TOS 80's Novel Continuity Read Through

[Oz Trekkie]

Too many,I thought to be unrelated.
There was also the character of Admiral Androver Drake(cannot recall the book) who seemed to hint that he was the last of a secret cabal within Starfleet.I kinda linked it all together with the Rittenhouse business.

Badmiral...heh.

He was in the Shatnerverse novel Ashes to Eden.

 

[Desert Kris]

Reference Guides

I've accumulated a small handful of reference guidebook which provide world building outside the confines of a novel's narrative. I've never been able to sit down any read any of these types of books, whether they're for Star Trek or Star Wars or Doctor Who. However they are great for dipping in and out of, and they are a smaller reading commitment for gaps between when I'm reading one of the novels (there are a some comics that I think can fill this role nicely, too; more on those later).

Spaceflight Chronology--Useful for broad historical context, a look at how Earth, Starfleet (or is it Star Fleet?) and the Federation develop 70 years sooner than is established in the more modern continuity. This really enhances the experience of John Ford's The Final Reflection. Also interesting for a look at Centaurus and the native sentient species that live on our closest neighbor.

The Klingons--A Sourcebook and Character Generation Supplement--Just for fun, something to delve a little more beyond the confines of The Final Reflection. There's a sense of cross-promotion going on between the novels and the RPG here, as this supplement points readers to the "upcoming" novel by John Ford. Yes, I went out of my way to chase this down when I started gaining momentum with this alternative continuity.

Voyages of Imagination--For a little behind the scenes perspective, that I can include in commentary when reflection on an individual book.

Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise(?)--Thought I would throw this out for consideration, I was looking in on it and surprised to discover that at the very least it makes use of the Spaceflight Chronology dating system. Neat. It's in storage right now, yet easily accessible, and I'm game to drag it out for inclusion.

 

[Desert Kris]

The Entropy Effect

Introduction/Opening Credits Theme

When I read, often very specific visuals manifest inside my head. In some sense reading is like directing a movie in my head, including camera angles, specific actors for characters, and music. As I've read through Star Trek novels from the 80's, I sometimes speculate about what kind of music the authors might have had in mind for their Star Trek stories, now that they had the potential for better visuals and grander scope such as the movies might have suggested as possible. Of course the original show has some great music, too; some of it memorable because a number of thematic cues are used so often. Watch enough of the old series and it isn't just Alexander Courage's theme that gets enough repetition to stay with me.

Many later books have left me with a feeling, a general impression, that a particular musical theme would work well as an “Opening Credits” theme for the movie that unfolds inside my head. However The Entropy Effect is a little bit of a challenge, and partly because of my own personal prejudice. When it was written, and released, only TOS, TAS, and TMP existed, with the music that comes with them. What better way to launch the 80's Trek novel continuity than with music from the movies? And the obvious candidate for a theme is the opening theme for TMP. Yet I resist a little, because I was first introduced to this theme as the intro theme for The Next Generation. TMP was a forgotten movie that I had never seen, a mystery that I would uncover like an archaeologist discovering a hidden history after TNG had been in full swing for several years.

This hang-up is perhaps silly and arbitrary; TMP theme is the theme for either late 70's Trek, or TNG. Still, I think it deserves it's place, and it seems appropriate for this novel, which is an energetic and engaging story. For one time only we'll give TMP's theme a spin, for The Entropy Effect. Rest assured though that music from TMP will not fall by the wayside for other books ahead.

Suggested Prerequisites

Many Star Trek books are meant to be user friendly by the authors, without requiring the reading of a large back catalog of the books. Like TOS there's the “episodic” aspect, where the idea is you can watch them in any order. And yet many fans will advocate for watching TOS in production order, for a certain effect; and something similar is possible here with the novels.

The Entropy Effect doesn't have any prerequisite novels to read, in the 80's novel continuity construct that I'm using as a readers guide. Except maybe there's a case for the novelization of TMP for introducing the Kirk and Spock t'hy'la relationship concept for later books in the 80's novel continuity (I'm thinking of what is said in Voyages of Imagination about Dwellers in the Crucible). I'll bring up TMP novelization later when that or another relevant book comes up.

