Given the "signature dark humor" of some of my writing, my fondness of science fiction, and the eclectic musical taste I chatted about in last month's newsletter, it probably comes as no surprise that I am a fan of quirky shows and movies, including the incomparable 1999 film, Galaxy Quest. When superb casting and acting is matched with a fun premise, stellar writing, and great production values and special effects, it's difficult not to love the end product ... even if the marketing left something to be desired. (Yes, I know you can say exactly the same things about Firefly*, but let's stay on point at least for a few minutes.)

I first saw Galaxy Quest at an actual movie theatre. As a movie-goer, I was delighted. As a reasonably fledgling writer at the time, I was both excited and intrigued. Here was a movie that practically screamed for tie-in stories and novels. Not that I thought I had the writing chops in those days to write these stories, but I knew someone who definitely could. By the time I was driving home, I was determined to call Jean Rabe and suggest she try to get a gig writing Galaxy Quest tie-in fiction. (For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase "tie-in fiction," that's when stories, novels, and/or games are written for a setting created by someone else in a world which exists in some other medium (a movie, television show, video game, etc.--if you think about it, the movie Clue! is tie-in fiction based on a board game). It can include novelizations of movies or new stories using familiar characters and a pre-existing fictional world. It differs from fan fiction because it is authorized and licensed by the owner of the fictional world and, thus, does not violate copyright. Much tie-in fiction is written as a work-for-hire for a flat fee, but that is not always the case. Both Jean and I are now both members of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, mostly for tie-in fiction we have respectively written for roleplaying game worlds.)

Getting back to the story, when I arrived home from the movie, I immediately logged onto my computer so I could gather some information about the writer and producers of Galaxy Quest, so that I could tell Jean who to contact to try to get a gig as a writer of tie-in fiction for the movie. Search engines and the internet being what it was in those days, there wasn't an overwhelming amount of information, but along with the official site, where I found the name of the production company and writer, I found what purported to be a site by a college kid enamored with the movie, which, among other things, contained made-up plot summaries for each of the supposed episodes of the Galaxy Quest television show. (Now at a new url, the basics of that old website can be found here and you can click through to the Time Knots page to find the episode summary or just click here. I know it's what I saw back then, because I printed out the pages some months later and kept them in a file which took exactly ten seconds to locate once I decided to do this blog entry.) My thought at the time was that someone had waaaayyyyy too much time on their hands, but I understand the page was, of course, really a plant by the marketing people for the film.

Nothing much happened for a long time. I got the GQ DVD, watched some deleted scenes and stuff, but that was it.

Much more time passed, until in late 2019 Linda and I joined Lori Swan to go to the theatre to see Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary This was and remains very cool because you not only see some cool things about what Star Trek stars thought about the movie and some fan reactions and conventions, but lots of interesting stuff about the writing, the various directors, and the last minute shifts in the movie to make it more marketable to kids. That prompted me to buy a copy of the tie-in novelization of the movie by Terry Bisson. It's a great novelization--true to the spirit and content of the movie, but with additional items, including some laugh-out-loud literary references and clever lines. But, one of the most interesting things to me as a writer was that the novelization was clearly based on the screenplay for the movie--not the final cut. That's obvious from the inclusion of a couple of the eventually deleted scenes, the fact that Gwen Marco's "Fuck that!" appears in the chompers scene (over-dubbed to "Screw that!" for ratings purposes in the late stages of editing, and differences in many, many details about the Thermians. Not only do the Thermians wear GQ uniforms at all times in the book, but all of the brilliant aspects of Thermian speech and movement created by actor Enrico Colantoni at the last moments of his audition for the part of Mathesar (clearly the BEST and most creative supporting actor performance ever given in cinema) just don't appear in the book. Not the laugh, not the monotone, weird voice, and not the weird applause or walking movements.

