Surprise appearances in Keenser origin comic [SPOILERS]

[Therin of Andor]

I'm sure someone will complain about "small universe syndrome", but there are some very welcome guest appearances, some in flashback, in the one-shot Keenser focus issue (#14) of IDW's "Star Trek Ongoing" that came out this week:

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

Captain Robau!

George Kirk Sr!

Lt K'Bentayr!

The monstrous, red Hengrauggi creature of Delta Vega.

Scotty's caged tribble.

And Keenser's parents.

His people are revealed to be the Roylan of Royla Prime.

I really enjoyed this issue. Like the previous issue, which focused on "Cupcake" Hendorff, this issue is a fun page-turner filled with possible easter eggs for the upcoming movie.

[Christopher]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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His people are revealed to be the Roylan of Royla Prime.

A nod to Deep Roy, who plays the character. I did something similar in my aborted Abramsverse novel a couple years back -- I dubbed Keenser's people the Purba, after Deep Roy's birth name of Mohinder Purba. I was told to cut out the reference since the filmmakers reserved the right to name his species for themselves (even though I'd deliberately left it vague whether it was the name of his species or just a nation or clan thereof). Now it turns out they've derived his species name pretty much the same way I did. Oh, well.

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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Now it turns out they've derived his species name pretty much the same way I did. Oh, well.

Something for the eventual manuscript revision.

(Ever hopeful.)

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Another great issue in this series. We're over a year into this ongoing book and there've been only a few truly stinker stories in the bunch. I find myself looking forward to this book every month -- making its way to the top of my comics stack on the weeks it comes out.

Telling the story from Keenser's POV was a nice choice. It gave the issue a lot of opportunity for humor (Scotty talking and talking, etc.) and some fine touches of sentiment (dedicating his Starfleet service to those lost on the Kelvin).

I hope the book's creators keep up this level of quality for the individual crew members' "origin story" issues that are planned to lead up to the new movie in May.

[Admiral_Young]

I actually really loved this issue, another fine one, I didn't think I would like it since I didn't think much of Keenser in the movie, but this just made me a fan of his! Fleshing out his character and backstory is what I think I needed. This has really improved over the last few months, and I'm tremendously looking forward to the start of the Mirror Universe issues. The art is absolutely fantastic as well.

[Drago-Kazov]

I completly forgot that this is coming out.

[DEWLine]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Something for the eventual manuscript revision.

(Ever hopeful.)

Hmmm...

[CaptainDonovin]

Therin of Andor wrote:

---

I'm sure someone will complain about "small universe syndrome", but there are some very welcome guest appearances, some in flashback, in the one-shot Keenser focus issue (#14) of IDW's "Star Trek Ongoing" that came out this week:

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

Captain Robau!

George Kirk Sr!

Lt K'Bentayr!

The monstrous, red Hengrauggi creature of Delta Vega.

Scotty's caged tribble.

And Keenser's parents.

His people are revealed to be the Roylan of Royla Prime.

I really enjoyed this issue. Like the previous issue, which focused on "Cupcake" Hendorff, this issue is a fun page-turner filled with possible easter eggs for the upcoming movie.

I enjoyed this one too, loved the name of the species.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

DEWLine wrote:

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Hmmm...

Maybe in 2016, after Star Trek XIII and JJ Abrams' people move on from Trek. Maybe.

And hopefully we'll get PROBED-style tell-all, too!

[Therin of Andor]

KingDaniel wrote:

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Maybe in 2016, after Star Trek XIII and JJ Abrams' people move on from Trek. Maybe.

Putting the four novels on the shelf is really not much different to the way DC Comics' team was asked to treat TNG in its latter seasons and movies: ie. specifically told not to attempt to be current, but to stay in the time frame of the previous season and/or movie. I recall this being explained in the lettercol of the day.

Prior to that, DC Comics had to do some bizarre tap-dancing to keep its TOS movie-era comics in continuity with the movies, and ditto the TNG comics coping with the switch from Crusher to Pulaski and back to Crusher. With Pocket Books, there were even a few clunkers making the ST III novelization consistent with the ST II novelization, and again with TNG for Peter David, IIRC, who twice had to scramble with a novel proposal at the last minute and change doctors, not so easy when they have such different personalities.

It's also not much different to Diane Duane's plans for her "Rihannsu" series going into what seemed like (at the time) a permanent limbo when TNG's Romulans were developed differently to her original extrapolations from TOS/TAS. But we got more stories eventually.

Perhaps JJ's team won't move away from ST? Maybe they'll take on a TV series or keep doing movies? But they will probably relax as more of their timeline is firmed up by this next movie. You know that people would have complained beyond belief if any of those four books had come out when originall scheduled, only to preempt something or create lots o new inconsistencies.

Pocket Books will be keen to recoup the money they spent on getting four novels written. Putting stories on hold is not without precedent.

[Allyn Gibson]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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...again with TNG for Peter David, IIRC, who twice had to scramble with a novel proposal at the last minute and change doctors (Crusher to Pulaski for "Metamorphosis" and Pulaski to Crusher for "Vendetta"), not so easy when they have such different personalities.

