Metamorphosis

[TheAlmanac]

I looked on Fanlore to see if there was anything about Metamorphosis. Not a thing.

I did, however, find a letter to a fanzine where Diane Carey laid into Paramount and Gene Roddenberry over the writing of Ghost Ship. She's polite about it, but she also says some impolitic things. Little wonder she didn't write another Star Trek book until after Roddenberry's death.

Just to bring two recent discussion topics together, this seems like just the sort of interesting behind-the-scenes information which (though it doesn't appear in Voyages of Imagination) could be added to Diane Carey's otherwise bare Memory Beta entry...

 

[trampledamage]

I'm surprised it's not written down somewhere but wasn't there a 'thing' about a dictum coming down that no books should turn Data human? I think Metamorphosis must have already been published, but basically there was a "Never Again" message.

i'm going purely by my own really bad memory here, but that's what immediately came to mind when thinking about an "it" that Jean Lorrah doesn't want to talk about.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm surprised it's not written down somewhere but wasn't there a 'thing' about a dictum coming down that no books should turn Data human? I think Metamorphosis must have already been published, but basically there was a "Never Again" message.

i'm going purely by my own really bad memory here, but that's what immediately came to mind when thinking about an "it" that Jean Lorrah doesn't want to talk about.

I may be misremembering, but wasn't Metamorphosis the first of the books to carry the "Roddenberry disclaimer" on the copyright page? Which I always found a little weird, as Lorrah puts everything back at the end, so it's not like she broke any of the toys.

Beyond that, the outline would have had to pass muster with Roddenberry's office before Lorrah ever started writing. It's not like she wrote the book on her own.

I wonder if Lorrah's issue, what she didn't want to get into "again," was the hands-on approach by the Star Trek office at the time, the same issues that Carey railed against in her Ghost Ship letter.

 

[Markonian]

Btw, there's a German non-fiction book about modern TrekLit from DS9-R, Destiny, to Typhon Pact. Also contains essays on various topics from these novels, e.g. Borg origins and Federation politics. It's CrossCult's Maximum Warp and available as eBook, too.

 

[Defcon]

Btw, there's a German non-fiction book about modern TrekLit from DS9-R, Destiny, to Typhon Pact. Also contains essays on various topics from these novels, e.g. Borg origins and Federation politics. It's CrossCult's Maximum Warp and available as eBook, too.

It's not very good, though, in my opinion. Here's a review I wrote for 8of5's Trek Collective back when it came out. In contrast VOTI is a master piece.

 

[Idran]

Reading that review, Defcon, and while it's off-topic, wow:

To be honest the only interviews that really piqued my interest were the ones specifically talking about the German ST line, one in particular sent chills down my spine when Andreas Brandhorst, who worked as a translator for the former publisher Heyne, states that - and I'm paraphrasing here - they sometimes had to rewrite large portions of books because they were written so badly.

What kind of translator would do that? Localization is one thing, but rewriting a work because of perceived poor writing quality? Ugh. Another reason to be glad Cross Cult took up the license, I suppose.

 

[Stevil2001]

I may be misremembering, but wasn't Metamorphosis the first of the books to carry the "Roddenberry disclaimer" on the copyright page? Which I always found a little weird, as Lorrah puts everything back at the end, so it's not like she broke any of the toys.

Beyond that, the outline would have had to pass muster with Roddenberry's office before Lorrah ever started writing. It's not like she wrote the book on her own.

I wonder if Lorrah's issue, what she didn't want to get into "again," was the hands-on approach by the Star Trek office at the time, the same issues that Carey railed against in her Ghost Ship letter.

Oh, you're right, the Roddenberry note is there. I didn't catch that before-- isn't it more prominent in Vendetta? (My impression from things Peter David has said is that it's not unlikely the Roddenberry office wasn't okaying manuscripts for things that had been in the proposal/outline.)

 

[Idran]

Roddenberry disclaimer? All my older books are boxed up right now, and I must never have paid much attention to the copyright page on them back when I read them originally. What's that?

 

[Christopher]

Roddenberry disclaimer? All my older books are boxed up right now, and I must never have paid much attention to the copyright page on them back when I read them originally. What's that?

As I understand it, when Richard Arnold started really cracking down on the content of tie-ins, there were some that were too far along in the process to be revised, so they just stuck this disclaimer on the copyright page in a rectangular box to call attention to it. The wording varied a bit on some of them, but the one on the Reeves-Stevenses' Prime Directive, for example, says "The plot and background details of Prime Directive are solely the authors' interpretation of the universe of STAR TREK (R) and vary in some respects from the universe as created by Gene Roddenberry."