Returning to The Entropy Effect, this and many other first ST novels by authors are great entry level books that you can pick and choose as a starting point. The Entropy Effect itself becomes a prerequisite (if a reader chooses to do so) for many books that follow.

The Book on its Own Merit

All these books deserve regard on their own merits. The earliest ones have no continuity outside of the live action and animate series, and the movies, with glimpses of each authors impressions of what is beyond that which is being shown on-screen.

I have decided in re-visiting books that I've already read since starting this read-through project that I will refrain from looking at what I've already written elsewhere about them. In a sense, this read-through has already been in existence, but scattered on the ST forums under a small handful of topic threads. Here my reading reflections will be consolidated in this single thread.

This is a lot of set up, just to get to the actual book that is the subject of this entry! Still, it's the first book, and these are the categories I wanted to comment on for each book. The Entropy Effect is a solid adventure with a different, quirky approach to time travel. I think, though, that this has been said many times by lots of other people in reviews on the ST forums or on goodreads or on Amazon.

What about my personal experience of the book? It's the hybrid Enterprise in my head, with the more advanced looking bridge, the corridors from the movies. I remember a couple scenes set in the transporter room that make it feel shadowy very like as it is seen in the movies. The description of sickbay evokes images of a sickbay I've seen in my minds eye since I was very young, reading through Vonda McIntyre's novelizations of the second and third movie, a very large space with beds that are cordoned off by hanging curtains. Like a carpeted version of the newer Battlestar Galactica's hospital. I've also been in some more modern hospitals in recent years (nothing life threatening), and that's spilled over in my mind's eye as well.

Looking at the story itself, this is an interesting exploration of how major command crew might more naturally look into taking their careers in different directions, as it develops where Hikaru Sulu has come from and where he thinks he might want to go. Sulu has concerns about the trajectory of his path that make forging a career in Starfleet seem a bit intimidating. It makes me think of odd moments in the original show, such as the melodramatic “career in jeopardy” moments in the Court Martial episode or The Deadly Years. On the one hand, challenge is good. On the other there's a puzzling impression that Starfleet can close off options at the drop of a hat, which gives the impression of a work environment that is at times oppressively difficult to navigate.

McIntyre uses The Entropy Effect's impermanence to put Sulu through a somewhat tragic-romantic character arc. The Memory Beta articles that elaborate on these events provides a simplified labelling as an “Alternate Timeline”, but inside the experience of reading through the events of the book, that terminology seems too simple. Short of a major change, like an actual death, some of what happens in the book is really quite effective. Even while following Sulu into a new place and situation, I experienced different emotions from what he did, I felt a certain forlorn-ness as he integrates with a different set of characters.

And then all of a sudden, a major death does happen! Having started to show an initial unravelling of the familiar crew, this still has a certain amount of weight. Even so, we're in familiar territory, where a major character can die or be maimed in a way that seems permanent, yet is resolved inside a single story/episode, or even as soon as the next commercial break. When this book is written, Star Trek is still a little ways away from a major death that it takes 2-4 years to bounce back from, and an entire movie's worth of story to put a person back together with the cost that comes along with such an ambitious undertaking. The death of Kirk is thoughtfully done, showing the crew react emotionally; while at the same time this signals that things have gone too far wrong. It might suggest, too, that what happens with Sulu is something going “wrong” as well, but my own experience was that it would be too bad to just dismiss Sulu's story as being wrong when this kind of thing where people move on to different things is naturalistic and normal. Vonda McIntyre seems to be a very effective for playing with the idea of characters making choices about striking out on their own, or lining up with the rest of an ensemble of characters for a readers/viewers satisfaction (and I guess this is me providing a setup for myself, for TSFS novelization, which I already know does delve into this kind of thematic material).

