Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Episode

[warriorsfan]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

I always thought that the TNG comic book arc "The Worst of Both Worlds" would have made a great TNG episode. The Ent-D crosses into an alternate universe where Picard was never rescued from the Borg and the Earth gets assimilated.

 

[Sci]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Dayton3 said:
I always felt that Peter David's novel "Vendetta" would've made a great two or three part episode followup to "The Best of Both Worlds".

For practical reasons I would've dropped the Delcara subplot and the female Borg subplot and made it more focused on the action and the tension between Picard and Captain Korsmo.

Wait. I'm confused.

If you take Vendetta and get rid of Delcara.... then who's got the vendetta?

 

[Forbin]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Picard?

 

[Warp Coil]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Vendetta was the very first Trek novel I'd ever read. That was probably 15 years ago. I still have the book. After I read the last TNG novel, Before Dishonor (also by Peter David, also featuring the Borg, and also featuring a Planet Killer - this thing references events from the earlier book), I went back and re-read Vendetta. I think it's still an interesting read, and could have made for a great movie. But I think too much time has passed and the Borg have become so cartoonishly bad that I don't know if it would work.

I absolutely loved the Borg as depicted in TNG up through FC. But VOY ruined them. We've also seen a Borg female get de-assimilated in Seven of Nine. I know the character Reanna in Vendetta is 100% different than Seven, but the story just isn't fresh anymore. I also don't think that a story that heavily features Guinan and Delcara would work on a commercial level. Had this story been used for, say, a season-ending cliffhanger (instead of the subpar "Descent" at the end of season 6/beginning of season 7), it would have been cool.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Sci said:

Dayton3 said:
I always felt that Peter David's novel "Vendetta" would've made a great two or three part episode followup to "The Best of Both Worlds".

For practical reasons I would've dropped the Delcara subplot and the female Borg subplot and made it more focused on the action and the tension between Picard and Captain Korsmo.

Wait. I'm confused.

If you take Vendetta and get rid of Delcara.... then who's got the vendetta?

You couldn't have I suppose.

You would have had to have had someone who sought out the Planet Killer and reactivated it.

But I wouldn't have made it some mysterious woman who was Guinans adopted sister.

Perhaps a former classmate at the Academy of Picard and Korsmos.

Someone they both knew. Picard trying hard to save them while Korsmo wanted to kill the threat and be done with it.

 

[CaptainJon]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

If you remove the Delcara/Guinan plot, then you lose the "Vendetta". It's about Delcara's revenge against the Borg. That's the entire point of the Planet-Killer trying to destroy the Borg and vice versa! Without Delcara, the Planet-Killer is just that.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

The Planet Killer did just fine on its own in "The Doomsday Machine".

One thing I've hated about modern Trek.

They assume that no drama can take place without some kind of human face on the villian.

That's both a lack of imagination and poor writing.

 

[CaptainJon]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

The thing is, though, that we only know that the Planet-Killer is on its way to destroy the Borg because of Delcara. If no one knows the Planet-Killer is on the way to destroy the Borg, then the Borg have no reason to destroy the Planet-Killer.

I think if you remove Delcara, you remove a very human and dramatic element from the story. A lot of the story's drama and power comes from the Delcara story. I think it would hurt the story to remove it, and just turn it into an emotionless action affair.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Dayton3 said:
The Planet Killer did just fine on its own in "The Doomsday Machine".

One thing I've hated about modern Trek.

They assume that no drama can take place without some kind of human face on the villian.

That's both a lack of imagination and poor writing.

No, it's a lack of understanding on your part. You've made it abundantly clear that you hate half of what was in the book, so why advocate turning the remaining half into an episode? You might personally get some satisfaction out of it, but for those of us who enjoyed the novel as-is, all you're doing is twisting the story into something it wasn't.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

santa biggles said:

Dayton3 said:
The Planet Killer did just fine on its own in "The Doomsday Machine".

One thing I've hated about modern Trek.

They assume that no drama can take place without some kind of human face on the villian.

That's both a lack of imagination and poor writing.

No, it's a lack of understanding on your part. You've made it abundantly clear that you hate half of what was in the book, so why advocate turning the remaining half into an episode? You might personally get some satisfaction out of it, but for those of us who enjoyed the novel as-is, all you're doing is twisting the story into something it wasn't.

Most Trek novels are too long anyway.

And in regard to the post two above,

Delcara had nothing to do with the Planet Killer drawing the attention of the Borg.

The Borg detected the Planet Killer themselves and sent their ships to intercept it.

Whether Delcara was aboard it or not matters not.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Dayton3 said:
Most Trek novels are too long anyway.

Maybe someone can get you the Cliffs Notes for Christmas. Or the easy-reader version. I hear that one has lots of one-syllable words and nifty pictures.