How can that be? Don't people who are asked to write novelizations of the movie get to watch the movie first? The answer is no. Practices vary considerably, but remember that most novelizations come out a few weeks before the movie they are novelizing, so last minute changes can be impossible. But, beyond that, studio practices differ and can be affected by their desire to keep spoilers from circulating. Some writers get to go to the set while the movie is being made or get a rough cut of the movie (before effects and music). Some get to see the shooting script. Some get to see the script as it existed before the director revises it to become the shooting script. Some get to see dailies or production stills. Some get to see concept art, but not final. And, believe it or not, some writers are only let into a locked room with no paper and no electronics and allowed to read the script, but not take any notes before they write the novelization.

You can get a lot more detail about the business of tie-in fiction in the excellent book Tied In: The Business, History, and Craft of Media Tie-In Fiction, edited by Lee Goldberg. (See my 2011 review of it, below.) Not only is it instructive, but you'll get harrowing tales about studios calling during the final edit of a movie demanding that any line cut from the movie be cut from the book and one studio so worried about spoiling the end of their movie they cut the last chapter from the book before release.

And, while we are on the subject on tie-in fiction, check out IAMTW's recent charity anthology, Turning the Tied, with stories about all sorts of fictional characters. (See my recent review of it, below.)

And, by the way, Galaxy Quest tie-in fiction now exists. Go here.

*Fans interested in some details about the casting, creation, and marketing of Firefly should check out this YouTube video on the subject.

Go HERE for all the links for my Dick Thornby Thriller series.

Interesting Stuff for Those Who Read Tie-Ins and Those Who Want to Write Them

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2011

There's a lot that people don't know about tie-in writing. They don't know that it's not simply fan-fiction with authorization and better distribution. They don't know how it gets written, who writes it, what the deadlines are, what the limitations and expectations are, what the economics are for the publishers, writers, and tie-in rights providers, and how complicated it can be to fashion a good piece of fiction to a specific wordcount with sometimes multiple levels of non-writers not only looking over your shoulder, but sometimes tossing out whole pages and chapters. They don't understand the talent required of such writers and the sacrifices made by them in pursuing this niche, often along with other writing projects involving worlds of their own.

Rather than explain all of this in boring textbook style, Tied-In presents a series of essays by professional tie-in writers, describing their own experiences, frustrations, victories, and war-stories illustrating a variety of these central topics, while all along providing a bunch of interesting history about a lot of projects and media properties that give you a real insider's feel for how it is to work with Hollywood, game companies, comic book publishers, and others movers and shakers in the world of entertainment today. I promise that you will learn surprising tidbits that you won't be able to wait to tell your friends.

As an occasional tie-in writer (Dragonlance/Transformers) and member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (though not a contributor to this project), I'm happy to say that I found the essays both enjoyable and instructive--easily well worth the price.

If you know someone who wants to write tie-in material, you need to get them this book. And if you ever read tie-in material about your favorite shows or movies, you'll want to read this book, yourself.

Donald J. Bingle
Writer on Demand TM

Happy to Leave as a Review the Blurb I Gave to Turning the Tied, an IAMTW Anthology Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

One of the coolest things about the IAMTW's charity anthology, besides supporting literacy programs, is there is something for everyone. Masters of tie-in storytelling have created brand new tales about classic characters in the public domain, from Dracula and Sherlock Holmes to Allan Quartermain, Sinbad, and The Ghost of Christmas Past. The talented authors expand the fascinating worlds of H.G. Wells, Cyrano De Bergerac, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, L. Frank Baum, and even Norse mythology with wondrous new mysteries, adventures, and quests. As an added bonus, readers are treated with tie-in tales about childhood favorites like Space Patrol and Hopalong Cassidy, as well as more exotic fare, like Herne the Hunter and communist superhero Octobriana, satisfying both those seeking the nostalgic feel of favorite classics and those seeking the untrammeled excitement of fresh literary discoveries. Highly recommended. Read them all, then seek out additional works from the industry's greatest tie-in talents.--Donald J. Bingle, IAMTW Member and Author of The Dick Thornby Thriller Series

Donald J. Bingle is the author of seven books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact; Wet Work, and Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco; sequel is in the works). Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories).

Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections.

Get the audiobook version of Net Impact at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes and the audiobook version of Wet Work at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes.

Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through.