Anachronisms

I don't know if McIntyre meant for the Enterprise of her story to be a hybrid halfway point between the series and movie refit, but in my own mind I was already in the practice of visualizing Enterprise this way, having technically started with Diane Duane's first two ST novels.

The JJ Abrams films provided a useful mind's eye short cut for scenes featuring Kirk very young and early in his Starfleet career. Much to my surprise, Chris Pine's performance asserted itself in my head, and I didn't object and didn't want to.

What's Next?

As mentioned before, the books are meant to be user friendly, without requiring the reading of an extensive back catalog. Yet reading in publication order is beneficial for understanding later books on a slightly more nuanced level, even if the continuity is just superficial detail.

Reading The Entropy Effect opens up the novelization for The Wrath of Khan, which leads on through the rest of McIntyre's ST novels. For my own experience, I found it more satisfying coming to TWOK; there are references in the novelization that have fallen flat and frustrated me every previous time I've read through it, and was much more pleasant when armed with knowledge of where these continuity elements come from. This is mainly story material that is developed for Sulu's character, his friend and lover Mandela Flynn, and the ship Aerfen under Captain Hunter.

The Entropy Effect introduces the university Makropyrios, which gets mentioned again in The Final Reflection. Both Georges Mordreaux and Dr. Emanuel Tagore are associated with that institution. I actually read The Final Reflection before reading Entropy, and yet after reading both, I didn't even realize this university was mentioned in both books.

My understanding is that TEE feeds into Uhura's Song and Shadow Lords; but I can't comment on if you could jump into those two novels without reading other books in addition to The Entropy Effect.

Final Thoughts

The Entropy Effect is an enjoyable, entertaining novel that launches TOS novel line with original stories; there's a lot of little continuity bits that continue to get referenced and built on as the 80's novel continuity progresses. I'm glad for the circumstances that lead me to expand and include it and books that follow on from it in my reading list.

 

[Desert Kris]

“Gentlemen, I present to you the new drive system that runs on the principle of the science of Creative Physics. Our own galaxy is just the smallest first step, now,” said K't'lk.

“Ooch, that's nae but a paperback novel. A media tie-in, no less. What's it called, The Wounded Sky? How in the name of space are we pluggin' that into me bairns?” Mr. Scott shook his head, baffled.

K't'lk said, “Well, no; actually it's more like we'll plug a sentient individual into the work. The chosen subject will read, and the words transform into meaning inside that person's head. They'll think, and therefore we are.”

The Wounded Sky

Introduction

So here was the maiden voyage for me, personally, even though I retroactively ended up concluding that The Entropy Effect is better if a reader is going for a true publication order experience of the 80's novel continuity. This book was my starting point because earlier on I wanted to keep things smaller and of modest ambition, as a slow reader. Originally I was going to stick with Diane Duane's books, supplemented with a small handful of books like The Final Reflection, and a few others that I was personally curious about (that happily are part of this continuity).

Opening Credits

This is a book for Star Trek in late 1983. So for music we have the soundtracks of the original series, the animated series, and the first two movies so far. The movies have the newest look and sound to depict the realm of Trek, and out of the first two movies this book feels more in tune with TMP. I particularly like The Meld from Jerry Goldsmith's score as a track that accompanies a sweeping moment of cosmic transcendence and transition. That seems in the spirit of The Wounded Sky's story. We'll keep that visual where the music climaxes as the ripple of star lights frantically spin out and disperse...revealing the Enterprise proudly emerging from the eye of the storm. The Motion Picture's main theme is quoted at the end of the track as Enterprise is unveiled, ready to continue her journey.

The Needs of the One: The Book

I enjoyed The Wounded Sky as an ambitious novel that wants to try for something massive that we've never seen or read in Star Trek. The Wounded Sky makes me think of The Motion Picture, as if this is the novels' answer to that movie's version of Star Trek, in prose form. I've thrown it out on forum topics as a candidate for movie adaptation; and even speculated about what if the production team that made TMP instead made The Wounded Sky.

“Sometimes, in order to create, you must first destroy.” --David, Prometheus.

