Vonda N. McIntyre's Adaptations: Any notes or letters?

[Tallguy]

I may have asked this kind of thing elsewhere but someone just mentioned Vonda's Star Trek novels in another thread so it got me to thinking: Are there any notes or correspondence or... anything? about Vonda N. McIntyre's adaptations of Star Trek 2, 3, and 4 and any studio reactions or demands or whatever?

I have always wondered at the differences between her novels of the three films she did and the films themselves. There are parts that are clearly her own invention. I can't imagine a subplot from an un-filmed draft where Scotty goes to meet he grieving sister and niece and confronts one of the cadets who deserted Peter in engineering when the Reliant attacked. (You know, we never hear about how the trainees who ran away during the initial attack fared in the nebula battle...)

I'm also assuming that most of Saavik's back story other than "She's half Romulan" was created by McIntyre. (And I love it.)

I don't know how things were done back then. Does anyone know if there are any notes or letters or even interviews on how it went down with these books? I mean, what happens when an author turns in a novel that's twice as long as the film that it is adapting? Is there any reaction? Or was it just "Sure, whatever"?

I know the "canon police" wasn't really a thing back then. I remember being disappointed that The Voyage Home was not nearly as expansive as the previous two novels (although it does have Carol finding out about David's death and we find out that Spock was drunk on breath mints when he jumped in the tank with George and Gracie). I always felt (possibly very wrongly) that she had gotten "talked" to. Or maybe she just didn't feel like it.

And of course I always wonder at the coincidence that was one of the greatest gifts in Star Trek: Sulu and the Excelsior. I can't see Nicholas Meyer reading a novel to TSFS, a film that he turned down in the first place, and obviously he filmed the scene where Sulu talked about Excelsior in TWOK even if it wasn't used. So he had that in his pocket for The Undiscovered Country. But in The Search for Spock McIntyre runs with this subplot. She makes Sulu the hero that George always wanted him to be.

Anyway, it would be great to hear what people know and think.

 

[Christopher]

Until the past 2-3 decades, it was normal for novelizers to be free to add a lot of their own material to movie or TV novelizations. Look how much Alan Dean Foster added to the Star Trek Logs adaptations of the animated episodes -- expanding scenes, interpolating transitional chapters, even adding whole new sequel, prequel, or concurrent adventures to pad a single episode to novel length. So McIntyre's additions were more the norm than the exception. After all, before home video was commonplace, readers might not have much opportunity to compare the novel to the movie, or might not even have seen the movie. So the goal was not so much to replicate the movie as to create a story that was derived from the movie but worked on its own merits as a prose novel. As long as it made money that went to the studio, it didn't matter if it told the story in exactly the same way.

 

[Una McCormack]

I have an essay on Vonda N. McIntyre's Star Trek work in this book.

 

[Airin]

I read somewhere in these forums that, by the time of The Voyage Home novelization, Richard Arnold's strict policies started coming in full force, so that's possibly the reason why there was less original material there. However, some later novelizations still included discarded scenes from the original scripts. For example Dillard's adaptation for The Undiscovered Country has the long intro sequence, showing the characters after retiring from Starfleet, which didn't make the cut for the film.
I also wonder if the original script for TVH had a more overt romance between Kirk and Gillian; both the novel and the comic show them kissing midway through the story.

 

[KRAD]

Having written a bunch of movie novelizations, the way it works is that it works differently every time.

As a general rule, you kind of have to add material, because the plot of a movie (whose run-time is generally somewhere between 90 and 180 minutes) will only take up the length of a novelette at best. In order to meet the word-count requirements of a novel, you must create new material.

Alas, one of the things that has led to the dearth of novelizations in modern times (besides rampant spoiler-phobia as well as studios not wanting people to trash the movie based on the novelization in online reviews) is that studios have gotten much more fussy about complete fidelity to the movie, to the point of absurdity and of turning in a too-short book that's a hard sell.

Anyhow, back before the early 2010s, when novelizations started to fade away, how much and what you were able to add -- and how close you were to the source material -- varied widely. Here are some examples from my own experiences...

For Serenity in 2005, I had the benefit of 14 hours of TV show to work in, so in addition to the plot of the movie itself, I added the prologue to the pilot episode (both versions), as well as the backstory on Simon and River from "Safe," as well as dramatizing the description of Simon's rescue of River that Simon himself described in the pilot episode. However, I also sent a memo asking for some guidance as to what I could and couldn't do -- e.g., I was permitted to create a backstory for Mr. Universe, but I was not permitted to reveal anything about Shepherd Book's background.

