As someone who has written a Star Trek book (reference guide to Star Trek the animated series) I checked with my connections and it would seem that yes, Gene Roddenberry did write the novel solo. I don’t think I’ve read it since the 80s and I’m sure as a kid it probably didn’t land as well as it would today I should go back and reread it.
I was 5 when the movie came out and my Dad took me. I still remember that experience whenever I watch the DVD. I have a few of the action figures and the model kits as well. Christmas 1979.
The novelization came out almost a full month before the movie, so I walked into opening weekend already having read it. As a result, the gaps in the movie were filled in in my mind, so I never had a problem with the first film at the time.
This novelization is INSANE. The thing about Gene Roddenberry at this point in his career was that his ideal version of Star Trek was one where the Captain character gave a speech about Roddenberry's vision of the future while a full-on porno happened in the background. He had almost totally lost touch with reality. Vonda McIntyre's Star Trek II novelization is really great, and her Star Trek III novelization is 100% better than the movie. You'll enjoy them!
STTMP was essentially a re-do of the TOS episode "THE CHANGELING" about the old Earth probe NOMAD that had a run-in with an interstellar intelligence named "Tan Ru" which altered its original programming so that it went throughout the galaxy 'sterilizing' that which was imperfect. The only thing that kept the Enterprise from being destroyed by NOMAD was the fact that it made an error in assuming that Captain Kirk was its creator, a fellow named Jackson Roykirk. V'ger, seeking "the Creator" at Earth, was prepared to destroy the so-called "carbon infestations" populating it, just as NOMAD had been 'sterilizing' world after world. One other nod to the Original Series in STTMP was having the Ilia probe react emotionally to her [i.e. its] encounters with Decker, with whom Ilia had been romantically involved: the V'ger-probe, taking Ilia's form, became vulnerable the same way the Kelvans from Andromeda (in the episode "BY ANY OTHER NAME") -- having taken human form -- had become susceptible to human reactions, be it to food or drink (i.e. Scotty attempting to out-drink one of them), or to jealousy . . . as when Kirk 'apologizes' to the hot chick, who enjoys smooching with him, which pisses off her commander. V'ger, taking on the humanoid form of Ilia -- copying her form 'too perfectly' -- became manipulatable the same way, at least to a certain extent. "THE WRATH OF KHAN" was a far FAR better film/story/adventure, and it was that 2nd film that saved STAR TREK from being a 'one-and-done' reboot of the beloved franchise. I liked STTMP, sure, but absolutely LOVED the 2nd film, despite them killing off Spock at the end.
The most interesting thing, IMO, was the discussion between Kirk and decker about the phaser upgrade. Specifically them being channeled through the warp drive engines. Kirk knew that there were times when the engines were knocked out during a fight and that would have been a deadly upgrade. Decker and Scotty rigged a bypass. This came up in wrath of Kahn, when, after being heavily damaged by Kahn, they were able to take out there photon control and warp drive. Since Kahn hadn’t rigged the same bypass as enterprise, those few shots knocked out his weapons forcing him to withdraw.
I saw a discussion where one of the ST TNG producers was talking about all these weird ideas that Gene Roddenberry had about super sexualizing the Ferengi. He had to be reminded that it’s a family show.
I read this when I was a kid not long after the movie came out. My dad bought it, he was a huge Trek fan. I remember the sexy stuff, but like you said, that’s what books were like, then! Sex was seeping into everything, Superman and Lois got it on in Superman II! But I’ve read that Roddenberry had always wanted to deal with sex more in Star Trek, but I guess tv was too restrictive. I also got the original photo novel from my dad, which I still have. I always loved the Motion Picture, and while I too, “get” why some people say it’s too slow, I just think they’re nuts. It’s pure Star Trek, and real science fiction.
Back in the 80's for me it was see the movie, get the novelization, over and over. The novelization of The Last Starfighter does a good job expanding the worldbuilding.
I'm not sure what you mean by ''novelization'' but be aware in the case of The Exorcist, the novel came first in book form around 1968 then the film was released in 1973. The Star Trek novel was fab; I read it five times.
I remember reading the novelization before I saw the movie in ‘79. I was about 12 years old. My teen hormones loved it. But it made the movie so much better for me. I didn’t understand why others hated it. I went into the theater in a better headspace.
Same here. I was 13. Huge Trek fan since earliest childhood. My local bookstore set aside a copy for me and I got it a few days before the movie premiered. I devoured the novel in a weekend, and it was like getting a debrief on the V'ger situation before seeing the film I loved the book, and ST:TMP is far and away my favorite Trek film. It was the only real science fiction Trek film. The subsequent films have mostly been more like character-driven soft-scifi comic book adventure stories. Some of the other films have done a good job of exploring emotional themes among the characters, but they haven't done much "boldly going" when compared to TMP
Man, I read that crazy paperback TMP in 1990. NuHumans being ill-suited for deep space missions, the in-universe commentary on 70’s Kirk/Spock slash/fic…good stuff.
