I'm sure I read an interview where it was said that Vonda had a chance to consult but she didn't wish to. So the two projects continued independently.
Exactly. But Vonda was definitely trying to do something with Rand's age and appearance.
Star Trek: Enterprise The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre
- Thread starter Damian
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I'm sure I read an interview where it was said that Vonda had a chance to consult but she didn't wish to. So the two projects continued independently.
Exactly. But Vonda was definitely trying to do something with Rand's age and appearance.
As was the norm at the time, rather than the exception.
Per this interview with McIntyre from a decade ago, there wasn't an outline for Enterprise: The First Adventure. Her editor (Dave Stern, I guess?) bought the book on a phone pitch, there was a "proposal" that was sent to Paramount, she started writing the book due to the deadline without any okay, and midway through writing Paramount asked for an outline which was not written due to the deadline. It was a different -- and more freewheeling -- time, then, I guess.
Well, the lack of an outline would certainly explain the meandering quality mentioned above.
I read it back in 1986 and I remember not liking it too much. It's certainly a far cry from Mike W. Barr's comic book story in DC's Star Trek Annual #1. Since then, I've only reread bits and pieces of it.
I read it back in 1986 and I remember not liking it too much. It's certainly a far cry from Mike W. Barr's comic book story in DC's Star Trek Annual #1. Since then, I've only reread bits and pieces of it.
And it was an ongoing thing for her — Peter Preston in her TWoK novelizations was 14, and David not much older. Maybe she was going for an “age of sail” echo with very, very young kids on Starfleet ships?
It never worked for me.
Or a Heinlein-juvenile echo?
I thought I recalled Dr David Marcus was early 20s.
Maybe they were the same, just rendered in different dialects of the Klingon language.
Hmmm, I remember him being younger, but it’s been decades.
Still, 22 seems pretty damn young for a PhD. Not impossible, but unusual.
Maybe it was a Pakled doctorate, equivalent to a US high school diploma.
Growing up alone on science stations with a scientist parent with her own doctorate? Not hard to believe he was studying/researching/writing science dissertations since he could read.
And David's father was a very smart guy too, as he's been described in one universe as "a stack of books with legs" and in another as "the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest." Intelligence obviously runs in the family.
Not to mention how many times he was able to get a computer to explode just by talking to it.
Personally, I've always liked this particular opus, my personal favorite of all the Vonda McIntyre I've read.
A couple of observations:
(1) As I recall, somebody took McIntyre's Rumaiy, and John Ford's Klinzhai, and ran with both ideas, producing four major Klingon ethnic groups.
(2) I don't really want to speak ill of the recently deceased, but between The Entropy Effect's "spiderweb," and E:TFA's "sneak," it seems to me that Ms. McIntyre had a morbid fascination with really, really nasty weapons.
A couple of observations:
(1) As I recall, somebody took McIntyre's Rumaiy, and John Ford's Klinzhai, and ran with both ideas, producing four major Klingon ethnic groups.
(2) I don't really want to speak ill of the recently deceased, but between The Entropy Effect's "spiderweb," and E:TFA's "sneak," it seems to me that Ms. McIntyre had a morbid fascination with really, really nasty weapons.
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While we're talking about E:TFA, I noticed recently that there isn't a Kindle version of the book available, much to my surprise. Many of the other giant novels are available in Kindle format, does anyone know why this one has been excluded?
I have fond memories of E:TFA since it was the very first Star Trek novel I had ever read. I mean, come on, it makes sense to start with The First Adventure, right? It says it in the name.
I had purchased the book when it came out in 1986 but never had read it until 1990. I thought it was pretty good at the time, so it would be interesting to reread it now after having read nearly 500 Star Trek novels since then. As a side note, the second novel I read immediately after this one was The Lost Years. I decided to start the five-year mission and then end it that same week.
After that, the human adventure in literature has continued for me.......
