So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Stevil2001]

For several months now, I've been reading the screenplays of Star Trek films (and then watching the resulting film.) What I would love would be the screenplay as it stood the day principal photography began, to get an idea what the producers/writer(s)/director though the movie was going to be on day 1. But as I bought the screenplays off eBay over multiple years, I take what I can get.

So, over the weekend I read Star Trek: Insurrection, and watched the movie twice. I probably haven't watched the movie in a couple decades, and my reactions today are considerably more positive as a man a little past 60 than they were when the movie came out, when I was still a couple years shy of 40. In short, I like this movie a lot. It's tight, and pretty much everything in the movie is there for a purpose, right up until the re-shot "blowed up real good" ending added upon the orders of the studio. I think the original ending was better, because it paid off the movie's theme of attempting to recapture lost youth, but the final ending isn't bad by any means.

But unlike some other Star Trek movies I could name, it's about something meaningful, but it doesn't bludgeon the viewer with "MESSAGE!" There's some subtlety in the approach, a lot of humor, and a lot of heart.

I share Piller's confusion about why the movie was a relative failure -- I can't even remember what I disliked about it 23 years ago, and am baffled by the mixed reactions from critics and audiences. I mean, yeah, Insurrection feels a little like a 2-hour episode, but so what? Maybe it resonates more strongly now than it did then because of the political moment we find ourselves in, when forces are waging an all-out effort to demolish the ideals our society is based on.

I also finally got around to reading Fade In, screenwriter Michael Piller's book about writing (and endlessly rewriting) the screenplay. (I have the PDF copy that TrekCore used to host, before the book was officially published in 2016.) This book zoomed straight to the "top 10" on my list of all-time favorite Star Trek nonfiction books, so now I've ordered the dead tree version for my bookshelf. I'd love to have a book like this for each Trek film. It's exactly what I'd like to know about how a screenplay gets pitched, written, refined, shot, edited, reshot, and finally released. It includes multiple rejected early treatments, and explanations why each failed to make the cut.

The book also presents a more positive view of Rick Berman than we usually get. Piller praises Berman as a collaborative partner. The screenplay they concocted (with input from director Jonathan Frakes, and stars Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner) is really quite good. I've been forced to seriously rethink my opinion of Berman.

If you can afford the price, this book is well worth reading. Highly recommended!

Fade In is great. And yeah, I think it's interesting how often the instincts of Berman (and other studio suits) come across as correct. I wrote up some comments on it a decade (!) ago: https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2011/11/which-next-generation-film-is-bad-one.html

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Still reading Wonderlands.

 

[Corran Horn]

Into the Nebula, an older release I picked up in a recent 99 cents amazon sale. I'm enjoying it.

 

[Reanok]

The Stolen letter by Paice Shelton

 

[Smiley]

I finished Unspoken Truth, which worked much better for me this time around. It's got Saavik, Spock and his family, first contact, spy stuff, and a look at the cultures of Vulcan and Romulus. As the title suggests, not everything about what is going on is revealed to the reader right away, and there are lots of plot and thematic ideas to think about.

I am reading In the Name of Honor for the first time, and I am excited to dig into a post-TFF story.

 

[JD]

I finished listening to ST: Envoy: A Captain Solo Adventure, one of the audio original Sulu stories Simon & Schuster did back in the '90s this morning, and I thought it was OK. The story was OK, and the production was decent. I listened to my first Dr. Who audio drama a couple months ago, and that was a lot more impressive, Big Finish clearly puts a lot more time and money in those than Simon & Schuater did with this. When I rated it on Goodreads I gave it a 3/5.

 

[USS Firefly]

Rereading Star Trek the buried Age by Christopher L. Bennett

 

[Christopher]

I listened to my first Dr. Who audio drama a couple months ago, and that was a lot more impressive, Big Finish clearly puts a lot more time and money in those than Simon & Schuater did with this.

Well, that depends. Most of BF's Doctor Who audios are fully dramatized plays, but others such as The Companion Chronicles and Short Trips are in a similar kind of pseudo-dramatized, narrated audiobook format to the Captain Sulu audios, with only one to three cast members doing narration and all the parts, although they can have the kind of direct dialogue between actors that the Sulu audios weren't able to have for some reason.

A better analogy for Big Finish's stuff would be the full-cast audiobooks that GraphicAudio does, both the prose adaptations they've done in the past and the original audionovels they've begun doing lately, including my new Tangent Knights trilogy whose first book came out yesterday. Except GA is sort of a hybrid in that its books use prose-style narration to supplement the dialogue and sound effects and fill in the visual information. Which I find clearer than Big Finish's usual approach, since it's easier to tell what's going on.

