Foster's story had little connection to the episode in this instance, IIRC.

 

[Christopher]

Foster added a great deal to all the adaptations -- not just information, but expanded storytelling, longer scenes with more dialogue, glimpses of background characters' lives, bridging sequences to tie together the episodes adapted in a book, flashbacks into the characters' pasts, etc. And that's just in the first six volumes that adapted 3 episodes each. As stated, in Log Seven to Log Nine he devoted maybe 2/3 of each book to original sequel stories, and in Log Ten he added three different subplots -- one a prequel to "The Slaver Weapon" showing how the stasis box was obtained, one a parallel story back on the Enterprise while the episode was unfolding, and the aforementioned transporter-switch sequel story (which had no causal connection to the stasis box).

And I object to the implication that TAS episodes are not already "legit."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It was pretty amusing to see how Foster would expand TAS episodes to include Klingons even when the original material had no connection to them whatsoever.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Adding B stories would make them TNG-style episodes, not TOS episodes, IMO. TOS typically only told one story an episode, as was the style in the mid sixties. The A/B/C style storytelling of several unrelated plots didn't really come into vogue until Hill Street Blues became a hit and a critics' darling in the early eighties.

 

[DrCorby]

Foster added a great deal to all the adaptations -- not just information, but expanded storytelling, longer scenes with more dialogue, glimpses of background characters' lives, bridging sequences to tie together the episodes adapted in a book, flashbacks into the characters' pasts, etc. And that's just in the first six volumes that adapted 3 episodes each. As stated, in Log Seven to Log Nine he devoted maybe 2/3 of each book to original sequel stories, and in Log Ten he added three different subplots -- one a prequel to "The Slaver Weapon" showing how the stasis box was obtained, one a parallel story back on the Enterprise while the episode was unfolding, and the aforementioned transporter-switch sequel story (which had no causal connection to the stasis box).

Thanks for the details on Log 10. Like I said, it's been a very long time since I last read it; I don't even have the books anymore, sadly. As a Niven (and Foster) fan, I remember enjoying the book for what it was, and being surprised the last part of the book had so little to do with the episode...

 

[Christopher]

As a Niven (and Foster) fan, I remember enjoying the book for what it was, and being surprised the last part of the book had so little to do with the episode...

Not just the last part. The book has 16 chapters, and only Chapters 6, 8, and 10 adapt the episode. They're relatively long chapters, though, so the book is about 21.5% adaptation and 78.5% original by page count.

 

[Lance]

I like ADF's novelizations. They really do add a lot extra to the animated episodes.

 

[DrCorby]

Not just the last part. The book has 16 chapters, and only Chapters 6, 8, and 10 adapt the episode. They're relatively long chapters, though, so the book is about 21.5% adaptation and 78.5% original by page count.

Obviously, I need to go back and reread some of these. It's been too long...

 

[wayne66]

A couple of ideas for expanding the episodes. Some of the episodes are very Spock centric. Yesteryear and The Slaver Weapon. It would be nice to see what Captain Kirk and crew are doing while Spock has gone back in time to save his younger self. I could see a philosophical discussion between Kirk and the Andorian? first officer who is not supposed to be there. The first officer could ask Kirk where he does belong. If Spock is successful where does the Andorian go? An interesting discussion between the two characters could happen.
In The Slaver Weapon Spock, Sulu and Uhura are on the Shuttlecraft and they get delayed. I would like to see Kirk and crew on board the Enterprise searching for them similar to the episode The Galileo Seven.
In the episode The Jihad, Kirk and Spock are on a planet with several different alien species. What are the crew of the Enterprise doing? These are a couple of ideas for expanding the episodes.

 

[FormerLurker]

Adding B stories would make them TNG-style episodes, not TOS episodes, IMO. TOS typically only told one story an episode, as was the style in the mid sixties. The A/B/C style storytelling of several unrelated plots didn't really come into vogue until Hill Street Blues became a hit and a critics' darling in the early eighties.

