Why do you suppose... ?

[Jedi Marso]

After thinking about this long and hard, I think that the next Star Trek movie should be based on the book Ishmael. All of the dated 1960-80’s pop culture references can be replaced with ‘current day stuff’. Alternatively, they could make it as a retro 80’s movie stylistically, complete with an electronic synth beat music soundtrack. But I am not sure what such a movie would be able to ‘cross over’ with from present day pop-culture? It cannot be Here Come the Brides, as no one knows what that show is these days, not even me. So perhaps it can crossover with Family Guy? There is precedent for this.

Ugh.

Barbara Hambly has quite a list of works to her credit, most of which I've never read, so I don't have any comment on her abilities as an author in general. But I will say she wrote some of my most hated franchise novels: Ishmael for ST and the 'Callista trilogy' as it is called for Star Wars.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The ‘90’s TV movie adaptation of The Stand combined the characters of Rita Blakemoor and Nadine Cross into one person (Nadine, with the drug-addict problem that Rita originally had.) In my opinion, this was an excellent choice, as Rita, while linked to Larry Underwood, was basically an irrelevant character that should have been excised in a final draft of the book. And this is a Stephen King novel.

My point? Sometimes adaptations can actually make a story better than its original form.

The 1970 movie version of M*A*S*H combined the novel's characters of Major Hobson (Hawkeye & Duke's ultra-religious tentmate who they quickly throw out) and Captain Frank Burns (a substandard surgeon who blames others for his mistakes & has an affair with Hot Lips Houlihan) to make Major Frank Burns. It was a good change, because it gave more for Robert Duvall to do and the hypocrisy added a great deal to the character. The TV show followed suit, using the movie version of Frank Burns, eliminating the major character of Duke Forrest altogether, and quickly dropping Spearchucker as unnecessary. Sometimes adaptations are good for just boiling a story down to its basics.

I'll go with my original one: Instead of the movie Generations, they adapt Federation and that becomes the crossover / passing the torch movie.

For me, the story of Federation immediately becomes less fun if it's the movie era Enterprise crew and the TNG crew. The beauty of the novel is that both crews are in their prime.

 

[fireproof78]

and quickly dropping Spearchucker as unnecessary.

Also because the producers had been told there were no black surgeons stationed at MASH units in the Korean conflict. Later research showed this as an error but the change had been made. Also for budgetary reasons but wasn't the only reason.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

What’s the point of doing a creative adaptation if you don’t believe that you can improve upon it in some way?

Not to mention novels and film are different mediums and a page for page film adaptation of a novel would in the overwhelming majority of cases just be terribly paced and chock full of non cinematic stuff like constant VO.

 

[Dukhat]

The 1970 movie version of M*A*S*H combined the novel's characters of Major Hobson (Hawkeye & Duke's ultra-religious tentmate who they quickly throw out) and Captain Frank Burns (a substandard surgeon who blames others for his mistakes & has an affair with Hot Lips Houlihan) to make Major Frank Burns. It was a good change, because it gave more for Robert Duvall to do and the hypocrisy added a great deal to the character. The TV show followed suit, using the movie version of Frank Burns, eliminating the major character of Duke Forrest altogether, and quickly dropping Spearchucker as unnecessary. Sometimes adaptations are good for just boiling a story down to its basics.

I forgot about Major Hobson! That’s totally right.

Also because the producers had been told there were no black surgeons stationed at MASH units in the Korean conflict. Later research showed this as an error but the change had been made. Also for budgetary reasons but wasn't the only reason.

Ginger, Ho-Jon, Lt. Dish, Boone, Ugly John, and several others also never made it past the first season.

 

[fireproof78]

Ginger, Ho-Jon, Lt. Dish, Boone, Ugly John, and several others also never made it past the first season.

Also for budgetary reasons, yes. But Spearchucker was not just cut because of that but also the (mistaken) thought that no black surgeons were assigned to MASH units.

 

[The Wormhole]

For me, the story of Federation immediately becomes less fun if it's the movie era Enterprise crew and the TNG crew. The beauty of the novel is that both crews are in their prime.

Another thing to consider, in Federation we never see any direct interaction between the TOS and TNG crews aside from Picard sending a text message to Kirk at the end. With Generations, the studio wanted Kirk and Picard to team up and have an adventure together.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Another thing to consider, in Federation we never see any direct interaction between the TOS and TNG crews aside from Picard sending a text message to Kirk at the end. With Generations, the studio wanted Kirk and Picard to team up and have an adventure together.

Yeah, but look what we got.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Also because the producers had been told there were no black surgeons stationed at MASH units in the Korean conflict. Later research showed this as an error but the change had been made.

Yeah, which was kind of a weird assumption to make, as the movie and the show were based on a novel by a doctor who'd actually been stationed at a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War. Did they think he just made up the black surgeon there out of whole cloth?

Another thing to consider, in Federation we never see any direct interaction between the TOS and TNG crews aside from Picard sending a text message to Kirk at the end. With Generations, the studio wanted Kirk and Picard to team up and have an adventure together.

Yeah, I'm sure that would've fallen by the wayside if they'd ever attempted a live-action adaptation of the book.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah, which was kind of a weird assumption to make, as the movie and the show were based on a novel by a doctor who'd actually been stationed at a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War. Did they think he just made up the black surgeon there out of whole cloth?

Gelbert talks about their efforts to get closer to accuracy, both medically, and historically as well as trimming the cast for costs. Besides the novel, there seemed to be no supporting information for black surgeons at a MASH. Later documentation bears out one assigned at the 8055th.

 

[Dukhat]

I think most of those supporting characters were written out because there were too many of them and they were superfluous to the story, since the focus was mostly on Hawkeye and Trapper.

 

[fireproof78]

I think most of those supporting characters were written out because there were too many of them and they were superfluous to the story, since the focus was mostly on Hawkeye and Trapper.

Probably, because real life MASHs had 12 doctors and surgeons on staff, not the more limited rotation we saw in the show.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Probably, because real life MASHs had 12 doctors and surgeons on staff, not the more limited rotation we saw in the show.

If Cheers could get by with just two waitresses and two bartenders, the 4077th could get by with just four doctors.

 

[fireproof78]

If Cheers could get by with just two waitresses and two bartenders, the 4077th could get by with just four doctors.

Well, most Starships only get by with one doctor so clearly that's possible.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ugh.

Barbara Hambly has quite a list of works to her credit, most of which I've never read, so I don't have any comment on her abilities as an author in general. But I will say she wrote some of my most hated franchise novels: Ishmael for ST and the 'Callista trilogy' as it is called for Star Wars.

I watched Here ComeThe Brides as a kid, so I got a kick out of reading Ishmael. It was peppered with the sort of cameos that would make @Greg Cox envious.

 

[FormerLurker]

The first two Star Trek novels I ever read were a first edition of Spock Must Die! and Ishmael.