Telep Reports Too (February 4, 1999)

Well, I'm just happy that these people actually read the CIC. Peter Telep comments on the Confederation Handbook and how it relates to his upcoming books... I think this situation is probably just fine, and since I'll have extra time tommorow (no braille on Fridays!) I'll do a new review of the handbook, assuming that the movie and the games are completely seprate. And now...

Just read Chris McCubbin's response to your remarks and have one of my own:

Chris writes:

For example, take the ship stats. Now, Peter was working without having seen even an early draft of the movie, and with very limited photo reference, so he pulled some things from the games. I was working a bit behind him, and had some better information, particularly about special effects and design. Therefore, my ship stats are MORE accurate -- to the movie continuity -- than the novels.

Peter responds:

Chris is absolutely right on this point. I weekly bugged the production people for materials and received some stuff, but materials regarding the ships seemed hard to get. I didn't even see a picture of the Tiger Claw until AFTER I wrote the novel and had to go back and make adjustments. But this is par for the course with tie-in work. They gave me about eight or so weeks to write the book, so I couldn't wait for them. Also, I was instructed to use as little material as possible from the games because of licensing restrictions. This seemed ironic to me, but I did what I could. I knew fans would appreciate some crossover between the games and the novels, but what we're really trying to do here is, as Chris writes, create another continuity.

With that in mind, my next two novels will rely on Chris's book as a bible of sorts. I'll be drawing from it liberally to maintain continuity and because it's one hell of a text. I'm certain that the next two novels will remain faithful to the movie continuity and to what Chris has done. I've taken measures to correct things like time (Zulu is gone, replaced by the digital clock), ship names (it's not TCS in the movie continuity; it's CS), and I've more accurately described the components of the ships like "rotary barrel neutron gun" instead of "barrel-shaped rotating laser cannons," which was my naive first attempt at describing them. The changes will, I'm sure, spark heated debate--but that's a cool thing itself.

Finally, I must confess that I felt a little awkward taking this job. William Forstchen's work looms over this material. I knew comparisons would be made (they shoulda got Forstchen to write the movie books instead of this Telep loser) and that I would simply have to deal with that. It's actually not fair to Bill either since he'll be exposed to the comparisons as well--and I do admire his work a great deal. He pays much more attention to the language than many others working in this genre and has produced an amazing body of work, both tie-in and original material.

When I get time, I'll fill you on the Merlin stuff and whatever else strikes me! Go ahead and post this if you choose.

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