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Spoilers Discovery and the Novelverse - TV show discussion thread

Tuvix5675 said:
So far, the novels released are prequels to the actual TV series, so no real harm in reading them before seeing the series. Discovery is sure to get a DVD release.
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True. I wasn't too worried about any spoilers, but I imagine they'd want to avoid writing novels that take place during the shows timeframe so they don't conflict with canon (or vice versa). At least until the show is on for a while and the risk of conflicts lesson.

I figure they'll be a DVD release after a while. CBS wants to make money and once they've made everything the could on their streaming service I have to think they'll want to release it on DVD and Blu-Ray to make more money. After all, even fans who've seen it will probably want to purchase something permanent. It just means I'll have to be patient. I figure it may likely be a few years.
 
Damian said:
I figure it may likely be a few years.
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I think it usually takes much less time for a streaming series to hit home video. For instance, PlayStation Network's Powers had its first-season DVD set out some four months after the season finale. True, the Netflix Marvel shows still haven't come out on DVD, but they're the exceptions in my experience.

Okay... CBS All Access's first original series, The Good Fight, ran its first season from Feb-Apr 2017, and its first-season DVD set was released last month. So that's close to a year from broadcast to home release.
 
Christopher said:
I think it usually takes much less time for a streaming series to hit home video. For instance, PlayStation Network's Powers had its first-season DVD set out some four months after the season finale. True, the Netflix Marvel shows still haven't come out on DVD, but they're the exceptions in my experience.

Okay... CBS All Access's first original series, The Good Fight, ran its first season from Feb-Apr 2017, and its first-season DVD set was released last month. So that's close to a year from broadcast to home release.
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Both seasons of Daredevil and the first seasons of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are available on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.K.
 
Christopher said:
I think it usually takes much less time for a streaming series to hit home video. For instance, PlayStation Network's Powers had its first-season DVD set out some four months after the season finale. True, the Netflix Marvel shows still haven't come out on DVD, but they're the exceptions in my experience.

Okay... CBS All Access's first original series, The Good Fight, ran its first season from Feb-Apr 2017, and its first-season DVD set was released last month. So that's close to a year from broadcast to home release.
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Hey, good news for me then. I just figured CBS would try to make cheapos like me sweat.

Though honestly, this is the first time I blinked. Otherwise I have all the TV series, movies and hundreds of novels, so I'm a good customer otherwise. And I'll be there when Discovery is released.

I just hope it's as good as advertised. The novels are good so far, but that is just a small sampling (and not always indicative--after all, I thought the novelization to Star Trek V was great--I read it before the movie came out actually and thought it would be a great movie--unfortunately if failed to live up to my expectations--I mean, I don't hate Star Trek V, but that was one case where the novel was actually far better, but I digress).
 
It's not a "monumental shift," because canon isn't the official legal doctrine that fans imagine it to be. It just means what the current creators choose to count. Remember, Jeri Taylor considered her Voyager novels canonical, but her successors ignored it.

And saying "It's canon until we decide it isn't" is pretty much indistinguishable from saying "It isn't canon at all." That was basically how the Star Wars Expanded Universe "canon" was defined, and look how much impact that had.
 
Christopher said:
It's not a "monumental shift," because canon isn't the official legal doctrine that fans imagine it to be. It just means what the current creators choose to count. Remember, Jeri Taylor considered her Voyager novels canonical, but her successors ignored it.

And saying "It's canon until we decide it isn't" is pretty much indistinguishable from saying "It isn't canon at all." That was basically how the Star Wars Expanded Universe "canon" was defined, and look how much impact that had.
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This isn't the same scenario as what we got with Voyager and Jeri Taylor or the Star Wars "tiered Canon" system.

This is an Executive Producer and the lead writer of Discovery explicitly declaring that, unless otherwise specified, it is the official position of the entire Discovery production and writing staff that there will be no separation in terms of importance or narrative synchronicity between the onscreen contents of Discovery and the contents of its tie-in fiction, which has never before happened with Star Trek.
 
DigificWriter said:
This isn't the same scenario as what we got with Voyager and Jeri Taylor or the Star Wars "tiered Canon" system.

This is an Executive Producer and the lead writer of Discovery explicitly declaring that, unless otherwise specified, it is the official position of the entire Discovery production and writing staff that there will be no separation in terms of importance or narrative synchronicity between the onscreen contents of Discovery and the contents of its tie-in fiction, which has never before happened with Star Trek.
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I will say, there does seem to be a more concerted effort with Discovery to make sure everything is consistent, more so then any other show, as far as the various publications go. For the first time I get a sense that they want a single coherent storyline for everything Discovery related.

A pet peeve of mine with novels in the past, especially years ago, was that there was no effort really to keep things consistent. These days there's better continuity, especially the relaunches. There's a lot more continuity then there used to be. It seems, at least to me a reader, that the editors/publisher are doing a better job at that, and the writers too. They appear to go to great lengths these days to make sure things flow, at least as much as possible. I'm glad to see with Discovery they are trying to keep things together from the get go.
 
Tuskin38 said:
It's no different then the Jeri Taylor example.
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Except it is.

The Jeri Taylor situation was a single Producer and writer utilizing her own work as Canon in relation to the series and characters as per her own direct involvement; what we have here, as noted, is an entire Production and writing staff, across the board, utilizing the works of independent authors as Canon in relation to the series and characters with no exceptions.
 
DigificWriter said:
Except it is.

The Jeri Taylor situation was a single Producer and writer utilizing her own work as Canon in relation to the series and characters as per her own direct involvement; what we have here, as noted, is an entire Production and writing staff, across the board, utilizing the works of independent authors as Canon in relation to the series and characters with no exceptions.
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It's literally the same thing.
 
^ It really isn't.

One person's stance does not hold even remotely the same authority as a position/stance held by an entire group of people.

Here's an example to illustrate my point:
- Let's say, for a minute, that you have Geoff Johns come in and write for The Flash TV series as a permanent member of the writing staff, and, for his episodes, he goes ahead and makes explicit and overt references to his own work on The Flash comics, but none of the rest of the show's writers follow suit.

- Now, let's say that Geoff Johns co-created and was producing and writing for the Flash TV series from its inception, and explicitly tied his own comics work to the series' core premise and made a statement that the series was to be a 'continuation' of the stories found in said comics and that every member of the writing staff were therefore going to need to make their writing consistent, as much as possible, with said comics and the details therein.

In the first scenario, you have something akin to what Jeri Taylor was doing, whereas in the second, you have something akin to what Ted Sullivan just said is happening re: Discovery's tie-in fiction.
 
I get was DW is saying. Jeri Taylor considered some of her elements of her books canon (I don't believe this was ever actually the case--correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think anyone at Paramount at the time said, yep, it's just as legit as on screen canon). And I suppose some of the episode writers may have taken that under consideration, esp. while she was still exec producer. But as someone else here noted, elements have been contradicted later in the series.

With Discovery I don't think how CBS views on screen canon has necessarily changed. But there seems to be greater efforts to keep a coherent storyline. Time will tell if that stays the case--and I actually do think that will be the case. This time it seems like everyone involved is working together much more then the past. Isn't part of Beyer's job to be sort of a bridge between the on-screen and non on-screen group?

So in a sense I think you're both right. I see greater continuity between all elements of Discovery as DW suggests, but it doesn't necessarily make the novels or comic books canon as Tuskin noted.
 
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