Star Trek 09 Novelization Your Opinions?

[Admiral_Young]

I'm in the middle of re-reading this again as I bought the normal paperback version of the book and am finding that I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did originally last year. Not sure why. Some of the changes in dialogue from the script is interesting...such as Nero's "true name" and the omission of my favorite line from the movie "Hello, Christopher." The extended Assembly scene is interesting and Jim is written a lot more cocky and arrogant than he's portrayed in the movie which I'm not sure I like. Has anyone else read this and what did you think of it? Overall I thought Foster did a credible job but it's not the best Trek novelization I've read.

 

[Admiral_Young]

87 views and no responses. So no one has read the novelization? I find that hard to believe.

 

[Daddy Todd]

My opinion: Meh.

The restrictions on Alan Dean Foster to novelize exactly what was in the film -- no creative interpretations, no added scenes, no extra fun -- turned this into an exercise in extreme pointlessness.

There's simply no upside to reading a novelization that regurgitates verbatim the script of a film I can watch in DVD any time I want. Frankly, I'd rather have a printed copy of the screenplay.

I don't blame ADF or Pocket; I blame Bad Robot.

 

[ronny]

I gave it a thumbs up when I first read it then I re-read a couple of the Vonda McIntyre novelizations and remembered what a great novelization was like. Now I'm very much in the "Meh" crowd...

 

[Admiral_Young]

He didn't do a verbatim interpretation of the script. As I mentioned he expanded scenes, deleted entire lines of dialogue like the "Hello, Christopher." line I mentioned in my first post. In fact he even has a passage that I found immensely interesting, mostly because I didn't like it, that says the Vulcan's offered membership to Earth into the Federation after first contact (this was stated by Nero when speaking to Pike on the Narada so he could have had his facts mistaken). I also pointed out Kirk's portrayal difference, he's way more cocky and arrogant in the novelization than Pine portrayed him in the film. I agree that I would have liked the deleted scenes included. It also further explains Nero's motivations for not using the Red Matter to prevent Hobus from exploding, and explains why Stafleet chose Iowa to construct Enterprise. The conversation between Jim and Uhura in her's and Gailia's quarters is extended as they exchange Orionese among each other (it's translated into English of course lol).

 

[Gul Re'jal]

The differences between the book and the script were tiny. They were a brighter point for me, though, as it was something unexpected after all.

Generally I don't read novelizations, as I see no point. I prefer to read a new story. It's ok the other way around (I actually enjoy watching movies based on books I've read), but this was just boring. I bought the book and read it, because someone had recommended it to me (she'd said it contained more info and a look into characters thoughts, etc. - so something you can't show in a movie). Well, we obviously have different tastes, as I was quite disappointed and didn't see any deeper study of characters than the movie offered.

What irritated me most wasn't the lack of depth, but the instant jumping from one character's point of view to another, the switch marked only by another paragraph. I was losing track of whose head I was in at a given moment.

'Nuff to say I won't read any more novelizations. There are more than enough original stories for me to read

 

[Piper]

I gave it a thumbs up when I first read it then I re-read a couple of the Vonda McIntyre novelizations and remembered what a great novelization was like. Now I'm very much in the "Meh" crowd...

This. VM's novelisations of Treks 2-4 are wonderful and broaden out the stories of those films. Those that have followed, especially in the TNG era and now ST09, just haven't come close.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

VM's novelisations of Treks 2-4 are wonderful and broaden out the stories of those films. Those that have followed, especially in the TNG era and now ST09, just haven't come close.

I don't know. I thought the novelizations of TUC and Generations were pretty good on expanding the story. Maybe not as heavily as the novelizations that McIntyre did, but there was still a good effort on expanding the story.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've only skimmed it. I liked that Archer's beagle lives on at the end (however inexplicably), and was hoping to see him get underfoot in Refugees.

I didn't like Spock senselessly beating the shit out of the Romulan on the Narada (the one he melds with in the movie). Not only was it too much after Spock snapping on the Enterprise, but having Kirk encouraging him and cheering him on as he Saas Mahnas a hapless minion made the heroes look like pathetic thugs.

 

[JarodRussell]

I didn't like Spock senselessly beating the shit out of the Romulan on the Narada (the one he melds with in the movie). Not only was it too much after Spock snapping on the Enterprise, but having Kirk encouraging him and cheering him on as he Saas Mahnas a hapless minion made the heroes look like pathetic thugs.

If it had been at least some sort of logical, passivenes-over-aggressiveness, defense-over-attack Vulcan martial art he's beating him up with... the same school the neck pinch comes from, I mean.

Would have been a good contrast between emotionally instable Spock who just beats the shit out of people, and a more stable Spock who uses a martial art he's learned in the Vulcan school or at Starfleet Academy.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

In fact he even has a passage that I found immensely interesting, mostly because I didn't like it, that says the Vulcan's offered membership to Earth into the Federation after first contact

The hell? There WAS no Federation at that point...and there wouldn't be for another hundred years. Are you seriously saying that's actually in the book? How could ADF be that sloppy?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yes I found that bizarre...again it was Nero who said it to Pike so it could have been an historically incorrect comment on his part. One of my problems with the new continuity is that it seems implied that the Federation operated differently or was a different organization than in the prime universe.

 

[Therin of Andor]

How could ADF be that sloppy?

Foster's involvement with Star Trek was in the days of TAS, novelizing the 22 episodes for Ballantine's "Star Trek Logs", re-using his Season Four TOS two-parter to pad out "Log Seven", and then turning "Robot's Return" into "In Thy Image", which eventually became TMP.

You assume he closely followed Roddenberry's and Bennett's and Berman's ST movies and series throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s. Vulcan making First Contact with Earth wasn't established until a TNG movie, "First Contact".

 

[JarodRussell]

The editor's job to catch stuff like this. And now if the editor of a Trek book didn't follow Trek...

And I wouldn't be surprised at all if that line was from the actual script.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm sure I've heard the idea of Vulcan accepting Earth into the Federation before. Probably from one of ADF's old Star Trek Logs.

I liked that Spock gave a little more justification for shooting Kirk down to Delta Vega in the novel.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Was the scene of Spock beating on the Romulan while Kirk encouraged him from the script (or an earlier version) or was that something ADF added himself?

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's from the early script at IMSDB.com. They were wise to go with the meld instead. Zach Quinto went through martial arts training specifically for that scene, and the preceeding hand-to-hand fight.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You assume he closely followed Roddenberry's and Bennett's and Berman's ST movies and series throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s. Vulcan making First Contact with Earth wasn't established until a TNG movie, "First Contact".

That's ADF's problem, not mine. If he's going to do a novelization now, it's his job to check things like that.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If he's going to do a novelization now, it's his job to check things like that.

The only way to "check everything" would be to watch everything and take extensive notes. It's the editor's job to find such errors, but who knows, maybe the editor found the "error" and ADF or JJ's team decided they wanted it to read exactly that way. Maybe it provides a hint that not everything coming out of Nero's lips is correct?

 

[JarodRussell]

If he's going to do a novelization now, it's his job to check things like that.

The only way to "check everything" would be to watch everything and take extensive notes. It's the editor's job to find such errors, but who knows, maybe the editor found the "error" and ADF or JJ's team decided they wanted it to read exactly that way. Maybe it provides a hint that not everything coming out of Nero's lips is correct?

And maybe the moon is made from cheese, who knows?