I Came To Star Trek Through the Novels

[Cake Is Eternal]

On a recent thread I was reading, I saw the statement that most people do not come to Star Trek through the novels. Instead they watch the show and then seek out tie-in fiction. I wanted to share that I might be unique in the fact that I did indeed come to Star Trek through the novels and the audio cassettes. To this day, the characterizations and events of the novels are more “real” to me than the shows. For example, my head canon discounts the TNG movies in favor of the TOS giant novels “Strangers from the Sky” by Margaret Wander Bonanno and “Federation” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. I came to know the crew of the original series through “Prime Directive” and “World Without End” (remember that one?) My favorite Trek Captain of all time is Captain April, who has only been portrayed on screen once in TAS, simply from his characterization in “Final Frontier” and “Best Destiny” by Diane Carey.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian group that didn’t permit us to watch television, but there was no ban on reading. I heard the voices of the various actors and the sound effects of Trek through the cassette tapes. I found that the audio books in those days were woefully abridged, and it was always a delight to discover the novel after hearing the abridged version, so that I could hear the voices of each character as I read.
Now that I’ve watched most of Trek, I still find I have the same devotion to the novels that I ever did.

 

[Damian]

I would say that you're probably the rare exception. Most Trekkies started with the show and then some of us moved onto the novels. Many Trekkies have probably never read a Star Trek novel (IMO their loss, there are a lot of great Star Trek novels out there). One advantage of seeing the show first was that I could more easily envision the crew in those stories. One of my all time favorite novels was "Chain of Attack" by Gene DeWeese, and he was very good at providing good visualizations in his stories. That, combined with being able to already envision the characters and sets, made it that much more enjoyable to read. I could easily see the story as I was reading it.

In my case I actually started with the original movies. And I'm a bit unusual in the fact that it was when I rented "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" from a local video store way back in 1986 that I became a Trekkie (I only remember the year because it was a few months before Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was released). I loved that movie, and to this day it remains my favorite Star Trek film of the 13. In many ways I saw that movie as the most 'perfect' Star Trek film, as far as what Star Trek was created to be at its core. I had previously seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but neither of those movies brought me in the fold. Now after I saw TMP and I was hooked, I rented out TWOK and TSFS and saw those two films in a new light. THEN I started renting out the videos of the original series at a local grocery store (the TV series was just being released on VHS at the time--really one of the first TV series to be released on VHS, that tells you how popular Star Trek really is to its fans, nobody thought to release TV series episodes on video at the time). The store bought about 10 episodes of the beginning of the 2nd season (funny aside I remember "Catspaw" was one they had but for some reason they never had it available--I think someone rented it and forgot they had it, it was weeks before I finally was able to rent it out, which is why I always had a special place in my heart for that episode). I also always joke around that I'm one of the 10 people that liked "Nemesis" and to this day I don't understand the hate that movie gets.

But it was soon after I immediately got into the books. I read the novelization to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home first. It was an interesting novel because it included a lot of things that weren't actually in the movie. My very first original Star Trek novel was Battlestations! by Diane Carey (a sequel to Dreadnought, so naturally I quickly got that novel to read sometime after). I remember at the time I didn't yet realize the novels were original stories, and not based on actual episodes. I thought to myself "I can't wait to see that episode." I quickly learned, of course, that those were original stories and I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't get to see it on screen. Then I picked up other novels and I was excited to get the Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman when I found that. Back then, of course, there was no internet (at least as we know it now) so that was how I found out about all the episodes.

I also remember buying and reading the novelization of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier a week before the movie came out when it was released. It sounded like it was going to be a really good movie based on the book, but sadly the film didn't quite live up to the novel. I still liked TFF, but this was a case where the novelization was stronger than the film, IMO.

And I made the mistake of reading Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country a week before that film came out, again when the book was released, since when I saw the film I already knew who dunnit. Oops.

 

[KRAD]

Many Trekkies have probably never read a Star Trek novel

That's an understatement. The best-selling Trek novel still reaches less than 10% of the audience for the Trek TV shows and movies.

 

[Damian]

That's an understatement. The best-selling Trek novel still reaches less than 10% of the audience for the Trek TV shows and movies.

