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mydearchap 's review for:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
by Gene Roddenberry, Harold Livingston, Alan Dean Foster
TL:DR - if you're really into 'Star Trek', Kirk and Spock and McCoy, and/or the ST:TMP movie, this book is probably worth it. I had fun. And on the whole, it's not badly written.
As novelisations go it has the advantage of being actually written by someone who was instrumental in creating these characters, so it's not an outside professional author coming in with his own take. In fandom terms, it's basically canon. And it clarifies some things that the movie didn't really explain, such as:
- what on earth was actually going on with Spock's mental connection with Vejur
- Spock's motivations in general
- the identity of the people who died in the transporter accident at the start of the movie
- what Kirk has been up to lately and why he's suddenly Admiral
It also adds some emotional depth here and there, especially with regard to the whole "Spock's feelings" subplot. It was nice to get some elaboration on the scene where he first comes on board and ignores everyone, and their reactions to that (especially Kirk's, but it takes time to dwell on all the bridge crew, which I enjoyed).
The plot resolution is still abrupt af and doesn't actually make any more sense than it did in the movie, but my expectations weren't very high on that one.
In terms of Roddenberry's style as an author, this is where it gets pretty wild. He alternates between being a very decent??? prose writer, with a bit of a poetic touch (shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the dialogue in TOS)... and just being complete and utter 1970's pulp garbage lmao. He adds a lot of unnecessary sex talk (almost exclusively around Ilia, whose character was FOR SOME REASON written as some kind of A/B/O prototype who exudes ~alien pheromones~ that drive human men wild, again, I repeat, this has NO bearing on the plot whatsoever), but there's also some really weird stuff about how Kirk's obsessive love for the Enterprise is like the possessive sexual love of a man for a woman or some shit. Gene, my man, you had some issues. Oh, and every time the word "pheromones" is used, which is a lot, it's written in italics. Go figure.
There's actually a lot of unnecessary italics in this book. Sometimes it looks like Roddenberry is using italics to represent thought, but that isn't done consistently at all. And sometimes he just puts entire passages in italics for dramatic emphasis! Oh, and he also uses exclamation marks in narration. Yep. That's a thing. "It was Spock!" Dun-dun-dunnn.
Like 'Killing Time', there's a fair bit of exposition dump going on, but it's not too frequent, and it mostly revolves around Decker and Ilia, aka the subplot that's crucial to the main plot but which nobody, including Gene, really cared enough about to develop it properly onscreen.
Concluding words? Oh. It's also gay. Like. It's really, really gay. I don't know what Gene thought he was doing with this book, but going by the infamous Page 19 it seems he thought he was quelling the gay rumours and presenting Kirk and Spock as just straight buddies, which, oh man. You failed, my boy. You failed big time. Not only did he coin t'hy'la in this book, completely without anyone asking for it, but he also made it canon that Kirk, cut to the quick by Spock's cold refusal to acknowledge their deep bond when he first boarded the Enterprise, deliberately spoke to Spock with warmth and love in his voice and face because he knew that Spock would hear it, and he knew that it would pain Spock, and he wanted to hurt him back. That's canon now. Thanks, Gene! ๐โค๐งก๐๐๐๐๐
As novelisations go it has the advantage of being actually written by someone who was instrumental in creating these characters, so it's not an outside professional author coming in with his own take. In fandom terms, it's basically canon. And it clarifies some things that the movie didn't really explain, such as:
- what on earth was actually going on with Spock's mental connection with Vejur
- Spock's motivations in general
- the identity of the people who died in the transporter accident at the start of the movie
- what Kirk has been up to lately and why he's suddenly Admiral
It also adds some emotional depth here and there, especially with regard to the whole "Spock's feelings" subplot. It was nice to get some elaboration on the scene where he first comes on board and ignores everyone, and their reactions to that (especially Kirk's, but it takes time to dwell on all the bridge crew, which I enjoyed).
The plot resolution is still abrupt af and doesn't actually make any more sense than it did in the movie, but my expectations weren't very high on that one.
In terms of Roddenberry's style as an author, this is where it gets pretty wild. He alternates between being a very decent??? prose writer, with a bit of a poetic touch (shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the dialogue in TOS)... and just being complete and utter 1970's pulp garbage lmao. He adds a lot of unnecessary sex talk (almost exclusively around Ilia, whose character was FOR SOME REASON written as some kind of A/B/O prototype who exudes ~alien pheromones~ that drive human men wild, again, I repeat, this has NO bearing on the plot whatsoever), but there's also some really weird stuff about how Kirk's obsessive love for the Enterprise is like the possessive sexual love of a man for a woman or some shit. Gene, my man, you had some issues. Oh, and every time the word "pheromones" is used, which is a lot, it's written in italics. Go figure.
There's actually a lot of unnecessary italics in this book. Sometimes it looks like Roddenberry is using italics to represent thought, but that isn't done consistently at all. And sometimes he just puts entire passages in italics for dramatic emphasis! Oh, and he also uses exclamation marks in narration. Yep. That's a thing. "It was Spock!" Dun-dun-dunnn.
Like 'Killing Time', there's a fair bit of exposition dump going on, but it's not too frequent, and it mostly revolves around Decker and Ilia, aka the subplot that's crucial to the main plot but which nobody, including Gene, really cared enough about to develop it properly onscreen.
Concluding words? Oh. It's also gay. Like. It's really, really gay. I don't know what Gene thought he was doing with this book, but going by the infamous Page 19 it seems he thought he was quelling the gay rumours and presenting Kirk and Spock as just straight buddies, which, oh man. You failed, my boy. You failed big time. Not only did he coin t'hy'la in this book, completely without anyone asking for it, but he also made it canon that Kirk, cut to the quick by Spock's cold refusal to acknowledge their deep bond when he first boarded the Enterprise, deliberately spoke to Spock with warmth and love in his voice and face because he knew that Spock would hear it, and he knew that it would pain Spock, and he wanted to hurt him back. That's canon now. Thanks, Gene! ๐โค๐งก๐๐๐๐๐