Legal situation concerning the new TV series

[amartin]

Regarding the fate of the novelverse once the new series airs, would it be possible to contact CBS now to suggest the idea of incorporating some of the concepts in the novelverse as background for the series? For example, exploring the Typhon Pact and the political implications of it verses the Khitomer Accords would be interesting. What does it say about the Federation, an alliance of a diverse range of worlds, when another diverse set of worlds form their own alliance in opposition? Specific races that are explored in the novelverse would also be interested to explore more in the new series - e.g. the Tzenkethi with their beautiful, fluorescent skin, genetics-based class system, and unwavering devotion to the Autarch or the Breen and their powerful desire for conformity.

Perhaps if some of the authors approached CBS it would carry more weight than just a group of fans?

 

[Dayton Ward]

Given that Kirsten Beyer is in the writer's room, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they're probably at least aware of the novels.

 

[David Mack]

They're aware the novels exist, but I wouldn't expect them to incorporate anything from them into the new show. The tail does not wag the dog at Star Trek.

 

[Dayton Ward]

That's not true! I'm a real fan and I own Star Trek...or something. I lost my scorecard.

 

[amartin]

So basically there's no value/benefit to them to attempt to integrate the novelverse material? It is great that Kristen Beyer is on the writing team, so at least the novelverse is represented (even if not integrated into the series)

 

[Dayton Ward]

They have the story they want to tell. They don't need anyone else's ideas.

 

[Enterprise1701]

So basically there's no value/benefit to them to attempt to integrate the novelverse material? It is great that Kristen Beyer is on the writing team, so at least the novelverse is represented (even if not integrated into the series)

What do you suppose Disney thought when they acquired Star Wars?

Option 1: have our people spend the time to read through tons and tons of material which is unknown to the casual audience and is probably forgettable to the casual audience

Option 2: have our people tell the story they want to tell and believe will sell the most to general audiences

 

[Christopher]

So basically there's no value/benefit to them to attempt to integrate the novelverse material? It is great that Kristen Beyer is on the writing team, so at least the novelverse is represented (even if not integrated into the series)

There is nothing to stop them from borrowing ideas from the novels, the comics, the games, or any other adaptations if they feel like it. They own every last bit of it, so it's theirs to do with as they please. Canons have been borrowing from their adaptations ever since Arthur Conan Doyle put the pageboy Billy from William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes play into some of his later prose stories. Some more familiar examples include Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and kryptonite (adopted from the Superman radio series into the comics), Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya (adopted from Batman: The Animated Series into the comics), Coruscant and Aayla Secura (adopted from Star Wars novels and comics into the later films, among various other things), and Phil Coulson and his SHIELD team (adopted from the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the comics).

And of course Star Trek canon has incorporated bits and pieces from its tie-ins as well, such as the first names of Hikaru Sulu, Nyota Uhura, and George & Winona Kirk, which were coined in the novels. Enterprise incorporated Andorian backstory from a role-playing game supplement into its "Babel One" arc. Diane Duane and Michael Reaves adapted Duane's novel The Wounded Sky into a TNG script ("Where No One Has Gone Before"), though it was rewritten to the point of bearing almost no resemblance to the novel. The concept of the Klingon Day of Honor was conceived as the basis for a novel miniseries and then adopted for a Voyager episode. There's even the weird case of TNG: "Time Squared" mentioning a planet named Endicor, which had previously been used as a planet name in a Peter David Star Trek comic for DC, although there's no way of knowing if it was deliberate or coincidental.

But if anything does get adopted, it'll just be fragments like those, and they'll be repurposed to fit the needs of the show's canon. It won't be a wholesale "integration." The show's makers have their own plans and goals for the story they want to tell, and they're the ones who should take the lead. The books and comics exist to support the screen canon, not to dominate it. The shows and films can take anything they want from the tie-ins, but they can also ignore or contradict anything they want, or reinvent it to suit their needs.

 

[amartin]

Option 1: have our people spend the time to read through tons and tons of material which is unknown to the casual audience and is probably forgettable to the casual audience

Since the novelverse is mostly one consistent set of events, they wouldn't need to read all of the material, but just hire someone who is familiar with it already (which has now been done).

But if anything does get adopted, it'll just be fragments like those, and they'll be repurposed to fit the needs of the show's canon. It won't be a wholesale "integration." The show's makers have their own plans and goals for the story they want to tell, and they're the ones who should take the lead. The books and comics exist to support the screen canon, not to dominate it. The shows and films can take anything they want from the tie-ins, but they can also ignore or contradict anything they want, or reinvent it to suit their needs.

My hope would be that they take the major concepts from the books (e.g. outcome of Star Trek Destiny, Typhon Pact, Cardassians and Ferengi joining Khitomer Accords, etc) that way they can each exist in their own space without glaring contradictions. But as you said, anything goes.

 

[Christopher]

Since the novelverse is mostly one consistent set of events, they wouldn't need to read all of the material, but just hire someone who is familiar with it already (which has now been done).

The novel continuity is so huge and sprawling by this point that it's hard even for those of us participating in it to keep track of it all. Part of how we do so is by keeping in touch with other authors and comparing notes on things relevant to our own books. But Kirsten has another full-time job now. Her primary responsibility will be to the show and to its plans and storylines. She'll be far too busy with that to keep current with developments in the novelverse.

