I was trying to remember the one with crabs. (Insert your own Kirk and Space Babe of the Week joke here.) What an unfortunate choice of transmogrifications.
You're least favorite Trek book
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Actually I quite enjoyed the alien-building in Windows on a Lost World. Okay, they were giant crabs, but their culture, physiology, and psychology were intriguingly alien, and the depiction of the humans' experience of being transformed was fascinating.
I'm not convinced Piper qualifies as a Mary Sue. I see her as the protagonist of her own spin-off novel, in which the TOS cast makes cameos, rather than being an obnoxiously favoured guest star in their story. Also, Mary Sues are perfect at everything and know it, while Piper frequently doubts herself and occasionally screws up. And delusions of some to the contrary, there's no romantic connection with any of the established cast.
If she was a Mary Sue she would have succeeded in rescuing Kirk from the Pompey brig (for example), instead of arriving just as he escapes on his own with his usual flair.
Counterarguments?
Marian
If she was a Mary Sue she would have succeeded in rescuing Kirk from the Pompey brig (for example), instead of arriving just as he escapes on his own with his usual flair.
Counterarguments?
Marian
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Craab People, craab people....
(The above is a South Park joke for those who need the explanation)
(EDIT: Responding to MarianLH.)
^^No counterarguments. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but that's an excellent point. It's more a "Lower Decks" situation than a "Mary Sue" situation -- not a single character taking over the world of the regulars, but a wholesale shift in focus to another set of characters altogether (with Piper being just the viewpoint character within an ensemble that also includes Sarda, Judd, and Merete) while the main characters are still going about their usual business in the background.
If Piper bears any resemblance to a Mary Sue, it's mainly in Battlestations! where she's been promoted to lieutenant commander mere weeks after graduating as a lieutenant and is out yachting with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy -- and thereupon manages to play a key role in saving the Federation from a second vast conspiracy mere weeks after helping save it from the first one. That was stretching credibility a bit. But it still doesn't fit the classic definition of a MS, for the reasons you cite.
^^No counterarguments. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but that's an excellent point. It's more a "Lower Decks" situation than a "Mary Sue" situation -- not a single character taking over the world of the regulars, but a wholesale shift in focus to another set of characters altogether (with Piper being just the viewpoint character within an ensemble that also includes Sarda, Judd, and Merete) while the main characters are still going about their usual business in the background.
If Piper bears any resemblance to a Mary Sue, it's mainly in Battlestations! where she's been promoted to lieutenant commander mere weeks after graduating as a lieutenant and is out yachting with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy -- and thereupon manages to play a key role in saving the Federation from a second vast conspiracy mere weeks after helping save it from the first one. That was stretching credibility a bit. But it still doesn't fit the classic definition of a MS, for the reasons you cite.
Isn't that the one that had entire chapters which were one page in length?
That can sometimes be a very effective storytelling style, but it was the least offensive thing about TLG.
The fact that the character's name is Piper and Diane Carey is herself a piper (she plays bagpipes) may be suggestive of some Mary Sue-esque author identification with the character.
That, and the fact that photos of Diane Carey and Greg Brodeur were used to illustrate Piper and Sarda on the cover art!
Windows of a lost world turning people into Space Crabs . When I first read that they were changed like that was downright bizarre. I thought it was one of the weirdest trek books I've ever read.I couldn't stand that obnoxious woman crewmember who was changed into a crab either.
I didn't care for this book.
I didn't care for this book.
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Not very current photos, I'd guess. That's not at all how I remember her looking at a con in the late 1980s.
Off topic, but, Nerys Myk, do you have a larger version of the picture in your avatar?
Or, better yet, a whole website of stuff like that? (If you sneak in some Tom Corbett, Space Cadet stuff too, that's okay by me...)
That's some pretty blatant author insertion, I'll admit. But author insertion, by itself, does not make a Mary Sue.
Marian
I think it was "Ghost Ship", the second TNG novel. But to be fair, the characters still hadn't been too established yet, and the author had to work from incomplete character sketches. Riker didn't like Data, etc.
Writing a novel about characters that later pop up on TV ... that's really got to be a tough overlap for a writer.
--Ted
Writing a novel about characters that later pop up on TV ... that's really got to be a tough overlap for a writer.
--Ted
No kidding. At least the novelizations of the pilot had a script to hew to, instead of having to try to characterize rather ephemeral characters.
Peter David had five scripts to work with when he started; by the time he finished, though, five episodes had made their way to air already. (Per the preface--I'm not confusing "when it came out" and "when it was done".
) Not owning Ghost Ship, I don't know what if anything Diane Carey had to say; Smith/Rusch are equally mute on their two entries, I'm afraid.Still, I'm thinking that PAD probably had the biggest advantage of anybody...
As far as I'm concerned the main advantage PAD had in writing a book was that was was PAD instead of Diane Carey.
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