Customer Reviews

Encounter at Far Point

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Gerrold did a wonderful job with the novelization of the episode that started The Next Generation! After purchasing the first season of TNG on DVD and watching Encounter at Farpoint I thought it would be interesting to go back and read this book again. If you want to get the few details of episode that weren't in it, read this. This is the Genesis of Star Trek The Next Generation!

A good book, which copies the TV episode closely, with a few additional scenes. A good book to start with for all TNG newbies, if there is such a thing.

It's a good book, you get the chance to read what was going through some characters's minds but in this case, it is better just to watch the Episode. It's a classical... where it all begun.

I remember watching "Encounter at Farpoint" when it first aired with several high school friends, and the great groans of derision we all uttered when Deanna cried out, "I sense joy, Captain! Great joy!" The rest of the premier episode was hardly encouraging. It wasn't *terrible*, but it did not inspire great hopes, either.

David Gerrold took a generally weak episode and fleshed it out as best as anyone could do, but not even Shakespeare could have turned "Encounter at Farpoint" into a gripping read. There are, of course, a few problems with changed premises (for example, William "call me Bill" Riker and Picard's obsession with some woman named "Celeste"), but one can hardly blame Gerrold for that.

This book was very good. If you're interested in learning some new information about the crew of the Enterprise-D, this is the place to start. I have been a trekkie for about 6 years, and I have read many books, but David Gerrold did a great job with this novelization. There are extra scenes and more information that in the TV episode.

Overall, this is a great book. A recommendation to anyone who wants a good read.

After watching the series on TV including Encounter at Farpoint, I found that the book concentrated much more on the character development and maybe a bit less on technical details in some parts but ALOT more in other areas. The only major difference I saw in the book is that they didn't really give details on how most of the crew and famalies we're sent to the sauser section during seperation as in the TV show. Other than that it was an EXCELLENT read.

Although this story seemed, to the best of my memory, to conform very faithfully to the television episode that it was based on, still it seemed to do a better job of establishing characters than that episode did. Perhaps this is simply a function of the fact that I already know the characters now, as I read the book, whereas I didn't yet know them when I first saw the episode on television. But I don't think so; I believe that once again, this book demonstrates that a book can do a better job of character development than the screen can; the screen can give us visual impact that even the best written description can't, but a book will win when it comes to character development every time.

Although I WILL admit that, had I not seen John Delancy's portrayal of Q, I might not have truly appreciated just how obnoxious he was merely from the book; his superciliousness seemed a bit understated.

Without Q Encounter at Farpoint would have been just a trip to another starbase. We owe John Q Delancy a debt of thanks. He made the episode and the book. Q's also good at keeping the crew of the Enterprise as well as Trekkies on their toes if not the edge of their seats

If you have seen the series, and have it memorized, then try this novelization that has more detail and gets inside the heads of the characters at the very beginning of STTNG.