These Are The Voyages - Season Three

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, there's been next to nothing other than some fan written, completely opinion laden books with little or n ot behind the scenes research other than Lost in Space Forever (which needs an expansion) and the Time Tunnel Book I mentioned, which is actually excellent. These Starlog articles really help fill in some blanks.

That, and its value to science.

You owe me for the monitor I just spit coffee all over.

 

[Melakon]

In the 60s, I had models from Aurora of the Seaview, the Flying Sub, the Spindrift from Land of the Giants, Robot B-9, and there was a diorama of the Robinsons fighting the giant cyclops who was about to throw a boulder onto the Space Chariot. The little chariot model was so cheap, they didn't even put real windows in it, just decals to simulate windows. Never saw any models for Time Tunnel or Jupiter 2.

 

[Green Shirt]

I had all those models, too. Two paper plates stapled together had to suffice for the J-2.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Aurora apparently didn't feel the Jupiter 2 was an interesting enough ship to make a model out of. Fans disagreed for decades. The Polar Lights model was a good step forwatd, but the Moebius kit was perfect.

 

[Maurice]

And The Invaders saucer was?

 

[Ssosmcin]

I agree and the Jupiter 2 was a more attractive saucer. To me anyway. Wasn't The Invaders a bigger hit at the time? At least in its first year? Also, there was a lot less to market, model kit wise, than the equipment heavy Lost in Space. The guns and the "heart attack disc" were the only regular equipment The Invaders had.

 

[Warped9]

Despite the flaws I enjoyed the first two volumes. My copy of Volume 3 should be arriving any day now.

 

[Indysolo]

Yeah, Memory Alpha had his pseudonym and alt career, but I know that's a wiki. Though unlikely someone would make that up. Via Google, there were some other sites including imdb. It doesn't make him a bad guy, I just said it's interesting. But yeah, not really that much.

Knowing that Marc Cushman is Cash Markman calls into question his statements about writing these books. He claims in this interview, "...I did these books on spec and that means I took six years of my life without any income" yet his IMDB page paints a different story.

Neil

 

[Warped9]

Doing something on spec simply means that he didn't get paid for it while he was doing that work. Doesn't mean he didn't get paid for other unrelated work.

 

[Harvey]

You're right about writing on spec, of course. But the second part of Cushman's phrase, "I took six years of my life without any income," is rather straightforward. It's also demonstrably untrue.

 

[Indysolo]

The full quote is, "So I did these books on spec and that means I took six years of my life without any income. I was living off my savings. I pretty much stopped doing TV work. I’d do the occasional jobs here and there, but I had to focus on these books. I’d be working twelve hours a day sometimes seven days a week in my cave and time just flies by when you’re working on something you like."

Yes of course, he wrote these on spec and wasn't paid for the books during that process. Did he really live six years of his life without any income?

The books came out in 2013, but lets say he started them in 2006 and completed them in 2012 (six years). He had 28 writing credits in 2006, 23 in 2007, 19 in 2008, 19 in 2009, 28 in 2010, 15 in 2011, 1 in 2012, and 2 in 2013. For comparison he had 20 writing credits in 2005.

The number of directing credits are 24 in 2006, 20 in 2007, 17 in 2008, 13 in 2009, 22 in 2010, 15 in 2011 and 1 in 2012. For comparison, in 2005 he had 18 directing credits.

That's a lot of work and doesn't sound like someone who is living off of his savings for six years or did "occasional jobs".

He then goes on to say, "It’s a big sacrifice in your personal life to take on a project this immense. Especially for a TV writer. We’re used to a job lasting two weeks and then you’re off to the next one." while this article about Cash says he is a "former television writer". This article from 2006 also states he signed a new contract with Legend, so again, the facts don't support his statements.

Neil

 

[doubleohfive]

I think it's important to clarify too that Indysolo isn't denying that Cushman did the work. The point is Cushman is disingenuously suggesting that the work he did on the books was the only work he did, and that he wasn't making any income during those years as a means of demonstrating how passionate he is for the subject matter.

