"Beyond" Novelization

[Therin of Andor]

Dillard still found space to add the stuff about Carol Marcus to Star Trek VI

Yep, in an attempt to beef up Kirk's anger about Klingons. Carol had just been gravely injured in a Klingon attack.

Dillard also gave a little background for Valeris, to explain her openness to thwarting the peace process.

-- didn't she even reference some of McIntyre's ST II characters in the process?

Yep, making a few weird connections between Efrosians and Deltans!
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2006/11/truth-about-efrosians-pard_116269248336471480.html

As for additions in "Generations", I loved how when Kirk reenacted his horse-riding/wedding Nexus fantasy, sometimes the bride was Antonia, and other times it was Edith Keeler or Carol Marcus, or numerous other former love interests.

That sounds about right, though at least the GEN novelization had the unintentional "benefit" of presenting the original version of Kirk's death as well as what I'm assuming were deleted scenes.

The hardcover had the original scene (ie. as in the "bonus features" section of the DVD). The paperback reprint has the as-screened reshoot.

But yeah, if you ask me, TPTB are damaging their own merchandising by not allowing authors to have a bit more freedom with the novelizations.

Well, 2009 and STiD did have extra scenes, ie. Porthos's return in 2009 and Cupcake's death by Klingon weapon in STiD (a non-canonical death reversed for "Beyond", even though Cupcake is barely seen onscreen in that).

 

[Desert Kris]

Dillard still found space to add the stuff about Carol Marcus to Star Trek VI-- didn't she even reference some of McIntyre's ST II characters in the process?

It's the TNG films I remember as having little-to-no additions of interest in their novels.

I quite like some of J.M. Dillard's earlier novelization efforts. The Final Frontier has a lot of great additions, and TUC was similarly well treated, I thought. And I was amazed by a 400+ page novelization of the movie length first episode of the War of the Worlds television; that book is a prized possession. Subsequently, however, I became increasingly disappointed with what seemed a lack of interest and effort with her work on the TNG movies. Maybe there's a good reason for it, but it's still such a letdown from what came before.

 

[Christopher]

And I was amazed by a 400+ page novelization of the movie length first episode of the War of the Worlds television; that book is a prized possession.

Oh yeah, that was a good one. The main thing I remember is that she had the world actually remember the events of the invasion in the original movie, while in the show's pilot, it was something that all but a few people had forgotten. The second episode of the show handwaved this as a combination of the masses not wanting to deal with the reality of alien invasion and some kind of induced-amnesia effect associated with UFO visitations, but that never made sense (how did they explain the mass destruction of most of the world's cities in 1953, or the ruins that probably still remained 35 years later?). I preferred Dillard's version of a world that still remembered the invasion.

 

[DonIago]

I have that novelization too!
I think the parts where we learn about things from the aliens' perspective may be my favorite.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I have that novelization too!
I think the parts where we learn about things from the aliens' perspective may be my favorite.

To digress, if you like that, you'd love ADF's Humanx Commonwealth prequel, Nor Crystal Tears. The very first line puts you in the Thranx point of view: "It's hard to be a larva."

 

[Desert Kris]

Oh yeah, that was a good one. The main thing I remember is that she had the world actually remember the events of the invasion in the original movie, while in the show's pilot, it was something that all but a few people had forgotten. The second episode of the show handwaved this as a combination of the masses not wanting to deal with the reality of alien invasion and some kind of induced-amnesia effect associated with UFO visitations, but that never made sense (how did they explain the mass destruction of most of the world's cities in 1953, or the ruins that probably still remained 35 years later?). I preferred Dillard's version of a world that still remembered the invasion.

Agreed, the novelizations explanation of the world population's regard and attitude is the better way to go, and would have been more interesting to see developed throughout the rest of that series. On the other hand, I prefer the television show's explanation of how the aliens possess humans, by way of absorbing into chosen hosts (even though it is something that was previously unseen in the original 1953 movie that serves as the predominant inspiration and source material).

I have that novelization too!
I think the parts where we learn about things from the aliens' perspective may be my favorite.

Agreed, those are some of my favorite sections as well, so many fascinating ideas about the aliens' history and society and mentality!

 

[DonIago]

^I really wish there'd been some way to continue the ideas brought up in the novelization into the series.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

And I was amazed by a 400+ page novelization of the movie length first episode of the War of the Worlds television; that book is a prized possession

I also prize my copy of the War of the Worlds pilot novelization.

I remember being disappointed at the time that Pocket didn't publish any original War of the Worlds novels. After the novelization, I expected them. Maybe they didn't see a market for them. Maybe the novelization didn't sell. I don't know.

 

[Christopher]

I remember being disappointed at the time that Pocket didn't publish any original War of the Worlds novels. After the novelization, I expected them. Maybe they didn't see a market for them. Maybe the novelization didn't sell. I don't know.

Honestly, it's just as well. The show kinda sucked. I liked its cast in the first season, they had a great rapport, but when I rewatched the series a few years back, I realized that it was pretty damn awful. There were only a couple of well-written episodes, most of it was fairly incoherent, and the production values were bargain-basement. I think the first season must've been largely written by strikebreaking or non-union writers during the '88 strike, since a lot of the writer credits are obvious pseudonyms (one episode is even credited to "Sylvia Van Buren," Ann Robinson's movie character who reappeared a couple of times in the show). And let's not even get into how the second-season producers made it even worse in their attempt to "fix" it.

 

[DonIago]

I remember really enjoying the show when I watched it, though I was also a high school (maybe) kid at the time, and was shocked by the level of graphic violence the show included.

I dunno...was S1 of WotW really much worse than, say, S1 of TNG?

