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Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Pocket Books released two Star Trek Photostories books in the early 1980s. These were published sometime after Bantam Books had finished publishing their series of Fotonovels (and the Trek publishing rights had subsequently been passed to Pocket). Like their predecessors, these books adapted Trek stories into comic book-style stories. However, instead of adapting Original Series episodes, these two books were adaptations of the first two movies, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Both books are credited to Richard J. Anobile; the first book's cover states it was "Edited by Richard J. Anobile", while the second carries the credit "By Richard J. Anobile". In each case, both credit the original story and screenplay authors.

In addition, both books' styles differ greatly. The adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is done in similar style to the older Fotonovels; the images are in full color with "word bubbles" for the characters dialogue and comic-style text boxes around the expository text. However, the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan photostory's pictures are all in black-and-white, and all the text is simply printed near or on the given images.

The adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is missing several scenes, among them Kirk's discussion with Commander Sonak in the San Francisco tramway station, the death of Sonak in the transporter room, and Will Decker's interlude with the Ilia probe on the recreation deck.

As with the Fotonovels before, the novelty of photonovels fell from grace with the advent of home video, and no other official Trek stories have since been so adapted.

Releases[]

  1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Photostory
  2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Photostory
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