T'Pol's Clothing

[Silverbullet]

Cover of "Under the Raptor's Wing" What I don't understand is why Trip is not on it. His character is prominent in the book. Why was a Tellerite even on the cover. Archer is front and center and He wasn't as prominent in the book as trip was.

So, why was Trip tucker left off the cover?

[aadarshinah]

So, why was Trip tucker left off the cover?

Probably no one wanted to go in and photoshop a picture of him as a Romulan...

[Alelou]

And if they had, it probably wouldn't have helped sell the book.

Bookcovers are a pain in the ass. You are truly lucky if you get an artist who understands your book AND can translate it into an attractive cover, an art director who gets it too, a marketing department that doesn't get in the way (they usually just want it to look just like whatever recent book did well), and an editor and publisher who will go to bat for you against all of the above if the cover sucks.

[Alelou]

Then, by that thinking, why wasn't she wearing the gold piping on her catsuits in season 4? She was the XO then too, but very clearly wore Science piping.

You know, I had never noticed that at all until you said it. I remember thinking "what is that weird stripe of teal in her catsuit?" but I never connected it with the science piping. Doh.

[Asso]

I don't know how many books I bought because attracted by the covers, books that I haven't been capable of reading.
Maybe it's because of that, that I took the habit to read the last pages, before I buy a book.

[aadarshinah]

And if they had, it probably wouldn't have helped sell the book.

Read them on a kindle or the like. It makes it seem like a padd, which makes them that much better.

Though, thinking back on it, it probably wouldn't taken more than an hour or two to make a decent try at photoshoping a decent Romulan!Trip pic. I mean, this is Human-to-Vulcan/Romulan cosmetic surgury we're talking about, not human-to-Tellarite or -Andorian.

[Alelou]

But would it have helped sell the book?

Eh, maybe. Only Trekkies would bother to look at it in the first place, and they'd be intrigued. IF they realized who it was. Instant recognition is a big thing on a book cover. Someone is walking past on his way to the bathroom in Barnes and Noble... grab 'im, quick!

[honeybee]

On the impulse buy, the cover helps! I confess I read Under the Raptor's Wing on my kindle app - still have the tnt passages bookmarked for easy reference - but not helpful when wanting to look at her piping. There is an image of the cover you can access - but you have to go looking.

[aadarshinah]

But would it have helped sell the book?

Nah, probably not. Though you've gotta wonder what they were thinking with some of the other book covers.

On the impulse buy, the cover helps!

Though, honestly, how many people who aren't already Trekkies and on the lookout for that sort of thing buy the relaunch novels?

[honeybee]

Taking this to the book thread. . . .

[honeybee]

Though, honestly, how many people who aren't already Trekkies and on the lookout for that sort of thing buy the relaunch novels?

Brought over from the clothing discussion thread. . .

The Enterprise relaunch books are not written for non trekkies - I can't imagine a non trekkie even understanding Under the Raptor's WIng - BUT, I do think there was plenty in the books designed to appeal to Trekkies who had given up on ENT or who had never watched - there were so many references to other series and characters - and a real attempt to explain various contradictions (and some non contradictions that the fans still groused about).

As for the cover, it would have been nice to see Trip on the cover - but I don't trust a publishing grunt to photoshop him into a Romulan - so it's probably all well and good that he wasn't there.

[Silverbullet]

Why did he have to be photoshopped into a romulan? Couldn't they just have Trip so Conner too couuld be on the cover. I believe that most trekkie readers would make the connection that Trip was posing as a romulan without the cover depicting him that way. I missed Conner being on the cover. Course I am a big Trip fan. Hell if I had my way there would have just been Conner and Jolene on the cover as they are the main characters in the book.

[Asso]

Why did he have to be photoshopped into a romulan? Couldn't they just have Trip so Conner too couuld be on the cover. I believe that most trekkie readers would make the connection that Trip was posing as a romulan without the cover depicting him that way. I missed Conner being on the cover. Course I am a big Trip fan. Hell if I had my way there would have just been Conner and Jolene on the cover as they are the main characters in the book.

Me too.

[aadarshinah]

...I never connected it with the science piping...

It's probably a sign I've been thinking too much on it while trying (unsuccessfully) to write, but I've thought of another explination: as weird as the blue piping looked on the red uniform, yellow piping would've probablly looked stranger, and, since they seem to have liked putting hr in that red/purple a lot, it was probably more of a real-life costuming choice than one based on whatever colour a XO would normally wear... like the IDIC in TOS, only less blatently commercial.

[Rigil Kent]

Though, thinking back on it, it probably wouldn't taken more than an hour or two to make a decent try at photoshoping a decent Romulan!Trip pic. I mean, this is Human-to-Vulcan/Romulan cosmetic surgury we're talking about, not human-to-Tellarite or -Andorian.

Isn't he sans bumpy forehead during that book?

one based on whatever colour a XO would normally wear...

I point you to the Command Division article on Memory Alpha where it states:

An officer who belongs to the command division sometimes wears the division color of another department which they specialized in if said command officer were to become a security chief, engineer, or command a science department.

Which tracks with my belief she would wear the blue of sciences, not the gold of command division. I'm pretty sure they've never established exactly what color an XO would wear since, apart from Spock & T'Pol, the XO position has always been a full-time one, not one that can be used in conjunction with Science Officer.

For that matter, T'Pol is listed in the Starfleet Science Division master list...

With how they were intentionally trying to have her be Spock's predecessor (science officer-slash-first officer), it's again only logical to presume she'd wear that kind of piping (although I do concede that it could simply be a "wow. Gold looks ugly on this catsuit" decision as well.)