Alan Dean Foster Novelizations Star Trek Log One (1974) Star Trek Log Two (1974) Star Trek Log Three (1975) Star Trek Log Four (1975) Star Trek Log Five (1975) Star Trek Log Six (1976) Star Trek Log Seven (1976) Star Trek Log Eight (1976) Star Trek Log Nine (1977) Star Trek Log Ten (1978) Star Trek movies Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976), novelization of Star Wars ghost writing as George Lucas Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Great video. I do have to add, there are a lot of Star Trek urban legends among the fans. One of them is regarding turning the show into a movie because of Star Wars. Not actually true but it is often repeated. Paramount wanted to bring back Star Trek all throughout the 70s because of how successful the reruns were, but couldn't figure out how. Then they finally did, with Phase II, to be the flagship show of a new Paramount Network. But the financing fell through for the network with the company they were partnering with, shortly before production began. That led to turning it into a movie because they spent millions on developing the series already and didn't want to just flush it. Incidentally, most people probably know this, but Paramount wanted to start a network in the 90s as well and have a new Star Trek show as the flagship, except it actually worked out as UPN and Voyager. By the way, another Star Trek legend is that in the original series episode when Kirk kisses Uhura in the first ever tv interracial kiss, which Star Trek is very proud of, it was particularly brave for the producers because NBC affiliates in the south refused to air that episode as a result. Except according to an executive at NBC, not one affiliate actually threatened anything and they didn't care.
I also remember the Star Trek: The Motion Picture happy meal! It's the earliest happy meal I can remember as a kid; I can barely remember the "mysterious V'Ger" entity on the box. 🙂
Around the time the David Lynch version of 'Dune' came out, there was a cartoon, in Starlog magazine IIRC, in which a studio executive is on the phone to Frank Herbert. "But Frank, Alan Dean Foster does all of our novelizations!" I read plenty of those back in the day. Largely because if I was desperate for something to read late in the day, those novelizations could be reliably found in supermarkets that were open much later than any library or book store. At least the book stores I could reach at that age. A few years later, when I could drive, I discovered 24 hour venues like the World News store at the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga. Not only was it always open, day or night, it had a surprisingly good SF section. A nifty aspect of those novelizations is that they were often based on the screenplay before the movie had been through its final edit. So the Star Wars novelization included scenes that established Luke was a bit of a social outcast on Tattooine, with Biggs as his only real friend. Thus why it was easy for him to leave it behind after Biggs had left and his aunt and uncle were dead at the hands of the Empire. The 'Alien' novelization gave us the final fate of Capt. Dallas that was cut from the movie. The 'Escape From New York' novelization provided some future history, including how Snake Plisskin lost his eye to nerve gas exposure while serving in the military during WWIII.
I've always really enjoyed the movie even when so many say that the series doesn't really start until Wrath of Khan. Quite recently I also found the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, for sure, it's full 70's era "wife swapping/key party" thinking, but it does work as a great science fiction novel. In the end I tried to view my reading experience as though I didn't know of the Star Trek universe at all; and then in such a light ask my myself, would I think that this is a great science fiction novel? And, yeah, absolutely!
The thing that elevates this above most novelisations is the name Gene Roddenberry on the cover. While people can debate it's canonicity obviously, it is nevertheless an insight into what Star Trek's creator saw Star Trek as. Whether that tallies up with what made it to screen or indeed what fans see Star Trek as is pretty immaterial to that point. If he were completely unshackled by executive interference and able to put "his vision" on the screen without those and other practical constraits, this is what Star Trek would be.
OK, this is the best Star Trek conversation ever. I still have a copy of the novelization somewhere. I started to read it when I was a kid, and remember reading about the "rumor" of a tryst between Kirk and Spock, which seemed insane to my young mind then, just like it does now. Hilarious.
There's a book of concept art from the movie called Star Trek The Motion Picture Inside The Art & Visual Effects by Jeff Bond & Gene Kozicki. It's excellent.
Foster was probably pulling info from the Star Trek: Phase II show bible to flesh out the characters. It was intended for the 24 episode reboot before it was repurposed for the movie - some of the stories were reworked for TNG. The sexual stuff was probably straight from Roddenberry. He kept insisting that the TNG writers room (headed by Fontana and Gerrold) include how heavily hung the Ferengi were - they put him off with "the censors will never allow it."
It really fleshes out story, makes Discovery and TNG make more sense. Even ANAXAR points out the difference between the Federation, especially Star Fleet, before the Klingon Wars and the captains of the Five year journeys. …the “trophies in hell” depiction of the data reserves of V’ger.
You send a group of people on a five-year mission, at least some of them are going to hook up. On a higher level, all of the command crew were intellectual lovers and eventually soulmates.
There’s a great series of videos on RUclips by a channel called Totally Awesome Films that chronicle the making of all the TOS movies. The video about The Motion Picture production is bonkers, especially the special effects issues they had. Highly recommended it.
