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

[Greg Cox]

I It's a weird example as this doesn't apply as it's based on books already, but Game of Thrones was the biggest thing in TV for 7 years and then it fell off a cliff.

It may have "fallen off the cliff" in terms of critical and fan reaction, but it's not like it got cancelled because people had stopped watching it. As I understand it, the show was still drawing enormous worldwide audiences right up to its pre-planned finale. Audiences may have had issues with that finale, but they never deserted the show.

Plus, with regards to GoT, seven years is just as long as TNG and DS9 and VOY all ran, and yet the books kept on coming for decades afterwards, so why assume that the market for DISCO or PICARD or SECTION 31 novels will suddenly evaporate once those shows run their course? Who knows, a decade from now, we could be looking at a whole new "Relaunch" litverse picking up where the new CBS shows left off.

 

[JD]

I was just over in one of the other threads, and @David Mack seemed to hint that there are plans afoot for Data and Lal. So it sounds like there's a chance we could be getting at least one more Novelverse book after the already announced stuff.

 

[Freman]

Yay! Back to novels that constantly contradict each other or get contradicted by the show they're about because the show is still airing and evolving when the books come out.

Hard pass here.

 

[thribs]

The Immortal Coil and Cold Equations are the novels I recommend for this show. They deal with similar plot points.

 

[ClayinCA]

The Immortal Coil and Cold Equations are the novels I recommend for this show. They deal with similar plot points.

Seconded. Those are both great books.

 

[JoeZhang]

So about Seven

Spoiler

Her and Picard have never met before 2399 and she is actively hostile to Starfleet and has been for years

 

[Leto_II]

So about Seven

Spoiler

Her and Picard have never met before 2399 and she is actively hostile to Starfleet and has been for years

Spoiler: Seven of Nine

Luckily, that shouldn't affect the pre-Destiny Litverse too much, as (IIRC) she and Picard apparently haden't met face-to-face prior to Peter David's novel Before Dishonor, although the Hive comic-series has Picard enlisting Seven to help him destroy the Borg, so that's yet another alternate continuity altogether.

 

[Sci]

Two episodes into PIC, and I find myself thinking that things so far don't seem totally irreconcilable with the LitVerse continuity. I assume we'll learn some stuff further down the line that will contradict more of it -- indeed, the fate of B4 and Data's continued dead status have already contradicted the novels featuring Data 2.0 -- but there are definitely large elements of the LitVerse that could be compatible with what PIC has established so far.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd like to see the litverse actively deal with the contradictions with PIC and make it a plot point.

 

[Stephen!]

It seems like it'd be a bit redundant to have the TNG novels be in continuity with Picard, since that would make them prequel novels, which the Picard novels already are. So they'd have two book series basically doing the same thing.

 

[JD]

Technically they would be, but if they are going away from the ongoing story arcs, then any TNG books we got would probably go back to series stand alone stories, while the Picard novels would probably focus on setting up specific elements of that show.

 

[thribs]

Finally read Death in Winter. Some similarities to Picard in that story. Him leaving with some of his former crew to rescue someone from Romulans.
Got Last Best Hope coming, which will be the new Death in Winter for this new CBS Streaming timeline.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd like to see the litverse actively deal with the contradictions with PIC and make it a plot point.

Just untangling Picard's life would be a nightmare. It'd be a super secret Section 31 coverup of history again because reasons.

 

[GaryH]

So about Seven

Spoiler

Her and Picard have never met before 2399 and she is actively hostile to Starfleet and has been for years

interesting. Where was this revealed? Thank you

 

[F. King Daniel]

interesting. Where was this revealed? Thank you

Some BTS profile thingies were released. Also, people who attended the premieres (except the UK one) got to see the first three episodes.

 

[GaryH]

Thanks! I wonder if that means Seven will be in the next episode...

 

[The Wormhole]

Thanks! I wonder if that means Seven will be in the next episode...

No, Seven is not in episode 3. Jeri Ryan did attend the premiere screening of the first three episodes, and at the Q&A afterwards, she gave these details about Seven's role in the show.

 

[Sci]

So far the biggest incompatibilities I can see are:

• Picard still mourning Data as dead in 2399 vs Data 2.0 coming to life in 2384
• Seven still having her Borg implants and being actively hostile to Starfleet, implying she didn't return to the Delta Quadrant and there was no Project Full Circle
• The continued existence of the Borg cube and of Borg drones cut off from the Collective, implying the continued existence of the Collective itself
• The implication that Picard and Beverly did not marry and have a child in 2380
• The Romulan Star Empire needing to ask the Federation for assistance evacuating its capital planets seems weird if they're part of the Typhon Pact
• The major events of 2385-2386 are different. Sept.-Oct. 2385 in the Litverse sees the assassination of Nanietta Bacco and the rise and fall of Ishan Anjar, followed in 2386 with the exposure of Section 31 and the purging of Control from Uraei's system. The canonical 2385 now has a major, Federation-changing event occurring in April 2385 in the form of the Synth attack on Mars.

