Spoilers New Picard TV Series and Litverse Continuity (may contain TV show spoilers)

[David Weller]

They don’t even have to acknowledge rhe Destiny trilogy on screen if they bring back the Borg.

CBS could just bring them back and if (and it’s a big if) the novel continuity can be continued it could be addressed there.

 

[Relayer1]

They don’t even have to acknowledge rhe Destiny trilogy on screen if they bring back the Borg.

CBS could just bring them back and if (and it’s a big if) the novel continuity can be continued it could be addressed there.

Yeah, that's do-able, but how about if the new show says Picard had a mid-life crisis after Nemesis, left Starfleet and spent the next twenty years looking after the vineyard ?

 

[David Weller]

Yeah, that's do-able, but how about if the new show says Picard had a mid-life crisis after Nemesis, left Starfleet and spent the next twenty years looking after the vineyard ?

The post-Nemesis novels would have to be rebooted and the continuity consigned to history.

Sad but not the end of the world.

 

[Relayer1]

The post-Nemesis novels would have to be rebooted and the continuity consigned to history.

Sad but not the end of the world.

Exactly.

And the reboot could be factored in as a story point in the last novelverse book.

 

[Damian]

Well the books have been being printed for, almost all the 50 years of the show, even comics etc. A new tv series, movie etc comes along, and the stuff thats been written is now in the dust bin of history. Now if they continued the odd novel format, it wouldn't be a problem with a new series, but 10 years ago, they decided to go with a general arc series, with big things happening, and having reprecusions on other novels.
Now, the new Picard show might follow the books, but you would have to explain what happened in the books, In Series. Especially the Caelar/Destiny saga. Thats why I wish they'd do an Animated mini series of that saga, you can do all the voices and not have to worry about "Age" of the actors.
You can't have a TV audience Have to read/watch another series.. it has to be self contained in some way.

Maybe not. I mean they don't have to bring up the Borg at all. If they want to do new original stories not really drawing on the past then they'd probably want to avoid the Borg anyway.

I think it all depends on how Picard centric it is. If it's mostly about Picard with little about the outside world then the main things they'd have to acknowledge to stay in line with the novels would be his marriage to Dr Crusher and his son Rene. The rest wouldn't be all that important. If there's more of the outside universe involved and they wanted to keep it consistent they'd have to keep the events of Destiny and the Typhon Pact more in mind. Though it's far enough in the future they could still do much of what they want and just keep the backstory consistent (probably with a throwaway line here or there). If the new series maintains at least a loose continuity with the novels up to this point the authors of the future novels can bring the novelverse in line with the show and probably explain away any inconsistencies that my crop up. Greg Cox is always a good fix it guy. If anyone can fix inconsistencies he can .

Now if it's totally out of whack there's probably not a lot that can be done. But I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's close enough future books can make the necessary adjustments without mothballing the stories up to now.

 

[Scout101]

Screw it, blow the whole thing up and go back to nothing but TOS 5YM missions! I could live with that

 

[Reanok]

The writers may have their own ideas of something entirely new that doesn't have anything to do with the Destiny Borg and Calier stories in the books. I'd be glad if they didn't have more borg stuff in the Picard miniseries. I got tired of Borg stories around the time when the Destiny books came out, I find the books too dark and depressing. Too much war and death.No offense to fans of Mr..Mack Destiny books. but I like his Data trilogy and his Vanguard books better than Destiny. It will be inteersting to see what they come up with for the series Kirsten will certainly have something interesting for all the star trek Tng fans.

 

[Jinn]

Honestly, I like Vanguard and Cold Equations more then Destiny, but I like all a whole lot, so there's that

 

[JD]

I know there's probably no real chance of it happening, but if the books can't be brought into line with the new show, I really wish they would just declare them an alternate universe, and let them go on as they are. Alternate universes have been part of the franchise since the early days so it's not an alien concept to Trekkies, just use a special logo or banner, kind of like the Legend banner on the pre-Disney Star Wars novels, and make sure fans know what it means.

 

[Damian]

I know there's probably no real chance of it happening, but if the books can't be brought into line with the new show, I really wish they would just declare them an alternate universe, and let them go on as they are. Alternate universes have been part of the franchise since the early days so it's not an alien concept to Trekkies, just use a special logo or banner, kind of like the Legend banner on the pre-Disney Star Wars novels, and make sure fans know what it means.

In a way they already do. TNG and DS9 relaunch books have had their own banners separate from the show titles since Death in Winter and Avatar respectively. I'm sure the new show will have it's own title (I've been calling it the new TNG show but I doubt it will carry that title). If you see that title face you know you are reading one of the relaunches. Ditto for Enterprise.