 

[JD]

Oh, you're right, the Roddenberry note is there. I didn't catch that before-- isn't it more prominent in Vendetta? (My impression from things Peter David has said is that it's not unlikely the Roddenberry office wasn't okaying manuscripts for things that had been in the proposal/outline.)

The thing I find ironic about the Vendatta one is that from what I've read online the big objections was to the fact that it had a female Borg drone, but then just years later they introduced Seven on Voyager.
Did they remove the disclaimer from later editions? I just looked through the sample on Amazon.com, and the copyright page there doesn't have it.

 

[David cgc]

The thing I find ironic about the Vendatta one is that from what I've read online the big objections was to the fact that it had a female Borg drone, but then just years later they introduced Seven on Voyager.

Even better, one of the Borg in Q-Who was female. Now, granted, fuzzy NTSC broadcasts and terrible VHS tapes were the order of the day, but the show was also still in production. You'd think someone would be around who had noticed there'd been a woman on set.

Okay, probably not, it was super-easy for the left and right hands to not know what was going on, but, still. The most pointless of the pointless disclaimers.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Plus the Borg Queen in between those two.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

As I understand it, when Richard Arnold started really cracking down on the content of tie-ins, there were some that were too far along in the process to be revised, so they just stuck this disclaimer on the copyright page in a rectangular box to call attention to it. The wording varied a bit on some of them, but the one on the Reeves-Stevenses' Prime Directive, for example, says "The plot and background details of Prime Directive are solely the authors' interpretation of the universe of STAR TREK (R) and vary in some respects from the universe as created by Gene Roddenberry."

As fond as I am of Prime Directive -- and I am, I've enjoyed reading it and rereading it and I've found passages of it quite moving -- in some ways I feel that book sort of needed the Roddenberry disclaimer. It's a difficult book to fit into the usual FYM chronology given how much time it consumes (six to eight months, I believe), and there's character developments (including the Enterprise herself) that are monumental. (Though you could say that the reason for the refit to the movie-era ship a year later is that, even with Scotty and Styles' repair efforts, the damage from the Talin incident was so extensive that the ship was never quite "right" again.) It's easier to look at this book as a singular vision of Star Trek, not unlike what Lance Parkin would do a few years later with Doctor Who in The Infinity Doctors -- where and how it fits into continuity isn't as important as the story of the characters' greatest adventure.

I look at the book now as something of an "Ultimate Star Trek" story, a la Marvel's Ultimate Universe. Come to think of it, had Star Trek Beyond not already covered similar territory, Prime Directive would actually work well as a Pine-Quinto universe story.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The thing I find ironic about the Vendatta one is that from what I've read online the big objections was to the fact that it had a female Borg drone, but then just years later they introduced Seven on Voyager.

Peter David has told a story at conventions about "no female Borg" in Vendetta that goes something like this:

Paramount: You can't have female Borg. There are no female Borg.

Pocket Books: There's a Borg baby in "Q Who?" They have babies, and they're Borg! When a papa Borg and a mama Borg love each other very, very much... Borg babies!

Paramount: No female Borg.

Pocket Books: But you have to have female Borg, otherwise where do the Borg babies come from?

Paramount: Borg storks.

 

[Christopher]

As fond as I am of Prime Directive -- and I am, I've enjoyed reading it and rereading it and I've found passages of it quite moving -- in some ways I feel that book sort of needed the Roddenberry disclaimer. It's a difficult book to fit into the usual FYM chronology given how much time it consumes (six to eight months, I believe), and there's character developments (including the Enterprise herself) that are monumental. (Though you could say that the reason for the refit to the movie-era ship a year later is that, even with Scotty and Styles' repair efforts, the damage from the Talin incident was so extensive that the ship was never quite "right" again.) It's easier to look at this book as a singular vision of Star Trek, not unlike what Lance Parkin would do a few years later with Doctor Who in The Infinity Doctors -- where and how it fits into continuity isn't as important as the story of the characters' greatest adventure.

But at the time, most Trek novels were "singular visions." Sure, there was a very loose continuity that had developed among a number of the books -- mainly because various writers put in nods to Duane's Rihannsu or Ford's Klingons and Time for Yesterday referenced a ton of other stuff -- but there were still plenty of standalones that contradicted each other. The only obligation in the novels -- and the only obligation Paramount/CBS has ever really cared about -- was consistency with onscreen canon. And canonically, the last year or so of the 5-year mission (two years, if TAS was disregarded) was an open book. So a novel taking 6-8 months in the final year of said mission isn't really a problem where canon is concerned. (Besides, Black Fire did pretty much the same things you're talking about -- a massive story spanning the better part of a year, the Enterprise crippled and rebuilt, even a uniform change.)

