What if Star Trek had been a book first?

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Wow, I can't believe this thread is 7 years old https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/if-tos-had-been-a-radio-drama-first.282743/

But in that same vein, how might TOS have been different if it had been based on a previously written book, with the same premise, and similar characters?

 

[Christopher]

I don't think it would've been much different, since part of what made TOS different from previous shows was that it was inspired by ideas from prose science fiction, and relied heavily on prose authors like Jerry Sohl, Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, etc. It was always the most "literary" SFTV show of its era, and part of the reason it got such strong support from the SF fan and author community of the day was because it was the only SFTV show that had the quality and intelligence of the print SF that dominated fandom of the era (unlike today when fandom is dominated by mass-media fans, a transition that Trek probably helped usher in).

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I agree that Star Trek had tons of quality and intelligence. But I recall reading a review somewhere that was written during the first run, first season I think, by a literary science fiction fan who absolutely trashed the show. He basically called it stupid and unworthy of the true SF fan's time.

What this guy didn't understand was that Star Trek had a lot going on besides literary ideas. It had action, artistic cinematography with a vibrant color palette, a starship design that grips the imagination, and emotional music that would prove enduring. We're still playing those timeless scores 57 years later.

Maybe he was comparing a few Star Trek episodes to the very best and smartest Twilight Zones and Outer Limits that stood out in his mind. But he had to ignore a lot of moving parts to call Star Trek a dud.

 

[Christopher]

Of course, there's going to be a gamut of critical reactions to anything. And while TOS was refreshingly smart for SF television, hence its appeal to so much of the SF fanbase, it was still fairly entry-level and watered down for a general audience. Even the best screen SF is generally just the tip of the iceberg of what's out there in the literature. So someone who was in the business of criticism in order to look for things to trash and act superior to -- and there's never been a shortage of critics like that -- could certainly have found excuses for it. For that matter, I'm sure there were literary SF critics who trashed The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits as well.

 

[Tango]

Am I correct in my vague memory that Issac Asimov had some initial reservations about Star Trek but later came around? Or was it some other science fiction luminary?

If it had been initially a book I suppose there might have been a lot more initial back story in the setting and technology to work with, and perhaps more exposure for the secondary characters.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

If it was a book first, it most likely would have been adapted into a movie, skipped TV altogether, then later get remade 2-3 times during the 1980s/90s/00s etc.

We’d have very little to talk about. Just a creaky old movie and some bad modern interpretations.

 

[Christopher]

If it was a book first, it most likely would have been adapted into a movie, skipped TV altogether, then later get remade 2-3 times.

We’d have very little to talk about.

Or it could've been adapted to a movie that was then adapted into a TV series, which has often happened.

I've often thought that Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry stories feel like they could've easily been adapted into a 1960s TV series, and William Shatner would've been perfect for the lead role.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Am I correct in my vague memory that Issac Asimov had some initial reservations about Star Trek but later came around? Or was it some other science fiction luminary?

If it had been initially a book I suppose there might have been a lot more initial back story in the setting and technology to work with, and perhaps more exposure for the secondary characters.

My memory says it was Asimov as well

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

Part of what makes Star Trek a TV-centric franchise is the episodic format. Traditionally, Trek doesn't do huge serials, so I would picture it more as one of those series of short stories/novellas rather than one book. That said, I agree with everything said so far; unlike some NuTrek shows, TOS was focused on more of an intellectual dialogue than a shoot-em-up, and would fit perfectly among the other Sci-Fi novels of the time.

 

[Christopher]

Part of what makes Star Trek a TV-centric franchise is the episodic format. Traditionally, Trek doesn't do huge serials, so I would picture it more as one of those series of short stories/novellas rather than one book.

As I mentioned, there have been many ongoing series based on one-shot stories like movies or novels. You just continue the characters and the premise beyond the events of the novel/movie and invent new stories for them. For instance, if it's something like The Night Stalker (a TV movie adapted from a yet-unpublished novel), in which the protagonist is a reporter investigating a supernatural crime spree, then the subsequent series (in this case Kolchak: The Night Stalker) would just have the reporter investigate a different supernatural crime each week.

A couple of older examples of novels being turned into movies that then spawned ongoing TV series were the crime drama Naked City and the long-running soap opera Peyton Place. Bat Masterson and The Untouchables were based on the nonfiction biographies of real people (although the latter biography was largely fiction passed off as fact), inventing new weekly adventures for them beyond the events of the books. (The book version of The Untouchables was adapted as an installment of the Desilu Playhouse anthology, ending with Al Capone's arrest, so the subsequent TV series had to make up new, entirely fictionalized cases for the team.)

