Star Trek: Rihannsu # 3 & 4, covers by Keith Birdsong
Production photographs of the absolutely horrific and memorable transporter accident in Star Trek: the Motion Picture (1979).
Though she wasn’t given a name in the movie, the woman who died in the transporter accident was played by Susan Sullivan, who played Dr. Banner’s girlfriend in the Incredible Hulk television series. She had no dialogue in the finished film, and we didn’t even see her face clearly - amazing since they hired a well known actress. This is because this character, on screen for five seconds, originally was going to have a way bigger role.
The finished film didn’t have time to go into this, but Kirk’s grief over her death was meant to be a point where Captain Kirk breaks all ties to his earthbound life, and was the cause of his decision to leave earth and return to his life in deep space exploration. When Roddenberry lost control of the series after the first film, he was never able to return to this character again, along with so many other ideas examined in the Motion Picture novelization (like the very unusual way that TMP’s novelization implies that countries still exist on 23rd Century Earth in some way).
As most Star Trek fans know, Star Trek: the Motion Picture was originally going to be a pilot for a TV series, Star Trek: Phase II. The loss of Lori Ciara would be a defining piece of characterization in that series. The “hero has a dead wife that makes him sad” idea would be used in other Roddenberry TV pilots in the 1970s, notably Andromeda.
The idea that Captain Kirk had a relationship in his past with a blonde lady scientist that went sour was re-used in the very next film, with Dr. Carol Marcus. If I had to guess (and I’m no mind reader), I’d say that these two characters were both ways to counter the baseless belief in pop culture that Captain Kirk was a womanizer or “Peter Pan” incapable of long term relationships.
Star Trek TMP Novelization: And the woman killed in that horrific transporter accident was not only a brilliant science officer, but also Kirk’s ex-wife, and with her death he cuts all ties with his home planet and hurtles once more, forever, into the unknown -
Star Trek TMP:
(…but we do have time for a 23-minute tracking shot of the Enterprise)
At the time TMP started production, Nimoy wasn’t going to be in the movie due to differences with Roddenberry and Paramount over royalties associated with the TOS characters. So that’s why there was another Vulcan science officer character ready to take his place.
So the transporter accident could be said to have done away with two characters who had the potential to rival Spock in importance to Kirk.
Still on Abode of Life and Jim is leading a landing party on an alien planet, where the humanoid species thinks they’re the only ones in the galaxy and don’t believe Jimothy. Anyway everyone in the party (Jim, Bones, Scotty, Rand) have their phasers, communicators and tricorders and Jim is recording a log, mentioning “stardate unknown” and I know I’m harping on an early 80s book based off of a 60s tv show but…
There is no way that their tricorders don’t have the exact date listed in there.
JESUS SULU, colonialist much?!
Jim. JIM. Literally your opening monologue for Star Trek is “Its 5 year mission: to Explore strange new worlds….”
(Yes, FASA and old technical manuals referred to the Enterprise as a heavy cruiser)
(Could have been fixed by replacing exploration ship with science vessel.)
(Yes I’m harping on a novel that’s about as old as I am)
“a pretty alien scientist” and I am guessing the majority of people who picked this book up had a very specific idea of what was meant by this phrase, given that, you know, it’s ST:TOS and all. (she’s probably green, wearing something not entirely practical but quite flattering, and Kirk has a thing for her…..)
this particular alien, however, is quite literally a spider made of glass.
but she is very pretty.
When I subvert a trope, I subvert it. :) (Yes, I wrote the back cover copy.)
(In an earlier version it was “A pretty blue-eyed alien scientist…”. I have no shame whatsoever.)
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The Czech cover for the "Caretaker" novelization used painted art (last name of artist looks like Baver).
That last Enterprise novel was real good but also it was the final hours for Porthos :(((
It also shows that not everything happens linearly, and just because there’s been discussions and meetings about a noninterference directive after recent events with the Vertians (The Aliens from Silent Enemy) and the Ware (The Self Repairing Station from Dead Stop). The Section 31 plot line mostly gets resolved (while operating within the larger framework established in DS9′s Control) but Trip is more alone than ever even with Devna (an Orion Slave Girl turned intelligence operative who’s still trying to figure things out) but we know how it ends with Trip. A least we think we do (there was an epilogue at the end of the Romulan War books where he was living with T’Pol as a Vulcan).
There’s some pure science and exploration stuff too as T’Pol’s Endeavour is called by a Boomer captain to figure out if a race of walking trees are sentient or not, while Hoshi grapples with her fiancee Kimura’s injuries and disabilities.
There’s also the 31-adjacent plotline of the ongoing crisis on Sauria (a Federation member world in the 23rd Century), where a dictator has taken over the world in a few short years. That doesn’t quite get resolved yet but it is kept interesting. Tucker also gets to realize better people than him can get the job done in an open way without falling for 31′s games.
The epilogue was great.
it’s really crazy to me that there are garashir shippers that haven’t read the post canon novels like Enigma Tales………… oh u really Don’t Know????? U don’t know about Bashir ending up on cardassia in a catatonic state and garak having to take care of him only he avoids it at first because seeing Bashir like that is so painful to him????? U don’t know that every chapter is separated by love letters that garak never got to send to Bashir?? That in the very end garak starts to read enigma tales to julian to try and help him and he doesn’t notice Julian’s hand move signifying that he’s still there???????? Bro What
Una McCormack started out writing fic
and
she
never
stopped
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