Litverse & Star Trek '09

[Tuskin38]

^ STO originally was granted access to everything pertaining the prime universe, except the Narada, Kelvin and Jellyfish ships. These are still off-limits, but the others are now part of 25th century Starfleet lineup, and you travel into the Kelvin timeline for one mission.

So here we've seen a change in access in one tie-in.

Actually STO is allowed to use everything from XI and Into Darkness, CBS asked them not to use anything from Beyond according to one of the employees from Cryptic.

They just chose not to use those ships you mentioned. The Naradra is nearly 5-6 miles long, so it would have been too big. And small shuttle craft like the Jellyfish are not very popular.
The Kelvin is also an old ship, but they brought back the NX-Class and Refit as a 'replica', so they could use the same excuse for the Kelvin.

As far as anything I've read about it, Countdown is considered canon

AFAIK, that "fact" comes from an often out of context quote from one of the writers. He later said in the same interview that 'canon is up to the fans not him' or something along those lines.

 

[Christopher]

Actually STO is allowed to use everything from XI and Into Darkness according to one of the employees from Cryptic. CBS asked them not to use anything from Beyond.

That's odd. I wonder why.

 

[Tuskin38]

That's odd. I wonder why.

Yeah I agree, it would have been great tie in/promotion. The allowed content even came out shortly before the movie.

 

[Ronald Held]

So my interpretation is that damage done by the Hobus subspace nova cannot be directly mentioned or the effective end of the RSE?

 

[Leto_II]

I've seen RoboCop: The Series a bunch of times -- it's my favorite incarnation of RoboCop by a huge margin -- and I don't remember Morton ever being namedropped. The dreadful Prime Directives was a completely unrelated production, despite reusing a few bits of stock footage from R:TS, so I think its rights status with regard to the movie characters was different.

Whoops, you're right, I slightly misremembered, there -- Bob Morton is referenced in Prime Directives, not RoboCop: The Series (also, interestingly, I remember that the producers of R:PD were also able to license and utilize footage from the scene in the original film where Clarence Boddicker's gang initially blast Alex Murphy to bits, in the steel-mill).

I remember that Richard Eden was actually approached to reprise his weekly TV series role in Prime Directives, but he ultimately declined, and was replaced by Page Fletcher (who, ironically, was the original choice of the TV series producers for the role of RoboCop several years earlier, a role which Eden ultimately accepted).

 

[Christopher]

(also, interestingly, I remember that the producers of R:PD were also able to license and utilize footage from the scene in the original film where Clarence Boddicker's gang initially blast Alex Murphy to bits, in the steel-mill).

I seem to recall that scene being in the R:TS pilot too, though I could be wrong.

I remember that Richard Eden was actually approached to reprise his weekly TV series role in Prime Directives, but he ultimately declined, and was replaced by Page Fletcher (who, ironically, was the original choice of the TV series producers for the role of RoboCop several years earlier, a role which Eden ultimately accepted).

I find that very surprising, because Fletcher was absolutely terrible in the role. He was too short for the costume, and he flailed around like a kid in a Halloween getup. And he just played RoboCop as a generic tough guy. Richard Eden's RoboCop was brilliant -- even better than Peter Weller's, if you ask me. He did a fantastic job creating a persona that was part-human and part-cybernetic, and did a better job of conveying volumes of feeling with the most minimal outward expression than anyone since Leonard Nimoy. Sometimes there was a bit of an Adam West quality to him too, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. After all, RoboCop was always a comedy/satire -- something that Prime Directives' makers totally failed to understand.

Anyway, this thread was started because it was getting off-topic from another thread, and now we're already going off-topic again.

 

[JD]

I might be in the minority here, but I actually like the idea that IDW is the only source of non film Kelvin Universe material.

Understand some of this might be admiring from a distance.....I am only now starting to accumulate the IDW comics, really haven't read many of them. So I guess part of my appreciation for their status might be related to trying to "collect" all of them.

Also, I am still so far behind on my trek reading, that for the most part I am totally satisfied with the direction of stuff in the Prime Universe.

Don't get me wrong, if Kelvin novels eventually appear I'll buy them like any other trek story.....

Actually there is more than just the IDW comics for non-film Kelvinverse stories.
So far three different video games have been set either entirely or partly in the Kelvinvers. Namco Bandai released a game just titled Star Trek, that was set between ST09 and Into Darkness, and featured the entire movie main cast. You played as Kirk and/or Spock as they dealt with an invasion by Gorn, who are from an alternate universe in this story. The game ended up getting horrid review, but actually really enjoyed it when I played it.
They also added Kelvinverse content to STO a while back.
The third and most recent, is Star Trek: Bridge Crew a new VR game, which doesn't come out until May 30th. In the game the player or players take on the role of different members of the bridge crew of the U.S.S. Aegis, a 23rd Century Kelvinverse Constitution class ship. There is also a kind of board game, Star Trek: Expeditions.
There was also the Starfleet Academy YA novel series which was mentioned up thread.
I'm not sure, but I think some of the stuff in the live attraction, The Starfleet Academy Experience might also have some Kelvinverse content.
I think there might be some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

 

[Relayer1]

So my interpretation is that damage done by the Hobus subspace nova cannot be directly mentioned or the effective end of the RSE?

