The Black Hole

© 1979

Movie novelization by Alan Dean Foster

With the possible exceptions of Isaac Asimov or Robert Silverberg, the most-read author of my youth was Alan Dean Foster. Though he has a fairly large body of original work, he made his bones doing science fiction movie novelizations in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. Reading his novel of the classic Alien both fascinated and repulsed me, and probably did more than anything else to cement my desire to write SF novels as a kid. I read it before I was allowed to see the movie, and to this day I somewhat heretically think of that book rather than the Ridley Scott flick when I hear the title (though the movie is on my short list of Greatest Science Fiction Movie of All Time).

Anyway, to give you some idea, I also read his novelizations of the movies The Thing (the John Carpenter remake), Krull, Outland, and Star Wars (Foster writing as “George Lucas”). The Black Hole I began, discovering it in the handful of SF books in my dad’s cache. I remember reading the first chapter or two, but after that, it’s all blank. I also remember hounding my parents to see the 1980 Disney movie of the same name, but somehow we never got around to it. To this day, I still haven’t seen it. Perhaps my father had read some reviews in the paper and deep-sixed the idea unbeknownst to me.

A couple of decades roll by, and I see The Black Hole by Alan Dean Foster on a used book store shelf. I shell out a couple of bucks for the potential opportunity to relive a piece of my youth. These things are always risky and more often than not backfire. At the very best I can read it and have huge chunks of long-forgotten nostalgia flood my brainstream once again, raising lines of goosebumps on my arms and good-time feelings in my brainstem. At the very worst I could be out $3 and four or five hours of my life.

Verdict: Somewhere between the two extremes, as I expected.

The movie was released Christmastime of 1979, Disney’s most expensive movie to date, trying to cash in on the special effects SF epics dominating the big screens at that time. An all-star cast was hired to flesh out the rather simple and somewhat compelling story centering around that powerful and massive natural phenomenon beginning to filter down to the public consciousness: the black hole.

I said “somewhat compelling story”, and I’ll go to the mat for that statement. The problem is, the movie fails to deliver, as movies often do, especially ones where everything looks right on paper, everything looks right from the special effects dailies, everything looks right to the guys in the suits upstairs. But the final product inexplicably stinks. Now, I have not seen the movie, so I am basing it on hearsay and Foster’s novelization. Let’s talk about that novelization.

First off, every Alan Dean Foster novel I’ve read is an easy pageturner. He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the science, at least in this layman’s experience. From what I understand, he works off the final screenplay, often while the movie is still being filmed. In writing Alien, he did not have any clue as to what the H. R. Giger-inspired creature would even look like (which explained to me when I learned this some descrepancies between the book and movie, especially during the mid-book air lock scene). So he does have some leeway in writing his novel; this is often manifested in characterizations and interior thoughts and backstories you don’t experience during the movie. All well and good, and I have no complaint.

The problem with The Black Hole is that the story that unfolds is just ... boring, I guess. Here’s the set-up: a deep space science vessel on her way home stumbles across the long-lost starship Cygnus, commanded by the reclusive, egomaniacal genius Dr. Reinhardt. It’s orbiting a massive black hole, seemingly unaffected by the immense gravitational tidal forces. In fact, the ship looks dead to the eye, both human and electronic. As the newcomers close in to investigate, the Cygnus suddenly comes to life –

I still think that’s as good premise as any. It takes up the first ten pages of the book and probably the first ten minutes of the movie. Everything after that is downhill, though. Reinhardt becomes a clichéd, moustache-twirling baddie. His great secret (what happened to the crew of the Cygnus?) is no great secret; you’ll guess it fairly early. The robotic culture that’s posited, such as rec rooms and pool playing for mechanicals, seems uncomfortably dumb. The supposedly hyperintelligent scientist is a blind ignoramus; the stereotypical big news reporter says one thing and does another, neither of which makes sense, both of which are supremely foolish. The only good thing, I think, is Reinhardt’s robot enforcer, Maximillian, but that kinda fizzles out towards the books denouement.

And the denouement! Blah. You know they’re going to go through the black hole. You know it. They know it. They talk about it for a hundred pages, they fight it for fifty pages. But you know it’s going to happen. So ... what happens when you go through a black hole? Ah, that’s a worthy subject for a novel. I’ve read them. My favorite happens to be Gateway by Frederik Pohl. But anyway, apparently, Foster diverges from the screenplay at this climactic point.

Neither the novelization nor what I understand is shown in the film are satisfactory in my opinion. But I don’t fault Foster for this. I read that he sent off a note to the producers detailing 75 ways that the movie could be improved, and though Disney execs did have a meeting over this note, not a single suggestion was implemented or adopted. So I actually see a bit of rebellious pluck in the writer for trying something a little different for the story’s conclusion.

In my late 20s I read Foster’s original Cachalot and liked it; I may try to hunt down another copy for a re-read. Recently I read Midworld, liked it, and reviewed it, here. There are two more of his original works on deck on the shelf behind me, Icerigger and Phylogenesis, which I’ll probably get around to over the summer to this fall. So I like my Alan Dean and will continue to seek out and read his stuff.

You should too.