It seems likely that Shatner and Nimoy will both appear in the third JJverse movie. Assuming Kirk is somehow resurrected, does this have any effect on the novelverse ? Could it result in a return in the novels ? Tie-ins currently have to both adhere to on screen canon and avoid the JJverse altogether, which appears somewhat contradictory. No precedent has yet been established regarding portraying the loss of Spock and Romulus in Treklit. Will it all just be ignored ?
I think it's a little early to even think about this. All we know is that Shatner was contacted, not that he will actually be involved. And even if he is, it could be anything from a "Deadly Years" prologue where we see 120 seconds of Shatner and Nimoy before they're cured and become Pine and Quinto, or some holographic recording as in the cut sequence from the end of ST'09.
At this early stage, nothing about the movie can be called "likely." The only thing that's set is the release date, and even that's subject to change. Anyway, Kirk isn't around anymore in the mainstream Trek Lit continuity's 24th century. So even if he does appear briefly in the next movie, it probably won't have any impact on anything the books have done. Though personally I hope he doesn't appear. I can see the nostalgia value, but these movies aren't supposed to be about pandering to nostalgia, they're supposed to be about reinventing the franchise for a new audience and moving it forward. The nostalgia should've ended after the first movie; once the torch was successfully passed, they should've stopped looking backward and looked forward instead.
I hate the way Kirk was killed off in Generations, so I'll be thrilled if they bring him back somehow. I'm hoping they'll make a vague reference to the Shatnerverse novels and just take it for granted that he was brought back years ago and it's a non issue. Not likely, but that's what I want. However it's done it would have to be done fairly quickly since he's not likely to have a big role. Things like this are why major character death should be thought out more carefully.
Well said! I think we had enough "bring back from the dead"-scenarios lately. Just for reality's sake dead/killed off characters should stay dead once in a while. Even main characters. Having said that, I agree that GEN wasn't the best movie and Kirk's death wasn't handled well - IMO the old crew should have left with ST:TUC. By then TNG was well established and there was no need for an actual handing over the torch (not just the figurative one at the end of TUC). Cameo... as what... a corpse?
The thing is, though, TNG was well-established for television audiences, but movie audiences are a different matter. There are many people who will go to movies based on a TV franchise but won't watch the TV series (just as most viewers of a movie based on a book won't read the book) -- or who will be fans of one series within a franchise but not the other. The audience is always going to be made up of different segments that only partially overlap; indeed, that's the whole reason for doing a franchise in multiple media, in order to expose it to different segments of the public and get a larger combined audience. So it was a given that the existing TNG fanbase would watch Generations, but the filmmakers also needed to reach the audience that was specific to the TOS movies and didn't already watch TNG. For that segment of the audience, Picard and his crew were unfamiliar characters, or at least characters of secondary importance. It was for those viewers that the transition was needed.
I think that if Kirk Prime is resurrected, then there will be another IDW follow-up to Countdown explaining this in detail, leaving the Pocket Books novels alone.
Even if Shatner makes a cameo, that does not necessarily mean that he will appear as James T. Kirk. I could see him pop up as some admiral or other Federation official, perhaps even as Pine-Kirk's older relative. He would have a few quick lines, a la Stan Lee in the Marvel movies, with a wink and a nod to the audience.
The only thing in Trek Lit this could affect are the "Shatnerverse" novels. Which- A) Aren't part of the novel continuity. B) Haven't had a new book since 2007. Not seeing how this is going to be an issue, even if it is true.
Maybe a flashback of an important moment between Kirk and Spock occurring between VI and Generations?
God, I hope not. The Riker/Troi scenes in "These are the Voyages" were downright embarrassing and it had only been ten years since TNG had went off the air. It'll have been twenty-two years since Generations and Shatner and Nimoy have definitely aged.
While he could certainly end up changing him mind, Shatner has been pretty clear in the past that he's not particularly interested in that kind of role. This isn't true. Everything I've always heard is that the books are absolutely required to be consistent with on screen cannon, no exceptions. IF the new movie resurrects Kirk in the prime universe within the time frame that the current Treklit is operating in, then those books will absolutely be operating in a world with a resurrected Kirk. Now maybe the books might just choose not to deal with Kirk, but the possibility remains that it could impact Treklit.
Shatner & Nimoy as Kirk & Spock are Shatner & Nimoy as Kirk & Spock. I think Nimoy in the 09 film worked best, an older Spock who was at peace with himself. I even appreciate Shatner as the character with Seth MacFarlane in the 2013 Oscars sketch!!
Best bet is that Shatner and Nimoy will be playing an older version of Abramsverse Kirk and Spock in some sort of framing sequence.
Well, yes, but I have the impression that Pocket doesn't have the license to use elements of the Bad Robot films in the novels. If that's so, then we wouldn't get to contradict what's in the movies, but wouldn't get to use it overtly either. We'd probably just avoid the issue. Remember that it was only with the Totality trilogy that the Shatnerverse overtly began contradicting the main novelverse. Up to that point, they'd just been kind of politely avoiding each other -- the other books operated on the assumption that Kirk was dead, but didn't explicitly rule out the events of the Shatner novels happening off to the side somewhere. In the highly speculative event that Kirk Prime were somehow resurrected in the movies, the books would probably just avoid discussing it. I mean, as long as he isn't established as, say, taking over command of the Enterprise-E or becoming Federation president, it shouldn't be necessary to mention him. After all, 24th-century books usually get along just fine without mentioning TOS characters at all. It really shouldn't be an issue even if it did happen.
Aren't you getting ahead of yourself here? At this moment we only have a rumour regarding the possibility that Shatner might appear in the next movie. Even if he does, this does not automatically mean he will be Captain Kirk alive and active in the 2380s of the Prime Universe. And even if, and I stress if that is how things play out, then the movie is going to have to address how he's come back from the dead, and I'm fairly certain it should be no problem for the novel continuity to mold around that. It's just another recent development. "Oh, so Captain Kirk's back from the dead? Splendid, but what does this have to do with our conference with the Typhon Pact? Nothing? Very good, proceed at maximum warp." The only novels that Kirk Prime returning to life are going to be an issue for are the Shatnerverse, but that line is inactive and wasn't a part of the novel continuity to begin with so all is good.