Arena was a Frederick Browne story and COTEOF doesn't seem that original to me at all. I seem to recall hearing it before. My father and many people think doomsday was the greatest episode of them all. I mean how topical is it with the H bomb and N Korea. Really.
Okay, so I get that TMP gets a lot of hate BUT here me out. Going from watching The Original Series to seeing The Motion Picture blew my mind! I loved the massive shots of space, the slow pan over the Enterprise. It really threw me into a nerd gasm! But, I acknowledge the film missed something. It's hard to put your finger on it, but it defeinitely missed it. Which, in hindsight it doesnt make sense why. It has all the boxes for a good Science Fiction film checked off. Unknown creature/machine/thing affecting the main cast of characters, good development and dynamics amongst the main crew, awesome visual shots of space and everything, new creative species, and an interesting concept revealed in the end. When I first watched the film I still loved it, mainly for the reasons I highlighted in my first post. But I later decided to read the novellization written by Gene himself and I implore everyone to drop what they are doing and read the book! It is an absolutely amazing read and really captures just what is going on in the film in such a way that you couldn't imagine. Super short read but probably the only Must-Read, in my opinion, for Star Trek fans. Upon completion I guarantee you, too, will find TMP to be the best.
They should have doneTthe War to End all Wars before Voyager got a hold of it and been done with it. They could have combined them nice and neatly too or the Devil's Due - the original version. Even The Child could have been thrown in there for pete's sake, er, good measure.
I don't think I said that it was necessarily original, although I'd be curious what else you think is like it. But it is a very well written and interesting episode.
I've read the TMP novelization cover-to-cover several times. It has some nice elements, but it's unintentionally hilarious for the most part, at least by my read. I think the film is a vastly superior representation of the story than the Roddenberry novelization. Now...in defense of novelizations, I believe the adaptations of TFF and TUC are better than the films.
Just what I need, I have to do homework in order to understand what's going on in a movie, instead understanding during my viewing.
I think the film is enjoyable standalone as well, but that isn't to say it doesnt improve by reading the novel. It's quite ambitious in scope and one of the most "science-fiction" stories in the Trek-universe. I also wouldn't describe it as homework. It's an extremely fun read and even if you dont care about the film, its still one of the best Star Trek novels.
A friend of mine has a theory: the more confusing the movie, the better the novelization sells. Not sure they're entirely wrong.
I think the story just doesn't translate well to script. It's very introspective, and scenes that take two minutes on screen are nearly an entire chapter in the novellization because it dives so deep into the character's thoughts. But I still remember how blown away I was watching The Motion Picture for the first time. The huge leap in quality, seeing the Enterprise getting finalized, the vastness of V-GER. So I think it stands up without reading the novel, though I feel that might be my personal bias. Also I feel the need to point out that just fifteen minutes or so ago I was sitting down reading Assignment: Eternity when I got an email from TrekBBS saying "User Greg Cox responded to the thread ..." Had to do a double take at that one :P
Enjoy the book! I know the feeling, btw. The other day, on another board, I cited "Little Green Men" as one of my favorite DS9 eps--and got a response from the guy who wrote the episode!
A lot of franchises in their haste run over ideas and don't use them right as it were as in the best expression of them. Then when you recycle your own idea you seem derivative. Even Billy Joel said he was derivative. That blew me away.
WOK. It should have been STI, not STII. However, TMP was an ambitious failure. Whereas Dune was lost in the editing room, TMP was in need of editing. Maybe if the Director’s Cut had been released in 1979, I would have voted differently. Not that I’ve seen it, but I heard it’s better than the original release.
The one viewing I gave the Director's Cut... a few new CGI visuals that add some needed scope and visual creativity... but they cut out rather a lot (it became too choppy) and they replaced a lot of sound effects. The new 'red alert' klaxon redefines "wimptacular" to a new level. The extended release, despite the pacing and sets that were clearly not completed in time, did more for me - but I know I'm in the minority on all this.
If you could make one definitive version that combined the best elements of the theatrical, DE, and SLV...I'd be so all over that. I don't like some of the cuts the DE made to dialogue...but that remains my current favorite version I guess.
I'm going with TMP... it's pretty close between that one and TWOK, but my recent rewatch of TMP helped move that one slightly ahead of the latter, at least for today.
Imho Dune was lost when Jodorowsky was replaced with Lynch, and that's coming from a Lynch fan. The editing failures were just tge proverbial icing (or lack thereof ).
I haven't seen Dune, I feel like any Dune movie wouldn't do it justice. Adapting Dune is like adapting Lord of the Rings, you would need like 3 movies (3hours each) to get it right.