When was Richard Arnold in his 'prime'?

[ronny]

When did Richard Arnold have the most influence on the books?

I'm thumbing through VotI (again) and I was trying to figure out from the author comments when Richard Arnold and/or the licensing office where there most restrictive as far as what was allowed in the books. It looks to me like the Chekov stuff for Double, Double was Richard Arnold but I'm not sure when that kind of stuff started and stopped.

 

[Therin of Andor]

When did Richard Arnold have the most influence on the books?

RA worked as a volunteer studio guide at Paramount Pictures through the 80s, and did lots of unpaid "photographic memory' type consulting work for Susan Sackett and Gene Roddenberry on the side. He was also president of the Official Grace Lee Whitney Fan Club at some point.

After ST IV brought in so much money for Paramount, Roddenberry was able to put RA on the Star Trek Office payroll as "ST Archivist" and he took over official duties (from Susan) vetting the licensed tie-in proposals and final manuscripts, although Paula Block was also doing a similar job for Paramount Licensing (later Viacom licensing, now CBS Consumer Products).

Most infamously, RA had influence over novels such as "Prime Directive, "TNG: Metamorphosis" and "Home is the Hunter" (all carry Gene's disclaimer), "Probe", "A Flag Full of Stars", "The War Virus" (unreleased) and "TNG: The Eyes of the Beholders". He also requested, on Gene's behalf, numerous changes to Peter David's Series II of the DC TOS movie-era comics run.

So the answer would seem to be: early 1987 thru to September 1991.

 

[Turbo]

I believe he was also the one who insisted that Peter David not include a female Borg in Vendetta until PAD agreed to put the "author's interpretation" disclaimer at the beginning of the book.

IIRC, Arnold and Susan Sackett were both shown the door after Roddenberry's death, though I believe the latter's departure was far faster than the former's. (This is from memory, so please correct me if I have it wrong.)

 

[Christopher]

I believe he was also the one who insisted that Peter David not include a female Borg in Vendetta until PAD agreed to put the "author's interpretation" disclaimer at the beginning of the book.

IIRC, Arnold and Susan Sackett were both shown the door after Roddenberry's death, though I believe the latter's departure was far faster than the former's. (This is from memory, so please correct me if I have it wrong.)

From what I've been told, Arnold was shown the door within hours of Roddenberry's passing. So I think you probably have it backward.

 

[Turbo]

That's what I'd heard before, but then I heard the same thing about Sackett.

But it doesn't really matter which one was shown the door within hours. Their involvement with Star Trek died with Roddenberry,

 

[Therin of Andor]

From what I've been told, Arnold was shown the door within hours of Roddenberry's passing. So I think you probably have it backward.

Susan Sackett was "let go" the day after Roddenberry passed away. It's not all that unusual, in the corporate world, for a personal secretary to be dismissed when their boss leaves the company. (Ernie Over had already been switched from Paramount's to GR's payroll several months earlier when Paramount questioned why GR needed a chauffeur in the office when he so rarely came into the office. He stayed on with Majel Barrett for about a year after GR's death.)

Richard Arnold was kept on for a few weeks, while the extensive contents of GR's office was sorted and labelled. Initially though, he was "locked out" of GR's office. The traditional changing of the locks. RA was the only person at the studio who was able to identify much of the material. Guy Vardaman, who'd been assisting RA for quite some time, eventually took over many of his official ST Archivist duties, ie. dealing with licensee requests for photo stills and research, and the vetting of tie-in material remained solely with Paula Block's office.

I was at DeForest Kelley's Hollywood Star Ceremony in December 1991 and caught up with both Susan and Richard, separately and together. Susan was on the general public side of the roped off area, and Richard was fulfilling some official Paramount duties on the other side of the ropes.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Their involvement with Star Trek died with Roddenberry,

Richard Arnold does still do consulting work for Paramount's licensees, on a work for hire basis, should they choose to engage his services.

 

[Turbo]

Their involvement with Star Trek died with Roddenberry,

Richard Arnold does still do consulting work for Paramount's licensees, on a work for hire basis, should they choose to engage his services.

Really?

You learn something new every day.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I believe he was also the one who insisted that Peter David not include a female Borg in Vendetta until PAD agreed to put the "author's interpretation" disclaimer at the beginning of the book.

According to Tim Lynch's extensive interview with Arnold (conducted in September '91), Vendetta received the "Roddenberry disclaimer" because Paramount Licensing got tired of foot-dragging in the Star Trek office and approved the manuscript for publication without Roddenberry and Arnold's approval. In retrospect, perhaps Pocket Books should have done with Vendetta what Bob Greenberger at DC Comics did with "Once a Hero" -- submit it to Paramount with a pseudonym on it as Arnold, despite protestations to the contrary, had a bug up his ass where PAD was concerned.