There is a brief line towards the beginning of the novel where Kirk is reflecting on the five year mission and it STRONGLY implies that TOS as we saw it was a sort of embellished bunch of federation propaganda films that got the broad strokes right but made a lot of it larger than life.
Spock being happy about the fact that people were still having sex behind the navigation deflector struck me as very odd. Almost like it was written by someone who didn't really understand the character. I suspect the novelization was written during a drunken stupor.
You should check out the first edition novel of Star Trek generations if you can find it it still has the scene with Kirk getting shot in the back and a lot of other things different from the movie
@@TrumbullComic Give it a read and see if it feels oddly like the Star Wars novelization, which was also Alan Dean Foster. I remember suspecting it back in 1977, then 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' came out and confirmed it with foster as the credited author in the exact same style as the novelization. It's likely that Rodenberry produced a rough draft and Foster used that as a guide to producing a functional novel. The Wikipedia Alan Dean Foster bibliography credits him with the novelization, which should come as no surprise because he is also credited for the movie storyline. (Though there is a reason some mockingly call it 'Where Nomad Has Gone Before'.)
The characters of Decker and Ilia transition directly to Riker and Troi in The Next Generation Same backstory of a previous relationship. Beside being first first officer their names are similar - Willard Decker and William Riker. Ilia has the pheromones and Troi has empathy.
Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelisation of Star Wars which is still credited to George Lucas. So you might be forgiven for thinking the same thing happened here. BUT apparently not this seems to be all Gene.
I read it back in the seventies. Great novel. I felt like I had all this inside info on the characters that few others new. Especially the Spock Kirk details.
Ira Behr, who would later go on to be the head writer on DS9, recalls Gene Roddenberry calling him into his office when he wrote the TNG episode "Captain's Holiday" and asking Behr to write multitides of scenes of naked people having sex in the background. Like, graphic sex. Behr went over Roddenberry's head to Rick Berman, who essentially said, "don't listen to Roddenberry, just write what you wanted to write".
@@lancebaylis3169 The book, Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series, has an early draft of "In Thy Image." This of course is the story that was later used for Star Trek the Motion Picture. In the early draft, there was a scene written where Kirk encounters McCoy walking around San Francisco. In the back ground there was to be lots of people naked, to show everyone the more "Open" nature of the future.
Loved Star Trek The Motion Picture. Saw it in the big screen as a 10 year old in '79. It was as great a moment for me as the release of Star Wars itself because I watched reruns of Trek as a little kid in the 70's. I later got to read the novel, and loved it as well. As far as the word Spock uses to refer to Kirk in the final moments of his Kohlinahr rites, *thy'la* (th'yla?...I forget where the apostrophe went LOL) is not a Klingon word. I'm pretty sure it was a Vulcan term that Roddenberry created for the novel. (Personal opinion only... you could very well be right, so take my view with a grain of salt). Something else I found interesting, which seems to run counter to Roddenberry's assertion that Starfleet is not a military organization, is when he has Kirk musing that the USS Enterprise was unfairly designated as a heavy cruiser.... that it was more deserving of the designation *battleship* . Something I would've loved to have seen on the big screen was seeing all three K't'inga battlecruisers open fire on the intruder cloud the way the novelization described. However, the movie got it right...Klingons are not stupid. Why waste all those torpedoes on an entity that seemed to eat those torpedoes like heart of targ at a Klingon feast?😁 Thanks for sharing your views on this great novel. Love Long and Prosper🖖
I also suggest you find the book about the making of The Motion Picture. That provides a summary for the background aliens, such as the Rigelians and Deltans (Lt Ilia’s people). Before this and before seeing The Motion Picture, I read the two-part comic from DC called Who’s Who in Star Trek. That informed me about the Deltans, so I wasn’t as puzzled watching the movie.
The books in general from what I have heard are kind of unhinged lol like the book about how captain Kirk has sex with the borg queen or something like that.
Very funny video. If you have time maybe you can talk about some of the other novelizations you purchased. I have the full set of Allen Dean Foster novels that continue the animated series. My girlfriend put a set together for me as a Xmas gift a few years ago.
The book is really good. However, Wrath of Khan novelization by McIntyre was also very good. More personal angles in the Khan Novel - you develop some sympathy towards Khan in the end.
Foster has always denied it and claims Roddenberry wrote it. I dunno, it could certainly be Foster, because Roddenberry never wrote much other prose fiction...
The book feels like Foster with somebody pushing the sexual stuff, ahem. Knowing Foster he would take the money and give GR credit. Foster knew he was in a business and not to burn a bridge. The novelization of Alien was actually better and shows how good ADF was.
I'm going to take perhaps rightful heat for saying this but I ses Gene Roddenberry as a hack writer thet created something that others made great. Everything he touched was very pretentious and lame. You could tell he thought he was a genius
Well yeah, it's like with George Lucas - other people are needed to refine his ideas and assemble something actually good. Check out "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by Herbert Solow and Robert Justman. They go into full detail on Roddenbery's flaws.
