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Saavik lit

Janos

Janos

Commander
Red Shirt
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It is a decent novel and certainly provides a lot of backstory for Saavik.

But while Unspoken Truth uses some elements from that novel, you don't really have to read it before Unspoken Truth, since everything important is explained there.

In my interview with Margaret Wander Bonanno from April 2009 she said this about the connection to The Pandora Principle:

“I’m relying somewhat on Carolyn Clowes’ excellent novel The Pandora Principle,” she reveals. “In the novelisation of The Wrath of Khan, Vonda McIntyre makes passing reference to Saavik’s being half-Romulan and an orphan from a planet called Hellguard, but isn’t able to go into a lot of detail. Clowes takes that concept much further, showing us a feral child surviving on a hostile world when the Romulans abandon it. I’m paying homage to that in a number of flashbacks, tweaking it a bit to fit my story.
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Thanks. Is this still in print or planned to be re-released the way some older Trek lit is or am I used book shopping for TPP? Thanks again.
 
The Pandora Principle is a great book. Saavik's origins on Hellguard and her early years are explored. You can probably get a used copy from eBay or Amazon for little more than the cost of shipping.

I haven't read Unspoken Truth yet, but I'm looking forward to it!
 
KingDaniel said:
The Pandora Principle is a great book. Saavik's origins on Hellguard and her early years are explored. You can probably get a used copy from eBay or Amazon for little more than the cost of shipping.
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Thanks. I just picked up a new version of The Pandora Principle on Amazon for slightly over $3. :rommie: Horray for me, except the shipping costs more than the book. :cardie: Eh, c'est la view.

I'll probably read this before I get to Unspoken Truth.
 
One thing to keep in mind about Unspoken Truth is that its take on Saavik is very much based on Robin Curtis's take on Saavik, not Kirstie Alley's. I really didn't like Curtis's Saavik, so the book didn't work as well for me as it might have.
 
Janos said:
I just picked up Unspoken Truth and its Historian's note it mentions an old novel called The Pandora Principle (TPP)from over 20 years ago. Has anyone read TPP? Is it recommended? Also, do I need to read it to better understand Unspoken Truth (which I haven't started yet). Thanks!

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/_...Principle.jpg/292px-The_Pandora_Principle.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/_...ruth_cover.jpg/292px-Unspoken_Truth_cover.jpg
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I converted your hotlinked images.
See info here: http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=4753230#post4753230
 
Unspoken Truth is perhaps in my top-10 list for TrekLit. It's a great book. If you are a Saavik fan, you will love this book.

Heh. Saavik: "The Photon Torpedo".
 
Steve Roby said:
One thing to keep in mind about Unspoken Truth is that its take on Saavik is very much based on Robin Curtis's take on Saavik, not Kirstie Alley's. I really didn't like Curtis's Saavik, so the book didn't work as well for me as it might have.
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I'd have to re-view the movies, but how would two actresses portraying the same character impact the lit (beyond the cover image)?
 
Steve Roby said:
One thing to keep in mind about Unspoken Truth is that its take on Saavik is very much based on Robin Curtis's take on Saavik, not Kirstie Alley's. I really didn't like Curtis's Saavik, so the book didn't work as well for me as it might have.
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That's the very reason I liked it.
 
Janos said:
Steve Roby said:
One thing to keep in mind about Unspoken Truth is that its take on Saavik is very much based on Robin Curtis's take on Saavik, not Kirstie Alley's. I really didn't like Curtis's Saavik, so the book didn't work as well for me as it might have.
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I'd have to re-view the movies, but how would two actresses portraying the same character impact the lit (beyond the cover image)?
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The characterizations of Saavik in STII and III were completely different. Kirstie Alley played a feisty, naive Vulcan/Romulan hybrid. Robin Curtis played the role as an ice cold full-blooded Vulcan (presumably since the lines identifying Saavik as half-Romulan in Wrath of Khan were cut). Curtis supposedly never even saw STII before adopting the role.

Most, if not all, of the novels were written with Robin Curtis' Saavik in mind. The comics, however, stuck with Kirstie Alley's likeness and (IMO far superior) version of the character even after she was recast.
 
KingDaniel said:
The characterizations of Saavik in STII and III were completely different. Kirstie Alley played a feisty, naive Vulcan/Romulan hybrid. Robin Curtis played the role as an ice cold full-blooded Vulcan (presumably since the lines identifying Saavik as half-Romulan in Wrath of Khan were cut).
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The problem with putting it that way is that a "Vulcan/Romulan hybrid" is, biologically speaking, a Vulcan. They're the same species, just different cultures and ethnicities. Vulcan emotional control is learned, not genetic. So the idea from the TWOK script that Saavik's Romulan heritage was what made her emotional was silly, and that's why it was rightfully cut from the film. And it's why Vonda McIntyre, who novelized TWOK, came up with a much less ridiculous explanation, by postulating that it was Saavik's upbringing on a hellish world, combined with her lack of the training in emotional control that Vulcans receive from early childhood, that resulted in her more turbulent characterization. And that's the backstory that every Saavik tale in tie-in fiction has drawn on, including Unspoken Truth.
 
I was speaking of the characterizations, not biology. I should have said the personality of Alley's Saavik was a Vulcan/Romulan hybrid, guided by logic but not unfeeling. Curtis played the role like an ice cold student of Kolinahr.

I don't know the exact wording of the Wrath of Khan script, but couldn't Spock's comment about Saavik being a Romulan/Vulcan hybrid, and therefore emotional, be about her chosen lifesyle and not just her biology? Perhaps she was attempting to find her own balance between emotion and logic, and honour both worlds (assuming a happier, friendlier origin than that presented in the novels and comics)
 
Christopher said:
The problem with putting it that way is that a "Vulcan/Romulan hybrid" is, biologically speaking, a Vulcan. They're the same species, just different cultures and ethnicities. Vulcan emotional control is learned, not genetic. So the idea from the TWOK script that Saavik's Romulan heritage was what made her emotional was silly, and that's why it was rightfully cut from the film. And it's why Vonda McIntyre, who novelized TWOK, came up with a much less ridiculous explanation, by postulating that it was Saavik's upbringing on a hellish world, combined with her lack of the training in emotional control that Vulcans receive from early childhood, that resulted in her more turbulent characterization. And that's the backstory that every Saavik tale in tie-in fiction has drawn on, including Unspoken Truth.
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It's not quite true - wasn't there an episode of TNG where Crusher said that Vulcan blood was not compatible with Romulan blood? Ludicrous science but I think the intention was that the species had diverged - presumably natural selection and a different planetary atmosphere had led the Romulans to become more emotionally stable than Vulcans and genetically different. And lets not forget that Remans might also have a common ancestry with Vulcans, being the more telepathically adept refugees who were forced to move to a different environment by the early settlers on Romulus.

Saavik's problem wasn't that she was half-Romulan, it was that she was half-Vulcan, with none of the mental discipline to control her stronger emotions.
 
KingDaniel said:
Most, if not all, of the novels were written with Robin Curtis' Saavik in mind.
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Actually, I seem to recall that Clowes imagined Kirstie Alley's Saavik when writing the novel but, contractually, it had to be Curtis as Saavik on the cover.

The comics, however, stuck with Kirstie Alley's likeness and (IMO far superior) version of the character even after she was recast.
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They kept the hairstyle (despite the ST III comic adaptation), but the eyebrows were gradually slanted more and more in the two-part "Origin of Saavik" issues. Pon farr does amazing things.
 
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