Lack of Logs in Trek Lit?

[GalaxyClass1701]

In currently reading Death in Winter and one if the chapters starts off with a Captains log. It made me realize for ad much as it happens in the shows it hardly ever happens in the novels.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Relayer1]

It's usually needed for exposition in the show. In novels you can take the time to set the scene, show preceeding events and 'hear' characters thoughts.

I'd like a few more though...

 

[zarkon]

In currently reading Death in Winter and one if the chapters starts off with a Captains log. It made me realize for ad much as it happens in the shows it hardly ever happens in the novels.

Any thoughts on this?

It's an expositive device to remind people what happened before the commercial break that's not really needed in a book.

It can have it's literary uses to show the captains thoughts in that manner, but there will never be as much call for it as there is in a tv show.

 

[JarodRussell]

In currently reading Death in Winter and one if the chapters starts off with a Captains log. It made me realize for ad much as it happens in the shows it hardly ever happens in the novels.

Any thoughts on this?

It's an expositive device to remind people what happened before the commercial break that's not really needed in a book.

It can have it's literary uses to show the captains thoughts in that manner, but there will never be as much call for it as there is in a tv show.

Yet it has been in every movie, including the most recent one.

 

[zarkon]

Yes?

I did say it'd still have its uses outside of an exposition device for ad-blitzed tv watchers.

 

[Christopher]

Apparently it's come to be considered something of a cliched device, so it's something we try (or are encouraged) to avoid. And not just in the books. DS9 made fairly infrequent use of log entries, and the other modern shows tended to use them less than TOS and less as time went on.

 

[captcalhoun]

it's the lack of stardates i find annoying.

 

[Sci]

It's really a narrative device that works better in the live action medium than in a novel. To me, I think logs would tend to work better in the novels when they're done as epistolary devices rather than as the exposition-dumps that we usually find in the episodes.

 

[Greg Cox]

I sometimes like to begin a TREK book with a log entry, just for nostalgia's sake, but once the story gets going there are more graceful ways of conveying exposition.

And, of course, books don't have commercial breaks!

 

[Timewalker]

I sometimes like to begin a TREK book with a log entry, just for nostalgia's sake, but once the story gets going there are more graceful ways of conveying exposition.

And, of course, books don't have commercial breaks!

But they do have bathroom breaks, food breaks, sleep breaks, "the cat jumped up on me and knocked the book out of my hands" breaks, telephone breaks, answer-the-door breaks, "oh damn - where did I leave my book?" breaks...

 

[DorkBoy [TM]]

It seems to me like they were very common in older Trek novels. You're right that they're not as common these days.

I guess Christopher's probably right that they're considered cliche now or something.

When I was a kid and wrote my own "Star Trek" stories, they ALWAYS started with a Captain's Log entry.

 

[Stevil2001]

We did one in A Choice of Catastrophes to cover a two-day gap in the most painless way possible.

 

[DrBashir]

We did one in A Choice of Catastrophes to cover a two-day gap in the most painless way possible.

Works for me. I personally like the logs. It makes it feel more Trek like. Doesn't have to be done all the time though. Use it when appropriate.

 

[Tiberius]

The thing I hated in the logs in the books was that they turned into full page things where the captain spills his heart out, describing his feelings and whatnot. In the show, they were only ever a sentence or two that was used to set up what was happening.

 

[Idran]

The thing I hated in the logs in the books was that they turned into full page things where the captain spills his heart out, describing his feelings and whatnot. In the show, they were only ever a sentence or two that was used to set up what was happening.

Wait, when did a book have a Captain's Log do this? A personal log, sure, but those are an entirely different thing, and that's what they did on the show too. Like in "In The Pale Moonlight".

 

[Tiberius]

One of the old Next Gen books did it. Been ages since I've read them though, so I couldn't tell you what it was.

 

[JD]

Yeah, the logs aren't in the books that much are they? But, I'm not that attached to them, TBH, so it doesn't upset me that much. I do like them in shows, but like others have said, you can get everything a log would give in the regular text of the book, so I don't think they're really that necessary.