"First time anywhere! Kirk's days at Starfleet Academy!"
Plans for any more Kelvinverse novels?
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
"First time anywhere! Kirk's days at Starfleet Academy!"
And it's terrible.
Yeah, I was rather disappointed with it. As a continuity junkie I was always a bit put off that it really didn't take much account of the characters as featured in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." I get that they wanted to commemorate the original characters in the series proper, but I was hoping for a true first adventure for the crew and it didn't feel like one. And Kirk felt too much like an emotional maverick in E:TFA, maybe consistent with the movie era, but not so with the series era, especially early on. While he was never a 'to the letter of the regulations kind of guy' he was a 'by the book guy' as in spirit of the regulations.
I was glad to see Christopher do an alternate take in his The Captain's Oath novel, something more in line with how Kirk actually was in those early days.
Regarding Kelvin-verse novels? I just don't see it happening, at least until a new Kelvin-verse movie comes out (if one comes out--at this rate it might be for the 100th anniversary of Star Trek). And the fact that there are only 1 to 2 books coming out each year right now I see no chance of anything other than an original series novel or tie in to a current running series. Even if they increase that back up to 5 or 6 a year. I'm feeling pessimistic about the future of Star Trek novels as things stand right now. I don't think they'll ever disappear altogether. But gone are the days of seeing a book a month and perhaps a book every other month.
I could see the logic of it. E:TFA was the first giant novel, an "event" book that would've been marketed to a wider, more general audience than the hardcore fanbase. So it made sense, in that respect, to focus on the characters that were more familiar to a general audience. Basically the same logic as the Kelvin movies focusing on the core seven and even contriving to have Chekov show up early.
What's harder to explain is McIntyre's approach to Yeoman Rand, depicting her as a teenager who was actually younger than her documented age because of time dilation. I mean, Grace Lee Whitney was a year older than William Shatner. One of Rand's biggest episodes was "Charlie X," which made a point of the fact that Rand was way too old for the 17-year-old Charlie.
And I personally prefer Mike Barr's approach in DC Comics' take on the same premise a year earlier. "All Those Years Ago..." did feature Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso, as well as giving Pike a major role, though it did feature McCoy instead of Piper.
Yeah, I figured it had been too long since we'd gotten a new take on that story in prose, one that would be consistent with modern canon and the novel continuity as they stood at the time. Glad you appreciated it.
Well I guess in fairness she did try to throw some nods to the characters as they appeared in WNMHGB. She noted Kirk trying to get Gary Mitchell on his crew (I think he was injured IIRC). And a nod was thrown to Dr. Piper about Kirk maybe having to call him out of retirement if McCoy didn't show up. The alien featured in the novel was interesting at points as well.
I always recall Strangers from the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno did then note about McCoy being called away, explaining how Piper was there (I thought maybe following on his presence in E:TFA where he was on the ship). Unfortunately there wasn't much she can do about Sulu being at the helm and Lee Kelso not being there.
I always note Michael Jan Friedman touched on this early era as well in his My Brother's Keeper trilogy which I liked more and was more consistent with WNMHGB than E:TFA. It almost seemed like he wanted to touch on Kirk's first mission too but for whatever reason he didn't. But then that left the door open for The Captain's Oath so thankfully that was eventually touched on.
I still remember before TCO thinking that the Enterprise was Kirk's first command. But when I considered it further I realized there was nothing precluding an earlier command, and then I read The Making of Star Trek and found out the intent was he did have an earlier command.
I'll never understand why people would think it was Kirk's first command. The Constitution class ships were Starfleet's biggest, most powerful capital ships, not the kind of thing you give to an untested captain, the '09 film's nonsensical ending aside. Well, okay, there was Will Decker, but he was recommended by Kirk, who second-guessed that decision once there was a crisis.
Although it seems to be a common error. People often criticize Nemesis by saying that Picard wouldn't have been important yet when Shinzon was cloned, forgetting that he got the E-D because he was already a legendary captain from his 22 years on the Stargazer. And even Voyager's later-season producers made the mistake once of calling Voyager Janeway's first command, when it had previously been established that she'd met Tuvok years earlier at the end of her actual first command.
(Meanwhile, I find it interesting that Strange New Worlds has depicted Kirk's Farragut as a sort of proto-Miranda design, which fits with the "destroyer-type vessel" description of Kirk's first command per Making of. I suspect their long-term goal is to put Kirk in command of the Farragut.)
Regarding the Enterprise crew, Strangers From the Sky comes immediately after E: TFA and explains the crew from "Where No Man..." being basically a bunch of temps.
At least a reason was supplied, however silly it might seem. Giving rookie captain/newly minted SA graduate Kirk the keys to the Enterprise immediately would have made even less sense in the prime timeline.
