Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Those Roddenberry.com/Cafepress scriptbooks...

Well, this looked like good news:



It's a banner ad I saw over at startrek.com. (You can right-click on it and see it in its proper size; I had to use an HTML cheat to fit it in here.) I've been very much of the opinion that US$39.95 is a ridiculous price for a paperback consisting of a few photocopied scripts and no new material. (A quote from Gene Roddenberry and a photo do not really add much value.)

But...

Here at the actual store site, I'm still seeing a price of $39.99.

Is anyone buying these? There's no discussion of them anywhere. Not even at Roddenberry.com. Did Eugene the Younger see how popular the B5 scriptbooks are and not realize that the new content is what's got people interested? Did he not notice that the B5 books aren't just slapped together photocopies of the same stuff that's been available at cons and through mail order for decades now? Is the switch from two volumes a month to one a response to underwhelming demand? Can someone please put this line of books out of its misery before I have to spend another $40?

2 Comments:

At 2:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah Steve...

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of these script books... They're far too expensive to justify the expense, especially since there's little-to-no additional information and the production value of the books is basic at best.

That being said, considering that you and I are of a kind, I'll likely get the books (eventually) if for no other reason than to fulfill my collection.

But those prices do hurt.

-John
www.cygnus-x1.net

 
At 4:37 AM, Blogger Therin of Andor said...

I was very happy to buy the first Cafepress one, for "The Cage", and was intrigued to see that it was the "Captain Winter" version. I bought a script of "The Cage" - in typical script format with the split-pin fasteners - in the 80s via Lincoln Enterprises and I don't recall it had Winter.

Decades ago I bought "Journey to Babel", "In Thy Image" and all the TOS-era movies, mostly from Lincoln, a bootlegged version of ST VI (cobbled from several code-numbered script pages and featuring Saavik), a few cherised "Phase II" bootlegs, plus the TNG movies - and I also have those very nice red-bound Premiere scripts for ST II to VI.

But I'm not sure I really need all the TOS scripts, even if bound into slick-looking trade paperbacks. The way they are bound, you have to buy all of a season for the spines to line up the artwork properly. I'm happy to pretend "The Cage", a neat one-off, was the only one that Cafepress did. ;)

 

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