IDW to publish post-Nemesis TNG Borg story, possibly Destiny

[Paris]

I'm one of the people who felt let down by Countdown, and i love the current novel continuity; but a new IDW TNG tale taking place after Nemesis, no matter where they decide to go, is an exciting prospect. And to have an artist of Joe's caliber attached to the project can't hurt either

 

[Fer]

While I'm sure there are logistical problems with the comics and novels lining up with pocket's one a month schedule, it can't be terribly hard when Star Wars has been doing it for some 20 years.

Even Star Wars tends to wait. For example, they waited until long after the New Jedi Order books were finished to launch their Invasion comic set during that time period. Similarly, they waited until all of the Tribe of the Sith books were written before they started their Tribe of the Sith comic. The only exception I can think of is Knight Errant, which launched both novels and comics around the same time, but they've all been written by the same author, John Jackson Miller.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

I should have been clearer, by Book-to-comic I really meant Inter-media continuity. Though I do see where you're coming from Chris. It makes a certain amount of

Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time. There are quite a number of major continuity points in those comics that later books utilize. As well, something like Star Wars Republic actually shaped a lot of the background of the prequels and showcased the Clone Wars soon after the second movie and ended up being mined for the Clone Wars novels. (The new show has created some problems.)

Again, my point is it's certainly doable - and has been done. I think it would actually be interesting to have standalone stories told in the comics of the TNG crew in the Post-Nemesis era. Because the vast majority of those stories have the Borg in them, and well, so apparently does this one. I'd much prefer having a richer, multi-media story board then having "One direction for one, another for another."

 

[Christopher]

I should have been clearer, by Book-to-comic I really meant Inter-media continuity.

Sure, I know what you meant, but I was taking advantage of the way it was phrased to distinguish between book-to-comic and comic-to-book, so as to make a point.

Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time. There are quite a number of major continuity points in those comics that later books utilize. As well, something like Star Wars Republic actually shaped a lot of the background of the prequels and showcased the Clone Wars soon after the second movie and ended up being mined for the Clone Wars novels. (The new show has created some problems.)

I don't think the latter case is an example of the different works being developed simultaneously. And just because it can be done on occasion, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good way of doing business on a continuing basis. The job is complicated enough without constantly having to be constrained by what a separate company is doing.

I'd much prefer having a richer, multi-media story board then having "One direction for one, another for another."

I'd say that having multiple different interpretations of the continuity, different ways of exploring the same idea and taking it in different directions, can be richer than having only one.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time.

Dark Empire was not written as a sequel to the Thrawn trilogy. Work began on it when Marvel still held the license in the late-80s. (It was going to be published through Marvel's Epic imprint.) Lucasfilm Licensing made Dark Empire fit after the Thrawn trilogy (because Zahn didn't want to have to incorporate it into his storyline), but it was always an independent project from Zahn's work. The Jedi Academy trilogy was then made consistent with Dark Empire because KJA said that a wrecked Coruscant really made no difference to his story. (I believe he was given the option of rejiggering the story to go before Dark Empire.)

 

[Stevil2001]

Yeah, if I remember right, Dark Empire was originally intended to take place a year or two after Return of the Jedi. If you look at the comic closely, nothing in the first mini says "the New Republic" except for the text pieces preceding each issue; in-story, everyone is still calling it "the Rebellion."

 

[Fer]

I seem to recall that Dark Empire handled Leia's pregnancy with Anakin without acknowledging she'd already had Jacen and Jaina, which led me to believe at the time it was a separate continuity from the Thrawn trilogy. I quit reading it pretty early on though, so I could be wrong.

It seemed to me that later works took the two unconnected stories and then tweaked the timeline to make them both fit.

ETA: But getting back to the original point, I would also like to see the occasional comic that does fit in with the current post-Destiny status quo. But since this new mini is going its own way, I doubt IDW would do that, as they'd probably consider two different post-Nemesis comics to be confusing to the casual reader.

 

[Christopher]

It seemed to me that later works took the two unconnected stories and then tweaked the timeline to make them both fit.

Yeah, they did that a lot. The various Star Wars tie-ins originally went in their own separate directions, as was normal for tie-ins at the time, but then, once the novels and comics were coming along more regularly, Lucasfilm adopted its policy of treating them all as equally real and grafting them together even when they contradicted each other. And I think that's created a false impression in retrospect that they were always meant to be a uniform whole.

 

[JD]

At times I'm amazed by the mental gymnastics that the Lucas people go through to try to make everything consistent.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Anyway, back to the IDW post-Nemesis Borg project.

