Movies vs Books...

[RobertScorpio]

The thing I liked (and then didn't like) about the book versions of the movies? The book would usually come out a week or so before the movie. So I would rush down and grab the book at the store, and then read it. But, as most of you know, the book and movie were usually different in many ways.

Savik/David Marcus were lovers...Kirk does neck pinch on doctor saving Chekov from brain operation..things like that.

I know that these books are written way ahead of time due to the time it takes to publish the book. But when you read the book versions you get to see, usually, a more epic version of what the movie could have been...

I had read most of the movie versions up to First Contact. The other two, Nemesis and Insurrection, were so unappealing to me even before they came out I never read them...are they worth a read???

As for the ones I did read? I really enjoyed The Voyage Home, Generations and The Search for Spock. Khan was okay. TMP was better than the movie, but strangely, just as cold too.

Rob
scorpio

 

[Therin of Andor]

The thing I liked (and then didn't like) about the book versions of the movies?

I read ST:TMP's novelization before seeing the movie, and it definitely improved my appreciation for the movie's story, since many diehard fans finding fault with the movie, and who didn't realise how many bits were filled in by Roddenberry's novelization, seemed to feel they'd missed out on something.

ST II is a great novelization. I wasn't able to locate an airfreighted copy before the Australian premiere. But it was sooooo good: all that Saavik/Peter friendship stuff, especially. And links to the Sulu plot of "The Entropy Effect".

And ST III was essential reading for us Australians, who were forced to wait about four extra months for the movie to get here! The novelization of the script doesn't happen for many chapters and the book elaborates on characters not able to be in the film, such as Carol Marcus, the relatives of the deceased Genesis scientists, and Amanda Grayson.

Vonda McIntyre seems like she gave up adding extra stuff to ST IV halfway through, about the time of the trash collectors in Golden Gate Park, whom she reveals are wannabe Hollywood scriptwriters.

JM Dillard's novelizations (ST V to "Nemesis") are okay, but they are not really more "epic" than the films.