The second season abrupt change of premise though...well...I have no words for that.

 

[Christopher]

I dunno...was S1 of WotW really much worse than, say, S1 of TNG?

Yes, it definitely was. TNG season 1 had its problems, but the plots were mostly coherent. And TNG's production values were excellent from the start; some of the late-'80s video effects didn't age well as technology advanced, but they were very good for their time, while WOTW's effects were crude, low-budget stuff. Not to mention that WOTW seemed to cut randomly between film and video and looked little better than home movies in either, and often had poor audio quality. TNG had better actors, too. I liked the WOTW cast members and their rapport, but on revisiting the series, I discovered they were generally weaker, broader actors than I'd remembered.

I did blog reviews of the whole first season back in 2012, and you can find them here (in reverse order, so scroll to the bottom to start):

https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/tag/war-of-the-worlds/

 

[JD]

I just read about the series on Wikipedia, and that does sound like it went through a hell of a change between seasons. I often wonder why they don't just cancel a series and start from scratch when they make such drastic changes between seasons. *Cough*-Sleepy-Hollow-Season-4*Cough*

 

[Christopher]

I just read about the series on Wikipedia, and that does sound like it went through a hell of a change between seasons. I often wonder why they don't just cancel a series and start from scratch when they make such drastic changes between seasons. *Cough*-Sleepy-Hollow-Season-4*Cough*

Well, part of it is probably that it takes longer to get a new show up and running from scratch than to retool an existing one, what with the initial development and pilot and such. The startup costs for a new show are no doubt greater too -- you have to assemble a whole new crew, build all the sets and specialized gear, etc. An ongoing production has a certain momentum to it, even aside from its story content. It's easier to keep that train in motion than to try to get a whole new one moving.

Also, there are people who watch a show for its cast and characters more than its storytelling. The idea is to hold onto the viewers who are already invested in the cast and the premise, but to "fix" the stuff that failed to hold more viewers. Although bringing in new people to try to "fix" the original creators' ideas rarely works that well. And WOTW was a case where the "fixes" were egregiously bad, as I discussed on my blog.

 

[DonIago]

Thanks Christopher! I'll be very curious to read your reviews (and oh, the flashbacks to come!).

The change of premise at the top of S2 remains one of the most mind-boggling things I've ever seen in a work of fiction.

 

[DrCorby]

Thanks Christopher! I'll be very curious to read your reviews (and oh, the flashbacks to come!).

The change of premise at the top of S2 remains one of the most mind-boggling things I've ever seen in a work of fiction.

Worse than all the neck-popping changes of direction that Earth: Final Conflict went through? Wow. I vaguely remember watching a couple of WOTW episodes, but it never grabbed me.

 

[Christopher]

Worse than all the neck-popping changes of direction that Earth: Final Conflict went through?

Cumulatively, perhaps not. But those changes were more gradual for the most part. This was a huge change that happened all at once and was terrible, not to mention very upsetting in the callous way it disposed of half the first-season cast. Not to mention that the cast change seemed to be motivated by racism, since both the nonwhite leads were dropped, including the show's most popular character (with very, very unconvincing excuses given for their removal), and the show ended up with an all-white cast.

 

[Desert Kris]

I also prize my copy of the War of the Worlds pilot novelization.

I remember being disappointed at the time that Pocket didn't publish any original War of the Worlds novels. After the novelization, I expected them. Maybe they didn't see a market for them. Maybe the novelization didn't sell. I don't know.

It would have been great to have a small handful of novels to fill in gaps or broaden the story behind-the-scenes (organizational details of the Blackwood project's coordination with and access to military assets). It might have helped to smooth over continuity issues with the show, but as Christopher points out, it's such a mess...even before the baffling Season 2 alternate reality. I actually think there are some interesting ideas going on with some of Season 2's, including an enigmatic creature that is the aliens' living god. That plus the relationship of the second wave to the original first season aliens, well...I would love to have another vintage 400+ page novelization from Dillard for the first episode of the second Season, or alternatively a epic length original story lead-in that bridges the gap between seasons.

I got a kick out of reading those reviews, Christopher, thank you for posting the link! I still quite like the pilot episode especially, because it was something like a twenty or more year wait, wondering how the original episode was visually, with that old novelization as the only representation of the story (and really, the only evidence that any such show had actually ever existed!). I was in elementary school during the original series, and the violence and gore and darkness was terrifying! Yet at the same time, I felt drawn to it, and very curious. I was able to catch bits and pieces of it when I was able to muster the nerve for it. The first 5 episodes have most of what I can remember (and the seeds that established very strong false memories), so I'm still glad that it's available to watch again, flawed though it is.

 

[JD]

This conversation brought to mind another alien invasion related TV novelization, the original V. Is that one any good? I've been thinking about checking out the miniseries, and if I like it I'll probably want to check out the novelization too.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Yes, the V novelization is worth reading, but be sure to get the original version as written by Ann Crispin, and not the later re-issue written by "Kenneth Johnson and A.C. Crispin." The former is a novelization of both the original miniseries and V: The Final Battle, whereas the latter removes all the V:TFB material (which Johnson pretty much disavows since he wasn't involved with the second mini-series or the spin-off weekly series). In its place, Johnson supplied new material that serves as connective tissue to a follow-up novel he wrote, V: The Second Generation.

Crispin's original version is (IMHO) the better read.

 

[Christopher]

Howard Weinstein's V: East Coast Crisis is a pretty good read too. It's basically a parallel narrative showing what the New York resistance (all original characters) was doing during the events of the two miniseries. There are a couple of other Crispin and Weinstein V novels that are pretty good, though most of the other books in the series are... less so.