Star Trek: Fiction Hack Episode 007

Fiction Hack

What’s this? Ross is the layman and Colin is the expert? Have we entered a mirrorverse? That would explain why both Colin and Ross are wearing dark goatees (Ross has a darker goatee on top of his beard–it’s weird). This week we talk Star Trek!

• Star Trek is massive. There have been 7 TV shows (including the Animated Series) totalling incorporating seasons, totalling 740 episodes. Additionally, there have been and a whopping 13 movies.

• I haven’t even tried to count the Star Trek novels. Here’s a list on Wikipedia, though.
• Star Trek novels have been published continually since 1967 and have had some pretty big names in SF associated with them. James Blish wrote the very first original novel called “Spock Must Die”, as well as episode novelizations. Multi-Hugo Award winner Joe Haldeman followed suit in the Seventies and since then Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Vonda N MacIntyre, and Greg Bear are more award winners who have penned ST novels.
• The best Star Trek novelisation that I’ve read is Star Trek: Federation by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. It’s a Original Series/Next Generation crossover which shows early Kirk scenes at the academy and also ties in the creator of the warp drive, Zefram Cochrane, and that’s who James Cromwell plays in Star Trek: First Contact, not Scott Bakula in Enterprise, that’s why I got confused. Anyway, 5 stars.

• I still like Star Trek: Generations, though. Doesn’t anyone else?
• Colin says that the Original Series’ (TOS) pilot, The Cage, is not canon, but that is not my understanding. Captain Pike appeared in The Menagerie episode of TOS, and no information given there conflicted with the pilot, in fact, much of it was confirmed. The reason that Pike did not appear later was not a story reason, but because the actor backed out. Pike appears in the novels and was recast as an integral character in the J. J. Abrams reboot. So there.
• Wow. There have been a LOT of fan-made Star Trek episodes and movies! By far my favourite is Star Trek Continues, both in conception and production. It’s a continuation of the Original Series, which works well being super low budget. They’ve even pushed the colours to match TOS, and the make-up and effects work is spot on. They even have a pretty good Shatner.
• Colin’s favourite episode is “The Inner Light” season 5, episode 25. The short story I couldn’t remember the name of is An Occurrence at Owl Creek by Ambrose Bierce. Read it. It’s good. It’s short.
• My favourite episode is season 6, episode 21 called “Frame of Mind”.