The Franz Joseph designs were hideous, for one. Also, I seriously doubt that GR would want his stuff "hijacked" by someone else' book.
Canon and deleted scenes
- Thread starter los2188
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The Franz Joseph designs were hideous, for one. Also, I seriously doubt that GR would want his stuff "hijacked" by someone else' book.
To be fair, Director's Cuts do raise some interesting issues. When I did the novelization of the second UNDERWORLD movie, I asked for permission to include a deleted scene. As it turned out, the director was already planning to restore the scene to the Director's Cut so I was told it was okay to include it in the novelization.
There was a bit where Marcus attacks a farmer in a stable en route to chasing after Selene and Michael. As I recall, it's mostly there to explain where Marcus gets some modern clothing and to give Marcus a chance to feed.
It's not essential to the plot, but it didn't contradict anything later on either, so I asked to keep it even after receiving word that it was going to be cut from the theatrical edition of the film . . .
To be honest, I have no idea. The scene's definitely in the book, though!
I know what you mean. When I did the novelisation of The best of Both Worlds (see the link in my signature, the scene itself is in THIS post), there was a scene in the script near the beginning of part 2 that had Riker and Troi talking in the ready room. I have no idea if they filmed it or not, but it was a great character bit, and I left it in. Some great writing by Michael Piller, and I really wanted to give people the chance to read it.
Of course, since I was just doing it by myself for fun, I didn't have to worry about getting clearance for it as greg did, but I can certainly understand the desire to include things that help to develop things a bit more.
Novels "can", but do they have to? If Saavik being half-Romulan is not canon, then novels can also say that Saavik is full Vulcan or even full Romulan.
However, I would think ST licensing may insist that she be referred to as half-Romulan even though this scene was cut from the movie. This could be another case where canon wouldn't be restricted to what was "on-screen".
The only reason they might insist on it is because the novels have already depicted her as half-Romulan for decades, not because of a deleted scene 30 years ago.
But novels are definitely not canon, so they couldn't care less if a novel depicts her as half Romulan.
But the novels and other tie-ins (comics, videogames etc) have to follow canon and conform to it. That's the only realm in which canon actually matters.
No, but they have to follow canon. It's the body of work all tie-ins have to conform to.But novels aren't canon.
The filmmakers and showrunners are free to rewrite Trek as they see fit. What year was Chekov born in? They changed that in 2009. Who's Starship Enteprise came first? Changed in 2001. Thats how much canon means to them. But to those writing the comics, novels, games.... they have to keep up with the latest round of changes and tell their own stories while not making any more changes of established Trek "fact"
No, but they have to follow canon. It's the body of work all tie-ins have to conform to.But novels aren't canon.
Right, but Saavik being half-Romulan was never in the movies and is not canon, so tie-ins do not have to follow it.
My point is that this trait about Saavik may be treated as canon by licensing since it was originally in the script and has been used in other licensed works. Therefore, the rule of "only what was on screen is canon" may not be entirely true.
Ah, but the team at CBS Consumer Products do care about how Star Trek is represented. They consider the novels (and comics and RPG materials) on a case-by-case basis, and often aim for a consistency of product.
If an author presented a scene requiring Saavik to be full Vulcan, based upon Robin Curtis's scenes in ST III, CBS would evaluate the need of the story versus consistency with previous novels. While one tie-in stated that Saavik had never visited Vulcan until the end of ST III, another showed her being raised there by Sarek and Amanda. There has even been a novel that (vaguely, kinda) suggested that a second Saavik may have existed ("Unspoken Truth").
A few times, contractual arrangements have meant that Robin Curtis's image had to be used in DC Comics or on the cover of "The Pandora Principal". Years later, Playmates (and then Diamond) was permitted to do a Kirstie Alley Saavik action figure.
"Not canon" does not ever equate with "not caring".
Canon is whatever the current showrunner (and CBS Consumer Products, whose team critiques every proposal and manuscript) decides it is. Ordinarily, "live action, onscreen, produced by Desilu/Paramount" is canon for the licensed tie-ins, but there have been exceptions about what else can and has been incorporated in the past, eg. Janeway's background from "Mosaic", but only until Jeri Taylor left "Voyager".
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