The Wounded Sky has the crew trying out a new engine, that might expand their exploratory potential. They are pushing to redefine the final frontier. But here unfortunately, they have pushed too far, too fast. The characters talk about the scientific principle behind their new drive system, Creative Physics, which is categorized in the realm of high science that is indistinguishable from magic. There's a scientific rationale, sure, but it might as well be magic, there's no limit here. After reading this book, I went looking for Diane Duane's So You Want to be a Wizard series, which I've seen some readers say are spiritually connected to the ideas in this book. I haven't read them yet, as I still have a lot of ST books!

The mechanics of the drive system powered by creative physics enables the crew to cheat and break the normal laws of physics. A few faster-than-light jumps later, they see the cost of breaking the rules. They've endangered the universe. By trying to redefine the limits of the final frontier, they've broken it.

But they are the protagonists whose adventures we want to continue watching and reading, so they have to put things to right, redeem themselves. Yet, after breaking things this thoroughly, can they go back to the way it all was before? This is an optimistic, hopeful book, in the spirit of Star Trek as an optimistic fictional universe of our future, and so the straightforward answer is that they are able to mend the wounded sky, in the end; and return to their proper universe.

The Needs of the Many—Continuity and the Big Picture

“There are always possibilities.” --Spock

I once read someone commented half-jokingly about The Wounded Sky that the book created a version of the ST universe where Diane Duane's version of the Romulans exist as a totally different version of the culture than we see develop throughout the later ST television shows. I latched onto that very emphatically at one point. However, I feel more relaxed about it lately. TWS doesn't have to be the origin story for the 80's novel continuity.

But it's fun to think about it's role on a cosmic level. I kept thinking about it as a kind of Oroborous book, creating itself; creating the universe it exists in. I like to think there's a version of this mission in many of the TOS timelines and parallels, each resulting in the neighboring TOS timeline.

Did the Enterprise and her crew ever make it back? What if the destruction they unintentionally started didn't stop, despite their attempts to reassure themselves? What if they created a god and universe in their image, but ended up slotting into their corresponded place in that new universe? Or did they have counterparts, who traded places with them, and we follow the Enterprise crew that manifested when they imprinted themselves on that new-born universe.

Am I flipping between universes each time I pick up a different ST novel; where it's Starfleet in one version, and Star Fleet in the other? And as they start to share continuity more and more, is that a sign that the tear between universes was never completely mended, and both eventually merge...?

The Wounded Sky is fun for brain-twisting speculation. But it doesn't have to be the origin story for the other books I've read, and intend to continue reading. I like just as well an alternative extrapolation from TOS that I came across on Memory Beta under the entry for Preservers: “Starfleet managed to uncover at least three duplicate Earths, four duplicate Qo'noSs, two of Vulcan and one duplicate of Andor.” Which is just amazing. It's fun to think that one Qo'noS was named Klinzai by it's inhabitants; while Rihannsu left one version of Vulcan and Romulans left the version of Vulcan we are more familiar with.

I really like The Wounded Sky, as an idea book. I think it's an important, worthwhile ST novel.

Next Mission

After The Wounded Sky, I read The Final Reflection as one of the novels I chose to slot between Diane Duane books, in accordance to my original reading plan. Then I went on to My Enemy, My Ally; which really was made more rewarding to see the return of Duane's expanded Enterprise crew.

Within this topic thread's progression, though, the next mission is The Vulcan Academy Murders. The Entropy Effect is first novel in publication order for this sequence of stories (Arguably; maybe The Motion Picture's novelization deserves an honorary place, when considering the Dwellers in the Crucible). The Wounded Sky is the book I actually started with. The Vulcan Academy Murders is the first novel I have started reading since beginning this thread to chronicling my read through of the 80's novel continuity. Given my own reading order choices, coupled with the desire to give all the books that I read their due credit in a single place, things have gotten a bit muddled. So this thread is going to be the book equivalent of Broadcast Order rather than Production Order (Readers choice order, rather than strict Publication order.