And boy are they missing some great stories. Vendetta, the Destiny Trilogy, Spock's World, and Yesterday's Son....just so many great stories, too many to mention in fact, that they are missing out on

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

And boy are they missing some great stories. Vendetta, the Destiny Trilogy, Spock's World, and Yesterday's Son....just so many great stories, too many to mention in fact, that they are missing out on

So true. I recommend the books to everyone. I’m a Trek novel verse ambassador.

 

[Damian]

So true. I recommend the books to everyone. I’m a Trek novel verse ambassador.

And those are just some off the top of my head.

I also loved the continuing relaunch novels that were coming out over the last 20+ years that basically started with Deep Space Nine's Avatar (though other older books have since been retroactively been added). Even though Picard has pretty much wiped the slate clean, at least from about Destiny on, those are still great stories and an alternate take on the post-Nemesis timeline. Plus, of course, the Enterprise relaunch. Someday I might like to revisit those novels

And at least for me, the novels kept Star Trek alive after Enterprise went off the air and there was just the Abrams movies. I was still enjoying new Star Trek stories even while many other fans were in a sort of Star Trek oblivion where there was nothing new.

 

[Starbreaker]

I actually read Q-Space before I saw any Star Trek on TV. I got it as a gift and we didn't have cable at the time.

 

[Greg Cox]

I actually read Q-Space before I saw any Star Trek on TV. I got it as a gift and we didn't have cable at the time.

So it's all my fault!

 

[Starbreaker]

So it's all my fault!

Yes. You're the reason I was mercilessly bullied in 6th grade. Reading and Star Trek are cool now though, so it's ok. I got the last laugh.

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

Yes. You're the reason I was mercilessly bullied in 6th grade. Reading and Star Trek are cool now though, so it's ok. I got the last laugh.

Yayyyyy, those of us who grew up nerds are finally Cool! We were nerdy when nerdy wasn’t cool!

 

[Kilana2]

I didn't care for DS9 until I read the novels. Now it is my favorite show.

 

[David cgc]

Not with Star Trek, but I got some Babylon 5 novels from my sister for my birthday when I was a kid, and got into the show that way. In retrospect, I think the show was still on broadcast TV at that point, but I'd somehow come to think it was only on cable, so I couldn't watch it. It was a long time before I was ever able to actually watch the show, when the first few episodes were released on VHS, and my experience up to then was entirely through printed tie-ins and on-line episode guides and fan-art.

 

[Kilana2]

Yes. You're the reason I was mercilessly bullied in 6th grade. Reading and Star Trek are cool now though, so it's ok. I got the last laugh.

There are only few things we can do right now except reading.

 

[Smiley]

I can't remember exactly how I got into Star Trek. It was probably TNG episodes. I do remember that one of my first Trek reads was the novelization of The Search for Spock, and I think that I had not seen any TOS episodes or movies at that point in time.

However someone comes to Trek, it is a great universe with plenty of stuff for all sorts of tastes.

 

[Little_kingsfan]

For years - particularly through the era of the Relaunch/novel-verse (so say 2002/2003 through approximately 2016/2017) - I know it was easier for me to read the books than watching the episodes on rerun...and then I got Netflix, CBS All Access, and other streaming platforms which allows me to go back and watch individual episodes or the story arc at my leisure.

 

[Damian]

So it's all my fault!

Hey, there are worse things that could be your fault You helped create a Star Trek fan.

One things I like about the novels is they can go much deeper, go to really strange new worlds, and you can get into the characters heads as well. And they can be epic in scope. I mean, who wouldn't love to see Destiny on screen?

And many times they are so big in scope it'd be hard to see them in a single episode. A Contest of Principles, for instance, would probably require at least a mini-series to be filmed properly. There's no way that would fit in a single episode of the original series, or even a 2 parter.

 

[Greg Cox]

True story: Years ago I was browsing at a bookshop when a woman points at me and goes "That's him! That's the guy!"

My heart sinks, fearing this is some ghastly case of mistaken identity. Then she continues:

"That's the guy who hooked me on comic books back in high school!"

Oh, so no mistake then . . .

 

[Elwro]

I've certainly read more TOS novels then watched TOS episodes. I tried watching the series recently but even with all zest I could muster I have to say it has aged painfully. The modern TOS novels, on the other hand, are a joy!

 

[DEWLine]

Welcome aboard, however you got here!

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

Welcome aboard, however you got here!

Thank you, I’m a Trekkie for life! Love both the old and the new and everything in between!