^ Nothing so detailed. We usually just check in via e-mail with other authors who have written the character and ask, "What's the deal with [Character]? What do I need to know about this person?" That's usually enough to keep characters consistent from one book to the next.
It isn't. The changes tend to come as much from the authors as the editors, or sometimes both, in that an author takes a character in a certain direction that leads the editor to decide it's time for a change.
Just wondering when Laforge is gonna finally be in a relationship haha. He seems to be in one with Brahams in "Indistinguishable From Magic" but in recent books there's no mention.
I thought LaForge was with someone (not Brahms) in one of the Fallen books, or possibly one of the Cold Equations books, but I might be misremembering.
No, the actor was created by Jeri Taylor (and Dick Enberg). Not the roles. Am I right that the books still haven't officially established whether Taurik and Vorik are related? I think of them as twins, but I don't think it's ever actually been stated.
Until reading this, in my mind they were always the same character. I'd read one name or the other and think it the same character.
I think Christopher's right that their relationship, if any, hasn't been established. Which almost seems like a missed opportunity at this point. There may be a great story there involving clones...
Well, that was the original intention; Vorik was supposed to be Taurik, having moved over from the Ent-D, but the producers changed his name because it sounded too much like "Tuvok" (although I would've thought the similarity to "Torres" would be a bigger concern). However, the current novels have Taurik on the Ent-E and Vorik on Voyager simultaneously. So in the book continuity, they're two different people.
According to the Star Trek video game Starship Creator, Taurik and Vorik are twins. Taurik got the better wig, though...
Wasn't Vorik reassigned to one of the other Full Circle ships? I think it was one of the ones that got destroyed in the latest novel, but I think he survived. Of course, that is kind of nitpicky of me. Vorik is "with" Voyager either way, whether he's on the ship or not. He's with the FC fleet in the DQ.
Dygan was established in DRGIII's Plagues of Night, though he doesn't do too much there. Given the amount of development he is given in Brinkmanship, it wouldn't surprise me if DRGIII and Una McCormack shared notes as he was writing PoN, nor would it surprise me if his character's genesis ultimately did rest with Una. But that's speculation on my part. You are in a better position to know than I, Christopher. In any case, Dygan was first established in Plagues of Night, released in May 2012, but was significantly developed in Brinkmanship, released that September. Šmrhová is definitely in Destiny. Memory Beta doesn't list her appearing any earlier, and I don't recall her in the A Time To... books that Mack wrote. (Which makes sense– she's a nice foil to Choudhury, but would not, I think have been that interesting alongside Vale.)
Personally, I prefer to just not get used to them at all. Since they were never in TV or film, they could all get killed at any point. If you never get fully invested in them, there's no mourning when they're gone. Since everybody loves nitpicking on this site, either say "I *COULDN'T* care less" or don't even bother saying it. Saying you "could" care less means you still care for them in some small amount and essentially negates whatever you've been saying before. If you're going to use a cliche, do us all a favor and use it properly.
There have just been SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. since Death in Winter. I thought Beyer's Voyagers characters were integrated seamlessly into the crew, but there hasn't been a clear and consistent voice in the TNG novels to bring many of these characters to life lately. It seems like every time we start to get to know a character, they're killed off. Miranda Kadohata was interesting. T'Lana was interesting. Leybenzon was interesting. I was finally starting to like Choudhury too. Why did they have to go and do that to Worf again? Šmrhová and Elfiki are just names.
Totally agree. The characters in Beyer's Voyager have definitely been better realized due to the "one author" situation. TNG is like TOS wherein it seems Pocket won't let just one writer tackle the series. This makes sense as they are, what i assume, the most popular series, and plan on having more than one release per year. If one author was writing the TNG books, they would be slower to come out. A trilogy like Mr. Mack's from 2012 are rare..
^But if every series had only one writer, then there'd only be a half-dozen or so people writing Trek novels on a regular basis, depending on how many book-original series there were. So some of the series should be open to multiple writers.
Not necessarily a bad thing in the individual reader's perspective, assuming they're allowed to pick the half-dozen.
I very much liked Choudhury from the start. Her approach to her job as Security Chief was refreshing, and far more in keeping with what I'd imagine Starfleet philosophies to favour (more so pre-Dominion War, of course). As a character I found her engaging. Šmrhová immediately struck me in Cold Equations as taking the opposite approach, which I'm less comfortable with (not a judgement, just an observation). I know she was introduced in Destiny, but I don't remember much about her role there, whereas in Silent Weapons the contrast with Choudhury's approach was obvious. Šmrhová is sort of the anti-Choudhury in my eyes, at least at the moment, which may be selling the character short but, as I say, I really liked Choudhury. I will note that her appearance in The Crimson Shadow helped; maybe I'm coming to get a feel for her on her own merits now, if that makes sense.