Star Trek Concordance -- One More Time!

Considering the periphrastic "editor's forward", not much can be expected in terms of a streamlined, professional edit in the story. Honestly, that particular venture is steaming with hubris.

Moreover, I find it questionable that Bjo's work is being used here as a platform to sow the same old venom and bile against the Abrams film despite claims to the contrary.

 

And how, pray tell, would I get away with that? The text is Bjo's. Anything I do with it has to be approved by Bjo. Anything that gets sent to the publisher, when one is decided on, gets sent by Bjo.

So, just how am I supposed to pull off this literary sleight of hand?

 

Gee, I was hoping you might actually answer a straightforward question or two. Oh, well.

 

The only way those questions are straightforward is if they're asked of Bjo, since she's the only one that knows what was in her contract and what say Paramount had in the final terms, if any. Anything else is idle speculation.

I've presented the situation to the best of my understanding, based upon how Bjo described it.

 

Big difference between a purely website doodle, which is what that rewrite amounts to, and a fairly high profile for-profit publication which is being overseen by others.

There's no way I could get away with what you're implying, assuming I was even inclined to do so.

 

Because it's a "purely website doodle" does not make it ethically sound to do what's been done. The fact that it's not a "fairly high profile for-profit publication" does not excuse it either.

 

Judging by the description, what Shuster did was done soley to make a buck, nothing to do with improving the quality of the story, and Airey got nothing. Sleazy on several levels. My little project stared off as just correcting typos and concocting new artwork, and it mushroomed into a rewrite, and I liked the final result so much I wanted to show it off. No pretense about it being the original, in fact it's stated up front that it's not the original. I like to think of it as a cover version. If it makes you feel any better, I'll add a link to Airey's original text to my website.

If I was operating alone and unsupervised, doing my own version of the Concordance, sure, be as concerned as you want, and you'd probably be correct in many of your concerns. My answer would be the same, judge it by the final result, but in this case, my objective is to help put together the book Bjo wants to produce, not necessarily what I'd want to produce. It just so happens that we're going for a common goal, namely a better laid out version with tons more fan art.

 

But you don't have Robert St. John's original forward from Zeta Minor.

(If you want that, send me a PM. I transcribed it from my fanzine copy to add it to my text file.)

I'm not sure if I ever thanked you, Capt. Robert April, for e-mailing me your PDF a few months ago. I've made a hobby of collecting editions of the story over the years.

In your defense, the world could use a clean and copyedited version of the story. The text files that were posted, originally, fifteen-plus years ago are in the ballpark, but they're also riddled with errors of spelling, punctuation, even names. (One Lightundan changes name from Raul to Paul and back, for instance.) And some of the changes you've made, like Kirk identifying himself, are defensible; until you pointed out that Kirk never identifies himself to the Doctor, it had never occurred to me. (However, you could argue that Spock's brief mind-meld with the unconscious Doctor very early in the story imparts the Doctor with information about who these people are and where he is.)

But something you mention in your introduction -- rewriting to give Chapel a role -- strikes me as an unnecessary invention, as Airey already gave her a role, though not in The Doctor and the Enterprise proper. Chapel's a major character in "The Lieutenant and the Doctor" (which I spent the better part of five years tracking down at conventions), which puts her onstage, gives her a few scenes with the Doctor on Lightunder (which, in case it wasn't obvious from the name, is meant to be Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover), and sets the stage for Chapel's pursuit of a medical degree (prior to Star Trek: The Motion Picture). I know if I were doing a fan remix for my own enjoyment, I'd work in the Chapel scenes from "TLatD," drop the sex scene, and put the scene of Dorcy and the Doctor playing Jacks (because it's strangely charming) into The Doctor and the Enterprise. But there are more important things to do in life, y'know?

 

Whoa.

Bjo really, really deserves better than this.

I wonder how she got tricked into this agreement.

 

Tricked into what agreement? Just what in the blazes do you think is going on?

And, yes, I would be interested in that Zeta Minor forward.

 

Allowing an unethical "editor" to potentially edit her work. Perhaps if one were not bragging about illegally rewriting someone else's work, people here wouldn't be so concerned. But Bjo is a legend. And she DOES deserve better.

 

Sent.

 

The difference is that Bjo knows me, you don't, so unclench before you strain something.

As a matter of fact, it was my telling her about my edit of "The Doctor..." that got her attention (her precise words: "I'd love to see a copy. I'm a long-time Dr. Who fan. Are you just a general book fixer-upper?") that really got the ball rolling. And in the interests in full disclosure, I also included a link to the original version.

 

And the Citadel version of the Concordance was a major case of "messing with" her. The idea here is to rectify that situation.

Again, I don't need to hijack the Concordance to go off on an anti-JJ tirade; there's plenty of threads right here on TrekBBS to satisfy that urge, and I've got the moderator warnings to prove it.

As for her assessment of the move, doesn't change a thing. She'll write what she wants, I'll offer up suggestions, like some asides about how polarizing the film is and why, but in the end, what she wants in the book is what ends up in the book. Editorial content is her doman, I'm strictly on the technical side of the operation.

 

-and-​

Are you really the best person for this job?

There are a ton of things I can do (and have the right tools to do them), and yet everyday when my clients bring me things they want done I have to ask myself if I'm really the right person for the job. I know tons of professionals who specialize in things I can do, but are way better at doing them than me. And there are times when ego and the good of a project conflict, and it is in the best interest of everyone that I find someone better for the task.

So again, are you really the best person for this job?

Nothing personal, but if you are looking out for Bjo's best interests, would they be best served by you doing the layout? Or would they be better served finding someone else with actual experience in the area?

It is great to have an I can do that attitude... with your own works. I do that all the time (see something and give it a try). But in this case, this is someone else's work and your stated goal is to bring out the best version possible. Are you putting yourself in the right position to make sure that happens?

Obviously this is between you and her, and she seems to think you're the right person... I'm just wondering if you've asked yourself the hard question yet.

You know, I've always tried to keep all of my work on that side of the copyright divide... I try to stay with the dry facts of Star Trek and it's production rather than the fictional universe.

But even then, one has to keep in mind that there are limits to how far one can go before the owner of a property starts to push back. A good example of this would be The Harry Potter Lexicon (a cautionary tail, I suggest reading the case).