No, you're right, so no flak from me. Roddenberry was a good ideas man, but not a very good writer. He had a terrible reputation for treatment of his work colleagues. I grew up revering the names of DC Fontana, Gene L Coon, John Meredyth Lucas, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and a number of others as the talents who made Star Trek great. I remember how the 'Cult of Roddenberry' became a thing when TNG began, giving the impression that Roddenberry was the fountainhead of all that was great in Star Trek. That really got up my nose.
I'm pretty sure Roddenberry wrote it precisely because of all the sexual content. He wrote the screenplay for Pretty Maids All in a Row, which has some pretty creepy sexual content that would not fly today. I'm quite sure it wasn't Alan Dean Foster because, having read several of his novels, it just doesn't read like his style. It's also interesting how Roddenberry tries to establish some world building at the beginning with his description of Earth politics and the character of Starfleet members. Totally out of whack with later canon.
Yeah, I borrowed that from the library when I was like 10 too. At that time there was only like 3 movies and it was my first exposure to Scotty's Nephew that was largely cut from the movie.
IMHO, the greatest novelization of all time was the book of 'National Lampoon's Animal House'. It's a far more coherent story than the movie because so much was left out of the theatrical release. If it were all put on screen, it would be a three hour long movie, at the least. Runner up is the original John Hughes 'Vacation '58' short story that was the basis of 'Vacation'. The story is far funnier. It culminates with Clark Griswold shooting Walt Disney in the leg. Then there is the 'O.C. and Stiggs' stories that appeared in National Lampoon magazine. There was a movie made by Robert Altman that is an incoherent mess. Which is to say, a Robert Altman movie. Sometimes that works, as in his version of 'M*A*S*H*', which was a VERY different story than the movie.
"Gene Roddenberry is not a novelist." - Yes, that's why you can tell he actually wrote the novelization. It's obviously by someone who's a newbie to prose and has only written teleplays.
Star Trek The Motion Picture The Novelization is ok..... Star Trek The Motion Picture The Photo Story was waaaay better. They should have been combined.
Roddenbery created the premise for Star Trek. But the rest of Trek grew out of the collaborative work between the different writers and actors, and eventually it transcended his original vision. So much of Trek depended on actor chemistry, and that's something Roddenbery didn't create. Maybe that happens with all TV/movie series. At some point it is perhaps more than what you originally put into it. Spock becomes Spock with Nimoy's input. Chekov and Scotty were characters that were invented by Roddenbery, but brought to life by the actors, and expanded upon by the different writers.
No It said that Kirk was aware of the rumors and, while he wasn't necessarily opposed to a same sex relationship, he'd never get into one with a guy who only goes into sexual heat once every seven years
Saavik and David have a bed scene in the novelization of The Wrath of Khan in which Saavik (I think) muses on the difference in human and Vulcan body temperatures and wonders how Kirk and Spock deal with it. Same author?
@@d_jedi1 I remember it was an odd juxtaposition that could be called implication by collocation. Or it could have been meant to illustrate how logical Vulcans don't see a distinction between platonic and romantic relationships.
As someone who has written a Star Trek book (reference guide to Star Trek the animated series) I checked with my connections and it would seem that yes, Gene Roddenberry did write the novel solo. I don’t think I’ve read it since the 80s and I’m sure as a kid it probably didn’t land as well as it would today I should go back and reread it.
I was 5 when the movie came out and my Dad took me. I still remember that experience whenever I watch the DVD. I have a few of the action figures and the model kits as well. Christmas 1979.
You think this is bonkers, there is a novelization of “Zardoz” out there.
The novelization came out almost a full month before the movie, so I walked into opening weekend already having read it. As a result, the gaps in the movie were filled in in my mind, so I never had a problem with the first film at the time.
This novelization is INSANE. The thing about Gene Roddenberry at this point in his career was that his ideal version of Star Trek was one where the Captain character gave a speech about Roddenberry's vision of the future while a full-on porno happened in the background. He had almost totally lost touch with reality.
Vonda McIntyre's Star Trek II novelization is really great, and her Star Trek III novelization is 100% better than the movie. You'll enjoy them!
I still have that book on my shelf at home. I remember liking it when I was a kid in 1979 and I'm curious to give it another read as an adult.
STTMP was essentially a re-do of the TOS episode "THE CHANGELING" about the old Earth probe NOMAD that had a run-in with an interstellar intelligence named "Tan Ru" which altered its original programming so that it went throughout the galaxy 'sterilizing' that which was imperfect. The only thing that kept the Enterprise from being destroyed by NOMAD was the fact that it made an error in assuming that Captain Kirk was its creator, a fellow named Jackson Roykirk.
V'ger, seeking "the Creator" at Earth, was prepared to destroy the so-called "carbon infestations" populating it, just as NOMAD had been 'sterilizing' world after world.
