Meh, I still don't see the difference between a "new to you" character and a "new" character. Look at the bridge crew on the Shenzhou. Not only did they get almost all their traits in the novels, we know that, to an extent, they were originated in "Desperate Hours" and ported into the series (at least as far as names and capsule backstories). No one is confused that there are things about Detmer they may not know from TV. No one even realizes (well, maybe the people who wish DSC was a more traditional Trek show that lived on the bridge full-time). Star Trek is full of one-off name-drops to add verisimilitude (the old rule of two real references and one space/future reference in any list). Who's really going to care if Admiral Anonymous says "Jean-Luc, you've trained our top leaders in Starfleet; Riker, Worf, Chen" instead of "Riker, Worf, Madden," or "Riker, Worf, Santek"? Like I said earlier (in the other thread? Who can keep track?), remember the lesson of the First Order; whether a reference is confusing is on the reference, not the origin.And let's be honest, you can't just have a new series and mention all these characters from a decade worth of books and not have people scratching their heads. And you can't just say "Well, you have to go read 40 interconnected books to really get it."