I can understand why you say that. A shockingly high percentage of the central conflict of the book is driven by the need by all involved to find sufficient living and performing space for a vaudevillian troupe's flying horse. (Yep.) But why is there a flying horse in a 'vaudevillian' act in the first place, given that the troupe was on its way to various starbases along the Federation-Klingon frontier? What frontier starbase would possibly have the space to give this creature free rein? Reading it (for the first time) six months ago I couldn't shake the feeling that Vonda M. (1) really wanted to write a book about horses but (2) got a commission to write the Enterprise's first adventure and so (3) one way or another the Enterprise was going to encounter a horse on its first voyage, logic and reader interest be damned. And it is not plausible that on his first mission as captain, Kirk would immediately become so undisciplined as to spend his first days as a captain mooning, lovelorn, over Lindy the horse wrangler and plot strangler.
But I found E:TFA to have some redeeming qualities as well. Unlike some of those other early authors, McIntyre was a highly competent prose stylist. The initial sections, in which we separately follow Kirk, Spock and Sulu as they prepare for Kirk's first outing as captain are all well rendered. (Someone actually tried--albeit briefly-- to give Sulu something of a complicated interior life, perish the thought.) The first contact scene with the singing aliens is very well done, and managed to convey what would have to be the surreality of first contact with an alien species. The New Age-y blonde Vulcan is not as annoying as that description would suggest. And I love (though more in theory than in practice) the premise-- the crew we came to know as heroes cutting a swathe across the known universe had a very modest, occasionally embarrassing and only intermittently successful first voyage.
Not a great book, but worth a read, unlike some other early books we could all name.
I wasn't fond of McIntyre's Sulu. He was too maudlin and insecure, nothing like the confident, cheerful character on screen. It worked okay in The Entropy Effect given Sulu's particular situation there, but she wrote him the same way in ETFA, as if it were his default personality. He just wasn't the Sulu I know.
Interesting post, I'm glad that there is some open-mindedness about E:TFA. I also recognize it as a very flawed book, and yet enjoyed some aspects of it as well.
As far as the flying horse, I wrote some speculation about what I thought it might be a couple years ago. To me it seemed somewhat symbolic of the whole package of the starship Enterprise and her crew as we know her from the five year mission. The horse is presented as a combination of unlikely elements that don't seem to work, in an environment where she doesn't yet thrive. When the crew works together to help improve the flying horse's environmental conditions, she is more spirited and kind of (but not quite) manages a jumping kind of flight.
Then later when she is taken to the alien ship against all logic, into the heart a situation full of unknowns and potential dangers, it is the perfect environment. At some point one of her hoof's is injured, much like Kirk's own recovering leg. Despite admonishments of the foolishness of bringing the flying horse to the alien ship, she takes off and flies properly when she is boldly brought into a situation full of unknowns and potential dangers, and she has an injury; and this is when the flying horse is at her best, when she really takes off.
It kind of seemed to match with the ideal of telling a story of the Enterprise and her crew starting out as mismatch and not clicking together. They're at their best when they work together, push into the unknown, takes risks that logically they shouldn't, and especially when their efforts are being done with a handicap, that is when they also are at their best and take off.
It's just a thought that occurred to me while reading E:TFA. But I have read too deeply into things like that in the past, finding patterns that maybe aren't necessarily there.
Happily, I liked all these first adventures stories; E: TFA, and The Captain's Oath (as well as a DC comic that covered similar ground). I thought it was great to be able to read them and re-watch the Star Trek 2009 movie and compare them.
I'm a big fan of E: TFA. Are the TOS crew a bit out of character? Sure, but it's a prequel. They haven't become those people from TOS yet. "The Man Trap" could be up to a year away.
More like four years away. Kirk is twenty-nine in Enterprise: The First Adventure.
While heavily abridged (to only 90 mins!) the audio book of E:TFA is excellent. I was not that impressed with the alien race nor the travelling circus in the novel, but the narration (George Takei) and music of the audio book really helped the action come alive in these scenes.
Those early audios featuring “Leonard Nimoy as the voice of Spock” use the First Officer’s Log to good effect, compressing the story, and often presenting them in different ways to the novel text.
Last edited:
Back to the original topic: will we only see more Kelvinverse tie-ins if there's a fourth movie? (Aside from minor offhand mentions/references to the existence of such a reality.)
The most recent KT merch is these action figures. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Hiya_Toys
All of Fleet Command's recent updates have focused on adding characters and content from the prime timeline, so the Kelvin timeline is dead in that game too.
2020 is the most recent reference in canon to the alternate reality: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Yor
I wonder if this guy will get a book or a comic.
I wonder if this guy will get a book or a comic.
Similar threads
