It is so great that people had the foresight to record those back in the day... Along with the chronicling of alot of the taping of the fests by fans like Joe Integlia.

That interview was on the VHS releases. I believe they used the ones on the VHS tapes and added some more for the DVDs. If I recall, every 4th tape had an interview. The DVDs had one per disk.

Then there's the Barnabus Collins game! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barnabus-Collins-Board-Game-Fridge-Magnet-2-x-3-/292031280914?hash=item43fe6bb712:g:xPEAAOSw2gxYp0a4

I remember back then, Bob, when novelizations of movies, particularly horror and sci-fi, flew off the presses like penny-dreadfuls.  And usually they were....The only film-to-book that was far-above-average was the adaptation of Prophecy......the novelization was actually better than the movie.  The only other time that happened, from the books I purchased or read, was the novelization of Star Wars.  Like the film, it was of high quality.

I also thought the Star Trek Log Series by Alan Dean Foster were very good. He adapted the animated episodes and did 3 to a book for the first 6 books and then fleshed out the last three into novels by adding story elements. They were better than the Blish adaptations of the original episodes. Blish packed at least 5 and usually more into a similar sized book. The animated stories were really fleshed out and felt like lost episodes from the original show. Foster also did a great job with Star Trek The Motion Picture.

Without looking it up, I believe we see Matthew for the last time[spoiler]in episode 126, so there are about 83 episodes until Barnabas arrives.[/spoiler]There are, I think, 155 Early Barnabas eps, and Ben shows up very early in 1795, so I'd say about 240 episodes give or take. I'm ignoring preemptions. That's almost a year.

the book generally garners raves on the FB DS pages. i think a lot of fans are so desperate for any new franchise output they lap it up no matter how lousy. 

I think that's very true. In the 60s and 70s the demand for quality in TV tie-ins was very low. Gold Key and Paperback Library were about state of the art. The authors hired to write novels were people in the industry who had often never seen the movie or show that was being adapted. Compare the novelization of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" by Michael Avallone with "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" by David Gerrold. The latter is obviously written by someone who cares about the material. Even as a kid I could tell it was superior because he got into the heads of the characters and filled in gaps in the plot of the movie. Avallone obviously did not treat as more than a mechanical, rote retelling of the script.

Bantam books put out some pretty horrible Star Trek novels. Many of them were obviously original novels an author could not get published, so he adapted it to the Trek format. Later, Bantam hired Star Trek fans as their authors and quality sometimes improved. 

Fans of most genres would not accept a book that does not fit the series continuity and format. Star Trek and Doctor Who novels had better not violate canon or there will be hell to pay. Star Wars has an extended universe and fans are incensed because Disney is ignoring it. I can't keep up with the output of those franchises.

I would compare the books in the "Shatnerverse" to Lara Parker's novels. I stopped buying William Shatner's books about the resurrected Captain Kirk because they played fast and loose with the Star Trek universe. I don't have the luxury of being able to be choosy with DS whereas in Trek I don't bother trying to keep up. I'm very selective about what I read.

backpeddling a bit as to whether or not Parker even follows her own canon from book to book i'll have to say NO...


the only other one i read was TSB and i pulled it out for a quick cross reference. it's set in 1971 and without completely rereading it it doesn't seem to mesh at all with what's happening in HOC which takes place a year later. it's basic setup was closer to what would have actually been happening with OS continuity. HOC might as well take place on another planet it's so far off base.

again a year passes between the two. so i suppose Parker gave herself a bit of "wiggle room". but the framework of the story seems completely different.

My memories of the past books is sketchy I admit, but I don't think the books were consistent either. I think they are set at the same time and yet in TSB the house is densely populated and totally abandoned in HOC. Again though, my memory is not very clear about the former book and I'm not really up to going back and checking it right now.

There were others that were to follow, including another one by Mr. Rainey.

Mark Rainey did finish his novel and has offered it as a free download. If it had been published, it might have been the first novel to be consistent with the original series. I'm not sure whether HH would have been.
http://www.stephenmarkrainey.com/dslabyrinth.htm