But so far -- and again, we're only two episodes into this, so this could all totally change -- I find myself suspecting that TrekLit authors might be able to reconcile their continuity with the canon. Picard, for instance, may not regard Data 2.0 as an actual continuation of Data, but as a separate being given Data's memories. (Coincidentally, this is how I view Data 2.0.) If there's nothing PIC episodes actively denying that Starfleet ever returned to the Delta Quadrant, then we can probably keep that in our headcanons. The Caeliar may not have been 100% in their removal of disconnected Borg drones and tech -- if the Collective itself never appears, we may not have any real problem reconciling the Artifact with Destiny. So far, there's no explicit denial that Picard and Beverly had Rene -- maybe their marriage failed around the time Picard left Starfleet, and she took Rene to raise herself, one of the regrets haunting Picard in 2399? If the Romulans under Praetor Gell Kamemor got too cozy with the Feds, I could see the Pact -- maybe under the influence of hostile Pact members like the Breen or the Tzenkethi -- refusing to help.

We'd probably either have to fudge the dates on 2385-2386 and assume that the events of The Fall happened a year earlier (which wouldn't bother me -- The Fall's reference to Bacco's re-election in 2384 didn't line up with the established four-year election cycle for Federation Presidents), or we'd have to assume that the Mars attack and the anti-Synth backlash was happening "off-screen" between books, and that the assassination of Bacco maybe contributed to the Federation's reactionary drift over the next decade and a half. Maybe President zh'Tarash lost re-election and the next President was a reactionary in the vein of Baras Rodiyra?

Obviously we'd have to squint and accept a few retcons, but I do feel like it might be possible to reconcile these things so far. (I also feel like the next few episodes are likely to make me eat my words, but it's a fun mental exercise for the moment...)

 

[Relayer1]

Problem is, that's only addressing stuff from the first episode or two. Admittedly that's likely to be a load of the big inconsistencies dropped, but with Picard now going to at least two seasons and I suppose, the chances improving of another show in about the same era with other DS9, Voyager and TNG cast, it's going to get increasingly difficult to rationalise.

 

[JoeZhang]

So far the biggest incompatibilities I can see are:

• Picard still mourning Data as dead in 2399 vs Data 2.0 coming to life in 2384
• Seven still having her Borg implants and being actively hostile to Starfleet, implying she didn't return to the Delta Quadrant and there was no Project Full Circle
• The continued existence of the Borg cube and of Borg drones cut off from the Collective, implying the continued existence of the Collective itself
• The implication that Picard and Beverly did not marry and have a child in 2380
• The Romulan Star Empire needing to ask the Federation for assistance evacuating its capital planets seems weird if they're part of the Typhon Pact
• The major events of 2385-2386 are different. Sept.-Oct. 2385 in the Litverse sees the assassination of Nanietta Bacco and the rise and fall of Ishan Anjar, followed in 2386 with the exposure of Section 31 and the purging of Control from Uraei's system. The canonical 2385 now has a major, Federation-changing event occurring in April 2385 in the form of the Synth attack on Mars.

But so far -- and again, we're only two episodes into this, so this could all totally change -- I find myself suspecting that TrekLit authors might be able to reconcile their continuity with the canon. Picard, for instance, may not regard Data 2.0 as an actual continuation of Data, but as a separate being given Data's memories. (Coincidentally, this is how I view Data 2.0.) If there's nothing PIC episodes actively denying that Starfleet ever returned to the Delta Quadrant, then we can probably keep that in our headcanons. The Caeliar may not have been 100% in their removal of disconnected Borg drones and tech -- if the Collective itself never appears, we may not have any real problem reconciling the Artifact with Destiny. So far, there's no explicit denial that Picard and Beverly had Rene -- maybe their marriage failed around the time Picard left Starfleet, and she took Rene to raise herself, one of the regrets haunting Picard in 2399? If the Romulans under Praetor Gell Kamemor got too cozy with the Feds, I could see the Pact -- maybe under the influence of hostile Pact members like the Breen or the Tzenkethi -- refusing to help.

We'd probably either have to fudge the dates on 2385-2386 and assume that the events of The Fall happened a year earlier (which wouldn't bother me -- The Fall's reference to Bacco's re-election in 2384 didn't line up with the established four-year election cycle for Federation Presidents), or we'd have to assume that the Mars attack and the anti-Synth backlash was happening "off-screen" between books, and that the assassination of Bacco maybe contributed to the Federation's reactionary drift over the next decade and a half. Maybe President zh'Tarash lost re-election and the next President was a reactionary in the vein of Baras Rodiyra?

Obviously we'd have to squint and accept a few retcons, but I do feel like it might be possible to reconcile these things so far. (I also feel like the next few episodes are likely to make me eat my words, but it's a fun mental exercise for the moment...)

We have eight more episodes yet - many with flashbacks plus Lower Decks is going to be set in 2380 and is also going to be canon. Over time, the chances of this still fitting is as much as Spock being Captain of the USS Surak...