Yet again, a good one.
And on a subject I actually know something about for a change.
Brainbin said:
Still
Brainbin said:
retreated to allow the grown-ups to carry on with their business
Brainbin said:
produced by Gold Key Comics.
How did
Gold Key, of all choices, get the contract?
Or did neither Marvel nor DC even bid?
Carmine Infantino at DC Comics (who had recently scored a major coup in luring the legendary Jack Kirby over to his company)
Proving Carmine was a better editor in chief than an artist.
(Tho, contrary to almost everybody else (which, I'm sure, will shock you mightily
), I've never thought Kirby was so terrific, either.
His Cap was stiff & looked like it was inked with a roller.
Give me Perez & Dan Green or Byrne & Austin any day.
Brainbin said:
61 issues released in that twelve-year span
Was the Editor in Chief a nitwit?
Brainbin said:
studio executives found Stan Lee and the overall corporate attitude at Marvel to be excessively juvenile
Fairly obvious there were no comics buffs on staff, or they'd know Marvel was attracting the same kind of demo "ST" was, largely on the strength of more realistic treatment of characters (a bit of an achilles heel for an "ST" comic, actually
) & the use of continuing stories.
Come to think of it, "ST" being episodic & utopian might've appealed to the Superman ethic at DC...
Tho the audience tended to be younger, & the editorial staff, still, didn't appreciate they were getting older fans, & keeping them--which Marvel was starting, just, to figure out. (Than the LCs for that. It's just about time for T.M. Maple to submit his first...
)
With the number of letters an "ST" book would get, they might consider going from a 32p book to a 48p (52 with covers), with twice as many letters (4-5pp) & more ads, on maybe 22pp of story (so you don't overburden writers who already struggled with Dreaded Deadline Doom
--to borrow Stan's phrase
).
With David in charge, & allowing you're right about serial stories, this could impact the creation of more than a few of the novels.
I wonder if the comics, & upcoming miniseries, can't persuade Lucy to persuade Gene to allow ships other than
Enterprise to be dealt with: it'd clear up the frankly silly situation of there being more stories told than there are every day of their notional 5-yr mission.
Brainbin said:
David Gerrold was summarily chosen
Am I wrong David also knew Dave Gerber? He'd have had some personal knowledge, as I understand it.
Brainbin said:
as “low” a form of storytelling as mere comic books
Once DC did the Speedy story that overthrew the CCA, that was becoming less & less true.
Brainbin said:
insisted on tighter issue-to-issue continuity, ending the tradition of stand-alone stories
That would have been a Gold Key decision, not his; Gold Key's Editor in Chief would have governed on the use of single-issue stories, & changing it needed a corporate policy change.
Brainbin said:
The “old” Star Trek comics were emblematic of the Silver Age aesthetic – goofy, lighthearted, and fantastic to the point of being completely ridiculous.
I've always counted the Speedy story, & the death of Gwen, right up to the new Xmen, among others, as SA. Not to mention the debut of The Punisher.
(Yes, I know, he was a Bolan takeoff...
Probably neither happens TTL,
without the Quagmire being ongoing.)
Brainbin said:
this cements science-fiction as truly the province of the mainstream
Brainbin said:
Worse?
How could this be a "worse"?
Brainbin said:
The game was a tactical shooter
Note the irony of this, & all subsequent "ST" video games: it's completely contrary to Gene's philosophy.
Brainbin said:
Two main enemy ships would engage the Enterprise: Klingon ships, which had weaker firepower but more hit points; and Romulan ships, which had stronger guns and could “blink” in and out of view (representing their cloaking technology), but were also something of a glass cannon, which could be destroyed with as little as one hit.
Because Star Trek, the video game, proved very nearly as influential as the television series did; the two distinct types of enemies could be dispatched with two distinct weapons types: the phasers (which could be fired for prolonged periods by holding down the “phaser button” on the control console) or the torpedoes (which could only be fired one at a time), which was a revolutionary innovation.
This is requiring some pretty sophisticated graphics processing, isn't it? Sounds like a really cool game, tho.
Reminds me a lot of
Zaxxon.
It sounds a little like
Asteroids, too. It wouldn't replace
that, by any chance...?
Brainbin said:
only to inevitably fall like the 300 or the Alamo.
Can you say
Kobayashi Maru?
Brainbin said:
Desilu’s controlling influence in Syzygy was tantamount to a permanent licencing agreement
Even knowing what little I do about Atari OTL, this sounds like a very big deal indeed.
Brainbin said:
I think that's too strong. Gene always put Man superior, but I never felt it was hostility to technology
per se, just to its dominance over us.
In ref the RPGs, I'm wondering if anybody combines the computing power with the combat system to make a dedicated "combat calculator". (This would be really useful for D&D DMs--& a similar thing would be extremely useful for players of monster wargames.
{I recall reading about one that required calculations of even the amount of water used for every one of up to 1000 units, every single turn.
})
I also wonder why "ST" RPGs never attracted miniatures wargamers, or had anybody realize there was a broader market than the "gamer geeks".