 

[Steve Roby]

Richard Arnold does still do consulting work for Paramount's licensees, on a work for hire basis, should they choose to engage his services.

In other words, his official connection to Star Trek died with Roddenberry.

 

[JD]

Most infamously, RA had influence over novels such as "Prime Directive, "TNG: Metamorphosis" and "Home is the Hunter" (all carry Gene's disclaimer), "Probe", "A Flag Full of Stars", "The War Virus" (unreleased) and "TNG: The Eyes of the Beholders". He also requested, on Gene's behalf, numerous changes to Peter David's Series II of the DC TOS movie-era comics run.

I know about the whole Probe fiasco, but what did he do to those other books?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I know about the whole Probe fiasco, but what did he do to those other books?

A simple Google search will bring up many online anecdotes from angry/frustrated writers. Crosslink an author's name with "Richard Arnold".

Several stories are mentioned in "Voyages of Imagination", such as the earlier mentioned "Double, Double".

My Andorian site has brief references to changes forced onto "Metamorphosis" and "The Eyes of the Beholders".

PAD's battles are hilariously recorded in the comics article omnibus, "But I Digress..."

 

[ronny]

Wow the internets is fast. I put "Metamorphosis richard arnold" in the google and the first result I get is this thread.

 

[JoeZhang]

Most infamously, RA had influence over novels such as "Prime Directive, "TNG: Metamorphosis" and "Home is the Hunter" (all carry Gene's disclaimer), "Probe", "A Flag Full of Stars", "The War Virus" (unreleased) and "TNG: The Eyes of the Beholders". He also requested, on Gene's behalf, numerous changes to Peter David's Series II of the DC TOS movie-era comics run.

I know about the whole Probe fiasco, but what did he do to those other books?

The fact is that Richard Arnold’s notes became increasingly ludicrous, such as shutting down a romantic interest for Kirk by asserting that Kirk was no longer interested in women.

We were reaching the point where it was becoming impossible to get stories approved. Richard rejected one story with the assertion that there was “too much violence,” even though the violence consisted of a sustained fist fight scene with Kirk (as if they never had those in Trek).


As a test, I submitted a script under a fake name which sailed through the approvals process even though it had far more violence than the previous script which was rejected for that reason. When that was approved, I knew that it had nothing to do with the stories and everything to do with Richard’s enmity toward me (a far longer story to go into.) At which point I resigned from the book since I felt I could no longer do the job I was hired to do, namely provide stories for DC.

Final kicker: The fake name under which I submitted the story that was approved? “Robert Bruce Banner.”

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/06/12/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-159/

 

[ronny]

This is from the page JoeZhang linked to:

Richard Arnold is currently working for Creation Entertainment in charge of interviewing and introducing the guests at their conventions and is the coordinator for the exhibitor /dealer rooms. Not sure if he does this for all the Creation shows or just Trek. He also sells Star Trek trading cards at their shows.

I wonder if this explains why writers are treated like crap at Creation cons?

 

[JD]

That certainly would explain it.

 

[KRAD]

The story I heard -- and I have no idea if it's true or not, but it's a good story anyhow -- is that Richard Arnold was fired 48 hours after Gene Roddenberry died, and the reason why it took that long was because people on the Paramount lot were fighting over who got the privilege of handing him his pink slip....

 

[DimesDan]

The story I heard -- and I have no idea if it's true or not, but it's a good story anyhow -- is that Richard Arnold was fired 48 hours after Gene Roddenberry died, and the reason why it took that long was because people on the Paramount lot were fighting over who got the privilege of handing him his pink slip....

He was a very respected and liked member of staff then on the Paramount lot I take it

 

[ClayinCA]

This is from the page JoeZhang linked to:

Richard Arnold is currently working for Creation Entertainment in charge of interviewing and introducing the guests at their conventions and is the coordinator for the exhibitor /dealer rooms. Not sure if he does this for all the Creation shows or just Trek. He also sells Star Trek trading cards at their shows.

I wonder if this explains why writers are treated like crap at Creation cons?

I dunno, but it's yet another reason why I'll never go to one.

The story I heard -- and I have no idea if it's true or not, but it's a good story anyhow -- is that Richard Arnold was fired 48 hours after Gene Roddenberry died, and the reason why it took that long was because people on the Paramount lot were fighting over who got the privilege of handing him his pink slip....

If this story is not true, I don't ever want to know about it.

 

[KRAD]

I wonder if this explains why writers are treated like crap at Creation cons?

I speak from long personal experience: Gary and Adam (the guys who run Creation) are perfectly capable of treating writers like crap without any help from Richard....