From 1990: The Titan Books reissue of the STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION: ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT novelization, now adorned with a cast photo cover, and released to coincide with the BBC's belated acquisition of the show for BBC TWO's early evening schedules.
That was a controversy-baiting bit of scheduling because fans, after having been made to wait three years for the British telly premiere, had expected a more respectful peak time slot... ideally on the main channel. They took the sleight as further evidence that the Corporation mandarins were anti all things SF but conveniently overlooked that the early episodes weren't always much cop.
The first editions of the book had appeared in 1987 to coincide with the show's US syndicated premiere but such was the haste to hit the release date, the image-free cover looked more like a crude mock-up for publicity and solicitation purposes.
I've not read this since that first 1987 edition (now unfortunately long-since lost) but I do remember that, to hit that on-sale date, it was based rather obviously on the shooting script and series bible and (like the early DC Comics tie-ins) wasn't entirely faithful to either the show as aired on its principal characters.
I still have this but my copy was bought long after the original bbc screening.
ReplyDeleteIts kind of amusing how they trumpet ' now a major bbc series ' as if the beeb themselves had made the show ! But then this was nothing new as back in the 70's, the uk trek annuals all carried the byline ' as seen on bbc tv ' Looking back it did seem as if trek classic was always on the beeb, sometimes even on ( gasp ! ) BBC1.
As for the chances of ST:TNG being screened on bbc1, that was never gonna happen. 6pm BBC2 was the dedicated slot for sci-fi shows. Even the mighty X-files went out on bbc2 albeit at a later time although I think it did actually screen on bbc1 during the later seasons...?