One other nod to the Original Series in STTMP was having the Ilia probe react emotionally to her [i.e. its] encounters with Decker, with whom Ilia had been romantically involved: the V'ger-probe, taking Ilia's form, became vulnerable the same way the Kelvans from Andromeda (in the episode "BY ANY OTHER NAME") -- having taken human form -- had become susceptible to human reactions, be it to food or drink (i.e. Scotty attempting to out-drink one of them), or to jealousy . . . as when Kirk 'apologizes' to the hot chick, who enjoys smooching with him, which pisses off her commander. V'ger, taking on the humanoid form of Ilia -- copying her form 'too perfectly' -- became manipulatable the same way, at least to a certain extent.
"THE WRATH OF KHAN" was a far FAR better film/story/adventure, and it was that 2nd film that saved STAR TREK from being a 'one-and-done' reboot of the beloved franchise. I liked STTMP, sure, but absolutely LOVED the 2nd film, despite them killing off Spock at the end.
Personally I feel The Motion Picture is underrated, it’s my favorite Star Trek movie.
The most interesting thing, IMO, was the discussion between Kirk and decker about the phaser upgrade. Specifically them being channeled through the warp drive engines. Kirk knew that there were times when the engines were knocked out during a fight and that would have been a deadly upgrade. Decker and Scotty rigged a bypass. This came up in wrath of Kahn, when, after being heavily damaged by Kahn, they were able to take out there photon control and warp drive. Since Kahn hadn’t rigged the same bypass as enterprise, those few shots knocked out his weapons forcing him to withdraw.
"The Enterprise Flyby" and the final Warp-out are beyond epic.
I saw a discussion where one of the ST TNG producers was talking about all these weird ideas that Gene Roddenberry had about super sexualizing the Ferengi. He had to be reminded that it’s a family show.
I always loved ST:TMP and was so surprised when I got a little older and became aware of how most people ranked the Star Trek films.
I read this when I was a kid not long after the movie came out. My dad bought it, he was a huge Trek fan. I remember the sexy stuff, but like you said, that’s what books were like, then! Sex was seeping into everything, Superman and Lois got it on in Superman II! But I’ve read that Roddenberry had always wanted to deal with sex more in Star Trek, but I guess tv was too restrictive. I also got the original photo novel from my dad, which I still have. I always loved the Motion Picture, and while I too, “get” why some people say it’s too slow, I just think they’re nuts. It’s pure Star Trek, and real science fiction.
There are few people hornier than Gene Roddenberry.
Agreed that TMP is awesome...it's my 2nd favourite from the series.
Back in the 80's for me it was see the movie, get the novelization, over and over. The novelization of The Last Starfighter does a good job expanding the worldbuilding.
I'm not sure what you mean by ''novelization'' but be aware in the case of The Exorcist, the novel came first in book form around 1968 then the film was released in 1973. The Star Trek novel was fab; I read it five times.
I remember reading the novelization before I saw the movie in ‘79. I was about 12 years old. My teen hormones loved it. But it made the movie so much better for me. I didn’t understand why others hated it. I went into the theater in a better headspace.
Same here. I was 13. Huge Trek fan since earliest childhood. My local bookstore set aside a copy for me and I got it a few days before the movie premiered. I devoured the novel in a weekend, and it was like getting a debrief on the V'ger situation before seeing the film
I loved the book, and ST:TMP is far and away my favorite Trek film. It was the only real science fiction Trek film. The subsequent films have mostly been more like character-driven soft-scifi comic book adventure stories.
Some of the other films have done a good job of exploring emotional themes among the characters, but they haven't done much "boldly going" when compared to TMP
Man, I read that crazy paperback TMP in 1990. NuHumans being ill-suited for deep space missions, the in-universe commentary on 70’s Kirk/Spock slash/fic…good stuff.
Alan Dean Foster Novelizations
Star Trek Log One (1974)
Star Trek Log Two (1974)
Star Trek Log Three (1975)
Star Trek Log Four (1975)
Star Trek Log Five (1975)
Star Trek Log Six (1976)
Star Trek Log Seven (1976)
Star Trek Log Eight (1976)
Star Trek Log Nine (1977)
Star Trek Log Ten (1978)
Star Trek movies
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976), novelization of Star Wars ghost writing as George Lucas
Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Great video. I do have to add, there are a lot of Star Trek urban legends among the fans. One of them is regarding turning the show into a movie because of Star Wars. Not actually true but it is often repeated. Paramount wanted to bring back Star Trek all throughout the 70s because of how successful the reruns were, but couldn't figure out how. Then they finally did, with Phase II, to be the flagship show of a new Paramount Network. But the financing fell through for the network with the company they were partnering with, shortly before production began. That led to turning it into a movie because they spent millions on developing the series already and didn't want to just flush it. Incidentally, most people probably know this, but Paramount wanted to start a network in the 90s as well and have a new Star Trek show as the flagship, except it actually worked out as UPN and Voyager. By the way, another Star Trek legend is that in the original series episode when Kirk kisses Uhura in the first ever tv interracial kiss, which Star Trek is very proud of, it was particularly brave for the producers because NBC affiliates in the south refused to air that episode as a result. Except according to an executive at NBC, not one affiliate actually threatened anything and they didn't care.