In reality, Voyager is the only book series that still carries the same type as the show title.

 

[thribs]

Be rather sad if Rene is gone. It’ll be like when Ben Skywalker was erased from Star Wars.

 

[Tuskin38]

Be rather sad if Rene is gone. It’ll be like when Ben Skywalker was erased from Star Wars.

Ben wasn't erased, the stories just ended.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Maybe not. I mean they don't have to bring up the Borg at all. If they want to do new original stories not really drawing on the past then they'd probably want to avoid the Borg anyway.

If it's an introspective, and perhaps deconstructive, look at Picard's psyche, then I don't see how they can avoid the Borg presence. The Borg, at least to casual fans, are very much a central factor of Picard, thanks to BOBW, Family, and First Contact.

The Borg can come back, without muttering the phrase Caeliar anywhere on the show. If they made a resurgence in the last five years (explained via tie-ins). If they're just now coming back from being thought destroyed (we know about Destiny, casuals can assume Endgame).

The difference between 2399 and 2386 should be about as similar as the difference between 2379 and 2366. Who knows what crazy wars and events happened in the meantime. Having Crusher and Picard divorced would provide nice synergy with AGT.

 

[Damian]

If it's an introspective, and perhaps deconstructive, look at Picard's psyche, then I don't see how they can avoid the Borg presence. The Borg, at least to casual fans, are very much a central factor of Picard, thanks to BOBW, Family, and First Contact.

The Borg can come back, without muttering the phrase Caeliar anywhere on the show. If they made a resurgence in the last five years (explained via tie-ins). If they're just now coming back from being thought destroyed (we know about Destiny, casuals can assume Endgame).

The difference between 2399 and 2386 should be about as similar as the difference between 2379 and 2366. Who knows what crazy wars and events happened in the meantime. Having Crusher and Picard divorced would provide nice synergy with AGT.

I guess it'd be better to say the Borg don't actually have to be featured as a villain on the show. Picard could certainly bring it back since it had a profound effect on him. I was talking more about them being featured outside of a flashback maybe.

 

[Oz Trekkie]

There are so many ways, for minds much more creative than mine, to make the new series fit in with the post-Nemesis Litverse.

The fact that Kirsten Beyer is series co-Creator and the quote from Dayton Ward below means there is a good chance that the post-Nemesis Litverse and the new series can live in the same universe. I, for one, am happy about that.

To clarify my comment in the interest of alleviating concern (and in a futile attempt to avoid wild speculation ), here’s what I said on my Facebook page when this topic came up:

“What I can honestly say is that I was aware this was in the works even before I began developing my outline for the TNG book I'm currently writing, and that carrying on the TNG storyline as we've been laying it out all this time was my specific mandate, both from my editor and CBS Licensing. I point-blank asked about any particular concerns or issues which might impact what I was planning should this come to pass, and was told to carry on with what I was doing.

Personally, I'm not too worried about the TrekLit status quo, at least as things currently stand, but that's me, speaking only for myself but based on the conversations I've had about this.”

 

[chrinFinity]

Has Patrick Stewart ever gone on record regarding whether he's read any of the novels?

 

[Deano2099]

Could this be why the license renewal took so long? Pocket seeking assurances that now Trek was back on TV they wouldn’t be forced to pull novels that ended up being contradicted? Perhaps there’s an agreement in place that’s let’s them run the litverse as an alternate universe now? After all, this isn’t a problem that will go away.

 

[Sci]

Could this be why the license renewal took so long? Pocket seeking assurances that now Trek was back on TV they wouldn’t be forced to pull novels that ended up being contradicted?

No. Pocket Books has always understood that the tail does not wag the dog; the TV shows and films will do what they want and the books must be consistent with them, not the other way around. They're asking for CBS's permission to publish books based on CBS's property, after all, not the other way around.

 

[Deano2099]

No. Pocket Books has always understood that the tail does not wag the dog; the TV shows and films will do what they want and the books must be consistent with them, not the other way around. They're asking for CBS's permission to publish books based on CBS's property, after all, not the other way around.

Do you know for certain as you were part of the team involved in the license or are you just speculating? Could you give some more information on how the new license deals with this, if they have to remove books from sale if they become inconsistent, and if they can use elements from the new shows in the books, etc?

 

[Omega Particle]

We're already perfectly comfortable with the existence of two timelines on screen (Prime and Kelvin) - why not just add a third in your head for the novelverse? Problem solved!