Inspired by the "Ishmael" thread. You gotta admit that a Trek/HCTB crossover is pretty weird. But it isn't the only weird Trek novel. "How Much For Just the Planet" with its musical interludes is pretty bizarre too. What is your pick for most weird/offbeat/oddball Trek novel?
Weirdest Trek novel
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"Planet of Judgment" and "Trek to Madworld" are both pretty weird. The first one reads at times like an acid trip, but is actually quite good. The second one's weirdness comes rather from the "Enterprise crew meets Willy Wonka" plot. Besides, at some point the crew visits some kind of "sex palace" where they fulfill all their fantasies (offscreen of course).
DS9: "Lust's Latinum Lost (and Found)" by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block felt super weird to me when I read it, and it hasn't bubbled up on my reread list yet. It's a DS9 story from the perspective of a Ferengi apprentice, and delves into the backstory of Vulcan Love Slave. I don't mean weird in a bad way, just feeling really unusual.
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Spock Must Die! was rather weird, in its challenge to transporter technology, its assumption that Organians could be contained, and its complete removal of Klingons from the picture.
Mission to Horatius was a tad weird, in that it was a youth-audience novel before any adult-audience ST novels were published, and in the fact that the draft that was first submitted for approval had stuff in it that was considered offensive even at the time, and that it had issues that survived into the published version.
Almost anything Marshak & Culbreath wrote was inherently weird (and often harder to follow than the parts of How Much For Just the Planet that were intentionally hard to follow).
Mission to Horatius was a tad weird, in that it was a youth-audience novel before any adult-audience ST novels were published, and in the fact that the draft that was first submitted for approval had stuff in it that was considered offensive even at the time, and that it had issues that survived into the published version.
Almost anything Marshak & Culbreath wrote was inherently weird (and often harder to follow than the parts of How Much For Just the Planet that were intentionally hard to follow).
The sequence in How Much . . . where characters were breaking into each others' rooms, and impersonating each other, was intentionally confusing for comedic purposes.
M&C's books, particularly the "Phoenix" books, were simply confusing becase M&C couldn't write coherently. As well as being out-of-character, and occasionally lewd just for the sake of being lewd.
M&C's books, particularly the "Phoenix" books, were simply confusing becase M&C couldn't write coherently. As well as being out-of-character, and occasionally lewd just for the sake of being lewd.
In other words, it was a bedroom farce.
Not by the definition offered by OneLook, since there was no sex involved.
It was an homage to bedroom farce, then.
Gotta be anything Marshak and Culbreath. K/S, D/S and lots of BDSM vibes.
The unedited Killing Time is up there too. Before I learned the backstory I was reading passages to my friends and we were having a right laugh.
The unedited Killing Time is up there too. Before I learned the backstory I was reading passages to my friends and we were having a right laugh.
Yes, an homage. Or a variation (in the sense of Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Paganini, or Rawsthorne's Hornpipe Humorsque, a set of variations on the traditional Sailors' Hornpipe). Or "a bedroom farce with burglary instead of sex."
I know what K/S is, but what's D/S? (And my copy of Killing Time is the unedited version, which is much tamer than a lot of people think it is. And a lot tamer than a lot of M&C's stuff.
Dom/sub
Ah. I actually used to know a professional dominatrix. In connection with a public access cable show. A show that started out 75% football handicapping and 25% cornball comedy, but after the pilot, the proportions were reversed.
Thankfully, the dominatrix understood the difference between beating people up for the camera, vs. beating people up because pain was something they enjoyed.
For some reason, I suddenly find myself thinking of a very old Steve Martin stand-up bit, about assuming "bi" meant "bilingual," and "S&M people" meant Spaniards and Mexicans.
Thankfully, the dominatrix understood the difference between beating people up for the camera, vs. beating people up because pain was something they enjoyed.
For some reason, I suddenly find myself thinking of a very old Steve Martin stand-up bit, about assuming "bi" meant "bilingual," and "S&M people" meant Spaniards and Mexicans.
I gave up on How Much For Just the Planet? the first time I tried to read it. It sat on the bookshelf for a long time. And then one day I tried it again... and realized that it's really a Star Trek-themed operetta in prose form. The reader is meant to be sitting in the audience, watching the whole absurd thing.
Well, that changed everything. I used to work backstage in musical theatre, in props and costumes, so it wasn't hard to imagine the stage crews doing their thing within the story. I made up tunes for the songs, and had a blast.
I remember being annoyed when I read Mission to Horatius. Uhura doesn't play the guitar.
The author who wrote that was obviously no Star Trek fan. But he wasn't a bad author otherwise. I've got some of his stuff in my collection.
There's this stuff about Kirk and Spock being like soulmates or something, but yeah, it's nothing special compared with the M&C stuff, or other novels for that matter. In fact, the scenes between Spock and McCoy, and Kirk with his roomate are much more suggestive, but these were never censored.
Didn't she take an interest in Spock's Vulcan lyrette in TOS?
Yes, but there's a world of difference between a lyrette and a guitar, even though they're both string instruments and presumably work on the same basic principles.
(while I play a few instruments, none of them are anything like a guitar)
(while I play a few instruments, none of them are anything like a guitar)
It took you more than one attempt to realize that? (I wonder if Wolkoff & Horgan ever read How Much . . . before they wrote "Subspace Rhapsody.")
We don't actually know that. All we know is that Trelane had to give her the ability to play his harpsichord.
I have no idea who "Wolkoff & Horgan" are. There is no need for you to be so rude.
As for Uhura not playing the guitar, go ahead and find me a clip of TOS Uhura playing a 20th-century guitar (given that this is what was mentioned in the novel).
I'll wait, knowing you won't ever find one.
Wolkoff & Horgan were the writers credited with the episode. Although right after writing that, I learned that it was the showrunners' idea to do a musical. I still wonder if How Much . . . was part of the inspiration.
And just because nobody has ever seen Uhura play a guitar outside of one very early novel doesn't mean there's any reason to assume she can't play one. It is notoriously difficult to prove a negative hypothesis.
And if in expressing my surprise, I caused any offense, you have my absolute and unreserved apology. No qualifications. No excuses.
And just because nobody has ever seen Uhura play a guitar outside of one very early novel doesn't mean there's any reason to assume she can't play one. It is notoriously difficult to prove a negative hypothesis.
And if in expressing my surprise, I caused any offense, you have my absolute and unreserved apology. No qualifications. No excuses.
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