 

[JD]

I got Envoy from Hoopla, and they also have a ton a GA stuff, including Only Superhuman, so I might have to check out one if their audiobooks next. I saw that most if them are around 7 or 8 hours long, so I'm assuming that mean's unabridged?
I thought Envoy was going to be a a full audio play until I started it and realized it was more of an audiobook with 3 or 4 other actors besides George Takei giving occasional bits of dialogue.

 

[Christopher]

I got Envoy from Hoopla, and they also have a ton a GA stuff, including Only Superhuman, so I might have to check out one if their audiobooks next. I saw that most if them are around 7 or 8 hours long, so I'm assuming that mean's unabridged?

Almost. There are a few edits in Only Superhuman, but relatively minor ones.

 

[JD]

Ok, cool. I've been wanting to check out more Trek Lit author's original books, so I'll probably start Only Superhuman tomorrow morning. I've been listening to this stuff in the shower, so it'll probably take at least a couple weeks to get through it.

 

[Lonemagpie]

THE HOUND OF DEATH by Agatha Christie.

A 1933 anthology of early stories – including her first published one, Call Of Wings – mainly with at least a potentially supernatural theme.

As with any anthology, it’s a mixed bag. There are some little gems, the most obvious being the later-filmed Witness For The Prosecution, the only one which has zero attempt at even a faux supernatural element as a red herring or distraction. The styles Christie tries out here are an interesting blend as a student of the period’s speculative genres- the title story has a hint of Theosophy and Atlantis and so forth. Call Of Wings is – despite an unfollowed-up-on momentary tease of actual SF – basically her trying to do a Dickensian tract.

Most of the lead characters are lawyers or some vaguely unspecific doctors of the brain/mind/mentality etc, rather than detectives, and most have some kind of twist ending – some really good, some very obvious, and one (I hope intentionally) hilarious. Some stories, though, just peter out, and at least one sort of peters in by having a first third that’s total padding.

Overall though, a fun, light and quick change of pace.

 

[Kertrats47]

Latest Positively Trek Book Club is out! Bruce and I discuss The Lost Era: Deny Thy Father by Jeff Mariotte. Let us know what you think of the episode!



Currently reading Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre for the first time!

 

[John Clark]

Started on We Shall Rise, an anthology set in the Black Tide Rising series by John Ringo/Gary Poole.

 

[Greg Cox]

Rereading SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK by Nancy Collins for the first time in ages.

 

[Desert Kris]

I was excited about a new Doctor Who book called The Wonderful Doctor of Oz, but there's been a delay because of moving and changing address and all that. But I still have access to the actual Oz books, so I decided to finally go beyond the first book and find out what happens next, with The Marvelous Land of Oz. For some reason, I've delayed for a long time, so it's nice to get beyond that threshold and actually read the thing. Oddly, reading through The Wonderful Wizard was surprisingly slow going, and yet I've been plowing through Marvelous at a much faster rate.

 

[Stevil2001]

I was excited about a new Doctor Who book called The Wonderful Doctor of Oz, but there's been a delay because of moving and changing address and all that. But I still have access to the actual Oz books, so I decided to finally go beyond the first book and find out what happens next, with The Marvelous Land of Oz. For some reason, I've delayed for a long time, so it's nice to get beyond that threshold and actually read the thing. Oddly, reading through The Wonderful Wizard was surprisingly slow going, and yet I've been plowing through Marvelous at a much faster rate.

I recently started reading my three-year-old the Oz books aloud, a chapter or more per day. We just finished Marvelous Land on Saturday and are waiting for Ozma of Oz to arrive. (I am using this as an excuse to upgrade from my old Del Rey and Puffin editions with poorly reproduced, replaced, or omitted illustrations to Books of Wonder facsimile editions.) He seems very into them; he is pretty hyped for Ozma to come.

I was not a huge fan of Marvelous Land; I don't think it captures what worked in Wonderful Wizard. But I am looking forward to Ozma, which I have fond memories of.

 

[Desert Kris]

I recently started reading my three-year-old the Oz books aloud, a chapter or more per day. We just finished Marvelous Land on Saturday and are waiting for Ozma of Oz to arrive. (I am using this as an excuse to upgrade from my old Del Rey and Puffin editions with poorly reproduced, replaced, or omitted illustrations to Books of Wonder facsimile editions.) He seems very into them; he is pretty hyped for Ozma to come.