 

[Leto_II]

As fond as I am of Prime Directive -- and I am, I've enjoyed reading it and rereading it and I've found passages of it quite moving -- in some ways I feel that book sort of needed the Roddenberry disclaimer. It's a difficult book to fit into the usual FYM chronology given how much time it consumes (six to eight months, I believe), and there's character developments (including the Enterprise herself) that are monumental. (Though you could say that the reason for the refit to the movie-era ship a year later is that, even with Scotty and Styles' repair efforts, the damage from the Talin incident was so extensive that the ship was never quite "right" again.) It's easier to look at this book as a singular vision of Star Trek, not unlike what Lance Parkin would do a few years later with Doctor Who in The Infinity Doctors -- where and how it fits into continuity isn't as important as the story of the characters' greatest adventure.

I look at the book now as something of an "Ultimate Star Trek" story, a la Marvel's Ultimate Universe. Come to think of it, had Star Trek Beyond not already covered similar territory, Prime Directive would actually work well as a Pine-Quinto universe story.

Actually, I think Prime Directive only covers somewhere around 3.5 months or thereabouts -- the opening of the novel takes place in the aftermath of the Talin IV disaster, and Scotty's internal monologue mentions that the Enterprise had basically been sitting there for that entire time awaiting new warp nacelles, that Styles had been in charge for most of that time, etc.

In terms of my own personal chronology/continuity, from the day it was released, it's always been in there, despite that length of months sometimes necessitating some hard choices as to whether or not other tales get moved around or even dropped entirely -- it's an all-timer in my book, regardless of whatever Richard Arnold or Roddenberry might have thought. As you say, the story is so monumental, I can't ignore it, and many other stories have long taken a backseat to it. Also, it's gotten modern Litverse-referenced at least once, in S.C.E.: The Future Begins.

(At the moment, I have Prime Directive ending in late September/very early October 2269, with Christopher's The Face of the Unknown being the very first post-Talin story, covering a week or two, followed by James Swallow's The Latter Fire taking up maybe three days, leading into TAS with "Beyond the Farthest Star" and "Yesteryear" both in late October, going by Christopher's dating of the second episode in DTI: Forgotten History.)

Also, I definitely like your notion of the Talin IV incident causing so much structural damage to the Enterprise that it essentially contributes to the motivations for the starship's eventual refit/redesign a year or two later, even with The Animated Series taking place in between. Lately I've had to rearrange those last two years in my personal chronology, due to also trying to fit in David R. George III's Allegiance in Exile, which -- although taking place across TAS and the near-entirety of Kirk's final year in command of the 5YM -- still has that two-month stretch down the middle where Hikaru Sulu leaves the Enterprise for the USS Courageous, and practically no other stories published to date can even fit there.

(I think the only stories I have in there are "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" from Star Trek: Constellations, and the opening prologue of IDW's Mission's End #2, both of which helped loosen up some of the other months of that final year, in terms of story-congestion.)

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The wording varied a bit on some of them, but the one on the Reeves-Stevenses' Prime Directive, for example, says "The plot and background details of Prime Directive are solely the authors' interpretation of the universe of STAR TREK (R) and vary in some respects from the universe as created by Gene Roddenberry."

Perhaps a better wording would have been "The plot and background details of [Insert Title Here] are solely the authors' interpretation of the universe of STAR TREK (R) and vary in some respects from the universe as interpreted by Richard Arnold."

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm surprised it's not written down somewhere but wasn't there a 'thing' about a dictum coming down that no books should turn Data human? I think Metamorphosis must have already been published, but basically there was a "Never Again" message.

That sounds like an extremely odd directive. You'd think that most authors would stay away from Data becoming human just because Lorrah had already done it. Why not have a rule saying no novels about Spock's child with Zarabeth or no novels about Romulan spies? Those sound about as effective.

 

[Therin of Andor]

in a perfect example of Jeff Ayres's lackluster approach to research, there's only a one-sentence quotation from Jean Lorrah saying she doesn't want to get into it "again"! Which is more useful if you've heard "it" before. Anyone know what "it" is? What's the backstory here? And why can't Ayres look up a source to save his life?

IIRC, Ayers is a fellow librarian, but his purpose with the book was to present information direct from those involved, and not take quotes from other sources. I bet when the authors being interviewed elected not to comment on an issue, they assumed he'd go digging.

