Team Abrams, canon and novels
- Thread starter Procutus
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There were two (or three?) novels that Orci kept referencing as his favorites.
Does anyone remember what they were?
I want to say "Spock's World" and something else...
Does anyone remember what they were?
I want to say "Spock's World" and something else...
http://trekmovie.com/2007/10/04/interview-roberto-orci-on-why-he-is-a-trekkie/
Roberto Orci: 'My favorite one is "Prime Directive" and I would say "Spock’s World" is my other favorite. I saw your interview with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and I think they are great. I have read "Prime Directive" three or four times and I think it is one of the best Star Trek stories ever… period. Here is an interesting tidbit. In casting we have to give sides out to actors [scenes from scripts]. But since we are being so secretive we don’t want to give real scenes from the movie so a lot of the scenes we have been using are from their books.'
I would guess that reading those two novels would give some insight into the tone/vibe of the movie.
Can anyone who read those novels contribute?
Here's what Memory Alpha says about Spock's World:
Interesting sounding. Proof that the ENT writers were far from the first to cast the Vulcans in a light that suggested conflict with Earth.
Prime Directive seems to be similar in that it concerns itself with interstellar politics of the 23rd century, and the oratory of the main crew.
From this perhaps we could infer that there will, perhaps, be speeches and political machinations in the movie.
Interesting sounding. Proof that the ENT writers were far from the first to cast the Vulcans in a light that suggested conflict with Earth.
Prime Directive seems to be similar in that it concerns itself with interstellar politics of the 23rd century, and the oratory of the main crew.
From this perhaps we could infer that there will, perhaps, be speeches and political machinations in the movie.
Prime Directive is an analogy tale in one respect as well as a rip-roaring adventure.
The 1701 is sent to Tallin IV, a world much like late 20th century Earth, teetering on the brink of nuclear war. A disaster ensues and the 1701 is left crippled and most of the senior staff scattered. But the lure of space and most particularly, solving the mystery of what caused the disaster, sees the crew reunite and return to duty.
The 1701 is sent to Tallin IV, a world much like late 20th century Earth, teetering on the brink of nuclear war. A disaster ensues and the 1701 is left crippled and most of the senior staff scattered. But the lure of space and most particularly, solving the mystery of what caused the disaster, sees the crew reunite and return to duty.
This overlays pretty smoothly with what we've heard about Star Trek XI, at least in a general sense. (Except it would be "unite" instead of "reunite".)
That's it. I gotta read Prime Directive. Loved Spocks World.
This is a very good thing.
Ya know, that would make a decent outline for the second and third parts of a trilogy. Part 1= The crew comes together and launches the five year mission, Part 2= Tragedy strikes and the mission ends in discrace, Part 3= The crew reunites and finds redemption.
This is assuming TREK09 is successful, of course.
^ Well, that was kind of the first four movies.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I loved Duane's earlier novels WOUNDED SKY and MY ENEMY MY ALLY, but found SPOCK'S WORLD very very tedious ... a huge disappointment.
On the other hand, PRIME DIRECTIVE (like FEDERATION and MEMORY PRIME) has what I consider to be TOS PLUS feel ... sort of like WOUNDED SKY in that respect ... where it establishes a universe far more detailed and interesting than what we saw on the series, and one that contradicts minor points, but overall is just supremely compelling, while doing the characters some wonderful turns. Except for the resolution, which is a little weak (only in comparison to the greatness that precedes it), it is just fabulous fun to read, and the Reeves-Stevens (as usual) have the character's voices down pat.
I honestly don't think there is a TOS novel (written up through the early 90s, when I gave up on them) that is a better basis for 'seeing' what TOS is about than PD.
The Pocket Books timeline places "Prime Directive" firmly between TOS and TAS, which works very well, as the disastrous mission to Talin IV requires a drydock opportunity for the crippled NCC-1701 to gain its second turbo lift on the bridge (seen in both TAS and TMP), Chekov to go off to Security training (as seen in that position in TMP), and Arex and M'Ress to join the crew, etc.
I like the idea of the possibility of Star Trek XI further canonizing those books but didn't "Enterprise" also do that, we saw how well accepted that was.
i don't think Enterprise canonised much, if anything, from the books, except the Ushaan-tor and icy climate for Andor and the NCC 1764 registry for the Defiant...
The Reeves-Stevens got their foot in the door of the writing team on the strength of their successes with ST novels, yes. And the show improved when they were able to have that input.
But they weren't racing about canonizing stuff from their novels, although their ideas for the first off-Earth, solar system colony was developed from their book material, IIRC.
As for the Andorians, ushaan, the traditional Andorian duel-to-the-death, and the weapon called an ushaan-tor, are based on a term first coined in the licensed RPG manual, "The Andorians: Among the Clans" by S. John Ross, Steven S. Long and Adam Dickstein (Last Unicorn Games, 1999). Cover art from the same book inspired the look of Andoria in "The Aenar". Mike Sussman found the book on eBay and lent it to Manny Coto. They were "taken by the striking cover image of an ice-covered Andoria" and went with that interpretation of the environment.
poiint of fact they actually DEcanonised the backgrounds they gave to Col. Green in both Prime Directive and Federation...
My bad, I should have been more clear. I meant canonizing the idea that Vulcans of the pre-TOS era were not as 'perfect' as they later seemed be.
I remember when reading those books, back in the day, a picture of them not always being as later portrayed in TOS being painted and Enterprise followed up on and canonized that idea. I hope that is better stated.
I remember when reading those books, back in the day, a picture of them not always being as later portrayed in TOS being painted and Enterprise followed up on and canonized that idea. I hope that is better stated.
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