I was not a huge fan of Marvelous Land; I don't think it captures what worked in Wonderful Wizard. But I am looking forward to Ozma, which I have fond memories of.

I'm not sure how I feel about Marvelous just yet...I'm just glad it's flying by and fun. It has aspects of it that are really bizarre. I am looking forward to Ozma, and then revisiting the Return to Oz movie as an examination of how Marvelous and Ozma are adapted into it. And then going beyond that, into really unexplored territory for me.

I'm really glad you commented and brought up the subject of the various editions, it's something I hoped I could ask someone about. I'm discovering that I really like the John R. Neill illustrations a lot, much more than the earlier artist who only did the first book. I should mention, I deliberately read a non-illustrated version of the first book, to give my mind the opportunity to come up with unique imagery if at all possible.

I have the Del Rey Ballantine paperbacks of books 2-5, and I can see Neill's illustrations, although they are sometimes cramped and small; or in some cases badly smudged. I also have a nicely produced hardcover from Barnes and Noble, with a beautiful yellow cover and emerald green covering...but I can tell some of the illustrations are omitted, by comparing with the Del Rey paperbacks.

Do the Del Rey paperbacks include all the illustrations? I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade the ones I already have, but if I continue on, I'm not sure if I want to see if I can chase down the Del Reys (just for the sake of portability, and a close enough approximation of the Neill illustrations). It depends on how much it costs to get the Del Reys in relatively decent condition...if it's cheaper to get the reproductions obviously I'll go with those. As for the Puffin edition I've, there's no comparison. Those newer illustrations just can't compete with Neill's work, and I like being able to appreciate the original illustrations. Not to mention that the Puffin edition I've seen is very sparse with it's illustrations.

 

[Stevil2001]

I'm not sure how I feel about Marvelous just yet...I'm just glad it's flying by and fun. It has aspects of it that are really bizarre. I am looking forward to Ozma, and then revisiting the Return to Oz movie as an examination of how Marvelous and Ozma are adapted into it. And then going beyond that, into really unexplored territory for me.

I'm really glad you commented and brought up the subject of the various editions, it's something I hoped I could ask someone about. I'm discovering that I really like the John R. Neill illustrations a lot, much more than the earlier artist who only did the first book. I should mention, I deliberately read a non-illustrated version of the first book, to give my mind the opportunity to come up with unique imagery if at all possible.

I have the Del Rey Ballantine paperbacks of books 2-5, and I can see Neill's illustrations, although they are sometimes cramped and small; or in some cases badly smudged. I also have a nicely produced hardcover from Barnes and Noble, with a beautiful yellow cover and emerald green covering...but I can tell some of the illustrations are omitted, by comparing with the Del Rey paperbacks.

Do the Del Rey paperbacks include all the illustrations? I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade the ones I already have, but if I continue on, I'm not sure if I want to see if I can chase down the Del Reys (just for the sake of portability, and a close enough approximation of the Neill illustrations). It depends on how much it costs to get the Del Reys in relatively decent condition...if it's cheaper to get the reproductions obviously I'll go with those. As for the Puffin edition I've, there's no comparison. Those newer illustrations just can't compete with Neill's work, and I like being able to appreciate the original illustrations. Not to mention that the Puffin edition I've seen is very sparse with it's illustrations.

I am pretty sure the Del Reys contain all of the illustrations, though as you said, reproduction isn't great.

The edition of Marvelous Land I grew up with was a Puffin with new illustrations... they are mediocre and there is only about one every other chapter. After reading a facsimile Wonderful Wizard with my son and knowing how much he liked the illustrations, I just couldn't bring myself to read him the Marvelous Land Puffin. Besides, at his age, the pictures are a large part of what keeps him interested. ("Go back to the picture of the Woggle-Bug, daddy!") The other two Puffins I have, Road and Tik-Tok, have no pictures at all. Most of my others are Del Reys, except for Dorothy and the Wizard and Patchwork Girl, which are Dovers. The Dovers aren't quite as fancy as the Books of Wonder, but they are the right size and have all of the Neill illustrations; it's just that the color plates are in black and white.

I didn't realize it when I was a kid, but the illustrations definitely determined which ones I liked best. I have fondest memories of Patchwork Girl and I remember disliking Tik-Tok, and in retrospect, that has to be at least partially down to the illustrations.

 

[Smiley]

Star Trek: In the Name of Honor gets an easy 3 stars from me. If you like Klingons or the era of the later TOS movies, then the recommendation gets stronger. I could have done with a little less of the prison, but I feel that way about most prison stories.

I have started Star Trek: Foul Deeds Will Rise and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.