I also remember the Star Trek: The Motion Picture happy meal! It's the earliest happy meal I can remember as a kid; I can barely remember the "mysterious V'Ger" entity on the box. 🙂
Around the time the David Lynch version of 'Dune' came out, there was a cartoon, in Starlog magazine IIRC, in which a studio executive is on the phone to Frank Herbert. "But Frank, Alan Dean Foster does all of our novelizations!"
I read plenty of those back in the day. Largely because if I was desperate for something to read late in the day, those novelizations could be reliably found in supermarkets that were open much later than any library or book store. At least the book stores I could reach at that age. A few years later, when I could drive, I discovered 24 hour venues like the World News store at the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga. Not only was it always open, day or night, it had a surprisingly good SF section.
A nifty aspect of those novelizations is that they were often based on the screenplay before the movie had been through its final edit. So the Star Wars novelization included scenes that established Luke was a bit of a social outcast on Tattooine, with Biggs as his only real friend. Thus why it was easy for him to leave it behind after Biggs had left and his aunt and uncle were dead at the hands of the Empire.
The 'Alien' novelization gave us the final fate of Capt. Dallas that was cut from the movie.
The 'Escape From New York' novelization provided some future history, including how Snake Plisskin lost his eye to nerve gas exposure while serving in the military during WWIII.
11 books of tv shows and Spock must die.72-74. Making of Star Trek came out as well. We could buy them in school from Scholastic. Still have them
I've always really enjoyed the movie even when so many say that the series doesn't really start until Wrath of Khan. Quite recently I also found the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, for sure, it's full 70's era "wife swapping/key party" thinking, but it does work as a great science fiction novel. In the end I tried to view my reading experience as though I didn't know of the Star Trek universe at all; and then in such a light ask my myself, would I think that this is a great science fiction novel? And, yeah, absolutely!
I read this novel when the movie came out. I was 13 years old.
“Reporting for duty, sir.” That made me laugh out loud.
Movies + books = early, syndicated enlightenment
The thing that elevates this above most novelisations is the name Gene Roddenberry on the cover. While people can debate it's canonicity obviously, it is nevertheless an insight into what Star Trek's creator saw Star Trek as. Whether that tallies up with what made it to screen or indeed what fans see Star Trek as is pretty immaterial to that point. If he were completely unshackled by executive interference and able to put "his vision" on the screen without those and other practical constraits, this is what Star Trek would be.
OK, this is the best Star Trek conversation ever. I still have a copy of the novelization somewhere. I started to read it when I was a kid, and remember reading about the "rumor" of a tryst between Kirk and Spock, which seemed insane to my young mind then, just like it does now. Hilarious.
I wish modern Star Trek was more like this book.
There's a book of concept art from the movie called Star Trek The Motion Picture Inside The Art & Visual Effects by Jeff Bond & Gene Kozicki. It's excellent.
A good novelization that fills in the blanks is the one for Saving Private Ryan. It explains so many little gaps in the film.
Foster was probably pulling info from the Star Trek: Phase II show bible to flesh out the characters. It was intended for the 24 episode reboot before it was repurposed for the movie - some of the stories were reworked for TNG. The sexual stuff was probably straight from Roddenberry. He kept insisting that the TNG writers room (headed by Fontana and Gerrold) include how heavily hung the Ferengi were - they put him off with "the censors will never allow it."
Nice show guys 👍 yeah Roddenberry had issues however his vision of a possible future was extremely positive
Sexuality was dealt with very bluntly in 1970s Hollywood, which made films for adults who favored realism over grandstanding.
It really fleshes out story, makes Discovery and TNG make more sense. Even ANAXAR points out the difference between the Federation, especially Star Fleet, before the Klingon Wars and the captains of the Five year journeys.
…the “trophies in hell” depiction of the data reserves of V’ger.
You send a group of people on a five-year mission, at least some of them are going to hook up. On a higher level, all of the command crew were intellectual lovers and eventually soulmates.
I bought it in the early 90s. I remember enjoying it and all the things that were not in the movie. I may have to read it again.
There’s a great series of videos on RUclips by a channel called Totally Awesome Films that chronicle the making of all the TOS movies. The video about The Motion Picture production is bonkers, especially the special effects issues they had. Highly recommended it.
Thanks guys. I’m going to give it a read now. I always like most of the film.
There is a brief line towards the beginning of the novel where Kirk is reflecting on the five year mission and it STRONGLY implies that TOS as we saw it was a sort of embellished bunch of federation propaganda films that got the broad strokes right but made a lot of it larger than life.
Gene Roddenberry doesn't need a ghost writer now, he's a ghost himself.
Spock being happy about the fact that people were still having sex behind the navigation deflector struck me as very odd. Almost like it was written by someone who didn't really understand the character.
I suspect the novelization was written during a drunken stupor.
James Blish and Joe Haldeman are the best.
