Pardon, but my post has more to do with the KJ controversy and its implications, and it wasn't about "poor me." My disappointment with the absence of KJ is actually just a symptom of a larger problem that has existed for a long time at PB.
I don't think many of the PB writers were familiar with the Voyager characters when they wrote about the series, at least not as familiar as they should have been. They tended to use some sort of PB "template" for the characters rather than the ones we saw on screen--and I'm talking about all of the characters here. It seems to me that writing a Voyager novel would require a viewing of all 170 episodes, but I doubt very much that that happened or that the writers "refreshed their memories" as they probably should have done.
I read all of the novels issued during the series and found them lacking in the characterizations and in the way they seemed to be the same plot over and over again--a real lack of imagination. Even ten years later, when the short stories in "Distant Shores" came out, I found the character templates still very much in use--angry B'Elanna, goofy Neelix, playful Paris, stern Janeway, remote Seven of Nine, etc. The humor that made Voyager fun to watch never came through in the novels, and the "humanity" of the characters was ignored.
My hope was that with this relaunch they would make the Voyager novels different from those for the other series, since we have plenty of that to go around. Instead, Voyager was pulled right into that "universe," so much so that the characters were used a great deal in TNG novels.
If you are tired of reading my posts, block me. But please realize that I have a right to speak my mind, as do you.
I don't think many of the PB writers were familiar with the Voyager characters when they wrote about the series, at least not as familiar as they should have been. They tended to use some sort of PB "template" for the characters rather than the ones we saw on screen--and I'm talking about all of the characters here. It seems to me that writing a Voyager novel would require a viewing of all 170 episodes, but I doubt very much that that happened or that the writers "refreshed their memories" as they probably should have done.
I read all of the novels issued during the series and found them lacking in the characterizations and in the way they seemed to be the same plot over and over again--a real lack of imagination. Even ten years later, when the short stories in "Distant Shores" came out, I found the character templates still very much in use--angry B'Elanna, goofy Neelix, playful Paris, stern Janeway, remote Seven of Nine, etc. The humor that made Voyager fun to watch never came through in the novels, and the "humanity" of the characters was ignored.
My hope was that with this relaunch they would make the Voyager novels different from those for the other series, since we have plenty of that to go around. Instead, Voyager was pulled right into that "universe," so much so that the characters were used a great deal in TNG novels.
If you are tired of reading my posts, block me. But please realize that I have a right to speak my mind, as do you.
I regret dropping money on that one! Well, okay. I regret dropping money for a new copy. The city ship stuff and the Doc's story were pretty neat.
)