Post-Script: By Any Other Name

As I re-read sections of The Wounded Sky for this reflection, I thought about looking to it as a source for giving an alternative label or name for the continuity that isn't quite a continuity exactly, which up 'til now I've defaulted to “TOS 80's novel continuity”. Don't get me wrong, I like it, and I admit to feeling some trepidation about choosing something different as a bit presumptuous; given that it wasn't me that conceptualization of these books as a sequence of stories that build a continuity among themselves. As much as I like “TOS 80's novel continuity”, it sometimes feels a bit unwieldy. I've written that out often enough in scattered posts, even before starting this thread. I admit to wariness given how gimmicky it seemed when the term “Kelvin-timeline” was presented.

Actually, I don't really want a term that will override what has been used before. Coming from a place of laziness, I want a gimmicky name that will be an easy shortcut for me, just for this thread, while outside of it the books will remain better known as “TOS 80's novel continuity”. As a last resort, if no one seems keen (and I would welcome feedback in this regard), if everyone hates the idea of using an alternative name for the continuity, I can probably just set-up a key on my keyboard to shortcut typing out what we have.

While looking through The Wounded Sky for this reflection, I looked for potential alternative lazy labels. The Inversion Continuity (named after the experimental drive system they are using). K't'lk's Realm/Universe/Continuity/Song (delete where applicable to reveal personal preference; this is named after the Creative Physics scientist who establishes the foundation of a new universe). Then there is the protoGod, mostly called The Others: The Other's Game Continuity...hmm, maybe that's unwieldy, too. Should I give it up, accept and continue to use TOS 80's Novel Continuity?

 

[Christopher]

I particularly like The Meld from Jerry Goldsmith's score as a track that accompanies a sweeping moment of cosmic transcendence and transition. That seems in the spirit of The Wounded Sky's story.

I have done exactly the same thing in my head when reading that book.

I've thrown it out on forum topics as a candidate for movie adaptation;

It's the only Trek novel that has been adapted to the screen, though TNG: "Where No One Has Gone Before" is almost unrecognizably altered from it.

 

[Damian]

It's been years since I read "The Entropy Effect", I think the early 90's. I may add it to my summer camper reading collection once I'm done with the Bantam books. Those 5 books that are pre TWOK but post TMP are fascinating to me, even more so then the Bantam books from the 70's. They had TMP to work with as far as the movie era, but they had no real idea where Star Trek was going next.

But I did read the Wounded Sky a few years ago and remember enjoying it. K'tl'kt was a fascinating character also. When picturing the story in my mind's eye at times I felt like it was during the 5 year mission a ttimes and at other times after TMP (one of the early hybrid timeframe novels I guess). I checked Memory Alpha and it lists the year as 2275. I guess I can go with that.

But I always enjoyed the extra-galactic tales, probably one reason I enjoyed Chain of Attack so much. By the time I read it we were already past Enterprise, and I usually picture novels these days with special effects from the spinoffs (i.e. the streaking star effect at warp that began with TNG, I'll admit because it was my favorite warp effect from Star Trek so I'm biased).

 

[Christopher]

Those 5 books that are pre TWOK but post TMP are fascinating to me, even more so then the Bantam books from the 70's. They had TMP to work with as far as the movie era, but they had no real idea where Star Trek was going next.

I'd say it was more than 5 books, since probably the first few after the TWOK novelization would've been outlined or written before TWOK came out. Cover art aside, offhand I can't think of anything prior to Dwellers in the Crucible that references any ideas introduced in TWOK. At least, there are certainly a number of novels coming out after TWOK that still had TMP influences visible -- Black Fire (which seemed to be a pseudo-prequel to TMP), Triangle (set clearly in the post-TMP era), the Duane books.

 

[Damian]

I'd say it was more than 5 books, since probably the first few after the TWOK novelization would've been outlined or written before TWOK came out. Cover art aside, offhand I can't think of anything prior to Dwellers in the Crucible that references any ideas introduced in TWOK. At least, there are certainly a number of novels coming out after TWOK that still had TMP influences visible -- Black Fire (which seemed to be a pseudo-prequel to TMP), Triangle (set clearly in the post-TMP era), the Duane books.

