OT: Christie Golden Part of Next Star Wars 9-Book Series

[Christopher]

The only measure of popularity that matters in this case is the popularity of the previous films, not the shows, since in order to make a profit on a Trek film, the bulk of it audience needs to consist of casual viewers who aren't fans of the shows. TMP actually did pretty well at the box office (over 140% the worldwide gross of TWOK, though a smaller opening-weekend performance in the US), but it cost a bundle to make, so Paramount wanted a cheaper sequel (and in fact TWOK was originally going to be a TV movie, which was why a TV producer was hired to make it). Once Harve Bennett proved he could make a successful Trek sequel on a TV-movie budget, Paramount wanted to continue in that vein. And as subsequent sequels did unevenly at the box office, there was no incentive to abandon that low-cost model.

It's only now, with a new executive regime at Paramount, that they're trying to reinvent ST as a tentpole movie property for the studio and willing to invest megabucks to turn it into a blockbuster. (Note that ST '09 has a bigger budget than all six TOS movies combined, or than the first three TNG movies combined -- although that's in raw numbers, not correcting for inflation.)

 

[KRAD]

Wow, I didn't realize that the Trek movies had such low budgets. I would have figured that they would have spent alot more than that TOS movies. I can see the TNG movies having not having bugdets though, since Trek was going down in popularity as they came out.

In addition to what Christopher said, Trek was still fairly popular in 1996 when First Contact came out.

 

[Leandar]

Was still quite strongly popular when First Contact came out. I think it was a combined dissatisfaction with Voyager, and some fans that weren't happy with the last few seasons of DS9, (although I personally loved them), and Insurrection that really started the downward trend. And then they had to go and put Enterprise on in that climate and of course, we know what the end result of that was.

 

[JD]

Oh, ok. I keep thiking that FC came out later than that for some reason.

 

[Trent Roman]

Copied from the other thread to avoid dragging it off-topic:

I know this is OT, but Bryan, how are you liking NJO? I personally thought it was annoying when I read it as it was published, but pretty fantastic when read quickly all in a row. What are your thoughts?

It's interesting you should say that, because my experience was somewhat the opposite. When I read the whole NJO over one summer, I didn't find it as rewarding as when I'd read it progressively the first time around. Part of the reason for that is that the events in the books occured over the same time as the publishing schedule, such that five years of release = five years in-universe. Reading back to back, it just seemed like enormous gaps of time were being jumped, and that the invasion was all happening too fast. The wait between the books gave time for the mood of each subsequent book--anxiety, loss, despair, hope--to sink in before moving on to the next.

Also, I suppose knowing what was going to happen in advance was another factor. One of the great things about the NJO is that one had no idea who might get knocked off or how the galactic landscape would change, which obviously isn't applicable the second time around.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Leandar]

I suspect that might be something that's turning some of the folks off to this new set of books coming out cause we already know the end product. The Republic (or whatever it's called now) falls again and there's a second Galactic Empire. I agree that Legacy should have been set further into the future, maybe a thousand years or so and let the galaxy have some stability and peace and make Luke and Leia and company's sacrifices and all the hard work and bloodshed have been for something instead of the complete and utter waste of time it turned out to be.

 

[Stevil2001]

Part of the reason for that is that the events in the books occured over the same time as the publishing schedule, such that five years of release = five years in-universe.

Hmmm... that's interesting. I've never reread tNJO, and I probably will never have the time to, but it certainly would be a different experience in that regard, at least.