A couple of ideas for expanding the episodes. Some of the episodes are very Spock centric. Yesteryear and The Slaver Weapon. It would be nice to see what Captain Kirk and crew are doing while Spock has gone back in time to save his younger self. I could see a philosophical discussion between Kirk and the Andorian? first officer who is not supposed to be there. The first officer could ask Kirk where he does belong. If Spock is successful where does the Andorian go? An interesting discussion between the two characters could happen.
In The Slaver Weapon Spock, Sulu and Uhura are on the Shuttlecraft and they get delayed. I would like to see Kirk and crew on board the Enterprise searching for them similar to the episode The Galileo Seven.
In the episode The Jihad, Kirk and Spock are on a planet with several different alien species. What are the crew of the Enterprise doing? These are a couple of ideas for expanding the episodes.

Each thing wayne66 mentions counts as a B story. Now that B story may tie in directly with the A story, and affect it, but it's still a B story. Often these B stories came down to a few minutes of "Well, what did you think of that?" in response to the A story, and most of the time, they finished the B story early so the A story could be the one that the audience remembers, but any time some side story happens, that's a B story.

Take Journey to Babel. There's a definite B story there, it just depends on your point of view which one is the A story, and which one is the B. The mystery of who killed the Tellarite, culminating in Sarek needing surgery is one story. The Orion ship attacking the Enterprise is another, with Kirk down for the count to make it 'dangerous', to borrow terminology from Harlan Ellison. Which one is the A, which one is the B? Like I said, it depends on your point of view, really. That's the big difference between the '60s and today. The A and B stories weren't so cut and dried as they are now.

 

[Christopher]

A couple of ideas for expanding the episodes. Some of the episodes are very Spock centric. Yesteryear and The Slaver Weapon. It would be nice to see what Captain Kirk and crew are doing while Spock has gone back in time to save his younger self.

How do you define "while" in a time-travel story? Generally in a story like that, the timeline would reset the moment the traveler went back. Besides, "City on the Edge of Forever" established that the travelers return to the present almost immediately after they went back, no matter how much time elapsed while they were in the past. "What happened, sir? You only left a moment ago."

In The Slaver Weapon Spock, Sulu and Uhura are on the Shuttlecraft and they get delayed. I would like to see Kirk and crew on board the Enterprise searching for them similar to the episode The Galileo Seven.

As discussed, Alan Dean Foster already provided a parallel Enterprise plot in his "Slaver Weapon" adaptation, although it was a M'Ress-centric story rather than just a search plot. (After all, the shuttle was quite far from the Enterprise and probably wasn't delayed long enough to warrant a search.)

In the episode The Jihad, Kirk and Spock are on a planet with several different alien species. What are the crew of the Enterprise doing?

That's another case where they returned mere moments after they left -- about two minutes, according to Sulu. So there's no story to tell there, unless it's flash fiction.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

That's another case where they returned mere moments after they left -- about two minutes, according to Sulu. So there's no story to tell there, unless it's flash fiction.

I suppose. It's a very convenient dodge, that.

 

[Christopher]

Anyway, I think the answer to anything in this entire thread is probably going to be "Alan Dean Foster already did it," at least if there was anything to be done.

And honestly, I don't feel a need to see what other characters were doing while a few of them were involved in an adventure. I mean, realistically, most of the characters' time would be fairly uneventful. We just happen to focus on those instances where things get unusually interesting. It's not like every character's life would be nonstop adventure all the time (although many serialized stories tend to give that impression). So maybe the reason the story doesn't show us what the crew back on the ship is doing is because the crew isn't doing anything but maintaining the ship and filing reports and playing cards and 3D chess in the rec room and having dinner and doing their laundry and going about their everyday lives. I mean, they have to do all that sometime, right?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

True. Everyday life on the ship is the stuff that fanfics are made of; a little character exposition here, a bit of "meanwhile, back at the ranch" there...

I just wonder how you would expand it, in canon, if you could offer an alternate to Foster's depictions.

Also, what kind of story do you think was missing from TAS? Episode 23+