True. I read a lot of those early novels in the late 80s and 90s and was still pretty new at Star Trek and putting it all together as far as a timeline. The covers at the time confused me because I'd be reading a book with a post TMP cover but an original series story. Now I know why that was, but when I was a nubie I found it rather confusing.

One of the reasons I want to go back and re-read some of those. Now that I know much more about Star Trek it'll be interesting for me to read how Star Trek was viewed before there was a Next Generation, and for some of those before there was a Wrath of Khan. In an ironic sort of way, I think it will help be view the books more honestly. I find that true even reading the Bantam books--I don't expect them to conform with what I know of Star Trek now (which can lead me to be a bit too forgiving at times--like with Vulcan! which I'd probably be more critical if written today, but I was willing to overlook more of it's faults since she had much less to work with).

 

[Desert Kris]

Cover art aside, offhand I can't think of anything prior to Dwellers in the Crucible that references any ideas introduced in TWOK.

The fate of K't'lk at the end of The Wounded Sky felt like an echo of Spock's fate at the end of TWOK. It felt like deliberate foreshadowing of events the characters had not experienced, but the fans had. It also felt like Diane Duane was speculating about how what was lost can be restored, but in a somewhat changed capacity. It's very indirectly done, but it grabbed me as a deliberate parallel.

 

[Christopher]

The fate of K't'lk at the end of The Wounded Sky felt like an echo of Spock's fate at the end of TWOK.

I doubt that very much. Given the subtle spiritual/Christian themes that are present in much of Duane's work, I think it's likely that any use of a resurrection motif on her part would be a reference to something much, much older than TWOK. Especially given how much Hamalki "creative physics" ties into the notion of "In the Beginning was the Word."

Besides, I think you're projecting elements of TSFS back onto TWOK's ending. True, a lot of us guessed back in '82 that the intact torpedo tube and the meld with McCoy meant that Spock might be resurrected somehow, but that was far from certain at the time. Even the filmmakers of TWOK didn't put those in there to definitively set up a resurrection, but merely to inject a hint of hope into what was originally a rather depressing ending.

 

[Damian]

The fate of K't'lk at the end of The Wounded Sky felt like an echo of Spock's fate at the end of TWOK.

Besides, I think you're projecting elements of TSFS back onto TWOK's ending.

Admittedly that's something that's easy to do sometimes, project things we've seen since a book was written into an earlier book. And with a universe as large as Star Trek, I've noticed more than once similar themes and even plot devices. Some writers of course are inspired by something else earlier, and I think a lot of times it may just be coincidence. For instance when I saw the episode of Enterprise "Carbon Creek" I couldn't help but think of Strangers from the Sky. But that doesn't mean they were inspired or even read SFTS.

What I've tried to do when reading the Bantam books is remember that there was no TMP or anything after when I read them, so I overlook any inconsistencies that may arise with the continuity as we know it, and even similarities (though it's always interesting to see where an early writer hits on something that may match or fit with later continuities).

 

[Christopher]

Admittedly that's something that's easy to do sometimes, project things we've seen since a book was written into an earlier book.

Yes, which is why we have to be careful to avoid that if we can.

And with a universe as large as Star Trek, I've noticed more than once similar themes and even plot devices. Some writers of course are inspired by something else earlier, and I think a lot of times it may just be coincidence. For instance when I saw the episode of Enterprise "Carbon Creek" I couldn't help but think of Strangers from the Sky. But that doesn't mean they were inspired or even read SFTS.

Different writers come up with coincidentally similar ideas all the time. Laypeople always jump to the conclusion that it proves imitation, but usually it's the opposite -- it's so hard to avoid accidentally repeating what someone else has done that most writers try very hard not to do it. So if two works do resemble each other, it's usually proof that their writers weren't aware of each other's work, otherwise they would've changed things so they weren't so similar.

