The Niven/Roddenbarry Tie in.

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The Yosemite Bear
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The Niven/Roddenbarry Tie in.

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

Niven and Roddenbarry used to talk about a junction between Trek and The Known universe. The results have been two episodes of the Animated Series, and Niven's Writing Star Trek the Motion Picture. What would happen if they actually had bridged the gap between universes?

Would the Teela Brown factor have explained the incrediable amount of Deus Ex Machina in ST?

Would the Kzin have made better foes then the Hirogen, or Klingons?

Would Puppeteers have made a better race to stomp the Borg then S8472?

What would End game have been like, if Janeway had just said, ah fuck let's refit the ship with GP armour, and a stasis shield and Ram them!
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Tie in not that extensive

Post by Patrick Degan »

The only Larry Niven script for TAS was "Slaver Weapon", far as I recall. And I've never read of any Larry Niven involvement with STTMP. The screenwriters for that project were Gene Roddenberry, Harold Livingston, and (uncredited) Alan Dean Foster.

A number of SF writers turned in draft proposals for the first Star Trek movie; among them Harlan Ellison and Issac Asimov. Niven may also have turned in a preliminary draft outline during this process.
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Post by The Yosemite Bear »

Hmm, my bad....
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Post by TOWNMNBS »

For Gene's sake!

Star Trek:TAS is not cannon, and taken as such.
Just because Niven needed a buck to sell on of his horrible stories, is no reason to pollute the rest of Trek with his tripe.

If Niven where that Good a writer TPTB would have hired him to write on TOS or one of the TNG series. They attracted all the good writers of the time, like Ellison and A.D Foster.


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Post by Stormbringer »

TOWNMNBS wrote:For Gene's sake!

Star Trek:TAS is not cannon, and taken as such.
Just because Niven needed a buck to sell on of his horrible stories, is no reason to pollute the rest of Trek with his tripe.

If Niven where that Good a writer TPTB would have hired him to write on TOS or one of the TNG series. They attracted all the good writers of the time, like Ellison and A.D Foster.


TJ
And Ellison left hating rodenberry's guts with a firey passion. Gene mutilated Harlan's script and left it in a lot of ways much poorer for it.
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Post by Jawawithagun »

Or rather they attracted those new in the business and in need of a buck. Foster is pouring out stuff like no good and Ellison's idea got a mangling making it unrecognizable.
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Post by Stormbringer »

Jawawithagun wrote:Or rather they attracted those new in the business and in need of a buck. Foster is pouring out stuff like no good and Ellison's idea got a mangling making it unrecognizable.
Wow, that was more or less incoherent.
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Post by Jawawithagun »

Stormbringer wrote: Wow, that was more or less incoherent.
Would You expect anything else from a Math major?
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Post by Stormbringer »

Jawawithagun wrote:
Stormbringer wrote: Wow, that was more or less incoherent.
Would You expect anything else from a Math major?
Yes, you could at least speak conherent English.
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Post by Anarchist Bunny »

"All the good writers of the time"

Hmmmmm, I never remember Douglas Adams writing for Trek, and he was the best Sci-Fi writer of the(/all in my opinion) time.
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Post by Stormbringer »

A lot of the good writers of the time never wrote for Star Trek.

And the few that did, as mentioned, hated the experience.
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Post by Howedar »

TOWNMNBS wrote:For Gene's sake!

Star Trek:TAS is not cannon, and taken as such.
Just because Niven needed a buck to sell on of his horrible stories, is no reason to pollute the rest of Trek with his tripe.

If Niven where that Good a writer TPTB would have hired him to write on TOS or one of the TNG series. They attracted all the good writers of the time, like Ellison and A.D Foster.


TJ
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Post by Vendetta »

anarchistbunny wrote:"All the good writers of the time"

Hmmmmm, I never remember Douglas Adams writing for Trek, and he was the best Sci-Fi writer of the(/all in my opinion) time.
He wasn't 'of the time' though.

