Spoilers Discovery and the Novelverse - TV show discussion thread

Yeah, I figure that, while I fully expect them to be focused on telling the story of Discovery, whether or not it 'plays nice' with the established novelverse lore, if it doesn't contradict anything they're doing for Discovery, there could be nods to or even utilizing of certain elements from the novels.

I mean, like I said, I know that they don't have to be bound to what the novels have said and done, but I think it's not out of the realm of possibility for some novel elements to get 'canonized' in Discovery.

 

Well, with Kirsten Beyer on staff, they certainly have access to novelverse info if they want to refer to it.

In fact, I was just watching the video of the Comic-Con panel, and I was interested when Anthony Rapp made a point of saying that his role was the first openly gay character in the TV universe of Star Trek, stressing "TV" as if he were aware that there had been openly gay characters in other Trek media. And what went through my head when he said that was, "He's been talking to Kirsten." Or someone else who's familiar with the novels, at least, though she's the most obvious candidate.

 

He could just be referencing Sulu being gay in Beyond. Since that's a movie, Anthony Rapp is still playing the first gay Star Trek TV character.

 

But he specifically said "openly gay," and the glimpse of Sulu greeting a man and child was too vague and ambiguous to deserve the word "openly." I mean, in-universe he's surely open about it, in the moments we didn't see onscreen, but I wouldn't call it a narratively open portrayal.

 

Well, we just got plenty of new info to chew on regards to the newest book, Desperate Hours, along with the comic:

http://trekcore.com/blog/2017/08/cover-reveals-for-first-star-trek-discovery-novel-and-comic/

For the novel, it is set a year before the show begins, and a year after "The Cage."

 

They also mentioned a second novel coming out in 2018, taking place 10 years before Discovery.

 

During the panel they mentioned it involved a known event and kind of hinted around it's something well-known.

2245- launch of the Enterprise maybe ?

 

Or Donatu V, considering how Klingony everything is. Or maybe both.

It was also explicated the novels, including DSC ones, remain non-canon, for flexibility reasons, so it seems the close coordination is still remaining at a Mosaic/Pathways level, and not full Grand Unified Multimedia Franchise like Star Wars. I doubt that surprises anyone, but even predictable information is information.

 

Well, the cover is a bit uninspired, but at least it's not "Broken Bow" bad. They couldn't have thrown in a shot of the Shenzhou as the backdrop?

The panel also talked a bit more about the plot:

Spoiler

"Ancient Alien vessel attacks the USS Shenzou [sic] while Burnham is acting 1st officer."
https://twitter.com/TrekMovie/status/892912063097348096

From the sounds of it, both this and Dayton's book are going to be filling in backstory, which is fair enough. I was hoping it would actually be connected to the season plot, but it sounds like that is going to be serialized to the point where there won't be space to squeeze in any additional adventures, and KMFB said they aren't going to be beholden to the novels in any event.

 

Looks like it's Mosaic/Pathways for the current generation? That's cool.

 

I thought they specifically hired KMFB on DIS so that the novels were able to synchronise with the show - the impression was certainly given that, at least initially, the novels would be more like the Star Wars novels.

 

Someone said this in the DSC subforum. the Novels and comics are based off notes and backstories that the show writers came up with, but the show could still decide not to use those notes.

So basically accurate until it isn't.

 

No, they hired Kirsten because she's a good writer and a Trek expert. Her primary responsibility is to the show, not to the novels -- the same as when Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens joined Enterprise's staff in season 4. Her prior connection with Pocket and her fellow novelists made her a good choice to be the coordinator between the staff and the tie-in writers, but that's secondary to her role as part of the show's core creative team.

 

Here's a link to the video I took of the plot description of Desperate Hours

 

That description is inaccurate.

Though Kirsten helped us so far as navigating potential land mines as the show was continuing its own gestation process, Dave and I each developed our respective stories. I can't speak to Dave's situation, but I was given wide latitude so far as fleshing out backstory for certain characters, as well as the "canon" bits I tie into. It's been a lot of fun, but also a good bit of work.

Maybe one of these days, Admiral Beyer will let me talk about it.

 

I think it's good to have novels to fill in the backstory for the characters. I'm glad David Mack and Dayton have been writing Discovery novels. I look forward to reading them.

 

I'm pretty sure they hired her because she's a good writer. I don't know where this idea that Star Trek was going to adopt Star Wars's "everything is canon (except when the actual movies feel like doing something different so really there's no difference at all except we call the novels 'canon' as a marketing tool)" approach came from. Coordinating to make the new novels consistent with the show does not preclude the show from deciding to change its mind and do something different later on.

 

Trekcore has posted some information about the creation process of Desperate Hours from STLV ST bookspanel on Twitter. I've collected the tweets at my blog: https://defcons-treklit.blogspot.de/2017/08/short-news-kelvin-timeline-no-longer.html

 

Wow, now I'm excited.