The Vegan Tyranny, anyone? 😉
You should check out the first edition novel of Star Trek generations if you can find it it still has the scene with Kirk getting shot in the back and a lot of other things different from the movie
'Ghost Ship' was outstanding. Should have been a film.
Yes it's a great novel.
I think Roddenberry actually did write the novelization.
Totally Alan Dean Foster,
but it wouldn't surprise me if Gene Roddenberry had more kibitzing rights than would usually happen with a novelization.
@@waltera13 Nope, it's definitely Roddenberry. It's too pervy to be anyone else.
@@TrumbullComic Give it a read and see if it feels oddly like the Star Wars novelization, which was also Alan Dean Foster. I remember suspecting it back in 1977, then 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' came out and confirmed it with foster as the credited author in the exact same style as the novelization.
It's likely that Rodenberry produced a rough draft and Foster used that as a guide to producing a functional novel. The Wikipedia Alan Dean Foster bibliography credits him with the novelization, which should come as no surprise because he is also credited for the movie storyline. (Though there is a reason some mockingly call it 'Where Nomad Has Gone Before'.)
The characters of Decker and Ilia transition directly to Riker and Troi in The Next Generation Same backstory of a previous relationship. Beside being first first officer their names are similar - Willard Decker and William Riker. Ilia has the pheromones and Troi has empathy.
A gnostic film.
Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelisation of Star Wars which is still credited to George Lucas. So you might be forgiven for thinking the same thing happened here. BUT apparently not this seems to be all Gene.
I read it back in the seventies. Great novel. I felt like I had all this inside info on the characters that few others new. Especially the Spock Kirk details.
I certainly don’t know but I’m guessing ADF wrote this, just like he wrote the Star Wars novelization “by George Lucas.”
Nudity and sexual situations are all very Roddenberry, it is no secret that he hated all the censorship in television.
Ira Behr, who would later go on to be the head writer on DS9, recalls Gene Roddenberry calling him into his office when he wrote the TNG episode "Captain's Holiday" and asking Behr to write multitides of scenes of naked people having sex in the background. Like, graphic sex. Behr went over Roddenberry's head to Rick Berman, who essentially said, "don't listen to Roddenberry, just write what you wanted to write".
@@lancebaylis3169 The book, Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series, has an early draft of "In Thy Image." This of course is the story that was later used for Star Trek the Motion Picture. In the early draft, there was a scene written where Kirk encounters McCoy walking around San Francisco. In the back ground there was to be lots of people naked, to show everyone the more "Open" nature of the future.
Loved Star Trek The Motion Picture. Saw it in the big screen as a 10 year old in '79. It was as great a moment for me as the release of Star Wars itself because I watched reruns of Trek as a little kid in the 70's. I later got to read the novel, and loved it as well.
As far as the word Spock uses to refer to Kirk in the final moments of his Kohlinahr rites, *thy'la* (th'yla?...I forget where the apostrophe went LOL) is not a Klingon word. I'm pretty sure it was a Vulcan term that Roddenberry created for the novel. (Personal opinion only... you could very well be right, so take my view with a grain of salt).
Something else I found interesting, which seems to run counter to Roddenberry's assertion that Starfleet is not a military organization, is when he has Kirk musing that the USS Enterprise was unfairly designated as a heavy cruiser.... that it was more deserving of the designation *battleship* .
Something I would've loved to have seen on the big screen was seeing all three K't'inga battlecruisers open fire on the intruder cloud the way the novelization described. However, the movie got it right...Klingons are not stupid. Why waste all those torpedoes on an entity that seemed to eat those torpedoes like heart of targ at a Klingon feast?😁
Thanks for sharing your views on this great novel. Love Long and Prosper🖖
I also suggest you find the book about the making of The Motion Picture. That provides a summary for the background aliens, such as the Rigelians and Deltans (Lt Ilia’s people). Before this and before seeing The Motion Picture, I read the two-part comic from DC called Who’s Who in Star Trek. That informed me about the Deltans, so I wasn’t as puzzled watching the movie.
The books in general from what I have heard are kind of unhinged lol like the book about how captain Kirk has sex with the borg queen or something like that.
Very funny video. If you have time maybe you can talk about some of the other novelizations you purchased.
I have the full set of Allen Dean Foster novels that continue the animated series. My girlfriend put a set together for me as a Xmas gift a few years ago.
you convinced me i need to own the hardcover and so i bought it for $14 on ebay
the wrath of khan novelization is an excellent piece of science fiction, Star Trek or not.
The book is really good. However, Wrath of Khan novelization by McIntyre was also very good. More personal angles in the Khan Novel - you develop some sympathy towards Khan in the end.
If I remember correctly Alan Dean Foster wrote the book with the knowledge that Roddenberry's name would be on it as author.
Foster has always denied it and claims Roddenberry wrote it. I dunno, it could certainly be Foster, because Roddenberry never wrote much other prose fiction...
The book feels like Foster with somebody pushing the sexual stuff, ahem. Knowing Foster he would take the money and give GR credit. Foster knew he was in a business and not to burn a bridge. The novelization of Alien was actually better and shows how good ADF was.