I think the RSE would have enough of it's population and assets off world to continue relatively well. It wouldn't be too hard to refer to it's new centre of government without explaining why. Spock could either be referred to as missing, deceased or simply not referred to.

There's no real need to directly reference any of it in forthcoming novels when a nod and a wink would suffice. After all, the events were already detailed extensively in Treklit - 'Star Trek' by Alan Dean Foster : Simon & Shuster 2009.

 

[flandry84]

So it seems that Paramount or whoever hand over the keys to Bad robot and every other franchise holder (Treklit specifically)is told to suck it up?
And c'mon that movie came out eight years ago!.Somebody somewhere make a goddam decision!

 

[Idran]

So it seems that Paramount or whoever hand over the keys to Bad robot and every other franchise holder (Treklit specifically)is told to suck it up?
And c'mon that movie came out eight years ago!.Somebody somewhere make a goddam decision!

There was a decision made, though. It was made years ago. The decision was "don't reference it in Treklit".

 

[Markonian]

Can Romulus be destroyed at all? You can write about the Twin Towers being goners without referencing 9/11 in detail.

 

[Greg Cox]

Can Romulus be destroyed at all? You can write about the Twin Towers being goners without referencing 9/11 in detail.

Heck, you can write plenty of stories set in New York City without mentioning the Twin Towers or 9/11 at all . . . .

 

[MadeIndescribable]

So it seems that Paramount or whoever hand over the keys to Bad robot and every other franchise holder (Treklit specifically)is told to suck it up?
And c'mon that movie came out eight years ago!.Somebody somewhere make a goddam decision!

It's not so much keys would have been handed over, as a compromise to share them. Considering Orci and co had a deal in the early comics (like Countdown), I imagine that the comics having the only print lisence was part of that compromise.

 

[Christopher]

It's not so much keys would have been handed over, as a compromise to share them. Considering Orci and co had a deal in the early comics (like Countdown), I imagine that the comics having the only print lisence was part of that compromise.

No, it was nothing to do with that. Prose and comics aren't considered to be the same market, so their licenses aren't in competition.

It's just business. Licensees are chosen (or not chosen) for a variety of reasons that aren't always visible on the surface. Partly, as I understand it at third hand, it's just that Bad Robot likes to maintain close control over their tie-ins, and they find that more doable with IDW than with Pocket. For one thing, Pocket's on the opposite coast of the US from the other companies.

 

[woodstock]

Heck, you can write plenty of stories set in New York City without mentioning the Twin Towers or 9/11 at all . . . .

It would have been extremely difficult in the immediate aftermath, however. Heck, it was probably hard to write a story about a mouse and a clock without referencing 9/11 back then.

 

[Markonian]

It would have been extremely difficult in the immediate aftermath, however. Heck, it was probably hard to write a story about a mouse and a clock without referencing 9/11 back then.

You could try to mention that the towers were destroyed without saying how.

 

[Christopher]

The Star Trek universe is much bigger than New York City, though. As I keep pointing out, the Romulans have never been a central, indispensable element of the franchise. They're just one of numerous alien cultures. According to Memory Alpha, here are the number of distinct episode/film appearances of some of the major alien races (discounting main regulars):

Klingons: 123
Vulcans: 112
Bajorans: Most of DS9, plus 23 others
Cardassians: 101
Ferengi: 92
Romulans: 59
Borg: 31

Clearly, the Romulans are far from a sine qua non for Star Trek storytelling.

Heck, even most of the stories about Romulans don't mention the planet Romulus. After Spock's introductory lecture in "Balance of Terror," the planet wasn't mentioned again until TNG: "The Defector." And a lot of the times when it was mentioned in TNG and DS9, it was less as a specific planet and more as a shorthand for the entire civilization, like using "Rome" as a synecdoche for the Roman Empire.

 

[Markonian]

True, but the Romulans are a major power and ST contains a big political element.

It's like watching Bellisario's JAG that tries to avoid mentioning Moscow was nuked.
Federation-Romulan relations have been important to Presidents Bacco (TP: Raise the Dawn) and zh'Kellesar (PROM: Fire with Fire, S31: Control). #ElephantInTheRoom.

I'm not saying ignoring Romulus is a deal breaker or can't be done, but it's not very credible.

 

[flandry84]

Regarding the "handing over of keys" I'm reminded of those realty signs you see..."building for sale.Tenants not affected"

And what becomes of the Typhon pact arc?
Not mentioning the utter destruction of a key home world seems odd.

Anywho,this discussion seems a bit moot doesn't it?

 

[F. King Daniel]

or the effective end of the RSE?

Here's a highly apocryphal map of the destruction of Hobus, using the location from the recent Stellar Cartography overlaid onto a map from the Star Trek Star Charts and assuming a sphere of destruction.
Rator III as the new capital is from Star Trek Online.