For Darkness Falls in 2003, the studio kept us abreast of changes. For example, they changed the ending, and they not only told us, but invited me and my editor to the New York office of the studio to watch the new ending so we could incorporate it. They also let us know that they changed the name of the town where the movie takes place, so we were able to put that in, too.

By contrast, for Resident Evil: Apocalypse in 2004, what I novelized was the version of the script that was current at the time that I signed the contract. I didn't find out that they changed the ending (rather radically, in fact) until I saw the movie in theatres.

However, for Resident Evil: Extinction in 2007, they were way more cooperative, to the point where they actively encouraged me to a) create bridging material between the end of Apocalypse and the start of Extinction and b) create a side plot for the Jill Valentine character. Sienna Guillory was unavailable for Extinction (they gave her role in the film to Ali Larter's Claire Redfield), but they wanted the character available for future films, so I gave her a subplot.

And then there was another novelization for a movie I won't name that was cancelled because the filmmakers sat on it and never approved it, and even if they had, the studio wanted me to cut everything that I "made up" for the novel, which would've resulted in a 20,000-word "novel," which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short. (I'm particularly bitter about that one because a) I wrote it in 10 days and b) I took an appallingly low advance but an unusually high royalty, which screwed me badly when the book wasn't published. Of course, the publisher went out of business a year later, so I probably wouldn't have seen those royalties in any case....)

 

[Firebird]

I've always loved McIntyre's adaptions for II, III, and IV because of the liberal amounts of expansion she was able to do on the stories. I think we don't actually get to the movie plot of The Search for Spock until something like page 80 in the book?

Just a shame that the policy from Paramount licensing changed so dramatically in the period between The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier. Though, J.M. Dillard managed to do a pretty decent job of filling out the final two TOS movies.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I may have asked this kind of thing elsewhere but someone just mentioned Vonda's Star Trek novels in another thread so it got me to thinking: Are there any notes or correspondence or... anything? about Vonda N. McIntyre's adaptations of Star Trek 2, 3, and 4 and any studio reactions or demands or whatever?

I recall reading an interview with McIntyre some years ago where she described Paramount as pretty hands-off... until she was writing the novelization for IV. She was about halfway through writing the manuscript, and he editor (Dave Stern, maybe?) called her. "Paramount wants an outline," he said. And McIntyre replied something like, "They can have an outline, or they can have the book on time, but they can't have both." And she went back to writing the manuscript and never wrote the outline.

 

[Jedi Marso]

What always killed me was when there was a novelization of a film that itself was adapted from a novel. Talk about the department of redundancy department.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Fred Saberhagen's novelization of Bram Stoker's Dracula!

 

[DonIago]

Vonda's novelizations of TWOK and TSFS in particular may have piqued my interest in TrekLit in general. I was so disappointed when, after having at least skimmed the TSFS novelization, the film didn't even start until what felt like halfway through the novel. So much content I would have enjoyed 'cut' from the theatrical release.

What always killed me was when there was a novelization of a film that itself was adapted from a novel. Talk about the department of redundancy department.

Funny you should say this. I recently watched "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", an Americanized version of the original Japanese "Godzilla" that includes a wraparound plot featuring Raymond Burr, and additional newly shot scenes and some dubbings done in an attempt to make the film more appealing to an American audience. Of particular relevance, though, is that much of the original Japanese dialog is left undubbed and is only 'translated', often very loosely at best, by a Japanese character to Burr's character as part of those additional scenes.

This version of the film was subsequently released in Japan, and I can only imagine what a bizarre experience it must have been for the Japanese to see characters saying things only to have it followed up by a 'translation' that had nothing to do with what the characters had actually said.

 

[Firebird]

James Bond and Moonraker says hello.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I may have asked this kind of thing elsewhere but someone just mentioned Vonda's Star Trek novels in another thread so it got me to thinking: Are there any notes or correspondence or... anything? about Vonda N. McIntyre's adaptations of Star Trek 2, 3, and 4 and any studio reactions or demands or whatever?

Vonda used to maintain a website about her writing and had a section about her Trek novel dealings with (mainly) Richard Arnold (who started vetting the Pocket manuscripts for GR's ST Office around that time.

IIRC, the novelisation of ST II was an unexpected success (on the heels of "The Entropy Effect") and thus she was given lots of scope with both ST III and the "Enterprise: The First Adventure" giant novel.

She did get very frustrated adapting ST IV -- this was expressed on her website's FAQs. Note that there is barely any original material in the novelization after the revelation that the two 20th century trash collectors are actually writing a movie for Hollywood and the lines we hear in the actual movie is the pair practising the characters' lines that will be in their script.

 

[Denise]

However, some later novelizations still included discarded scenes from the original scripts. For example Dillard's adaptation for The Undiscovered Country has the long intro sequence, showing the characters after retiring from Starfleet, which didn't make the cut for the film.