I'm going to take perhaps rightful heat for saying this but I ses Gene Roddenberry as a hack writer thet created something that others made great. Everything he touched was very pretentious and lame. You could tell he thought he was a genius
Well yeah, it's like with George Lucas - other people are needed to refine his ideas and assemble something actually good. Check out "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by Herbert Solow and Robert Justman. They go into full detail on Roddenbery's flaws.
No, you're right, so no flak from me. Roddenberry was a good ideas man, but not a very good writer. He had a terrible reputation for treatment of his work colleagues. I grew up revering the names of DC Fontana, Gene L Coon, John Meredyth Lucas, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and a number of others as the talents who made Star Trek great. I remember how the 'Cult of Roddenberry' became a thing when TNG began, giving the impression that Roddenberry was the fountainhead of all that was great in Star Trek. That really got up my nose.
I read this in high school back in 2001 or 2002.
I'm pretty sure Roddenberry wrote it precisely because of all the sexual content. He wrote the screenplay for Pretty Maids All in a Row, which has some pretty creepy sexual content that would not fly today. I'm quite sure it wasn't Alan Dean Foster because, having read several of his novels, it just doesn't read like his style. It's also interesting how Roddenberry tries to establish some world building at the beginning with his description of Earth politics and the character of Starfleet members. Totally out of whack with later canon.
Pretty maids all in a row had a title song by the Osmonds😅
Wasn’t Roddenberry doing a lot of drugs in the 70s?
Also cheating on his wife with Majel Barret and Nichelle Nichols
I read that when i was like 10 I think.
Yeah, I borrowed that from the library when I was like 10 too. At that time there was only like 3 movies and it was my first exposure to Scotty's Nephew that was largely cut from the movie.
IMHO, the greatest novelization of all time was the book of 'National Lampoon's Animal House'. It's a far more coherent story than the movie because so much was left out of the theatrical release. If it were all put on screen, it would be a three hour long movie, at the least. Runner up is the original John Hughes 'Vacation '58' short story that was the basis of 'Vacation'. The story is far funnier. It culminates with Clark Griswold shooting Walt Disney in the leg. Then there is the 'O.C. and Stiggs' stories that appeared in National Lampoon magazine. There was a movie made by Robert Altman that is an incoherent mess. Which is to say, a Robert Altman movie. Sometimes that works, as in his version of 'M*A*S*H*', which was a VERY different story than the movie.
I remember reading this in '79 and thinking that Roddenberry was making Spock a bisexual who was keen on Kirk...😒
"Gene Roddenberry is not a novelist." - Yes, that's why you can tell he actually wrote the novelization. It's obviously by someone who's a newbie to prose and has only written teleplays.
Roddenberry did not write it.. was ghost written with added details they wanted to put in the film
I haven’t read it but the novelization of Flash Gordon is also reputedly a bit smutty.
Aren't you thinking of Flesh Gordon?
Sounds like Stan and Rod were similar.
Read it back in 85 so...
The Star Trek II novel is better than the fan fiction.
Star Trek The Motion Picture The Novelization is ok.....
Star Trek The Motion Picture The Photo Story was waaaay better.
They should have been combined.
Roddenbery created the premise for Star Trek. But the rest of Trek grew out of the collaborative work between the different writers and actors, and eventually it transcended his original vision. So much of Trek depended on actor chemistry, and that's something Roddenbery didn't create. Maybe that happens with all TV/movie series. At some point it is perhaps more than what you originally put into it. Spock becomes Spock with Nimoy's input. Chekov and Scotty were characters that were invented by Roddenbery, but brought to life by the actors, and expanded upon by the different writers.
So Roseberry was kind of a creepy pervert
no shit sherlock
Didn’t this one have a long winded foreword which basically amounted to “yeah Kirk and Spock are probably doin’ it”?
No
It said that Kirk was aware of the rumors and, while he wasn't necessarily opposed to a same sex relationship, he'd never get into one with a guy who only goes into sexual heat once every seven years
That might be worse..or better...hmm@@d_jedi1
Saavik and David have a bed scene in the novelization of The Wrath of Khan in which Saavik (I think) muses on the difference in human and Vulcan body temperatures and wonders how Kirk and Spock deal with it. Same author?
@@cbrewitt i don't remember ever reading that
I'll have to go grab my copy
@@d_jedi1 I remember it was an odd juxtaposition that could be called implication by collocation. Or it could have been meant to illustrate how logical Vulcans don't see a distinction between platonic and romantic relationships.
A bonkers idea: AI the best parts of the novelization into ST TMP
The best part was how no one knew how to satisfy Vger untill they brought back the whales to talk to it.
Same film.
The uniforms in this dreadful Star Trek movie #1 were bland and boring leisure suits.😡
This is the best Star Trek movie
They were a lot neater and more polished than the hotel doorman uniforms of “Wrath of Khan” and the other sequels.