Frustrations with Trek lit...

[Desert Kris]

Although I've always found it pretty weird to refer to people born a century later as "the next generation." There are probably three or four intervening generations, really. The next generation after Kirk and Spock would've been contemporaries of Saavik or Valeris. So it was never a very good title for the show. (Or a very original one. We'd already had Roots: The Next Generation 8 years earlier and a Kung Fu: The Next Generation sequel pilot just months earlier, and we'd have Bonanza: TNG one year later, Degrassi: TNG in 2001, and plenty others.)

But it's occurred to me that the original idea behind the Picard character was that he was the revered Starfleet legend who was training his successor Riker for a captaincy and was basically a teacher figure for the younger crew. So the title could've applied to Picard shepherding the next generation of officers after his own.

Wow, I did not remember all those other Next Gen, but it does seem to suggest an overuse of title format. Kind of like today's "Age of..." I've read articles about how TWoK and TSFS show a possible version of what a next generation would have been like, which makes David Marcus's fate all the more tragic. I love the idea of Saavak and David as a duo of adventurers, and like to imagine it.

Picard as a legendary starfleet figure makes me think of how TNG drew from Phase II. So Picard's role would echo Kirk's, the way Kirk was going to be present to inaugurate Phase II, and then gradually Kirk would be phased out (with plenty of opportunity for guest appearances throughout the hypothetical run). Interesting, I hadn't realized that was a concept for Picard's character.

 

[Jinn]

Although I've always found it pretty weird to refer to people born a century later as "the next generation." There are probably three or four intervening generations, really. The next generation after Kirk and Spock would've been contemporaries of Saavik or Valeris. So it was never a very good title for the show.

TNG was broadcasted in Germany as "Raumschiff Enterprise - Das nächste Jahrhundert", which literally translates to "Starship Enterprise - The Next Century". I don't really get why anyone would translate a title, but in this case it is more accurate.

 

[Christopher]

Picard as a legendary starfleet figure makes me think of how TNG drew from Phase II. So Picard's role would echo Kirk's, the way Kirk was going to be present to inaugurate Phase II, and then gradually Kirk would be phased out (with plenty of opportunity for guest appearances throughout the hypothetical run). Interesting, I hadn't realized that was a concept for Picard's character.

Yup. Picard was older Kirk, the seasoned veteran preparing to pass the torch to his successor. Will Riker was Will Decker, Troi was Ilia (which I've recently realized was probably a pun on Troy/Ilium), and Data was a blend of Xon with the title character from The Questor Tapes.

I don't really get why anyone would translate a title

So that the target audience can understand it and pronounce it, or so that a phrasing that's confusing or odd-sounding in one language is made clearer in another. Sometimes different cultures have very different title conventions that don't translate well. For instance, Japanese titles often seem to be word salad to English-speakers' ears.

I like "The Next Century" as a subtitle.

 

[Jinn]

So that the target audience can understand it and pronounce it

Nowadays Star trek and the English language is way more common than it was in 1990 in Germany (I guess. I was born nearly a decade later, so I don't know if this is actualy true, but it seems to make sense)

or so that a phrasing that's confusing or odd-sounding in one language is made clearer in another.

In this specific case one of the three words is the exact same in both languages (Generation) one is very close the translation (next, nächste) and one is an article. As TOS was renamed "Raumschiff Enterprise" (Starship Enterprise) for German TV in the 70s it made sense to keep the translated title for brand recognition and maybe a mixed language title doesn't sound that good.

For instance, Japanese titles often seem to be word salad to English-speakers' ears.

Japanese titles are great.

According to MA the Japanese title of "The Tholian Web" translates to "Crisis of Captain Kirk, Who Was Thrown into Different-Dimensional Space".

 

[Christopher]

Nowadays Star trek and the English language is way more common than it was in 1990 in Germany (I guess. I was born nearly a decade later, so I don't know if this is actualy true, but it seems to make sense)

You mused about "why anyone would translate a title," so I took it to be about translations in general, not exclusively 1990s German ones.

 

[Jinn]

You mused about "why anyone would translate a title," so I took it to be about translations in general, not exclusively 1990s German ones.

Good point. I was only adding how [I think] it would work in that specific time and place, but in general your point is definatly valid. Also, sometimes I type first and think later. I'l try to do better in the future

Still, "Crisis of Captain Kirk, Who Was Thrown into Different-Dimensional Space" has to be the greatest title in Trek history. Wait... Great? I think this is the wrong thread. And sorry for getting off-topic. Please continue the regular scheduled complaints.

 

[Markonian]

Ah, German titles. I remember "Raumschiff Enterprise", "Star Trek: Das nächste Jahrhundert", and "Star Trek: Raumschiff Voyager". Denglish became super en vogue in the early 2000s, a s when ENT was launched, DS9 and TOS were retired from TV, and VOY rebranded as plain "Voyager".

And does anyone remember (T)Raumschiff Surprise?

 

[Christopher]

And does anyone remember (T)Raumschiff Surprise?

Would that be a German translation of Sesame Street's "Spaceship Surprise" Trek-parody segment?

 

[Jinn]

Would that be a German translation of Sesame Street's "Spaceship Surprise" Trek-parody segment?

No, it is a 90 minute long Trek film featuring one of my least favorite actors, Til Schweiger. I don't remember the film all that well, but I think it had time travel in it and a few decent scenes as well as a very stereotypical gay characters.
And here's a wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumschiff_Surprise_–_Periode_1

 

[Jarrod]

Looks like we are going to be getting the Prometheus trilogy here in the US, possibly as early as the trilogy for next fall. I guess that completely destroys any chance of Pocket recognizing the 30th Anniversary of TNG.

