Does anybody know...

[DS9forever]

... how the Pocket Books selection process for an episode or two-part episode to get a novelization worked?

I've always wondered why great two-parters like "Best of Both Worlds", "Past Tense", "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" didn't get novelizations.

 

[Christopher]

BoBW probably didn't get a novelization because the idea of doing individual episode novelizations hadn't come along yet. The first TNG novelization after "Encounter at Farpoint" was "Unification," which was no doubt deemed novelization-worthy because Spock was in it. And then came "Relics," because Scotty was in it. It was after those (presumably) did well that the decision was made to do other novelizations.

"Past Tense" and IC/TDiC probably didn't get novelized because they weren't season finale/premiere cliffhangers, which were generally considered the big "events" worthy of adaptation.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The first TNG novelization after "Encounter at Farpoint" was "Unification," which was no doubt deemed novelization-worthy because Spock was in it.

i recall that many of us assumed that, on the heels of the three Bantam/Spectra reprint season-by-season omnibus reprints of TOS adaptations (for ST's 20th anniversary), that TNG season collections of episode adaptations would follow from Pocket. I even wrote to the editors at one point and received a reply that, in the then-current video age, collections of episode adaptations - and concepts such as Fotonovels - had seemingly lost their mass market appeal.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see "Unification" announced, and it was fun, then, trying to predict what episodes would next be selected for adaptation.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Wasn't Unimatrix Zero originally going to have a novelization? Does anyone know why that fell through?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Let's remember that when Blish was doing short story adaptations of TOS scripts, and Foster was doing novella (and eventually full-length novel) adaptations of TAS scripts, there were no DVDs, and the only VCRs that existed were early U-Matics that cost around $2k apiece, and took cassettes that held 62 1/2 minutes, maximum derated capacity, and cost about $10-50 apiece, blank.

Indeed, when Blish was doing about the first 7 or 8 volumes, the only amateur video recording format was 1/2-inch reel-to-reel, most of which was monochrome-only, and the decks did not have built-in tuners.

By the time TNG came out, everybody who wanted to relive the episodes was taping them off-air on VHS, and TOS episodes were available on commercial VHS tapes.

 

[toughlittleship]

Wasn't Unimatrix Zero originally going to have a novelization? Does anyone know why that fell through?

http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lostbooks.html

The date of March 2001 seems odd, given that the second part of Unimatrix Zero aired in September 2001.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The date of March 2001 seems odd, given that the second part of Unimatrix Zero aired in September 2001.

It aired in October 2000, actually. Part 1 was in May 2000. So March 2001 seems to be missing the boat for a novelization of a season premiere. (TNG's "Descent" had been out in the October of the same year as Part I and Part II of its episodes; DS9's "The Search" had been out in the November of the same year as Part I and Part II of its episodes.)

The "Unimatrix Zero" novelization is still listed on various sites here:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=0...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Hehehe. One Amazon reseller claims to have a second hand copy for $92.36! Another site claims it to be the "Second Season Premiere".