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The fate of Romulus?

What's onscreen defines the canon, and the books are obligated to reflect it.

Here's a question, is that set in stone?

For example, if future onscreen Trek showed characters in a different form than they currently are in a book, for example, Riker as captain of a ship other than Titan, Dax still a counselor rather than captain, would the books alter the characters to reflect that new cannon status quo?

Canon is never set in stone. A canon is an extended body of fictional works that purport to take place within a single consistent reality, but usually the consistency is imperfect at best. Any ongoing series is a work in progress, and its creator/s may decide that early ideas didn't work, discover a mistake that needs correcting, gloss over old, minor details to make a new story viable, or simply forget something established early in the series.

But what is undeniable is that the job of tie-in books is to tie in -- to follow the lead of the canon they're adapting. They're expected to stay consistent with the canon as it's currently or most recently defined. The kind of situation you describe, where new canon comes along and contradicts what's going on in Trek novels or comics, has happened many times in the past, and every time, the tie-ins have been required to drop what they were doing before and accommodate the new canonical material. Sometimes they can find ways to reconcile the two, as when DC Comics managed (more or less) to squeeze The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home into their comics continuity. More often they just drop the old book continuity in favor of the new canonical continuity, as with the depictions of Klingons and Romulans in '80s novels, which were dropped when TNG depicted them very differently.

Essentially, the onscreen material depicts what "really" happens in the universe (although sometimes it's contradicted by later onscreen material, in which case the newer "reality" takes precedence), and tie-ins are only stories that might have happened in the universe. If new canon reveals that things "really" happened differently, then the "might have been" becomes a "wasn't." And new books therefore have to reflect the new reality.


I mean, what would you do with Dax? Have her decide that actually counselling was her true love after all and move her back? Demote her? Would the Typhon Pact suddenly dissolve if new cannon showed it had never formed? (I use Dax and the Typhon Pact as an examples as they are some of the more radical changes in status quos from the tv series).

More likely, it would simply be that the book continuity that includes Dax pursuing the command track and the Typhon Pact arising would simply be stopped and replaced with a different continuity reflecting the new canon reality. It would become an "imaginary story," to use DC Comics' term. As I said, this has happened plenty of times before. It's the nature of tie-in fiction.

Quite possibly, it could be declared that the main book continuity took place in an alternate timeline. Maybe, if there were enough audience interest and if the higher-ups were willing, there could be continuations of it published under the Myriad Universes banner, though I have no idea how likely that is. But the main body of Trek tie-in fiction would have to conform to the new canon, because that's what tie-in fiction does.


In the comic, they heavily suggested that the supernova's gaseous shock wave reached other star systems - so it looks like we are gonna have to break out the word 'subspace' to explain it - something like the subspace supernova in the Destiny trilogy, but 'natural'.

Anything that is mentioned only in the comic is non-canonical and therefore not binding on the novels. The books have to acknowledge what's stated in the actual film -- that the supernova happened and Romulus was destroyed -- but the elaborations in Countdown, like any other tie-in material, are non-canonical and only represent a possible interpretation of events.

If the comics count, then this becomes hard.

Because, I got the impression that the Hobus star was meant to be 'remote' and unsurveyed - something that could not be said of a star in the same system as Romulus itself - and something that also makes the threat to Romulus all the more implausible...

Countdown's depiction of the supernova is extremely problematical. For one thing, it claims that Hobus is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy. The kind of stars that go supernova are extremely large and short-lived, lasting only millions or hundreds of thousands of years. The oldest stars are the smallest, dimmest, coolest ones, which are incapable of going supernova.


A "canon" is a body of work that's established as valid by the owners (in this case the on screen stories of Trek), or a brand of cameras.

Or a musical composition in the form of a round. Or a code of ecclesiastical laws established by a church council (the original meaning from which the literary meaning is derived by analogy). Or...
 
I've decided I want a Captain Picard meets Santa Claus novel.

The original DC Comics TNG mini-series had a Christmas issue.
Does Santa land on the saucer section and crawl into the ship through the impulse engine exhausts? Does Santa's belly still shake like a bowl full of jelly, or has he joined the rest of humanity prior to the aging of actors and become physically perfect? Does he use replicators instead of elves now? And, slightly off topic, is the tooth fairy still in business, and if he/she is, what does he/she leave under the pillow in a money-less society?

These are the questions we must know answers to, and canon is sadly lacking!
 
For a major storyline (Unification) that has been developing since the TNG series to be written off like that, in two universes at that, feels like a kick in the nuts. It's obvious why the movie did it, bad science and all, but I don't have to like it.

I don't have to accept it either, and neither does Trek Lit. I know it's bad form to post story ideas, but this is such a big deal that I think it should be considered...