Jean Lorrah wrote Metamorphosis, not Peter David.

Also, it doesn't make any sense that the proposal for Vendetta would have had Pulaski in it, since PAD's introduction talked about how it was Kevin Ryan's idea to do a big Borg novel after "The Best of Both Worlds," and Pulaski was long since gone from TNG by the time of "BOBW."

If any PAD book was affected by the change in doctors, it was probably Q-in-Law because of Richard Arnold sitting on it for so long.

[Therin of Andor]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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If any PAD book was affected by the change in doctors, it was probably Q-in-Law because of Richard Arnold sitting on it for so long.

Damn. That's what I get for trying to post at 2.50am. I was whizzing back and forth with Memory Beta, and trying to check dates the books would have had to have been proposed by.

I know there was an instalment of "But I Digress...", PAD's comics column, where he talked about having to switch doctors, and then having to switch back a different time. Might have been "Strike Zone" as the other book?

Ah, yes... "Q-in-Law" was in RA limbo for a long time, wasn't it!

Jean Lorrah did hit similar trouble. Tasha's character was slated for death between her proposal for "A Question of Security" and its final incarnation, "Survivors", and she incorporated Tasha's funeral scene from "Skin of Evil". Then Beverly was gone and Pulaski was in for "Metamorphosis".

[Allyn Gibson]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Damn. That's what I get for trying to post at 2.50am. I was whizzing back and forth with Memory Beta, and trying to check dates the books would have had to have been proposed by.

It's all good.

Therin of Andor wrote:

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I know there was an instalment of "But I Digress...", PAD's comics column, where he talked about having to switch doctors, and then having to switch back a different time. Might have been "Strike Zone" as the other book?

Either that or Rock and a Hard Place. I actually think the latter may be more likely because of when Strike Zone would have been written -- during season two. Remember that it's a continuation of PAD's Star Trek comic -- which ended during TNG season two (his last issue was cover dated October 1988, which means it would have been written about three months before that, at which point we knew that McFadden had been sacked and Muldaur was coming in) -- and the book had Pulaski in it. So Strike Zone was probably always planned to have Pulaski because she was going to be part of the series when he pitched and proposed it.

Given that, I can see Rock and a Hard Place as a book that was pitched and proposed with Pulaski and then reworked with Crusher.

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Ah, yes... "Q-in-Law" was in RA limbo for a long time, wasn't it!

Sadly, that it was.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

But didn't Christopher already say that the reason the post-STXI novels were cancelled wasn't because of continuity? Hence me thinking they won't be released until Abrams' people have moved on from te franchise (which Damon Lindelof says will likely be after their third film: http://trekmovie.com/2012/06/06/excl...ing-3rd-movie/)

[Therin of Andor]

KingDaniel wrote:

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But didn't Christopher already say that the reason the post-STXI novels were cancelled wasn't because of continuity?

We are still clutching at straws. The original public statement was something vague like Pocket Books had "decided to put them aside for now". Was it Margaret?

Being strict with continuity may not be the main concern. (Yes, I recall Christopher saying it was not "the" reason.) Perhaps it's as simple as the writing team not having the time or inclination to read through four long original novels, by four different writers, and stressing about all manner of accidental easter eggs, clashes, red herrings, duplications, missed opportunities, etc, when they are tring to put out the best movie sequel they possibly can.

The YA "Starfleet Academy" novels are prequels. Shorter. More controllable.

The "ST Onging" comics have mostly been revisiting old TOS storylines, prescribed/approved by the movie's writing team, and deliberately peppered with their own choices of easter eggs and red herrings. Shorter. More controllable.

The four original novels are like four wild cards tossed into the mix and a time when all aspects of the movie are being kept secret. The more we would have read in those four novels, the more we would have known what was not going to be in the new movie.

I still have no problem with Pocket Books deciding not to dabble in the new movie's sandbox yet, whether they were instructed by CBS Consumer Products, or JJ's team, or the then-current Pocket editor, or whoever. It's not without precedent to sit and wait.

"Probe" is an unfortunate, excellent example of what happens when a novel is proposed and accepted, promoted in the media, and then there is a concern about having made that approval, for whatever reason. Looking back now, it seems silly for anyone to have worried what the whale probe's secrets were. Especially when the novels and comics are read by only 1-2% of a movie's audience anyway.

But it's a rather vocal 1% and some of them have very high expectations and little patience. (It alway grates on me when we know that an author has spent 12-18 months of their life toiling over a novel, and then some fans boast of breezing through - and sometimes dismissing it - in a matter of hours.)

There was also "The Lost Years: The War Virus", which was proposed, promoted in "Starlog", then rejected when the novel was completed. To our surprise, new installments were eventually added to the saga and it was finished off after all. "Rihannsu" was also eventually finished. So there are precedents that hiatuses are just hiatuses.

There's no conspiracy. It was just a decision to not open a potential Pandora's box for the moment. I'll be very surprised if those four books are shelved forever.