Great year for Trek...to be continued in 2013!

[RAMA]

I think we're having the best era of Trek since the early to mid-90s...STNG-R every few months on bluray, Enterprise on Bluray in 2013, the STID trailers in December, the movie in May 2013, new non-fiction books for the first time in years, ongoing and special Star Trek comic book series, complete soundtrack releases from episodes and series..

RAMA

[Tetrarch42]

It is good to see, then again, I'd trade that all for a good new series.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

2012 was a great year for Trek novels. Lots of fans whinge and whine that the prime universe is "gone" and "not coming back" when it never actually went away. Lots of huge things happened...

We learned the origins of the Department of Temporal Investigations in DTI: Forgotten History, saw Deep Space Nine destroyed in Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night, Admiral Janeway was resurrected in Voyager: The Enteral Tide and Data 2.0 (Cold Equations: Persistence of Memory) has all the original's memories and experiences, in a more advanced body.

...and the quality of the stories was consistently very high.

2013 should be another great year, with Rise of the Federation showing us the... ummm.... rise of the Federation in the 2160's, and the huge 5-book 24th century miniseries series The Fall which may or may not be the fall of the Federaton's rival superpower, the Typhon Pact.

[Tetrarch42]

King Daniel wrote:

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2012 was a great year for Trek novels. Lots of fans whinge and whine that the prime universe is "gone" and "not coming back" when it never actually went away. Lots of huge things happened...

We learned the origins of the Department of Temporal Investigations in DTI: Forgotten History, saw Deep Space Nine destroyed in Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night, Admiral Janeway was resurrected in Voyager: The Enteral Tide and Data 2.0 (Cold Equations: Persistence of Memory) has all the original's memories and experiences, in a more advanced body.

...and the quality of the stories was consistently very high.

2013 should be another great year, with Rise of the Federation showing us the... ummm.... rise of the Federation in the 2160's, and the huge 5-book 24th century miniseries series The Fall which may or may not be the fall of the Federaton's rival superpower, the Typhon Pact.

Aren't those decidedly un-canon though?

[King Daniel into Darkness]

Canon is the episodes and movies, right? And the entire concept was so the TV writers wouldn't have to "keep up" with what the novelists were writing. TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY and ENT are finished on TV and in movies. There isn't going to be anything in that continuity again. So what does it matter anymore? You can ignore the novels and call prime-universe Trek forever dead, or find out what happened to everyone after "What You Leave Behind", "Endgame", "These Are The Voyages" and Star Trek: Nemesis.

[Leroy]

King Daniel wrote:

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Canon is the episodes and movies, right? And the entire concept was so the TV writers wouldn't have to "keep up" with what the novelists were writing. TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY and ENT are finished on TV and in movies. There isn't going to be anything in that continuity again. So what does it matter anymore? You can ignore the novels and call prime-universe Trek forever dead, or find out what happened to everyone after "What You Leave Behind", "Endgame", "These Are The Voyages" and Star Trek: Nemesis.

That's how I see it, there is nothing new coming out that will contradict these new books so why not make them part of your own personal canon? I notice Star Trek Online also tries to continue the prime-verse from after Spock went back in time, not sure how well it meshes with the novels though.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

They're very different - although the novel The Needs of the Many hints that STO and the novelverse are parallel realities.

[Temis the Vorta]

Tetrarch42 wrote:

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It is good to see, then again, I'd trade that all for a good new series.

Same here. All that stuff is sideshow, Star Trek belongs on TV.

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm less concerned with whether or not the novels are 'canon' and more concerned with, while I'm sure they're wonderful novels, they're not the same experience as the TV shows.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

^Each to their own, I guess.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Same here. All that stuff is sideshow, Star Trek belongs on TV.

That's odd. I always saw the TV series as the appetizer between the films. At least with STVI, Generations and First Contact.

[Mr.AtoZ]

I do not see it. Enterprise attempted to recapture the original spirit of the show but was canceled before its prime. No other series have followed. While the JJAbrams revision is entertaining, it does not feel quite right to me. Star Trek is kind of over now, at least the original universe. It may be joyful for collectors seeing more goods produced on the original material but for those of us who do not collect, we have nothing new.

[R. Star]

King Daniel wrote:

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^Each to their own, I guess.

That's odd. I always saw the TV series as the appetizer between the films. At least with STVI, Generations and First Contact.

Odd... I saw it the opposite a two hour movie every few years being the appetizer for the 26 episode seasonal main course.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Tetrarch42 wrote:

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Aren't those decidedly un-canon though?

So what if they are? It's not as if anything's ever going to contradict them. We will never see the prime timeline in a film again. So therefore the novels are as good as canon, if not actually being it.

[R. Star]

^
Never got why so many people wave their dicks over what is and isn't canon. It varies and changes depending on which creator/producer you ask anyways, and if they can't agree on it, how can we be expected to?

If you like it, it's part of your Trek experience, if not, it's not. It's that simple and it's childish at best to wave "not canon" around like a flag when someone has the audacity to discuss a novel... on a discussion board. It's like the little kid throwing a tantrum because the other kid wants to play something else.

[King Daniel into Darkness]

Star Trek as a whole is much more of a vague mythology than a strict canon, where each show has put it's own spin on the universe which is often subtly or not-so-subtly incompatible with the rest. I don't think fans realize that although they frequently cross-over and are referenced back and forth, it takes lots of willing suspension of disbelief for the shows and films to inhabit the same ficticious universe (see videos in my sig for just a few examples - the huge speed/distance slowdown between TOS and VOY would probably be a huge deal breaker if anyone bothered to do the math!)

The novels have had their own consistent continuity since the DS9 relaunch in 2001, with ties back to novels in the 80's. They've kept up with the evolution of and often sudden additions or changes to canon (Remans! What, we never told you about them before? They were always there, honest. There was a famous Enterprise 100 years before TOS? Of course, you idiot. Everyone knows that.) while telling their own excellent ongoing stories in the universe.