I have this paperback and I don't see any such sequence.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I have this paperback and I don't see any such sequence.

The “rounding up the crew”, an original unfilmed prologue to the script of ST VI, was used in the novel, “The Fearful Summons” by Denny Martin Flinn, who was the co-writer of ST VI’s script.

Also worth noting: the hardcover of "Star Trek Generations" has the original, as-scripted, Kirk demise scene that was reshot after poor audience preview feedback. That scene can be viewed in the "Bonus Features" of the Blu-Ray.

The paperback version of "Star Trek Generations" has that whole chapter revised/replaced, following what we saw onscreen.

 

[Firebird]

Vonda used to maintain a website about her writing and had a section about her Trek novel dealings with (mainly) Richard Arnold (who started vetting the Pocket manuscripts for GR's ST Office around that time.

IIRC, the novelisation of ST II was an unexpected success (on the heels of "The Entropy Effect") and thus she was given lots of scope with both ST III and the "Enterprise: The First Adventure" giant novel.

She did get very frustrated adapting ST IV -- this was expressed on her website's FAQs. Note that there is barely any original material in the novelization after the revelation that the two 20th century trash collectors are actually writing a movie for Hollywood and the lines we hear in the actual movie is the pair practising the characters' lines that will be in their script.

Found an archived version of that Q&A (blogpost and scattered in McIntyre's responses below): https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...fe.com:80/2009/02/15/writing-star-trek-novels

 

[Therin of Andor]

Found an archived version of that Q&A (blogpost and scattered in McIntyre's responses below): https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...fe.com:80/2009/02/15/writing-star-trek-novels

Thank you! Yes, that's it. Thank you.

 

[Airin]

I have this paperback and I don't see any such sequence.

Yeah, I got confused. It's Kirk's reconciliation with Carol what was taken from the cut script, not the rest of the "rounding up".

 

[Christopher]

Funny you should say this. I recently watched "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", an Americanized version of the original Japanese "Godzilla" that includes a wraparound plot featuring Raymond Burr, and additional newly shot scenes and some dubbings done in an attempt to make the film more appealing to an American audience. Of particular relevance, though, is that much of the original Japanese dialog is left undubbed and is only 'translated', often very loosely at best, by a Japanese character to Burr's character as part of those additional scenes.

This version of the film was subsequently released in Japan, and I can only imagine what a bizarre experience it must have been for the Japanese to see characters saying things only to have it followed up by a 'translation' that had nothing to do with what the characters had actually said.

Although presumably the English dialogue would be subtitled or dubbed back into Japanese, and the translators could fix it to be more accurate.

There's also Power Rangers, which is constructed around stock action footage, costumes, and props from the Japanese Super Sentai franchise, routinely gets released in Japan, with the original Sentai actors usually dubbing their American counterparts' dialogue into Japanese (except in cases where Power Rangers substitutes a female character for a male in the original).

I think Godzilla: King of the Monsters! is fascinating (it needs the exclamation point to differentiate it from the 2019 Legendary film) because it almost works as a parallel account of the same events viewed from a different perspective. Aside from the occasional scene with Japanese characters speaking in badly dubbed English, and the translation changes you mention (which could perhaps be attributed to Martin's translator being inaccurate), I think the only major contradiction between the two versions is Martin convincing Emiko to make the key decision she makes on her own in the original.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Found an archived version of that Q&A (blogpost and scattered in McIntyre's responses below): https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...fe.com:80/2009/02/15/writing-star-trek-novels

Ah! This is what I was thinking about above, and I had her anecdote all confuzzled -- it was Enterprise: The First Adventure Paramount wanted an outline for, not Star Trek IV.

 

[Tallguy]

IIRC, the novelisation of ST II was an unexpected success (on the heels of "The Entropy Effect") and thus she was given lots of scope with both ST III and the "Enterprise: The First Adventure" giant novel.

This is what I came here for!

She did get very frustrated adapting ST IV -- this was expressed on her website's FAQs. Note that there is barely any original material in the novelization

There's a little.

It's wild to me that I didn't even know who Richard Arnold was or that there were any paramount politics changing. (IIRC TNG had been announced but that was all.) But I knew something was different. Maybe I'm making up some memories in retrospect because for me the fact that she didn't come back for V sealed the deal in my head.

after the revelation that the two 20th century trash collectors are actually writing a movie for Hollywood and the lines we hear in the actual movie is the pair practising the characters' lines that will be in their script.

I love Vonda. I hated that bit.

Found an archived version of that Q&A (blogpost and scattered in McIntyre's responses below): https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...fe.com:80/2009/02/15/writing-star-trek-novels

Thanks. Will read later.