I recall the Reeves-Stevenses turned down the chance to comment because they were planning an overhaul of their website, and wanted fresh information re their novels to appear there, then they got busy with "Enterprise" and the revamped website never really happened.

For me, the biggest missed opportunity (on a page with lots of white space!) was the omission of the additional, original story material added to "Star Trek Logs" 7, 8, 9 and 10. The episode adaptations of Filmation's TAS made up only a third of each book. I would have provided the summaries!

However, a new set of five short essays by Alan Dean Foster appear in the most recent set of five trade reprints of the "Logs". Highly recommended for some rare insights!

So no one knows what the deal with Metamorphosis was? Where's @Therin of Andor when you need him?

The problems with "Metamorphosis" were originally highlighted in fan discussions on the old GEnie and UseNet boards. Authors Jean Lorrah, Brad Ferguson, AC Crispin and several others of the day were often there, participating in lively discussion of the battles they were having with the "Star Trek Office" (memos from Richard Arnold, vetting manuscripts for Gene Roddenberry).

I only saved the parts relevant to Andorians at the time. Those old entries used to be visible in News Groups - History in the early days of Google, but perhaps gone now?

From my "Andor Files" webpage:

Lieutenant Thralen, a Theskian with blue skin, antennae and yellow fur-like hair is an Enterprise crewman. His race is "related" to Andorians, but is "more gregarious". [Metamorphosis (Pocket, 1990) by Jean Lorrah.] Lorrah had intended that Thralen actually be an Andorian, but was requested by the then-Star Trek Office at Paramount to make the change, since there were "no Andorians among the Enterprise-D crew" (quote from memo). Jean Lorrah was seemingly paying homage to some Andorian speculations from the old zine article, A Summary of the Physiological Roots of Andorian Culture (1976) by Leslie Fish, a friend from her fanfic days (eg. references to Thralen's "the Great Mother" deity).

As if to reinforce the line in the memo, Troi later mentions the fact in the episode "The Offspring".

I also recall an interview with Lorrah in the popular "Data Entries" newsletter of the day (by Melody & Jim Rondeau), in which she discussed her desired cover art for the novel. She wanted Data staring into a mirror and seeing Brent Spiner.

IIRC, this novel's manuscript was also caught up in the sudden Crusher/Pulaski switch, and initial resistence to using lorrah's original characters from the novel "Survivors", the last Yar novel, originally called "A Question of Security".

Then came Crispin's novel, "The Eyes of the Beholder": Administrator Thuvat, of the Andorian colony world Thonolan IV, was not eager to find placement with a foster family for Thala, since Andorians abhor disabilities amongst their populace; there are continued rumours as to the practice of exposure of imperfect infants to the elements. When the book's author attempted to create a religion for the Andorians, the response from the Star Trek Office was that "Paramount has developed no such culture or religion for the Andorians. Please delete all references to the Andorian culture or religion..." (quote from memo). Thala's diplomat father, Thev, was identified as one of the passengers on the USS Enterprise killed when the ship was under Borg attack. [The Eyes of the Beholders (Pocket, 1990) by AC Crispin; episode Q Who.] He had to be a passenger, since there were no Andorian crew.

Two Peter David novels were affected by the Crusher/Pulaski and Pulaski/Crusher switches too, requiring rewrites of characters at the last minute.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That sounds like an extremely odd directive. You'd think that most authors would stay away from Data becoming human just because Lorrah had already done it. Why not have a rule saying no novels about Spock's child with Zarabeth or no novels about Romulan spies? Those sound about as effective.

It is good to have guides to prevent your story getting rejected for being too similar to all the other stories being pitched. I do recall a memo that listed things that the "Star Trek Office" (and Pocket Books) didn't want to see in future tie-in manuscripts, including Kirk being told by McCoy to go on a diet (very common!), no more sharing of original characters, no more mention of the term "Rihannsu" (Richard often quoted the "We are Romulans!" line from "Balance of Terror" at conventions), that Arex and M'Ress "did not cross over to the movies" (that was mentioned in the second DC Comics' run, lettercol of issue #1), and no more stories where Data becomes human.

(Though you could say that the reason for the refit to the movie-era ship a year later is that, even with Scotty and Styles' repair efforts, the damage from the Talin incident was so extensive that the ship was never quite "right" again.)

IIRC, the Timeliners place "Prime Directive" between TOS and TAS, so the changes, such as the second exit door from the bridge, Chekov's departure, Arex & M'Ress's arrival, are more easily explained.