I had purchased the book when it came out in 1986 but never had read it until 1990. I thought it was pretty good at the time, so it would be interesting to reread it now after having read nearly 500 Star Trek novels since then. As a side note, the second novel I read immediately after this one was The Lost Years. I decided to start the five-year mission and then end it that same week.
After that, the human adventure in literature has continued for me.......
Not much to add about the novel; I prefer the DC Comics Annual 'All Those Years Ago . . .'
However, re. Janice Rand this bit of dialogue comes from Orion Press website 'Unseen Elements'
MIRI - Written by Adrian Spies - Final Draft, dated August 12, 1966
EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF GOVERNMENT LABRATORY - DAY
Janice is facing the CAMERA. She has just stopped running. Her strength is sapped . . . tears streaming down her face. Kirk runs towards her from the building . . . reaches her.
KIRK
Janice!
Janice's hysteria is over - she speaks as though from great fatigue, the giving in to the strain she has been under, the almost-acceptance of the awful things closing in.
JANICE (not looking at him)
Captain, I really didn't want to do that -
KIRK
I know . . .
JANICE (half a whisper)
It's so stupid, such a waste . . .
(turning to him)
Sir, do you know all I can think about . . . ?
(shaking her head, disapproving of her own unmilitary way)
My age, the fact that I've . . . only had twenty-four years of life . . .
(another shake of the head, wistful)
Twenty-four sir, and afraid . . . scared . . .
KIRK
I'm a -
(a slight smile)
- little older, Yeoman . . . I'm - scared, too . . .
(a beat, then gently but firmly)
But not enough to give up . . .
JANICE (after a pause)
Yes, sir . . .
Janice is making a very big effort to pull herself together. She tries to stand in a correct, military way. But, at the same time, tears start coming, quietly.
JANICE (strained)
When we get back, sir . . . put in for a dry-eyed yeoman . . .
KIRK
Are you applying for a transfer, Yeoman?
Had this exchange made it into the final episode, Grace Lee Whitney would have been 36 playing a 24 year old. It also would have provided an explanation for her sudden disappearance after 'The Conscience Of The King'.
However, re. Janice Rand this bit of dialogue comes from Orion Press website 'Unseen Elements'
MIRI - Written by Adrian Spies - Final Draft, dated August 12, 1966
EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF GOVERNMENT LABRATORY - DAY
Janice is facing the CAMERA. She has just stopped running. Her strength is sapped . . . tears streaming down her face. Kirk runs towards her from the building . . . reaches her.
KIRK
Janice!
Janice's hysteria is over - she speaks as though from great fatigue, the giving in to the strain she has been under, the almost-acceptance of the awful things closing in.
JANICE (not looking at him)
Captain, I really didn't want to do that -
KIRK
I know . . .
JANICE (half a whisper)
It's so stupid, such a waste . . .
(turning to him)
Sir, do you know all I can think about . . . ?
(shaking her head, disapproving of her own unmilitary way)
My age, the fact that I've . . . only had twenty-four years of life . . .
(another shake of the head, wistful)
Twenty-four sir, and afraid . . . scared . . .
KIRK
I'm a -
(a slight smile)
- little older, Yeoman . . . I'm - scared, too . . .
(a beat, then gently but firmly)
But not enough to give up . . .
JANICE (after a pause)
Yes, sir . . .
Janice is making a very big effort to pull herself together. She tries to stand in a correct, military way. But, at the same time, tears start coming, quietly.
JANICE (strained)
When we get back, sir . . . put in for a dry-eyed yeoman . . .
KIRK
Are you applying for a transfer, Yeoman?
Had this exchange made it into the final episode, Grace Lee Whitney would have been 36 playing a 24 year old. It also would have provided an explanation for her sudden disappearance after 'The Conscience Of The King'.
Pocket Books had a sequence of Trek novels that were not in digital form and was slowly, slowly, getting them all done. Then there were several restructures of the company, and that program got interrupted.
I wonder if it was filmed but because of Roddenberry’s little heist it no longer exists.
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