Romulus faked its own destruction, and has been working undercover for the Tal Shiar.


What?!
 
I've decided I want a Captain Picard meets Santa Claus novel.

The original DC Comics TNG mini-series had a Christmas issue.
Does Santa land on the saucer section and crawl into the ship through the impulse engine exhausts? Does Santa's belly still shake like a bowl full of jelly, or has he joined the rest of humanity prior to the aging of actors and become physically perfect? Does he use replicators instead of elves now? And, slightly off topic, is the tooth fairy still in business, and if he/she is, what does he/she leave under the pillow in a money-less society?

These are the questions we must know answers to, and canon is sadly lacking!

If I recall correctly, "Santa" did, in fact, make an appearance.
 
For a major storyline (Unification) that has been developing since the TNG series to be written off like that, in two universes at that, feels like a kick in the nuts. It's obvious why the movie did it, bad science and all, but I don't have to like it.

I don't have to accept it either, and neither does Trek Lit. I know it's bad form to post story ideas, but this is such a big deal that I think it should be considered...

Romulus faked its own destruction, and has been working undercover for the Tal Shiar.


What?!

No, if it happened on screen it happened, deal with it.
 
If Treklit didn't ignore Enterprise, they're probably not going to ignore XI.

Enterprise wasn't an alternate universe. Trek XI arguably is.

At the very least it's an alternate *timeline* which branched off at the destruction of the Kelvin. But I choose to believe that it's an entirely separate universe. Given this, I submit that Treklit has absolutely NO obligation to destroy Romulus, since for all we know Spock 'Prime' came from that same alternate universe and thus Romulus does not have to be destroyed in the prime one.

Yeah - this is the way I tend to see it - but I don't think it will be the case - the Pocket Books line will probably have to destroy Romulus in 2387 - via a supspace supernova or hypernova, or however they choose to play it.

TrekLit got around TATV well enough. No reason they couldn't do the same here.
 
Enterprise wasn't an alternate universe. Trek XI arguably is.

At the very least it's an alternate *timeline* which branched off at the destruction of the Kelvin. But I choose to believe that it's an entirely separate universe. Given this, I submit that Treklit has absolutely NO obligation to destroy Romulus, since for all we know Spock 'Prime' came from that same alternate universe and thus Romulus does not have to be destroyed in the prime one.

Yeah - this is the way I tend to see it - but I don't think it will be the case - the Pocket Books line will probably have to destroy Romulus in 2387 - via a supspace supernova or hypernova, or however they choose to play it.

TrekLit got around TATV well enough. No reason they couldn't do the same here.

Your argument rests on author preference you know that right and there is a good chance that the author who gets the story WON'T care if Romulus is destroyed, and lets face the fact that the Romulans don't have the tech to fake a planetary desrtuction and why the hell would they do that anyway, all that would do is allow the RIS to take their territory while their hiding.

^They should call the SCE. They can make a planet disappear...

Or the Aldeans

Yeah if the Romulans want to sterilize themselves.
 
What's onscreen defines the canon, and the books are obligated to reflect it.

Here's a question, is that set in stone?

For example, if future onscreen Trek showed characters in a different form than they currently are in a book, for example, Riker as captain of a ship other than Titan, Dax still a counselor rather than captain, would the books alter the characters to reflect that new cannon status quo?
Something like this did actually happen recently. In Nemesis Worf was security chief of the EE, so they included a subplot about Worf leaving Qo'Nos (bagh I think I misspelled that) and then returning to Starfleet.
 
I'm not saying Romulus should be cloaked or anything like that. I'm simply arguing that in Treklit, *nothing* absolutely has to happen. So what if Romulus was destroyed in Trek XI? Technically speaking, we only have Nero's word that it was, don't we? ;)

And as I said, at least the past portions of Trek XI take place in an alternate timeline (or, as I choose to believe, a whole alternate universe). Given this, the *future* as depicted in that film could also be an alternate.
 
^And Spock's. Why on Earth should the authors want to change this anyway? What about the destruction of Romulus has you so opposed to the idea? What was it that contradicted "Unification" (as mentioned above)?

Trying to explain away Trip faking his death (while an interesting idea) came across at times as a bit of a convoluted mess. The entire population of Earth (and all its sophisticated recording systems) somehow being duped into confusing the event of the formation of the Coalition of Planets for being the formation of the UFP? I still can't get around that one. If the authors want to drastically change the events depicted on screen, there had better be a darn good (and convincing) reason why. Not just "Well, I don't like that one so I'm just gonna do things my own way." Romulus went kablooie. Period.
 
^And that also means that Spock is gone as of 2387. McCoy is all alone again...if he survives that long :p
 
Personally, I hope that the lit never catches up with "Star Trek: Episode One- The Flatulence Menace."
 
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