Star Fleet Book

[Dr. Ben]

Hey all,Long time no speak. Got pretty quiet for a while. Any way I'm thinking about writing a book about Star Fleet. Maybe non fiction maybe a novel or something. I'm not sure if there is a demand for a book or any real interest. Maybe even a Star Fleet Encyclopedia! I'm not sure how I would publish it. That's problem #2, but I want to do it. Maybe it could be used at site sponsoring material like the Dai X shirt. Any thoughts/suggestions/comments?

[FZeroOne]

Er... good luck? Not having attempted such a thing myself, I'm not really sure if any advice I can give would be useful, but I would imagine by far the hardest part would be finding a publisher. You would - unless you are exceptionally lucky, and manage to get one of the "specialist" anime-related publishers - probably be best off investigating publishing it yourself, or "print-on-demand" services.The next problem is just how serious you're going to be about it. If you're thinking of a book about the creation of the show, rather than just about the series content itself, then you're going to need to do research, track people down, get a translator, and spend some time in Japan. I would imagine that some of the creative staff are still around; some of them may even be quite famous now. In which case, you'll need to make appointments, make a lot of phone calls, get some business cards printed, hear the word "Nani?!" a lot, and possibly drink a lot more sake than is strictly helpful for your liver.Writing a book about the series story, characters etc. might be a touch easier, but again, depends on how serious you want to take it. If you're truly dedicated, you're probably going to have to think about contacting science-fiction groups in Japan, try and obtain archive shots, re-hire that translator, etc. And then you still have to get published. The only thing I can think of doing would be to try getting in contact with the anime translator/author Jonathan Clements, who has already written a number of books covering similar subjetcs (though somewhat wider in scope) who may be able to give you a few pointers, but don't be surprised if the first piece of advice you get is "Don't." He can probably be contacted through the offices of the US NewType magazine.Stranger things have happened - I've seen books in a bookshop respectively on the history of cod, the number Zero and God - but , much as I hate to be pessimistic, a book on Star Fleet alone might be very hard to get out. I guess you could try widening your scope; Japan has a long history of puppet dramas, after all...

[Joe Meredith]

Although I've got some ideas for a 'prequel' I've been thinking about adapting the actual series - I don't profess to having any real writing skills other than enjoying it - but I would probably make some changes, such as:Shiro - he would not be wearing that stupid helmet all the time!!The 'Black Hole' episode - Goes without saying really, its bad enough that they manage to find the power to use their big guns, and the Imperial ships can fly about with no energy loss, but then Doctor Benn starts going on about it being colonised in the future!!! So, I think the Japanese 'Gravitational Graveyard' would be better!! Twice Hyper speed - no. In fact the whole quantum/hyper speed malarkey needs clearing up - and I would not use 'parsecs' as a measure of time!!!Other things that bother me are the Imperials incompetence - I hardly think the Master would have entrusted his most important mission to a pair of bunglers! Better would be to have Orion becoming more useless as the series progresses perhaps.Just some thoughts....Joe

[FZeroOne]

At that point in time, Makara and Orion were pretty standard anime-type villains; Berg Katse/Zoltar in Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets almost never won, but Leader X kept with him/her/it [1] almost right to the end.These days, I would suspect Makara would be a more gothy-style female, possibly even a very feminine male. And she would be really, really, really, really evil. Orion could still be a bungler, but might meet his fate much earlier in the series, and in a very gory way...[1] Don't ask. Please, don't ask!

[Joe Meredith]

Yes, I suppose if Orion did disappear earlier you could always bring Caliban sooner; or maybe Orion could desert at the time when Carter comes along and become a thorn in the side of both the X Bomber crew and Makara.Makara as a Gothy type woman I like the idea of - she was to a certain extent anyway with that name of red hair. I also think it would be interesting for her to have been someone who had been thoroughly decent and good before her 'conversion', hence her apparent madness towards the end...there are loads of ideas floating around my mind, its just a matter of knowing what exactly to do with them!!!Joe

[Joe Meredith]

Quote name of red hairName of red hair indeed! I do apologise!

[Smartie]

This is a good discussion about the storyline. I remember I had no problems with the skull concept when I was about seven or so but that seems a bit 'bizarre' as an older viewer. For me watching the series originally the most exciting features were Dai-X (of course!) Makara. Dr Benn dying (When did anyone die in Gerry Andersons programs granted Troy Tempest got critically ill in one episode of Stingray). The big final altercation with Dai-X and The Imperial Alliance cruiser was very exciting. I also found the Imperial Master scary as a kid (thats good!). I don't remember all that business with the Lamia and the Glacial planet, its only on a more recent viewing that I know about and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the constellation the glacial planet is in! Dai-X's fight with Callibans death ball is something that I definitly do remember from the original viewing.But from what I have been reading it seems these are familiar concepts to Japanese anime of that time....