Not to mention that she's probably too junior a staffer to force the other writers to abandon their carefully developed plans, even if she wanted to, which she probably doesn't because she's a professional and she understands her responsibilities. When Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens got a staff job on Enterprise, they didn't try to canonize the stuff from their novels -- they just wrote stories that fit into the continuity they'd been hired to work for, even if it contradicted what they'd done in the past. (They did try to use one idea from their books as the basis for an episode, but it didn't pan out, and if it had, it would surely have been reworked to fit the show's continuity and concepts.) Because this is a job, and when you're hired to do a job, you do what's asked of you rather than trying to make your employers conform themselves to the way things were done in your old job.

My hope would be that they take the major concepts from the books (e.g. outcome of Star Trek Destiny, Typhon Pact, Cardassians and Ferengi joining Khitomer Accords, etc) that way they can each exist in their own space without glaring contradictions. But as you said, anything goes.

That's a fantasy. It will never happen. The books are read by maybe 1 to 2 percent of the TV audience. They make CBS far less money than the movies or shows do. They're a far lower priority.

The priority for the staff of any show is to serve the show's own needs. That takes precedence over anything in the tie-ins or even in prior series in the same continuity (which is why later Trek shows were free to retcon ideas from earlier Trek shows, like ENT ignoring "Turnabout Intruder"'s implication that there were no female Starfleet captains, or DS9 contradicting virtually everything TNG's "The Host" established about the Trill). The only exception is something like Agents of SHIELD, which is itself in the position of being a tie-in to the dominant movie franchise and thus has to restrict itself in some ways to avoid conflict. But the tie-ins always follow the lead of the core work, not the other way around. That's just how it works. In Trek, the shows and films are the heart of the franchise, and the books and comics and games are comparatively minor, peripheral entities that exist to supplement the franchise. They're "historical fiction" to the canon's "history." The peripheral works will never be able to dominate the core works, and it's naive to expect them to.

Besides, it may be a non-issue. Despite Internet rumors, we don't even know what reality the new show will be set in. It could be in Prime, Kelvin (Abramsverse), or a whole new continuity of its own creation. Personally I'm hoping for that last one.

 

[The Wormhole]

Regarding the fate of the novelverse once the new series airs, would it be possible to contact CBS now to suggest the idea of incorporating some of the concepts in the novelverse as background for the series?

Even if such a thing were possible (which it's not) now would be too late to do it. The show begins filming a little over two months from now, most if not all scripts are written and the decision's already been made regarding what if anything from Trek canon or tie-ins they wish to incorporate.

And really, if anything from modern Trek novel continuity does get incorporated into the series, it certainly won't be anything like the Typhon Pact or anything else related to the post-Destiny storyline. Or anything storyline specific in general. Hell, if it is set in the Prime Universe, incorporating Destiny pretty much means no Borg in the series. Or if they did bring the Borg back, they'd have to craft a storyline explaining Destiny, and the episode would be more exposition than story.

If anything from the novels does get incorporated into the show, it'll be small detail-related stuff. I wouldn't expect anything bigger than acknowledging Andorians do have four genders.

 

[Greg Cox]

At best, we may get a few "Easter Eggs" now and then. There's no reason to expect that they will (or should) try to incorporate stuff from the novels in any serious way.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Plus, we don't even know when the new series will be set, timeline-wise. Most of the novel stuff being discussed here is post-TNG/DS9/VGR series, and that timeframe has never even been rumored as the setting for the new show.

 

[Kor]

Whoa... Dayton Ward is back.

So... we are only six months away from the new show. When should Pocket Books have some idea about permitted references to ST17, or even tie-in novels?

Kor

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

At best, we may get a few "Easter Eggs" now and then. There's no reason to expect that they will (or should) try to incorporate stuff from the novels in any serious way.

Easter eggs like some of Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's material showing up in TMP.

As to "Turnabout: Intruder," for quite some time, I've figured that Dr. Lester's line implying a lack of female starship captains came from the same place as her desire to exchange bodies with Kirk (despite the fact that gender reassignment surgery had been known since the 1930s), and Kirk's decision to get the hell away from her: she was a complete and utter nutjob.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Whoa... Dayton Ward is back.

Nope. Life Model Decoy.

 

[Christopher]

Easter eggs like some of Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's material showing up in TMP

I don't see that as an easter egg so much as "Hey, we need something that looks like ship blueprints to race by on the screen -- hey, look, some guy already made blueprints! Close enough -- let's just toss those in and get an early lunch."

As to "Turnabout: Intruder," for quite some time, I've figured that Dr. Lester's line implying a lack of female starship captains came from the same place as her desire to exchange bodies with Kirk (despite the fact that gender reassignment surgery had been known since the 1930s), and Kirk's decision to get the hell away from her: she was a complete and utter nutjob.

Sure, it's easy to retcon anything after the fact, but the point is that canonical works are just as free to retcon and reinterpret older canon as fans are.

 

[Kor]

Hopefully there will be a novelization of the first episode of ST17. These can provide interesting insights into characters and situations.

I remember how the "Encounter at Farpoint" novelization made a big deal of Riker's keen sense of smell, and how he noticed that Yar only used plain soap and no fragrances.

Kor

 

[Greg Cox]

On the other hand, I seem to recall that DS9 (the TV show) belatedly established that Odo had no sense of smell, which came as a start to those of us who had already written DS9 novels.

"Wait! Did I have Odo smell anything in my book . . . .?"

And who knew that Bashir was genetically-engineered?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Odo without a sense of smell? I don't remember seeing that anywhere. Can anyone confirm this?

Indeed, I'd expect Odo to have much keener senses than any other living being - probably his whole body is a sense organ of some kind.