Most significant additions to lore in LitVerse and the things you wish were canon

Obviously the litverse hs given us a lot over the past couple of decades, but the new Picard series unsurprisibgly will ignore . What developments do you think have added most, and will you 'miss'?

Soem of my favourites
* (Controversial) the new DS9
* USS Titan
* The Lost Era
* New Frontier
* DESTINY (widely applauded)
* new characters such as Christine Vale, Elias Vaughn, Shar, Hugh Cambridge

 

Picard being married to Beverly.

 

Four-gender Andorians, everything in Destiny, Christopher's entire pre- and post-TV show TOS history, Christopher's entire rationalization for all the time travel ever, Christopher's version of Picard between Stargazer and Enterprise, Vaughn, Ro's development in the DS9 relaunch, everything Una has written about Garak and Cardassia, and most importantly all of Kirsten's relaunch - all the new ideas, all the complexified TV show references, all the characters, and especially O'Donnell and Fife.

 

Oh, and also the Tholians and Shedai and origins of Genesis from Vanguard.

 

Everything that happened in the Terok Nor novels.

Data's and Lal's resurrection.

 

The death and return of Janeway

Destiny

New Frontier

 

This.

 

I like the resolution we got to the Temporal Cold War in Watching the Clock.

 

Vanguard and New Frontier.

 

The Lost Era stories
Data and Lal's returns
Destiny
Titan
Everything the books have done with the Andorians, Cardassians, and Tholians
Picard marrying Crusher and their son Rene
The 20th and 21st Century stories built up by Greg Cox and Dayton Ward's books

 

I agree completely with Thrawn. I would also like if the greater Vanguard storyline with the Shedai and the Tholians was on screen at some point

 

Vanguard/Seekers.
Pretty much anything by KRAD. Or Diane Duane (especially the Rihannsu).

 

The Palais de la Concorde, the design and functioning of the Federation government vis a vis the President and the Council, and all the Presidents we've seen.

 

Diane Duane's Rihannsu

J.M. Ford's Klingons

 

So pretty much everything

But I agree. Honestly I can't think of anything I'd discard (though I guess if I searched through every piece of the relaunch novels I probably could find something if I really had to ).

Now my guess is not every last thing will be contradicted. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Picard show runners throw us a bone and incorporate a character or plotline from the novelverse, probably as an Easter egg (though perhaps something a bit more, who knows).

I'll be honest. In my own perfect Star Trek world Picard would pick up 13 years after Collateral Damage (assuming Picard starts in 2399 which was what I last saw--or however many years after 2386 the show takes place if it's different). And the novels would then just continue to fill in the missing years where the show does not. BUT, we all know that's fantasy--and maybe a bit unfair to the show runners to tie them to a pre-existing non-canon continuity. But who cares about fairness here?

Hmm. It's possible the new show may not actually affect that. I wouldn't expect them to really get into the Temporal Cold War so Christopher's resolution may be largely unaffected (though little details may be).

And the Enterprise relaunch may be the one series mostly unaffected by the new show since that was more than 200 years before. And I don't recall even Discovery having any great effect on the Enterprise novels, if any effect.

 

I'm trying to be philosophical about it. All Trek continuities are equally imaginary anyway, so they're just alternative ways of telling the story. Whether the novel continuity is referenced in future shows or not shouldn't matter. Even if it comes to an end, we've managed to create something vast, sweeping, critically respected, and mostly consistent that endured for roughly 20 years. That's an achievement to be proud of, even if the onscreen productions end up going in a completely different direction, as they have every right to do. People in the future will still be able to go back and read the books and enjoy the Novelverse as a large, unified series in its own right, the same way people today can go back and enjoy the DC Animated Universe or the Heisei Godzilla series or the '90s FOX Kids X-Men/Spider-Man shared universe as a satisfying whole even though they've been succeeded by multiple different continuities in the decades since. A new continuity doesn't erase an old one, it just adds another option to the menu. So let the Novelverse be its own thing and let the new screen continuity be its own thing.

Of course, there are some story threads I'd been hoping to pursue further in the Novelverse, but writers always have stories on the shelf that we never get around to telling or to selling, and I'm sure there will be plenty of new stories to tell in whatever new continuity emerges. Heck, I've sold original fiction in five different universes to date (well, two ongoing universes and three standalone stories), and tie-in fiction in two universes (ST and Marvel), so I've got no problem shifting from one continuity to another. It's fun to explore alternative paths.

 

For me that's what bugs me the most. I'll still have all my books and CBS (or Paramount, whoever it may be) is not going to take all my relaunch novels because they are not consistent with Picard. But it's the fact that the relaunches have likely come to an end with Collateral Damage (oh, and "To Lose the Earth" which will likely be the last true novel in the relaunch universe). There's a ton of stories that I would love to see continued---what happens to Dr Bashir? Does he recover? How about Garak? What happens to the Typhon Pact after they lose a member with the destruction of Romulus? What happens to Kira, Ro, and Odo on DS9? Does Odo ever return to the Dominion and what happens between him and Kira in light of what happened to her? There's so many stories untouched. I was also intrigued by Captain Sisko's new mission in the Gamma Quadrant and would have loved to seen more in that area. It looked like maybe another Mission:Gamma series of stories was about to get going.

Those are all possibilities we'll likely never see. I know it's unrealistic (and probably not even all that marketable even as loyal as many of us readers are) but I would have loved it if they continued those storylines as an alternate timeline.

So it's not even so much that the show contradicts the past 20 some years of books because they aren't going anywhere. It's more that they've likely come to an end and we'll see no more books carrying on the many, many storylines that have been created.

 

Every series ends with some questions unanswered, some stories untold. But a series that's endured for 20 years across numerous different ongoing titles still has a vast number of stories that it did tell, and that's something we can be very satisfied with. Nothing lasts forever, so it's better to focus on what you did have than what you didn't.

Plus, of course, the new screen continuity will introduce new characters, ideas, and story threads that can spawn new novels in the years ahead. I'm sure we'll all do our best to find interesting stories to tell in whatever continuity we get to work with.

 

Well, I have no doubt you guys will continue to write great books. One thing I'll be interested to see is the upcoming Picard novel. That will be our first taste in the novels of Picard. And does she give any nods to the existing litverse (even if it's an Easter egg)?

I guess I find how it ended so open-ended a bit unsatisfying. I always hoped the novels would at least take us to the destruction of Romulus and it's immediate aftermath. Close it out with a bang. The best comparison I can think of is how they closed out the Dallas soap opera back in 1991. They tied up the loose ends (except one cliffhanger--did JR shoot himself or not--and how could Dallas not end in at least one cliffhanger ). I kind of wish the relaunch novels could have ended like that.

I mean, David Mack did a pretty decent job tying up one loose end, the Section 31 and Captain Picard's involvement with that. And maybe I could accept that as the final TNG book (though I still wished it would have at least gone as far as the destruction of Romulus). And maybe Kirsten Beyer has some plans along that line for her final Voyager book--maybe she'll give some resolutions to major unfinished storylines. I wish something similar could have been done with Deep Space Nine. One final book to tie up the loose ends presented there. If Beyer offers some resolutions in her Voyager novel that will leave Deep Space Nine as the one series that didn't really have any final resolutions.

I mean, it'd still be disappointing the stories wouldn't continue on as there are always possibilities. But at least some major plotlines would have been resolved.