Bad Episodes Saved by Good Novels?

[marlboro]

Are there any episodes that you didn't like initially, but you later came to enjoy because of a novel? Maybe the novel made you look at the episode in a new light, or expanded on the original story/filled in some blanks, or maybe just came up with a take on a particular character.

 

[thribs]

Well I think the Enterprise finale falls into this category. The Good That Men Do certainly fixed that mess.

 

[tomswift2002]

“Broken Bow, Shockwave & The Expanse” were a lot better than the aired episodes.

Also “Flashback” From Voyager was done better in the book, as the book made it feel like the story was suppose to be a 3-part story.

 

[DS9forever]

DS9's Battle Lines & The Storyteller, episodes which the relaunch revisited.

 

[marlboro]

I like The Omega Directive better after reading the Destiny trilogy. I also think TMP is better after reading Ex Machina.


I need to go back and watch the Ezri DS9 episodes from season 7. At the time I didn't care for them, and I think part of the reason why is that it seemed like a bad time to try and develop a new character. I think that after reading about her in so many post series books that I might like those episodes a bit better.

 

[Desert Kris]

Well, I probably wouldn't have bothered with Requiem For Methuselah, except for my introduction to Michah Brack in Federation. The Reeves-Stevens usage of little tidbits in Prime Directive and Federation made me pay more attention to The Savage Curtain, Omega Glory, Requiem, and quite a few other original episodes that are not necessarily bad, but average. The nod to the Gamester of Triskelion in The Final Reflection is fun, but it only makes the Gamesters interesting in the sense of anchoring them in galactic politics. For some reason I think there was a book that referenced Whom Gods Destroy, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's just Garth's history that interests me on it's own merits.

 

[Stevil2001]

Well, I probably wouldn't have bothered with Requiem For Methuselah, except for my introduction to Michah Brack in Federation. The Reeves-Stevens usage of little tidbits in Prime Directive and Federation made me pay more attention to The Savage Curtain, Omega Glory, Requiem, and quite a few other original episodes that are not necessarily bad, but average. The nod to the Gamester of Triskelion in The Final Reflection is fun, but it only makes the Gamesters interesting in the sense of anchoring them in galactic politics. For some reason I think there was a book that referenced Whom Gods Destroy, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's just Garth's history that interests me on it's own merits.

The novel Garth of Izar is a sequel to "Whom Gods Destroy."

 

[DrCorby]

"All Our Yesterdays" was an episode that had some character credibility issues, but A.C. Crispin's Yesterday's Son (and the sequel Time for Yesterday) made me care more deeply about the Zarabeth character and view the episode a little less critically.

 

[Alwaystrekkin]

Well not saying that reading the Voyager novels (Protectors, etc.) from 2014 - 2015 got me to like the episode those books followed from, Voyager's "Twisted", too much better, but at least now I can watch that particular story with a little less of a negative opinion that it was all kind of meaningless silliness.

 

[OCD Geek]

Well not saying that reading the Voyager novels (Protectors, etc.) from 2014 - 2015 got me to like the episode those books followed from, Voyager's "Twisted", too much better, but at least now I can watch that particular story with a little less of a negative opinion that it was all kind of meaningless silliness.

Given all that the @Kirsten Beyer novels have done to finally realize Voyager's potential (not to mention Jeri Taylor's Mosaic, Marco Palmieri's anthology Distant Shores and various wonderful Voyager short stories/novellas in other Palmieri anthologies like Places of Exile by @Christopher ) I tend to lump Voyager in my head with the great prose only Trek spin-offs.

That there's only about twenty legitimately great episodes of Voyager anyway makes this delusion of mine easier. I know that's not how it works, but that's how it feels. I even have those twenty-ish episodes listed there in the "Expanded Universe" section of my OCD list instead of with the TOS/TNG/DS9/ENT/Kelvinverse movies and series proper.

 

[Alwaystrekkin]

Well I'm a VOY fan so didn't intend that my post on "Twisted" was meant to appear as nitpicking the entire show (which I consider overall 2B VG), just that one episode (no show is perfect, of course). Was kind of interesting though that Kirsten B. picked such a less well-received episode to follow up on with not one but three novels lol. Selecting two of Voyager's most popular episodes to base the last published VOY novel, APFoL, on was more of an understandable choice IMHO, but the Protectors trilogy did turn to have a pretty interesting storyline, so guess one never knows, does one!