Star Trek Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster

[Daddy Todd]

^I feel your pain. I have my Foster and Blish Trekbooks packed in a box. I've been trying to find that box for the last couple years.

A couple of years? That's disconcerting, to be sure. I searched for the box containing my Star Trek Fotonovels from 1980 until it finally resurfaced in 1994, when my parents moved back to the lower 48 from Anchorage. It had been somewhere in their Anchorage house for all that time -- and despite going through every box I could find, I never stumbled across that one particular box. I had completely given up on ever finding them again.

I'm sure there were other books in that box, but I don't remember what they were, I was only interested in my "holy grail" -- the Fotonovels.

 

[JD]

IDW announced the movie prequel comic, Countdown to Darkness at New York Comic-Con this weekend. Roberto Orci and Mike Johnson, with David Messina on the artwork.

Cool. I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed Countdown, so I'll probably check this out eventually.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Cool. I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed Countdown, so I'll probably check this out eventually.

Huh? It sold gangbusters as individual issues, and has since been collected and reprinted in trade, hardcover and as a boxed set with "Nero", "Spock Reflections" and the movie adaptation.

I would say "Countdown" was enjoyed by many, many people. Including me.

I like this quote:

Johnson: there’s all sorts of prologue-y stuff in the ongoing series.

For all those disbelievers.

^I feel your pain. I have my Foster and Blish Trekbooks packed in a box. I've been trying to find that box for the last couple years.

When I moved house in 2000, my passport was lost in a box. It expired in the box, but I needed it to get a new one, or pay a fine for declaring it lost. About two years ago, after lots of quick looks through the garage, I finally found it. In the top of the very last box.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ah, a rather blurry front cover of "Countdown to Darkness" #1 (spoiler!) at:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=7106158#post7106158

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Cool. I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed Countdown, so I'll probably check this out eventually.

Huh? It sold gangbusters as individual issues, and has since been collected and reprinted in trade, hardcover and as a boxed set with "Nero", "Spock Reflections" and the movie adaptation.

Just because it sold well in a variety of formats doesn't mean it was received well.

I would say "Countdown" was enjoyed by many, many people. Including me.

Countdown was okay. I think it's more important for what it does (set up some of the conflict in the film and putting a close to the TNG era) than for the story it tells (which is rather pedestrian).

Ah, a rather blurry front cover of "Countdown to Darkness" #1 (spoiler!) at:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=7106158#post7106158

It's a picture of Kirk. Not really sure that's a spoiler.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Just because it sold well in a variety of formats doesn't mean it was received well.

What, people kept buying it in every format offered because they hated it so much?

It's a picture of Kirk. Not really sure that's a spoiler.

Well, there is some disagreement over in the other thread about exactly who/what that blurry image is supposed to be conveying, and if people follow the link and see discussions they'd rather not know about, they needed a warning.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Just because it sold well in a variety of formats doesn't mean it was received well.

What, people kept buying it in every format offered because they hated it so much?

People keep buying Assimilation2, and I've yet to find anyone who actually likes it. Avengers Vs. X-Men was dire, and yet it topped the sales charts month after month. People buy things for lots of reasons, and things sell despite their quality.

It's a picture of Kirk. Not really sure that's a spoiler.

Well, there is some disagreement over in the other thread about exactly who/what that blurry image is supposed to be conveying, and if people follow the link and see discussions they'd rather not know about, they needed a warning.

It's Kirk. I saw the cover to Countdown to Darkness #1 last Monday.

 

[Fer]

People keep buying Assimilation2, and I've yet to find anyone who actually likes it.

::raises hand::
I like it.

 

[DimesDan]

People keep buying Assimilation2, and I've yet to find anyone who actually likes it.

::raises hand::
I like it.

As do I. I'm sure I've said so either here or in the Who sub forum!

 

[JD]

Just because it sold well in a variety of formats doesn't mean it was received well.

What, people kept buying it in every format offered because they hated it so much?

I have a feeling most of the people buying the new editions hadn't bought the previous ones. I know some people will buy a copy of each edition of a story they enjoy, but I doubt it was enough people for it to sell as well as it did.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I have a feeling most of the people buying the new editions hadn't bought the previous ones.

Exactly, but my point is that, if word of mouth and reviews were of the opinion that this mini-series was generally accepted to be disappointing (eg. JD: "... one of the few people who actually enjoyed 'Countdown'"), was there sufficient call for it to go into multi reprints for the issues, and even a hardcover re-release of the collected trade paperback? Seems to me that most people liked it, or at least didn't hate it.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I'm delighted whenever Foster writes ST or SW.

Then again, I'm delighted whenever Foster writes Humanx Commonwealth, Spellsinger, or Mad Amos.

And given that the Humanx Commonwealth canon has a very similar "relentlessly optimistic" and "diversity cherished" vision of the future to the one inherent in ST, I've always regarded him as an excellent fit for the ST canon.

(Although I always thought that the full novel-length treatment of The Counter-Clock Incident was because of the logical inconsistencies inherent in the script-as-filmed. But I'm never one [to quote the BEM novelization] "look a gift zintar in the masticatory orifice.")

 

[Therin of Andor]

(Although I always thought that the full novel-length treatment of The Counter-Clock Incident was because of the logical inconsistencies inherent in the script-as-filmed.)

There is a new five-part essay by ADF in the most recent "Star Trek Logs" reprints (in five trade paperbacks) that explains how, when the adaptations got to "Star Trek Log Six", Judy-Lynn Del-Rey realized that they were about to lose a successful series at the next book, unless they spun out the remaining four episodes of TAS into one book apiece (thus creating Logs Seven to Ten).

Yes, ADF had some science inconsistencies to fix up in "The Counter-clock Incident", but the additional two-thirds of the story - featuring Kirk sparring with a Klingon he once met during an Academy exchange program - is actually taken from a two-parter episode script ADF once submitted to Star Trek's third season, and which was put on hold in the (unlikely) event ST was renewed!

I once contacted ADF to ask if he could recall the name of his two-parter. Alas, he no longer has a copy of the script, nor can he remember its title. But the anecdote was a great new nugget of trivia in that new essay.

 

[Fer]

The cover for Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness has been posted at Diamond. (And as Allyn Gibson mentioned earlier, it's Kirk.)

http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/916?stockItemID=STK520312

(Shouldn't it be called Countdown to Star Trek Into Darkness to avoid the dreaded colon?)

 

[F. King Daniel]

Thanks for that!

 

[Silvphoenix47]

Look forward to the book already! oh and the movie! I never was a big fan of ADF(transformers book bored me to death..still not sure why..) but when I read his Star Trek movie novelization I grew to like his writing.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm looking forward to the novelization and Countdown to Darkness. Count me in as another who enjoyed "Countdown" (enough to buy it...making it the first Star Trek comic trade that I've bought since probably the Mirror Universe Saga).

 

[Tiberius]

So he's not holding a grudge about his original ST novel, based on the events of the last movie, still being on hold.

Nope. My only regret is that fans haven't (yet, he said hopefully) been able to read it.

Would I be correct in thinking that Alan Dean Foster himself has joined the conversation?

That's the thought I had! Welcome, Alan Dean Foster!

 

[F. King Daniel]

Tell us all your Into Darkness secrets, Alan! We promise not to tell...

 

[serenitytrek1]

Tell us all your Into Darkness secrets, Alan! We promise not to tell...

JJ has sworn him to enternal secrecy