Which is a shame, because I would have enjoyed reading the additional detail it would have likely added to Krall's backstory.
"Beyond" Novelization
- Thread starter Daddy Todd
- Start date
It may not have. A lot of novelization authors are under instructions by the studios not to embellish on details not provided in the scripts these days. I don't know why, it's pretty much the only draw novelizations could have in the modern era, but there you have it.
True, but even three or four paragraphs would have been a substantial "elaboration."
Really? I actually hadn't heard that, that's kind of a shame.
That was a disappointment with the novelizations of the last two movies. They were very bare-bones. I'd grown up reading and really enjoying Foster's Star Trek Log adaptations (and expansions) of the animated episodes, so I was looking forward to seeing similar work on ST09 and STID. None of that allowed, apparently. And the ST09 novelization was also a bit of a rush job, as I understand it. Quite a let-down...
Given the restrictions that studios impose on novelizers today, there'd be no way to expand on the story the way McIntyre did in her novelizations.
It would have been nice to see some kind of display for Beyond merch at my local bookstore.
IDW plugged the gap in TOS comic adaptations by releasing a Star Trek II comic adaptation 27 years after the movie was released-- and it outsold their adaptation of the 2009 film released around the same time. Hopefully some fan completist will commission a book to fill the gap in 2043, by which point we'll all be nostalgic for Beyond, and its writer will have the freedom to fill in backstory.
I don't think there is much to display. As far as I know the only Beyond merchandise is the Funco Pops!.
About embellishing novelisations, how pissed were Paramount - CBS, Bad Robot or whoever - with Alan Dean Foster over text involving a certain Admiral Archer receiving his prized beagle back then? Because that definitely didn't occur onscreen the last time I saw the 2009 film. Although I'd clearly welcome the notion they considered such a cameo, only to lose it between screenplay drafts.
Last edited:
Well, the comics completely ignored that bit by having it happen in a somewhat different manner in the Ongoing series, so make of that what you will.
It's not a hard and fast rule, and ADF was hand-selected by Orci & Kurtzman, IIRC, based on their appreciation of his work on SF movie novelizations over the decades. I bet they conferred with him on a few "extras". The content of a two-hour movie script does not a novel-length manuscript make.
Vonda McIntyre added lots of scenes to her ST II and ST III novelizations, but things tightened up halfway through her novelization of ST IV, and the "extra scenes" and original-to-author new characters simply stop appearing in the rest of that book. JM Dillard embellished less, but scenes that work perfectly well onscreen sometimes need more context in book form.
I'm pretty sure that was a deleted scene. Planned for a post-credits gag scene originally, I think.
Exactly. It's a tendency, not a decree. In general, my impression is that the studios have gotten a bit stricter about embellishments over the years, but it still varies from project to project and even from scene to scene or character to character, depending.
If the studio didn't like it, it wouldn't have been there, and if Foster was pissing people off, they wouldn't have rehired him for into Darkness.
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.
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.
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. TWOK and TSFS are easily my favorite of the movie novelizations because they add so much to the films.
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. TWOK and TSFS are easily my favorite of the movie novelizations because they add so much to the films.
Similar threads
