Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy and the Novels

[Mike Doyle]

Pretty sure Brikars have only appeared in books and comics until now.

https://intl.startrek.com/news/meet...9f9oHZFcVIuYdvD-T4_bMloOa9r48hqgvDF8mFCciQT-M

 

[King Bob!]

Hopefully the novelists that created the species get a small (LARGE) check from Paramount. Though I find it unlikely.

 

[Mike Doyle]

Hopefully the novelists that created the species get a small (LARGE) check from Paramount. Though I find it unlikely.

Peter David I think

 

[King Bob!]

Peter David I think

His name's on the cover of the New Frontier series, but I'm pretty sure other writers/editors had some input during its formulation. It would be nice if Paramount made sure they got something for that work now that the species is going to be on the small screen.

 

[valkyrie013]

Since Peter David wrote ALL the book series. If any payment is due, it's him

 

[Christopher]

Since Peter David wrote ALL the book series. If any payment is due, it's him

Writing tie-ins is work-for-hire. Anything we create under contract for the studio is the property of the studio, to do with as they please. And book contracts aren't like screenwriters' contracts, which entitle them to royalties if their characters are reused. The only thing we get royalties for is sales of our books.

 

[Stevil2001]

His name's on the cover of the New Frontier series, but I'm pretty sure other writers/editors had some input during its formulation. It would be nice if Paramount made sure they got something for that work now that the species is going to be on the small screen.

Peter created the Brikar for the Starfleet Academy middle-grade novels.

Writing tie-ins is work-for-hire. Anything we create under contract for the studio is the property of the studio, to do with as they please. And book contracts aren't like screenwriters' contracts, which entitle them to royalties if their characters are reused. The only thing we get royalties for is sales of our books.

Under Paul Levitz, DC would cut checks for creators whose characters were used on screen. This was something he did on his own initiative (it wasn't in contracts), and the practice stopped when he left.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Even though she's the biggest character in the group, she's also the youngest.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Interesting... for some reason I was under the impression that the characters were all going to be Delta Quadrant aliens, but Tellarites are Federation members, and the Medusan homeworld is reachable by the Federation. (In the books, Brikar is also presumably "nearby", but of course the show could go their own way regarding that.)

A noncorporeal alien named Zero who lives in a containment suit is something right out of the Star Trek: Final Frontier series concept (although there Zero wasn't Medusan). Is that just a coincidence, or is anyone who worked on Final Frontier possibly now involved with Prodigy?

 

[Christopher]

A noncorporeal alien named Zero who lives in a containment suit is something right out of the Star Trek: Final Frontier series concept (although there Zero wasn't Medusan). Is that just a coincidence, or is anyone who worked on Final Frontier possibly now involved with Prodigy?

Or it could be that, since Final Frontier was intellectual property developed for CBS/Paramount/whoever and therefore belonging to them, the studio feels free to mine it for concepts. I've wondered if its premise of a fragmented post-cataclysm future Federation was an influence on Discovery season 3.

 

[The Scottish Nightmare]

I wonder how much of the Brikar stuff they keep in the show. In the novels they go through puberty 30 years into their life and before that and before that, they are very closed amd don’t say much.

 

[Extrocomp]

Looks like they redesigned the Tellarite species yet again. What was wrong with the ENT design or the Discovery design that only came out a few years ago? And the Brikar looks nothing like the depictions of Zak Kebron shown in the New Frontier novel covers, New Frontier comics and Starfleet Academy YA novels.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Well, see, Kebron was made from marble and this new character was made from quartzite.

I’m only half kidding with that - I could easily see that as a racial variation of some kind. Same with the Tellarite design - look at how varied humanity would come across to aliens, with JUST skin tone variation. Now look at the fauna of Earth - tell an alien a Dalmatian, a Great Dane, and a chihuahua are all members of the same species.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Loving modern Trek's willingness to mine content from the novels.

 

[The Scottish Nightmare]

Loving modern Trek's willingness to mine content from the novels.

Let’s hope it’s better than what they did to poor Control

 

[Christopher]

Looks like they redesigned the Tellarite species yet again. What was wrong with the ENT design or the Discovery design that only came out a few years ago?

What was wrong with the original Tellarite design, or the ST IV design? It's not about right or wrong. This is an artistic creation. Different artists like to bring their own design style to things. Especially in modern American animation, where giving each series a distinctive visual style has been the standard ever since the heyday of John Kricfalusi and Bruce Timm.

And let's face it, the original Tellarite design was basically just "anthropomorphic pig," which is kind of silly. It's something Michael Westmore tried to minimize in his ENT design. So maybe the character designer(s) here decided they wanted to downplay it too, but went in a different direction. (Whereas the DSC designers basically just swapped "pig" for "warthog," which I can't say is an improvement.)

 

[F. King Daniel]

Looks like the bald Tellarite seen in Picard S01E01 to me.

 

[valkyrie013]

to me Alien designed peaked in Enterprise, The redo's they've done since then haven't been that great. Andorians, Telerite, .. owell.
Good to see in the description that he LOVES to argue..

Found this. cool.
https://www.startrek.com/videos/watch-tellarite-prosthetic-makeup-timelapse

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Writing tie-ins is work-for-hire. Anything we create under contract for the studio is the property of the studio, to do with as they please. And book contracts aren't like screenwriters' contracts, which entitle them to royalties if their characters are reused. The only thing we get royalties for is sales of our books.

We're seeing more and more comic creators talk about how they don't see money from their work on Marvel Studios projects, Ed Brubaker being a recent example. Comics and tie-in novels are cheap IP farms for studios to mine from because, as you say, the studio owns it lock, stock, and two smoking barrels, but that doesn't make it right. In a better world, work-for-hire would allow for creators to claim a residual when their work is adapted, or even allow the creator to retain the copyright.

 

[Christopher]

In a better world, work-for-hire would allow for creators to claim a residual when their work is adapted, or even allow the creator to retain the copyright.

Sometimes it does. TV and movie writers get residuals for the reuse of their characters, which is reportedly why Voyager created Tom Paris instead of reusing Nick LoCarno and why Enterprise created T'Pol instead of using young T'Pau (so that they wouldn't have to pay residuals). But the contracts for book writers and, apparently, comic book writers aren't as generous.