IMDB, Legend, and the internet in general however seem to disagree with this account of how Cushman spent those six years, beginning with the interviews he did starting in 2006. The key factor however is simply that this was all concurrent with Cash's "other career" in the adult film world and thus he wasn't realy struggling the way he makes out to be in these promotional interviews for the books now.

 

[Indysolo]

I've been told that the interviews were conducted between 2006 and 2013, so that fits with the timeframe stated, however it's clear he wasn't struggling the way he portrays it.

Neil

 

[Esteban]

I'm curious about "Jacobs/Brown" marketing the e-book on their own

"THIS EBOOK IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH KINDLE, NOOK OR IBOOK. You can view the book on your PC/Mac or laptop. Please know that the computer to which you upload becomes the permanent and sole host of the ebook."

$14.95.

Anyone done this? I'm not crazy about those terms. And I'm still not sold that S3 is going to be an eye-opener, although it is probably more dreary.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I'm curious about "Jacobs/Brown" marketing the e-book on their own

"THIS EBOOK IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH KINDLE, NOOK OR IBOOK. You can view the book on your PC/Mac or laptop. Please know that the computer to which you upload becomes the permanent and sole host of the ebook."

$14.95.

Anyone done this? I'm not crazy about those terms. And I'm still not sold that S3 is going to be an eye-opener, although it is probably more dreary.

Season One and Season Two eventually turned up on Kindle (in fact, Season One is available on Kindle Unlimited, which means you can read it as part of your $10 monthly subscription, if you so choose.)

I expect Season Three will turn up on Kindle in a couple months.

 

[Warped9]

No reference book I've ever read has been all encompassing. Each of them has offered a piece or two to a larger story or puzzle. And I doubt we will ever know every little thing we would like to know. But it's still interesting to go through all this materiel and try to piece it together into an overall integrated narrative.

The Making Of Star Trek is the grandaddy of these books laying the groundwork for what eventually followed. I thought I'd found golden treasure when I first read it back in the day (sometime in 1970-'72). I still think it's a fantastic read that gives you an overall picture of the making of TOS and a glimpse of '60's era television. Of course, other works have come along and revealed inconsistences in TMOST, but a lot of it still holds. It remains the first big reveal, the first big piece of the Star Trek story.

Phase II: The Lost Years, Star Trek Sketchbook, The World Of Star Trek, The Trouble With Tribbles, Inside Star Trek, The Making Of Star Trek - The Motion Picture (and every other "making of" book), Return To Tomorrow and now the These Are The Voyages volumes are all parts of larger story. You can also include the "tell all" books of the individual cast members. They're all hit-and-miss in what they offer, but from each we can take away something that helps clarify the overall history of Star Trek.

 

[doubleohfive]

Likewise, no other book has been so riddled with inaccuracy or by an author so unwilling to openly acknowledge his mistakes. Instead, he waits for his readers to point them out to him so he can fix them in time for the next revised edition, thereby editing the books for him after the fact. Self-publishing aside, these books are being produced by a scam artist taking advantage of fans like you.

 

[BillJ]

Likewise, no other book has been so riddled with inaccuracy or by an author so unwilling to openly acknowledge his mistakes. Instead, he waits for his readers to point them out to him so he can fix them in time for the next revised edition, thereby editing the books for him after the fact. Self-publishing aside, these books are being produced by a scam artist taking advantage of fans like you.

As much as I hate to admit it, this is pretty spot on. All one has to do is look at the UESPA book fiasco.

 

[Indysolo]

Likewise, no other book has been so riddled with inaccuracy or by an author so unwilling to openly acknowledge his mistakes. Instead, he waits for his readers to point them out to him so he can fix them in time for the next revised edition, thereby editing the books for him after the fact. Self-publishing aside, these books are being produced by a scam artist taking advantage of fans like you.

As much as I hate to admit it, this is pretty spot on. All one has to do is look at the UESPA book fiasco.

The gift that keeps on giving.

"The UESPA book fiasco"

He didn't even fix the mistake. Instead he wrote a snarky caption that now questions everything in the books and highlights the type of person we're dealing with.

Neil

 

[plynch]

I'm gonna do a revised edition of mine and put in a pic I know to be a photoshop of Louis Armstrong and Elvis and caption it, "Real or fake?" It's all good.