 

[Warp Coil]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Dayton3 said:

santa biggles said:

Dayton3 said:
The Planet Killer did just fine on its own in "The Doomsday Machine".

One thing I've hated about modern Trek.

They assume that no drama can take place without some kind of human face on the villian.

That's both a lack of imagination and poor writing.

No, it's a lack of understanding on your part. You've made it abundantly clear that you hate half of what was in the book, so why advocate turning the remaining half into an episode? You might personally get some satisfaction out of it, but for those of us who enjoyed the novel as-is, all you're doing is twisting the story into something it wasn't.

Most Trek novels are too long anyway.

And in regard to the post two above,

Delcara had nothing to do with the Planet Killer drawing the attention of the Borg.

The Borg detected the Planet Killer themselves and sent their ships to intercept it.

Whether Delcara was aboard it or not matters not.

My understanding is that Delcara found the Planet Killer and used it as her tool to destroy the Borg. Had she not gone after the Borg the way she did, the collective would never have known the Planet Killer existed. Once Delcara started destroying cubes, the Borg got curious and went after it. So really, Delcara's motivations and actions are directly responsible for the story.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Warp Coil said:

Dayton3 said:

santa biggles said:

Dayton3 said:
The Planet Killer did just fine on its own in "The Doomsday Machine".

One thing I've hated about modern Trek.

They assume that no drama can take place without some kind of human face on the villian.

That's both a lack of imagination and poor writing.

No, it's a lack of understanding on your part. You've made it abundantly clear that you hate half of what was in the book, so why advocate turning the remaining half into an episode? You might personally get some satisfaction out of it, but for those of us who enjoyed the novel as-is, all you're doing is twisting the story into something it wasn't.

Most Trek novels are too long anyway.

And in regard to the post two above,

Delcara had nothing to do with the Planet Killer drawing the attention of the Borg.

The Borg detected the Planet Killer themselves and sent their ships to intercept it.

Whether Delcara was aboard it or not matters not.

My understanding is that Delcara found the Planet Killer and used it as her tool to destroy the Borg. Had she not gone after the Borg the way she did, the collective would never have known the Planet Killer existed. Once Delcara started destroying cubes, the Borg got curious and went after it. So really, Delcara's motivations and actions are directly responsible for the story.

My point was, you didn't have to have Delcara as the character who discovered the Planet Killer.

I suggested a former academy classmate of both Picard and Korsmo. Someone who had studied Kirks Doomsday Machine encounter, reasoned as Peter David had Picard do that it couldn't have come from too far away, and goes and finds it just to be "possessed" by whats left of the minds of its creators.

But I felt the character of Delcara was too far out there to be believable.

Remember, a novel doesn't have to be line by line translated into an episode to be effective.

Diane Duane's excellent "The Wounded Sky" was the basis for Diane Duane's first season ST:TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before".

Of course, the Klingon battle in "The Wounded Sky" alone made that novel superior.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

In the words of a pint-sized philosopher from a different science fiction franchise, "Wars not make one great."

 

[Dayton3]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

santa biggles said:
In the words of a pint-sized philosopher from a different science fiction franchise, "Wars not make one great."

4000 years of history disagree

and who cares

Yoda was a LOSER in the war that mattered

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

ONE POINT TWO ONE JIGAWATTS, MARTY! LET'S GO BACK TO THE FUCKIN' FUTURE, FIND SOME PEANUT BUTTER M&M'S AND COWBOY UP!



Well, it makes about as much sense as a Vendetta-based episode would once Waffle Boy here got finished gutting the novel. Another episode about yet another rogue Starfleet captain, punctuated by lots of 'splosions and fury, signifying nothing. Yawn.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

It was an outstanding book! Another book I would have liked to have seen on the screen would have been "Ship of the Line"

 

[Spider]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

santa biggles said:

Dayton3 said:
Most Trek novels are too long anyway.

Maybe someone can get you the Cliffs Notes for Christmas. Or the easy-reader version. I hear that one has lots of one-syllable words and nifty pictures.

santa biggles said:
ONE POINT TWO ONE JIGAWATTS, MARTY! LET'S GO BACK TO THE FUCKIN' FUTURE, FIND SOME PEANUT BUTTER M&M'S AND COWBOY UP!



Well, it makes about as much sense as a Vendetta-based episode would once Waffle Boy here got finished gutting the novel. Another episode about yet another rogue Starfleet captain, punctuated by lots of 'splosions and fury, signifying nothing. Yawn.

Troll much Biggles?

Cut it out, it's Christmas, and I really don't need this.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Re: Peter David's "Vendetta" Would've Made Great ST:TNG Epis

Sgt. Scrooge said:
Troll much Biggles?

Only the people I really like.