Brannon Braga returns to Star Trek for Hive:

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation!
In the distant future the entire galaxy has been completely assimilated by Borg and it's king... Locutus! The only hope for the future lies in the past, in the hands of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the starship Enterprise-as Picard faces off against the Borg collective in one final, terrifying and definitive encounter!

Brannon Braga is one of the writers most associated with the Star Trek Franchise. He has written a number of fondly remembered episodes of TNG, including co-writing the two-part series finale, "All Good Things...," for which he won the prestigious Hugo Award. Terry Matalas has written for Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as Terra Nova.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Sounds like fun!

 

[BillJ]

It sounds like a retread of the Borg Alien Spotlight story...

 

[The Wormhole]

StarTrek.com also discusses Hive along with showing an awesome variant cover. That link also features details and covers of issue 13 of the Abrams Timeline ongoing comic and issue 5 of Assimilation-Squared for those interested.

Anyhoo, I got to say, Braga's involvement with Hive certainly has me intrigued. Braga may not be a popular guy on this forum, but I found his TNG episodes to be enjoyable. They may have at times been weird, but they also had some of the best character moments in TNG.

Admittedly, the plot to Hive has some familiar Braga Tropes (time travel, Borg domination) but I'll be checking it out all the same.

 

[Christopher]

I'm surprised they aren't waiting until the whole ST/Who crossover is published before doing a collector's edition of the first half.

And I'm wondering what makes this Romulans Treasury Edition different from the Pawns of War compilation we already have.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm surprised they aren't waiting until the whole ST/Who crossover is published before doing a collector's edition of the first half.

It's so they have something for the book market for this Christmas. At work we think they're doing two trades, one for Christmas, one for early next year, with a hardcover edition collecting the whole thing for next Christmas and Who's 50th-anniversary.

 

[Mr. Domino]

I'm surprised they aren't waiting until the whole ST/Who crossover is published before doing a collector's edition of the first half.

And I'm wondering what makes this Romulans Treasury Edition different from the Pawns of War compilation we already have.

In comics, Treasury Editions are oversized compilations of previously printed work. They used to do them all the time in the 70s, and a lot of guys from that era have very fond memories of them - John Byrne, who wrote and drew all the Pawns of War stories, was quite big at that time (and for a while after, but that's beside the point), and so he appeals to that demographic - thus, they're trying to tickle the nostalgia bone a bit.

EDIT: I also find it highly amusing, on the subject of divergent versions of the timeline, that the image of Picard they've used for the cover to Hive # 1 is the same one we're getting on the cover of Brinkmanship. Frowny Picard is frowny.

 

[Relayer1]

I seem to recall that Dark Empire handled Leia's pregnancy with Anakin without acknowledging she'd already had Jacen and Jaina, which led me to believe at the time it was a separate continuity from the Thrawn trilogy. I quit reading it pretty early on though, so I could be wrong.

It seemed to me that later works took the two unconnected stories and then tweaked the timeline to make them both fit.

ETA: But getting back to the original point, I would also like to see the occasional comic that does fit in with the current post-Destiny status quo. But since this new mini is going its own way, I doubt IDW would do that, as they'd probably consider two different post-Nemesis comics to be confusing to the casual reader.

But there's always the possibility of them deliberately doing some stories in the IDW continuity that are compatible with the novel canon as well...

 

[Therin of Andor]

And I'm wondering what makes this Romulans Treasury Edition different...

Size/format?

 

[Christopher]

But there's always the possibility of them deliberately doing some stories in the IDW continuity that are compatible with the novel canon as well...

I don't think there is a single IDW continuity. Some of their miniseries have contradicted each other. For instance, I believe Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment and Romulans: Pawns of War handled things like the cloaking device and late-2260s UFP/Klingon/Romulan relations and conflicts in incompatible ways.

And there already are a few IDW stories compatible with the prose; there's the New Frontier comic and the Alien Spotlight and Captain's Log one-shots by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

 

[Relayer1]

But there's always the possibility of them deliberately doing some stories in the IDW continuity that are compatible with the novel canon as well...

I don't think there is a single IDW continuity. Some of their miniseries have contradicted each other. For instance, I believe Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment and Romulans: Pawns of War handled things like the cloaking device and late-2260s UFP/Klingon/Romulan relations and conflicts in incompatible ways.

And there already are a few IDW stories compatible with the prose; there's the New Frontier comic and the Alien Spotlight and Captain's Log one-shots by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

Excellent - I'll look them up...