posted
From Section 31 (from an interview about X-Files writer John Shiban writing for Enterprise):
"Executive producer Rick Berman is quoted in the trade as saying, "The single hardest thing for us to do after all these years is to find great writers who understand STAR TREK. It's always been a problem."
I find this remark very funny. Many of the people who post at this very BBS not only understand Star Trek, but could write better scripts than what is being written now. Yet from what I hear, they are not accepting spec scripts from amateur writers like us. Is is because we're not "great writers" as Berman states?
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I'm actually fairly certain this has to do with legal considerations and the writer's union. If I recall, almost all television series have gone to a policy of not accepting scripts from writers who are not in the union or have an agent. Enterprise is the first Star Trek series to do this, but I imagine the pressure has always been on from the union.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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The truth is if they want enterprise to be remembered for any amount of time then they should either get the asses in gear and write some believable stories, or sit on their asses and watch tons of probable trek episode scripts flood their laps. They would no doubt be action packed with more twists and turns then they could ever imagine and be more true to the trek universe. Besides they wouldn’t necessarily have to pick through the scripts, I bet they could just randomly pick out any fan-script and it would be a major hit. The bb’s would finally have a well deserved rest, and they wouldn’t have to worry about their dear “RATINGS” again.
-------------------- "Explore New Worlds"
Registered: Mar 2002
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Official Challenge from The_Tom: Present me with some Star Trek fanfic that I would rather read then have a drill placed against my temple.
Reward: Life, love and happiness.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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Have you read the "Strange New World" short story collections put out by Pocket Books? They're amateur fanfic. Some of them are actually pretty good
Not only that, but almost all of the writers of Trek books are fans, so wouldn't their work count as "fanfic?"
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I define fanfic to be stuff written by people who are Star Trek fans first and writers second. Some Star Trek novels fall into this category, too. Which is more a comment on the quality of what Pocket churns out month after month than how "professional" some fanfic writers really are.
I did pick up a copy of "Strange New Worlds" and found some of the stories readable, some of them irritating in the typical fannish kind of way, and some pretty god-awful. And these were supposedly the creme-de-la-creme of fan fiction.
Worst job in the world: Sanitation engineer at Third World Zoo.
Second-worst job in the world: Intern at Pocket Book who sorts through all the submissions they get for SNW and culls out the 90% that would make the printing press feel suicidal and thus won't get passed on to the actual editors.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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...whether that slush pile is in the elephant pen or at Simon & Schuster's offices.
[ April 01, 2002, 15:56: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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*strangle* Believable stories don't make good fiction. Creating a 'believable' Star Trek story is out of the question. SF relies on suspension of disbelief.
quote:dozens of twists and turns
you want twists and turns, drink a liter of pop and ride "Space Mountain."
NUANCE is far more important than plot twists. Too many plot twists generally leads to the viewer feeling the same general way as the aforementioned Space Mountain rider.
I've read some really great fanfic that has never been formally published (no, I didn't write it. I tried writing fanfic once, and I am lousy at it), and the authors of which would never dream of submitting it, it being too personal, even though I believe it would stand a decent chance of getting published.
I've also read fanfic by the people who constantly say "The Trek doodz shuld be taking yore (meaning THEIR) fAN submissins"... and they are INVARIABLY crap.
Top three mistakes the latter make:
Creating their own crew. Nobody cares about your crew but you. You know their backstory, what it took to come up with them, and the prior history of their continuity. Nobody else does. You won't be able to explain it in less than a Clancyesque size, which noone will read unless your characters are more interesting than God. No publisher will let you do this anyway, unless you're a VERY well-established writer (like Peter David and the "New Frontier" books)
Mary Sue/ 'autobiographical' Trek stories These involve the writer inserting him/herself, or a stand-in for him-herself, into the story. Typically, this is a person who is transferred on board, and proceeds to outdo/seduce the entire crew, solve the mystery slmost singlehandedly, and ends up being the only person (insert major crewmember here) will ever 'really' love. The same with 'Supercharacters' who are smarter than Data, stronger than Worf, more psychic than Troi, et cetera ad nauseum. They're good for using as NPC's in RPG's (to get your gamers out of a jam), but otherwise, they're characters that make me hope they will get killed in a stupid accident / assimilated / gangraped by the Gorn before the end of the story.
Megaships Nobody who buys books is going to be interested in your "Emperor Monster-Class" Uber-Dreadnought with Type LXVII Super-phasors!!! and Mega Transwarp Quantum Slipstream Dimensional Shifters and detatchable Defiant-Class captain's yacht. It ain't gonna happen.
[ April 01, 2002, 16:21: Message edited by: First of Two ]
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
And, I will say this again, even if they accept fan submissions there are still legal considerations to be made. That's part of the reason that Enterprise and almost every other television series no longer accept fan submissions. Plus, it saves them from the possibility of landing in a lawsuit and being accused of riping something off. And, finally, there's the entire writer's union to worry about, and most people interested in going forth with getting an agent and submitting a script are not going to have the talent to make it work. Too much hassle for too little gain.
And the content of fanfiction is a matter that others have covered more thoroughly than I could. Suffice it to say, I've read a lot of fanfic and very little of it I would consider interesting, let alone of the caliber of being published and produced. I've read thorough an epic Trek adventure that was easily in the 1000 page range on the 'Net. I stopped far before finishing because there were too many plotlines all being portrayed a A-storlines and too many characters running around with no development. It was simply not any good.
And, I'll add to First of Two's list. Another way that fanfic tends to fail is that authors will sometimes take a lot of elements from the Trek series and put them in their work. How many stories are there out there with Betazoid counselors and rescued Borg drones and androids and the like? How many stories are there out there which feature the principle cast getting into the same shenanigans as the real crews? A lot of fanfic resorts to this sort of copycatting, and they don't even pull it off well. And sometimes, they skirt real science more often than some of ya'll accuse Brannon Braga of doing.
Finally, koy'peled Oy'tio, the "dear ratings" are important. Good series with low ratings always get the axe. There are so many examples, the most recent of which that I can think of being Undeclared and The Family Guy. Good, solid, critically-acclaimed series that were cancelled due to low ratings. Remember also, The Original Series was a victim of ratings. Too many consecutive periods of low ratings for Star Trek, and I guarantee you that Paramount will off it because the revenues won't even cover the expenditures. Star Trek is far from being immortal.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: *strangle* Believable stories don't make good fiction. Creating a 'believable' Star Trek story is out of the question. SF relies on suspension of disbelief.
you know what i meant...Stories that are plausable that have ideas that remotly depict star trek norm
-------------------- "Explore New Worlds"
Registered: Mar 2002
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Undeclared hasn't been officially canceled, has it? I confess to not watching it with anything approaching regularity, but it looked interesting, and seemed to have enough demographic appeal to survive. Alas.
Registered: Mar 1999
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