"Forbidden Planet" as TOS prequel?

The thing about Dr. who and FP was that they made you think. It would have been the best TOS episode ever. And just on that point as an aside, I love how franchises try to take swipes at other franchises. Ex. Aliens - 'Not another bug hunt' - a swipe at Starship Troopers. Star Wars - 'We've traced it to disgruntled spice miners on one of the moons of Naboo' - a swipe at Dune.

 

The McCoy one actually looks pretty legit.

Good stuff.

 

The things that make Guzman's art look something like TNG - or for that matter, very much like ST:TMP - are the aspect ratio of the main viewer and the use of true curves rather than angled flats to produce the 360 degree walls.

 

Well, that was taken from the novel Starship Troopers, since the movie was nowhere near being made yet; a single novel cannot validly be described as a "franchise." For that matter, Aliens was only the second film in the series, so that couldn't really have been called a "franchise" either. And it wasn't a "swipe at" Troopers, but an affectionate homage to it.

I was thinking in terms of the red-shouldered black uniform on the standing crewperson and the vaguely conn/ops-style console in the foreground.

 

An affectionate homage? Oh yea, sure. There's nothing affectionate where money is concerned. It was viscious.

 

I am happy to recognize FP as an influence on the development of TOS, but I agree with the view that it does not need to be wedged into the ST universe.

Also, FP does not need to be re-made, re-imagined, re-booted, sequeled, or prequeled. It's just fine as is.

 

You don't know what you're talking about. Money is concerned in every work of professional fiction, because people need to feed and clothe their families (so yes, affection can be involved where money is concerned), but that doesn't make them incapable of appreciating other works of creativity and paying tribute to them. There are countless works of fond homage throughout literature, film, television, music, and every other creative medium.

Besides, how is simply using the same two-word phrase used in an earlier creative work "vicious"? Also, how would money have been involved? At the time, Starship Troopers was a well-known novel to science fiction audiences, meaning it would've been pretty obscure to movie audiences overall. The reference would've meant nothing to 99% of the people who paid money to see the film. But Heinlein's book was an obvious influence on Cameron's film in many respects, not just that single phrase. If he'd had "vicious" negative feelings toward the book, he wouldn't have used it as an influence.

 

I was never happy with Kirk. And I was going to replace Anderson with Doohan, but never found a pic that worked.

 

^Hey, Richard Anderson was Oscar Goldman, so he's a built-in mashup right there.

 

Would either of these work?

 

Also, this PHASE II design:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:USS_Enterprise_bridge,_Phase_II.jpg

 

It's also a crossover with Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels. (The planet they visit is "Lightunder." Get it? Darkover. Lightunder. Yeah, subtle.)

I think TDatE is okay. Kirk is pretty badly handled. I'm also not sure how well Airey knew her Doctor Who, as she deals with something that The Three Doctors dealt with, namely the mental blocks the Time Lords put in the Doctor's mind after The War Games.

The sidequel, "The Lieutenant and the Doctor," is, umm, okay, yeah I read it. I spent a few years tracking it down, and when I found it, it wasn't what I was expecting -- namely, that TDatE sets up the A&A officer, Dorcy Stephens, as a potential companion-like character. I assumed that "Lieutenant" took place after TDatE, that perhaps Stephens stowed away on the TARDIS. Instead, the story relates some of the events on Lightunder from Stephens perspective, particularly her sexual relationship with the Doctor. If I could unread a story, I would. It's not terrible, but it changed my perspective on the original.

 

I think I'll skip the sequel.

As for how Kirk was handled, yeah, he came off as something of a prick, but he wasn't necessarily all that out of character. This oddball comes onto his ship and everyone just takes to him without so much as a second thought, I think Kirk was justified in feeling that his authority was more than a little undermined. And it's not like we haven't seen him get a little testy on occasion.

 

What you call an homage, Cris, I call lifting and stealing. I even think 'All Good things was a direct rip off of 'Slaughter House Five' and please don't try to convince me otherwise. Nobody has any affection for feeding your children. Just my opinion.

 

Incorporating a bit of slang from "Starship Troopers" isn't stealing in any meaningful sense. It was a cute little homage, that's all.

 

Kurt Vonnegut owe you money or something?

 

I'm getting ten percent of what's owed to Kurt Vonnagut. Now if the ship was getting unstuck in time that would be sufficiently different. Problem solved, but it's easier to be lazy. And it's not slang from Starship troopers it's the whole concept. What else is there besides the concept?

 

At least it's not as bad as owing Harlan Ellison money!

 

You can see a heavy influence of the 50s in FP though: no non-white person anywhere.

It's the biggest thing that makes it impossible for me to see FP as a Star Trek adventure.

I've always looked at FP as an alternate reality; what the Star Trek universe would be like, if the South had won the civil war.

 

Considering CSN ships had them, a Confederated Planets cruiser would have blacks as menials (slave or not) and servants. Assuming slavery ended and a South African-style apartheid situation hadn't developed and persisted after four hundred years, they could serve as regular crew though possibly not as senior officers. The complete absence of non-whites in FP is a product of our 1950's and its attitudes and prejudices, not an alternate reality.

It wouldn't have killed them to have a couple of guys in the background and they should have done it. Innovation's comic adaptation discussed above does have several non-whites in the crew.