I guess these days, with so many comic-book film and TV adaptations drawing on classic comics storylines to base their movies and shows around, it's easy to assume that creators of something like Trek work the same way. But it's important to remember that it's the other way around with Trek -- the shows are the original canon that the books are adapting and drawing ideas from. As a rule, the makers of Trek TV shows have been unaware of what the novels were doing. And they were certainly too busy making the shows to keep track of what recent or current novels were doing, which is why so many books and episodes in the '90s accidentally covered similar ground, if the similarities weren't caught in time for the books to be changed.

 

[Desert Kris]

I doubt that very much. Given the subtle spiritual/Christian themes that are present in much of Duane's work, I think it's likely that any use of a resurrection motif on her part would be a reference to something much, much older than TWOK. Especially given how much Hamalki "creative physics" ties into the notion of "In the Beginning was the Word."

Besides, I think you're projecting elements of TSFS back onto TWOK's ending. True, a lot of us guessed back in '82 that the intact torpedo tube and the meld with McCoy meant that Spock might be resurrected somehow, but that was far from certain at the time. Even the filmmakers of TWOK didn't put those in there to definitively set up a resurrection, but merely to inject a hint of hope into what was originally a rather depressing ending.

I have to admit, TSFS is by accident one of the more prominent of TOS movies for me personally, it's the first of the movies I saw in the theater at a very young age; and the first ST movie I got on VHS. From that standpoint it's probably fair to say that to this day there's a residual perspective of TWOK as what happened before TSFS. One challenged when approaching The Final Reflection was to remind myself that only two ST movie existed to influence that book. It didn't entirely work, my mind wanted to use the Klingon themes from TSFS and ST Into Darkness.

By the time I read it we were already past Enterprise, and I usually picture novels these days with special effects from the spinoffs (i.e. the streaking star effect at warp that began with TNG, I'll admit because it was my favorite warp effect from Star Trek so I'm biased).

Ha ha! I like that streaking star warp effect, too. While I've been reading these books, at time I'll let my mind picture special effects of modern quality; but sometimes my mind will think up a visual that is characteristic of Sci-fi and Fantasy movies of the 80's. A bit like the way the newer Star Wars movies are trying to balance the special effects and cinematography with a retro look, I guess.

What I've tried to do when reading the Bantam books is remember that there was no TMP or anything after when I read them, so I overlook any inconsistencies that may arise with the continuity as we know it, and even similarities (though it's always interesting to see where an early writer hits on something that may match or fit with later continuities).

It's a fun exercise to try and approach the books with their real-world context in mind. I sometimes wonder about which books were written on a typewriter, which seems like it would be a real challenge with regard to the convenience of editing the text. This factor makes me a bit more forgiving as well.

 

[Christopher]

I sometimes wonder about which books were written on a typewriter, which seems like it would be a real challenge with regard to the convenience of editing the text.

There used to be a whole vocabulary of proofreader marks that one would write in red ink in the margins and between lines to let the typesetters know what changes needed to be made in a manuscript. That's a large part of the reason manuscripts are traditionally double-spaced and have 1-inch margins. In my early years as a professional writer, I'd get edited MSs and galley pages mailed to me and I'd have to mark them up by hand and send them back. These days, MS Word's Track Changes feature has pretty much rendered proofreader marks obsolete.

 

[Damian]

Ha ha! I like that streaking star warp effect, too. While I've been reading these books, at time I'll let my mind picture special effects of modern quality; but sometimes my mind will think up a visual that is characteristic of Sci-fi and Fantasy movies of the 80's.

Yeah, for me it's sort of a hybrid. I always imagine the ship from whatever time period it/show comes from, but with special effects from the spinoff shows (and a bit of that stretch effect of a ship at warp in TWOK through TUC because I always thought that was pretty cool too). So if I'm reading an original series book I think of the Enterprise from the TV series but with the effects of later TNG through Enterprise.