He was barely promenant in SF in the seventies, having only a few Doctor Who scripts to his name (the rejects from which were later recycled in Holistic Detective Agency and Life, The Universe & Everything), and didn't take off until the latter end, with some little story about a book. (of all things)

Adams basically missed out on the times Trek was being written. (not that his style would have suited it in the slightest.)
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Post by Iceberg »

Stormbringer wrote:
TOWNMNBS wrote:For Gene's sake!

Star Trek:TAS is not cannon, and taken as such.
Just because Niven needed a buck to sell on of his horrible stories, is no reason to pollute the rest of Trek with his tripe.

If Niven where that Good a writer TPTB would have hired him to write on TOS or one of the TNG series. They attracted all the good writers of the time, like Ellison and A.D Foster.


TJ
And Ellison left hating rodenberry's guts with a firey passion. Gene mutilated Harlan's script and left it in a lot of ways much poorer for it.
Ellison says that about everybody who's ever attempted to adapt one of his works in any fashion. I take his opinion with a grain of salt. Or five.
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Post by Iceberg »

anarchistbunny wrote:"All the good writers of the time"

Hmmmmm, I never remember Douglas Adams writing for Trek, and he was the best Sci-Fi writer of the(/all in my opinion) time.
I would definitely argue that. Adams is an entertaining and frequently thought-provoking read, but hardly the best.

And they have lots of H2G2 inside jokes in TNG...
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Post by Raoul Duke, Jr. »

TOWNMNBS wrote:For Gene's sake!

Star Trek:TAS is not cannon, and taken as such.
Just because Niven needed a buck to sell on of his horrible stories, is no reason to pollute the rest of Trek with his tripe.

If Niven where that Good a writer TPTB would have hired him to write on TOS or one of the TNG series. They attracted all the good writers of the time, like Ellison and A.D Foster.


TJ
Yeah, and Rick Berman and Brannon Braga... oops.
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Post by Stormbringer »

Iceberg wrote:
Ellison says that about everybody who's ever attempted to adapt one of his works in any fashion. I take his opinion with a grain of salt. Or five.
Except that it was a script that Harlan Ellison wrote and Gene re-wrote and mutilated it. Of course Harlan Ellison was pissed, his script was gutted.
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Douglas Adams

Post by Patrick Degan »

Vendetta wrote:
anarchistbunny wrote:"All the good writers of the time"

Hmmmmm, I never remember Douglas Adams writing for Trek, and he was the best Sci-Fi writer of the(/all in my opinion) time.
He wasn't 'of the time' though.

He was barely promenant in SF in the seventies, having only a few Doctor Who scripts to his name (the rejects from which were later recycled in Holistic Detective Agency and Life, The Universe & Everything), and didn't take off until the latter end, with some little story about a book. (of all things)

Adams basically missed out on the times Trek was being written. (not that his style would have suited it in the slightest.)
Douglas Adams didn't really get his break into SF writing until he did The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy for BBC Radio One in 1978. He also wrote three scripts for Doctor Who: "Pirate Planet", "The City Of Death" (with Graham Williams under the pseudonym "David Agnew"), and "Shada" (production of which got clobbered by a technicians' strike in 1980 —two and a half episodes and part of the OB footage was filmed before the walkout and it went unfinished). He also served as script editor for season 17 (1979-80). He had no connection to anything happening in America at the time of ST: TMP.
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Re: Douglas Adams

Post by Vendetta »

Patrick Degan wrote: Douglas Adams didn't really get his break into SF writing until he did The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy for BBC Radio One in 1978. He also wrote three scripts for Doctor Who: "Pirate Planet", "The City Of Death" (with Graham Williams under the pseudonym "David Agnew"), and "Shada" (production of which got clobbered by a technicians' strike in 1980 —two and a half episodes and part of the OB footage was filmed before the walkout and it went unfinished). He also served as script editor for season 17 (1979-80). He had no connection to anything happening in America at the time of ST: TMP.
I believe that's what I said.

(Only he wrote four Who scripts, one of which is the improbably titled Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen. Which forms the backbone of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It never got past the treatment stage as a Who story.)
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Post by The Yosemite Bear »

Douglas Addams kicked ass.

of course who was around back during the TOS area and stayed away from Roddenberry, Philip Jose Farmer, Heinline,
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