TV Tie-ins
I've always been a great fan of TV and film tie-ins, whether they are novelisations or original novels based on pre-existing formats. I think they're a dying art form and it's all down to dvd box sets. People can now own, straight away, the show they love and they don't need a novelisation to relive the drama and excitement. That's a real shame because good tv tie-ins were so much more than that.
'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' was the first follow-up to the original 'Star Wars', in my mind. Alan Dean Foster's novel came out a year after that first film and it was a gloomy, spooky thing, with Luke, Leia and the droids trapped on a swampy world and beset by a spectral Darth Vader. Alan Dean Foster has to be the king of movie novelisations.
About the same time there was the novel version of the original 'Battlestar Galactica' pilot movie, which I loved with a passion. Two things still stand out in my memory: the backstory for the Imperious Leader, up there on his plinth - all about strange and nasty stuff to do with genetic engineering. And then there was that interlude on the casino world with the insect people underground, capturing unwary gamblers in lift shafts and making smoothies out of them.
I won't get into Doctor Who novelisations / original novels here. There are so many and so many eras and they are such an involved part of my life. As I've said before though, 'Star Trek' novels are my guilty pleasure. I'll rarely ever watch a TV episode of any Trek, but the novels I've always loved: from James Blish's early 70s retellings of the TV series as short stories in twelve volumes, to the original novels of the 80s by people like Melinda Snodgrass, A.C Crispin and Vonda McIntyre.
'Upstairs Downstairs' had a marvellous set of novels devoted to it. Each season was adapted into novel-form, one volume each. But there were also novels devoted to each major character, delving into their past lives and telling how they came to live and work at Eaton Square. 'Rose's Story' by (I think) Mollie Hardwick is my favourite in that set.
And then there were the three Coronation Street novels by H.V Kershaw. For me, these books based on Sixties episodes - from a time before I was born - they were like delving into prehistory. They were like hearing family gossip, like I did at Christmas or at birthdays, when the women would sit down in the kitchen and rove over the old stories. Oh - and Malcolm Hulke's Crossroads novels - forgotten now, besides his Doctor Who books. Actually, Hulke was the king of novelising telly, come to think of it.
So - what else? Anyone got favourites? I just noticed that the 'Howard the Duck' novel - based on a stinker of a movie - was adapted by the same fella who wrote the only (and fabulous) novel based on 'Northern Exposure.' So it's probably great.
Which contemporary shows need novelisations and / or original novels? I wish there'd been more based around my beloved 'Farscape' - plus novels about 'Northern Exposure', after the series finished. Any other suggestions...? Is it just me that loves this neglected and often derided form...?
11 Comments:
I'd add James Mitchell's excellent novelisations of his own shows - When the Boat Comes In and Callan, all of which were pretty faithful to the episodes they were turning into prose, rather than adding any back story. Which puts them in the basket marked "replacements for watching the original episodes" rather than "additions to the story".
And the books based on Secret Army/Kessler/The Fourth Arm which do add quite a bit of backstory and new interludes amongst the action seen on TV.
I'm currently haphazardly reading books spun-off from my favourite of the Star Trek shows - Enterprise. The first few are straight novelisations but by really good writers like Diane Carey, followed by a handful of stories that slot into unspecified gaps in the TV chronology. But I've just bought the latest set, which retcon the ending of the TV series and open a whole new load of adventures using the original cast. Can't wait to read these - for me a book sequel to a TV show is just as valid as a new TV version (must be the effect of those Dr Who novels!)
I would kill any designated target right in the face for a novel based on David Lynch's plans for more Twin Peaks. That's material we're never going to see on-screen, so it would be nice to see someone actually do something with it beyond the allusions Lynch gives in interviews.
Everyone always says there should be Jonathan Creek books, but I can see why there haven't been any - it's such an authored show, it's very hard to imagine anyone other than Renwick writing for those characters.
Strangely, the Howard the Duck tie in has a reference to a character sounding like "one of Dr Who's Daleks". Strange the things you remember from books you read 20 years ago
Oh I adore novelisations of TV shows. I've only just started collecting the Doctor Who Target novelisations and it's really interesting to see what the authors do with stories so well-known.
I also often wondered if Star Trek in novel form was much better than the homogenised, plastic version we get in TV form?
Stew
Stew - yes it is! Look at my blog back in December about my favourite ST novel - 'Tears of the Singers'. Some of the early 80s books especially were great.
Hiya, if you'd like to do any Corrie book reviews for our blog, we'd love to have you!
When I was a kid, me and my friend Glyn got really into the first series of that 90s, Australian revamp of the Tomorrow People, and that summer I somehow managed to dig out all the 1970s tie-ins. This was in the days when such things were found at boot sales and in charity shops. I absolutely adored them and longed to see the original stories – I was a bit disappointed when my dream came true, many years later. But those novelisations were so good that I shunned the new, Schmidt Tomorrow People stories when they rolled around. No TIM, no belts, no aliens...
I have to admit to a real resistance to novelization of TV or film - which is hugely unfair, since I don't have any problem with people going to the original book when they've seen a TV or film adaptation. Why is it that I automatically think that the film --> book is necessarily automatically deficient, yet the other way around is okay (with, usually, the film coming off worse?). Hm, I dunno. I need to think about this, obviously...
I'm a total sucker for tie-in fiction. I submitted a Doctor Who script to the BBC when I was 14 (1985) because I wanted to write a Doctor Who novel and it seemed the only way back then was to get a tv story and then write the novelisation! thank the gods the original fiction ranges came into being during the Long Hiatus. I've an entire wall of the Who novelisations/novels. and yes, I'd still love to write another Who book.
I used to collect a lot of tie-in stuff as a teenager. I had a whole run of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. books, and some Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Not sure what became of them.
Another key change from the 70s heyday is that fanfiction is now overground. In the 70s it was only really starting as part of the fanzine scene. Even in the 90s you had to know people to get the racier stuff. now every idle fan idea can be written up and published online. I'm a huge defender of fanfic, but even I'll admit 95% of it is unpublishable. But it means if a fan want to read a story where Arthur and Merlin have to go hunting a snark (with or without snogging) then you head online rather than pay money.
There are Merlin novelisations, actually. I would love to write one of those as well.
I still have all the Target 'Doctor Who' novelisations but I sold my Virgin/BBC books novels years ago. It's not that I didn't enjoy reading them, but I've nowhere to store them and the Target books have sentimental value. I wish there were novelisations of the new TV series.
I remember having the 'Timeslip'and 'Freewheelers' novelisations which I read again and again as a child.
When I was about thirteen I got hooked on the ITV soap 'General Hospital'. Whist on holiday in Llandudno I picked up a novel based on the series and I was shocked by the sex scenes in the book. They were very mild but must have left an impression on me as I can remember them to this day.
Well, Pocket Books have delayed the tie-ins to the new Star Trek film:
http://trekmovie.com/2010/01/14/pocket-books-holding-off-on-star-trek-movie-tie-ins-4-novels-pulled-from-summer-2010/
Seems like Paramount are desperate *not* to publicise the franchise. There isn't even a comic series featuring the new version of the crew. It's all prequels and duringthefilmls. Which a shame for the UK Star Trek comic reprint title.
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