One think I always enjoyed about Enterprise "In a Mirror, Darkly" is it showed us an original series ship, the Defiant, but with modern special effects (including my favorite streaking star effect), so it actually helped my imagination when reading the novels from the original series. I picture what we saw in that episode in many respects.

While I try to avoid applying current standards to older stories, esp. when it comes to the continuity we now know, the more modern special effects of the spinoffs are the one modern luxury I do allow myself to imagine when reading an older book.

 

[Christopher]

While I try to avoid applying current standards to older stories, esp. when it comes to the continuity we now know, the more modern special effects of the spinoffs are the one modern luxury I do allow myself to imagine when reading an older book.

I've never seen a need to limit my visualizations of things from a Trek novel to what the effects were capable of at the time. The freedom of reading is that we have unlimited "production values" in our imaginations. And I grew up in a time when even the best visual effects were still recognizably unreal, so it was implicit that it was up to the audience's imaginations to take things the rest of the way and imagine what it would look like if it were real.

 

[Damian]

I've never seen a need to limit my visualizations of things from a Trek novel to what the effects were capable of at the time. The freedom of reading is that we have unlimited "production values" in our imaginations. And I grew up in a time when even the best visual effects were still recognizably unreal, so it was implicit that it was up to the audience's imaginations to take things the rest of the way and imagine what it would look like if it were real.

Yeah, there's a difference between how we visualize a story and the story itself. I started reading Star Trek books after TVH came out, and at that time I sort of visualized the stories from the perspective of TOS but cleaned up a bit. Even the first few years of TNG weren't the best in terms of special effects (I'm still wondering about the 'roaming' starfield behind the Enterprise and behind planets in the first 2 seasons--always moving to the side-I'm glad they cleaned that up by about the 3rd season).

In a Mirror, Darkly helped cement my vision of what I'd like to see as far as special effects from the original series production design.

 

[Christopher]

Even the first few years of TNG weren't the best in terms of special effects

In retrospect, no, but compared to contemporary TV shows, TNG's effects were exceptionally good, even groundbreaking for TV. Most other late-'80s shows had really cheesy video effects. When I rewatched the first season of War of the Worlds: The Series, which came from Paramount and was paired with TNG's second season in the syndication package, I was struck by just how awful its effects were compared to TNG's. Probably the show from the period with the best effects was CBS's Beauty and the Beast, which did gorgeous matte paintings, but it had its share of cheesy video effects sometimes as well.

 

[Damian]

In retrospect, no, but compared to contemporary TV shows, TNG's effects were exceptionally good, even groundbreaking for TV. Most other late-'80s shows had really cheesy video effects. When I rewatched the first season of War of the Worlds: The Series, which came from Paramount and was paired with TNG's second season in the syndication package, I was struck by just how awful its effects were compared to TNG's. Probably the show from the period with the best effects was CBS's Beauty and the Beast, which did gorgeous matte paintings, but it had its share of cheesy video effects sometimes as well.

In some ways I was probably comparing it to the movies up to that point (up to TVH---TFF was a case where the tv show effects were better than the movie). Probably a bit unfair because a theatrical production obviously has a bigger budget to play with.

I think if they had just not did the roaming starfield effect in the first 2 seasons, it would have looked a lot better. I wonder who's idea that was anyway. From what I've read looking at planets from space they look pretty stationary. You don't see the stars moving.

And the ship always looked like it was moving sideways.

On the Blu-ray release of TNG, they still had the effect, but it didn't seem as obvious. I don't know if they slowed down the effect, adjusted some lighting or color schemes, but it seemed more subdued to me.

 

[Desert Kris]

Oh, I love that old War of the World's TV show! It was so terrifying when I was a kid, though. JM Dillard's novelization of the first story is one of my favorites. The special effects are terrible, glad we got out of that visual cul-de-sac of video effects.

Regarding retro visuals, I meant to elaborate that sometimes, for fun, I imagined K't'lk in The Wounded Sky like the transparent spider in the old 80's fantasy movie Krull (in miniature, obviously) even with the movements in stop-motion jerkiness. A stylistic choice, though not all the time when the character was around.