 

[Jinn]

Looks like we are going to be getting the Prometheus trilogy here in the US, possibly as early as the trilogy for next fall. I guess that completely destroys any chance of Pocket recognizing the 30th Anniversary of TNG.

But it isn't confirmed as a physical release yet, right? They could publish it alongside a TNG trilogy. Or before or after it.

 

[Jarrod]

Not in as many words... but they are wasting a LOT of time on it if it isnt.

 

[Jinn]

Not in as many words... but they are wasting a LOT of time on it if it isnt.

FWIW Cross Cult still has the English eBook releases scheduled from December 2016-February 2017, so if Prometheus is going to be released in the currently empty slots, it will be a first or second printing, but not the first release. From what multiple authors have stated here books get scheduled quite some time before they get announcend, so I doubt that they planned Prometheus as the main release in that months as we've heard some time ago that Pocket may not even want to publish the Prometheus trilogy.

 

[Jarrod]

I wonder what would happen if Pocket ever lost the Trek fiction license.

 

[Jinn]

I wonder what would happen if Pocket ever lost the Trek fiction license.

We may never know.

 

[The Wormhole]

I wonder what would happen if Pocket ever lost the Trek fiction license.

There wouldn't be ay Trek novels.

 

[David cgc]

There wouldn't be ay Trek novels.

Well, not as we know them. Another publisher could get the license. It's unlikely that it'd continue from wherever Pocket left off (logically, if in this hypothetical, CBS was happy with how the Trek books were going, they'd just have Pocket keep the license).

As I recall, "Cold Equations" was initially concieved as a grand finale to the novelverse, when Pocket's license was nearing its end.

 

[The Wormhole]

As I recall, "Cold Equations" was initially concieved as a grand finale to the novelverse, when Pocket's license was nearing its end.

And IIRC it was because the renewal was so late in the game that resulted in half the 2013 schedule being TOS 5YM novels.

 

[Christopher]

Another publisher could get the license.

Sure. It was at Bantam before it was at Pocket. And Ballantine did the TAS adaptations and tech manuals.

It's unlikely that it'd continue from wherever Pocket left off (logically, if in this hypothetical, CBS was happy with how the Trek books were going, they'd just have Pocket keep the license).

I think that's overly simplistic. There might be various reasons for a license not to be picked up.

However, Pocket/Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corp., and there are advantages to keeping it "in the family," so I'd be surprised if the license went elsewhere. Pocket's had it for 37 years now.

As I recall, "Cold Equations" was initially concieved as a grand finale to the novelverse, when Pocket's license was nearing its end.

More that it was conceived as something that could be a grand finale just in case the license wasn't renewed, but could also just be a transitional point in the saga in the event that the license was renewed. As I understood it at the time, it was just about hedging bets for both possibilities.

 

[Jarvisimo]

More that it was conceived as something that could be a grand finale just in case the license wasn't renewed, but could also just be a transitional point in the saga in the event that the license was renewed. As I understood it at the time, it was just about hedging bets for both possibilities.

They are talking about the original plan for the trilogy as Kindred, which had first Picard die and Worf take his rightful place; then the second plan which had old Picard:

I started brainstorming story ideas for the trilogy with the editor in December of 2010, even before we had a contract. For a variety of reasons, I ended up using none of the ideas from that first round of pitches.

I started work on the trilogy in March of 2011. I had first drafts of story outlines by May of 2011. In its original incarnation, the working title of the trilogy was Star Trek Kindred. The theme for the trilogy was "family." Book one was an early version of The Persistence of Memory, but without the Soong story, and the resurrected character was revealed near the start of the story. Book Two was about the death of Picard, and Book Three was about the ascendance of Worf to control of the Klingon Empire.

As one might imagine, there were a lot of plot and continuity problems with the first-pass outlines.

My second proposal for the trilogy (still under the banner title of Kindred) was submitted on August 15, 2011.

I'd added the Soong story arc to the middle of The Peristence of Memory, which was very close to its eventual final version. (One big difference: this intermediate version involved the return of Rhea McAdams; in retrospect, maybe I should have kept that, to set her up better before book three. Oh, well.)

Book Two was changed to a story about Worf and his adult son, Alexander. It was plotted as a sequel to Keith R.A. DeCandido's novel Diplomatic Implausibility.

Book Three was the tale of elderly Jean-Luc Picard battling his own deteriorating mind and the cruel schemes of the time-and-space-hopping Devidians (TNG: "Time's Arrow," Pts. 1 & 2). It would have ended with the death of Picard, and served as a swansong for Pocket's line of Star Trek books. (At that time, S&S was considering letting go of the Trek license.) It would have been a bittersweet and deeply personal novel, and it's the only one of the scrapped ideas that I'm sad I won't get to write.

The next curve ball in the process was the decision by S&S to renew its Star Trek license. By late August, my mandate to "turn off the universe on my way out" was changed to "deliver a trilogy that keeps the story going and sets up a new status quo." So, in fall of 2011, I had to go back to the drawing board.

My next round of proposals, which were pretty much near-final versions of all three stories, was submitted on October 28, 2011. After parsing the notes from the editor and fellow authors, I revised the outlines for books one and two and resubmitted them on November 11, 2011. The final version of book three's story outline was turned in on November 29, 2011.

I got the green light to proceed with book one on December 13, 2011. The stories for books two and three were approved on January 18, 2012.

I started writing book one, The Persistence of Memory, in December 2011. I delivered the manuscript on February 1, 2012.

Started writing Silent Weapons on February 3, 2012. Turned in the manuscript on April 14, 2012.

Started writing The Body Electric on April 17, 2012. Turned in the manuscript on June 30, 2012.

So, from first brainstorm to final manuscripts: approximately 18 months.