The DS9 Relaunch - will it ever return to its roots again?

[Rush Limborg]

(McCoy voice): We're discussing semantics. Do you realize what this all boils down to?

Tales upon tales depending on what this new editorial staff does next!

 

[8of5]

Everyone's been talking about this time jump like it's the end of stories in 2377. The way The Soul Key ended I dont get that feeling at all. Admittedly now Margaret's gone the next editor could change things entirely, but the start of Taran'atar's new arc in particular is something the must follow on immediately.

In fact, that's just what Margaret wasn't going to do. She was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time. But as you say, the new editor could do things differently.

I don't see a contradiction. If the plan was to jump ahead and to continue the story in 2377 and the intervening years, then that's pretty much what I was getting at.

Just because the series is to jump ahead doesn't eradicate the possibility of stories in the gap. In fact, as the gap is quite big I'd say it leaves more doors open. Unlike Titan for instance, where the multi-month gaps could be revisited, but slotting new books in-between the character arcs wouldn't flow as well.

The alternative is to fill in the story with flashbacks in something like Full Circle, which as we just had I wouldn't be expecting a repeat of.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

The plan didn't change, it was just delayed. Christ.

Apparently, we define "plan" differrently.
For me, delaying the book line by years is included in the notion of "changing the plan".

Pretty much everywhere else, ProtoAvatar seems to use "the plan" meaning "the planned storyline." Here, PA means "the planned schedule." Those are very different things. Whether that's deliberate goalpost-moving or innocent confusion I don't know, but it hasn't helped the discussion.

Steve Roby, nowhere in my previous posts have I used the word "plan" to include only the planned storyline. The confusion is on your part.

As for why I see massive delays as "changing the plan":

Let's assume the mirror universe story was finished on schedule. The Ascendants plot thread would have benn developed next - probably.
But the MU epic was delayed. As a result, the typhon pact story will be developed next and DS9 relaunch will jump forward a massive (by DS9 relaunch standard) 5 years.

"Changing the timetable" and "changing the planned storyline" are interconnected, you can't separate them. And they are interconnected with real-world events.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

The others have made this point well, but let me underline it. ProtoAvatar seems to be claiming that the shift in focus after Unity has something to do with the change in editors, and that's dead wrong. Marco Palmieri was the editor behind every DS9 post-finale novel published to date. Margaret had to finish off The Soul Key and The Never Ending Sacrifice after Marco was laid off, but Marco was the one who commissioned them. So everything that's happened in the post-finale DS9 novels to date has been planned by Marco along with the authors he's commissioned. The impact of the change in editors on the storyline has not been felt yet.

Cristopher, I said that after "Unity", the plan changed first because of massive delays (of already comissioned books) and then because of the change of editors (and yes, I've included in my argument the planned books).
And "Worlds of DS9" were never intended to have much of an effect on the overall DS9 storyline - until the last book in the series, anyway.

 

[Tino]

(Margaret) was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time.

Perfect plan to me. And those fill-ins could be one or two great anthologies.

 

[Sean Aaron]

In fact, that's just what Margaret wasn't going to do. She was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time. But as you say, the new editor could do things differently.

Well, if that's the plan I suppose I can hang tight and wait for these gap-filling novels -- unless this Typhon thing turns out to be the bees knees...

 

[Christopher]

Everyone's been talking about this time jump like it's the end of stories in 2377. The way The Soul Key ended I dont get that feeling at all. Admittedly now Margaret's gone the next editor could change things entirely, but the start of Taran'atar's new arc in particular is something the must follow on immediately.

In fact, that's just what Margaret wasn't going to do. She was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time. But as you say, the new editor could do things differently.

I don't see a contradiction. If the plan was to jump ahead and to continue the story in 2377 and the intervening years, then that's pretty much what I was getting at.

The point is, you said they must follow up on that new arc "immediately," and I gathered that Margaret had no plans to return to the 2370s anytime soon. The plan was not "to jump ahead and to continue the story in 2377." The plan was to jump ahead, keep the story in the 2380s, and eventually, at some unspecified future time and in some unspecified form, provide some explanations about at least part of what happened in the interim. Filling in the gap was not a high or near-term priority in this plan.

Unlike Titan for instance, where the multi-month gaps could be revisited, but slotting new books in-between the character arcs wouldn't flow as well.

I don't agree with that. Given how many different characters there are in Titan, it would be easy to fill in the gaps with imaginative adventure stories featuring substantive development for some characters even if other character arcs had to maintain the status quo.

In fact, that's just what Margaret wasn't going to do. She was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time. But as you say, the new editor could do things differently.

Well, if that's the plan I suppose I can hang tight and wait for these gap-filling novels -- unless this Typhon thing turns out to be the bees knees...

Okay, once more: That was Margaret's plan. Margaret was laid off two weeks ago. Therefore, that is no longer the plan. We don't know what the new editor's plan will be.

And Margaret's plan didn't entail "gap-filling novels" anyway. She hinted at maybe an anthology. It might not even have been that much. It could've just been that the series would stay in the post-Destiny era but we'd gradually learn stuff about what the characters had done in the interim. We'll never know, since Margaret's gone and her plan is gone with her.

 

[JD]

And "Worlds of DS9" were never intended to have much of an effect on the overall DS9 storyline - until the last book in the series, anyway.

Have you even read the books? They had a huge impact. They not only tied up several of the major arcs that had been going on, but they also brought about the departure of Shar, Jake meeting his future wife (did they get married?), and brought about an end to Trill joinings. If that isn't having much of an effect, then I don't know what is.

 

[Sci]

And "Worlds of DS9" were never intended to have much of an effect on the overall DS9 storyline - until the last book in the series, anyway.

Have you even read the books? They had a huge impact. They not only tied up several of the major arcs that had been going on, but they also brought about the departure of Shar, Jake meeting his future wife (did they get married?), and brought about an end to Trill joinings. If that isn't having much of an effect, then I don't know what is.

To say nothing of the fact that he's now refusing to acknowledge that he had claimed that there was no plan for post-Unity novels.

 

[8of5]

In fact, that's just what Margaret wasn't going to do. She was going to jump it to 2382 and keep it there, and any fill-ins of the gap would come at some later time. But as you say, the new editor could do things differently.

I don't see a contradiction. If the plan was to jump ahead and to continue the story in 2377 and the intervening years, then that's pretty much what I was getting at.

The point is, you said they must follow up on that new arc "immediately," and I gathered that Margaret had no plans to return to the 2370s anytime soon. The plan was not "to jump ahead and to continue the story in 2377." The plan was to jump ahead, keep the story in the 2380s, and eventually, at some unspecified future time and in some unspecified form, provide some explanations about at least part of what happened in the interim. Filling in the gap was not a high or near-term priority in this plan.

Ah I see, you miss understand my immediacy; I mean, however and whenever it is told, the story arc set in motion for Taran'atar in particular requires action that follow immediately, in-universe. While some other arcs, the Ascendants for instance, could very easily not play out for years, there are arcs already going that in in-universe time need to play out some how.

I don't agree with that. Given how many different characters there are in Titan, it would be easy to fill in the gaps with imaginative adventure stories featuring substantive development for some characters even if other character arcs had to maintain the status quo.

Oh absolutely, I'm still hoping IDW will step in with a Titan series to fill some months of exploration. But as a basic principle filling in a handful of missing months, when we know what happens to the ship and major characters very soon after is less open than setting up a new status quo five years later. After five years so much could have changed that there are still bigger opportunities of story telling space at the start of the five year jump.

A story told in a jump of a few months is like say filling in a crack in a wall, while one in a jump of a few years could be adding a completely different new layer of plaster and paint.