The modern approach of treating an entire season as a single "novel for television" didn't exist back then. They had serials such as soap operas and children's adventure shows, but they were open-ended, or had multiple brief arcs within a season -- for instance, Disney's Zorro had three 13-episode arcs in its first season, emulating the Republic movie serials, and multiple 3- to 4-episode arcs in its second season. For that matter, Zorro originated in a novel and a subsequent series of stories, but the TV series didn't directly adapt any of them, just created new stories around the characters and general premise.

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

As I mentioned, there have been many ongoing series based on one-shot stories like movies or novels. You just continue the characters and the premise beyond the events of the novel/movie and invent new stories for them. For instance, if it's something like The Night Stalker (a TV movie adapted from a yet-unpublished novel), in which the protagonist is a reporter investigating a supernatural crime spree, then the subsequent series (in this case Kolchak: The Night Stalker) would just have the reporter investigate a different supernatural crime each week.

A couple of older examples of novels being turned into movies that then spawned ongoing TV series were the crime drama Naked City and the long-running soap opera Peyton Place. Bat Masterson and The Untouchables were based on the nonfiction biographies of real people (although the latter biography was largely fiction passed off as fact), inventing new weekly adventures for them beyond the events of the books. (The book version of The Untouchables was adapted as an installment of the Desilu Playhouse anthology, ending with Al Capone's arrest, so the subsequent TV series had to make up new, entirely fictionalized cases for the team.)

The modern approach of treating an entire season as a single "novel for television" didn't exist back then. They had serials such as soap operas and children's adventure shows, but they were open-ended, or had multiple brief arcs within a season -- for instance, Disney's Zorro had three 13-episode arcs in its first season, emulating the Republic movie serials, and multiple 3- to 4-episode arcs in its second season. For that matter, Zorro originated in a novel and a subsequent series of stories, but the TV series didn't directly adapt any of them, just created new stories around the characters and general premise.

Love me some Kolchak and the old Zorro TV show too! I overlooked the "first" in the thread title, I was thinking only a literary series.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I have a memory of someone creating pulp SF style covers for Star Trek Episodes.

 

[Greg Cox]

Let's be honest: If TOS had been based on a pre-existing book, we'd still be arguing about whether the TV version was faithful enough to the original novel.

 

[T'Bonz]

The funny thing is that I read almost all of the Blish novels well before I saw more than a handful of the episodes.

 

[Christopher]

The funny thing is that I read almost all of the Blish novels well before I saw more than a handful of the episodes.

I'm sure a lot of people did. The target audience for prose adaptations of TV or films included those who hadn't seen the originals as well as those who had. In the days before home video, when syndication was hit-or-miss, the books were generally a more reliable way of experiencing the series. I mean, I saw TAS in first run, but in later years it was rarely syndicated, so for quite a while the Alan Dean Foster novelizations were my only way to experience them again.

As a kid, I was more a reader than a moviegoer, so there were a bunch of movies that I read the novelizations of (frequently by Foster) before I ever got around to seeing them, either theatrically or years later on TV.

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

I have a memory of someone creating pulp SF style covers for Star Trek Episodes.

Might you be talking about the Art of Juan Ortiz? Not pulp per se, but similar idea.

The funny thing is that I read almost all of the Blish novels well before I saw more than a handful of the episodes.

I read every Star Wars before I saw the movies.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

I believe this is what he's thinking of:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-u-e-s-p-a-series-of-books.237106/

 

[Richard S. Ta]

There are swathes of Doctor Who stories I read as Target books before I saw the TV versions. Sometimes there are decades long gaps between me reading and seeing.

I think it’s a generational thing. Novelisations were our DVDs in the 70s/80s.

 

[Christopher]

There are swathes of Doctor Who stories I read as Target books before I saw the TV versions. Sometimes there are decades long gaps between me reading and seeing.

For me, that's only been the case for the rediscovered missing episodes. Though I once prided myself on having a complete collection of the Target novelizations. I still have most of them, though I eventually sold off a fair number, just keeping the ones I liked best and the ones where the episodes were still missing at the time.

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

For me, that's only been the case for the rediscovered missing episodes. Though I once prided myself on having a complete collection of the Target novelizations. I still have most of them, though I eventually sold off a fair number, just keeping the ones I liked best and the ones where the episodes were still missing at the time.

I have one (I don't remember which), that has an introduction, in which a famous sci-fi author (I don't remember who) bashes Star Wars and Star Trek and says that only Dr. Who is real sci-fi.