2018 Releases

[Greg Cox]

ANOTHER prequel TOS-era show? At least make it TWOK-era or something.
And now that the 24th century novels seem to have ground to a halt, there's nothing to keep the story going, post-Nemesis.

I wouldn't worry about it. At the moment, it's just a rumor.

 

[borgboy]

While it may not be what I'd have preferred more Trek is better than less Trek, and Pikes' Enterprise could make an interesting series. The characters had potential with brooding cerebral Pike, young Spock, Number One...I could easily get worked up over this.
I was thinking earlier the Kelvinverse series would really benefit from some novels to develop the characters. There's so much we don't see with them. In particular Sulu has a husband and child but we literally got seconds with them together and we never hear the husband speak so much as one word. There's loads of potential with Spock and Uhura's relationship, Spock's angst over the loss of Vulcan and his mother, Sarek opening up to him more than Prime Sarek ever did, Prime Spock's life on New Vulcan (I got the impression from the first movie he was going to marry and have children so young Spock would be free not to), etc.

 

[Christopher]

While it may not be what I'd have preferred more Trek is better than less Trek, and Pikes' Enterprise could make an interesting series. The characters had potential with brooding cerebral Pike, young Spock, Number One...I could easily get worked up over this.

Honestly, I don't see it. I mean, we've always found the Pike-era characters an engaging curiosity because we'd seen so little of them, but the fact is, part of the reason "The Cage" didn't sell as a pilot was that the characters weren't as interesting as their successors. And what attributes they had, we've already seen. Kirk and McCoy were basically Pike and Boyce with new names (at least until Shatner's performance started influencing the writing of Kirk). And Number One's character traits were folded into Spock. So it wouldn't offer much to make it distinctive once the novelty wore off. I don't see the value of going back to a rejected first draft.

I mean, Kelvin Pike was a cool character, but he had virtually nothing in common with "Cage" Pike, being considerably older and more of a father figure to Kirk (rather than the exact same character as Kirk but played by a stiffer actor). It was the context, as well as the actor, that made him work there.

I was thinking earlier the Kelvinverse series would really benefit from some novels to develop the characters. There's so much we don't see with them. In particular Sulu has a husband and child but we literally got seconds with them together and we never hear the husband speak so much as one word. There's loads of potential with Spock and Uhura's relationship, Spock's angst over the loss of Vulcan and his mother, Sarek opening up to him more than Prime Sarek ever did, Prime Spock's life on New Vulcan (I got the impression from the first movie he was going to marry and have children so young Spock would be free not to), etc.

Yeah, it would be nice to have that opportunity again and actually have it come to fruition this time.

 

[borgboy]

To be fair, a lot of my excitement for Number One is from the development she's gotten in novels and comics, and young Spock is still Spock.
If I had to choose between a Pike series or nothing, I'd still get pretty excited about Pike. I have no expectation we're going to get a post-Nemesis series. I'm even ok with that if the novels are allowed to continue that era. Realistically, the novels will probably be better than a new show anyways.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps the so-called "Lost Era" will get a series.

 

[Leto_II]

Reportedly, Bryan Fuller's original pitch to CBS was that the first season of the new TV series would be set in the Pike-era, but subsequent seasons would then push forward into the timeline, past the well-trodden paths of the 24th Century into an unvisited future era. Possibly the Enterprise-B/-C years would've been a part of this initial plan.

 

[ryan123450]

Reportedly, Bryan Fuller's original pitch to CBS was that the first season of the new TV series would be set in the Pike-era, but subsequent seasons would then push forward into the timeline, well past the well-trodden paths of the 24th Century into an unvisited future era. Possibly the Enterprise-B/-C years would've been a part of this initial plan.

This plan I was sure would have proven the death of the Litverse in its current form. Discovery has been pretty kind to us in that regard. It’s issues are far more with the reimagining of canon continuity itself than conflicts with the 24th century literary continuity.

 

[Jinn]

With Cross Cult it maybe, or it maybe CBS. Remember, Cross Cult gets the license and books from CBS, not Simon & Schuster.

I doubt that CBS had anything to do with it, or at least not concerning the license deal. CrossCult's Trek line appears to have some financial difficulties for some time. For example, since 2012/2013 which ahd about two books per month the number of published books went down to one, then the Enterprise line got canceled due to low sales (although later relaunched in the form of Rise of the Federation), then Corps of Engineers gets canceled after 28 novellas due to low sales, Voyager has reportedly been low on sales every since Children of the Storm and it was also admitted that pretty much every TOS novel is a garantued failure which is why they can really only publish one per year. Also, New Frontier, I believe, was said to sell about as well as Voyager, which is kinda sad considering that Voyager at least has some brand recognition in the general audience, while New Frontier has none.

Also, prices have been going up a lot. Since the beginning (2008) the standard price has been 12.80€ which has increased to 12.99€ by 2015. The first novel published last year, The Missing, which was extraordinarily short (less than 300 pages) cost 14€, the same price the nearly 600 pages long Twilight was priced in 2010.

I'm just saying, it's probably due to different reasons than the current Pocket hiatus.

 

[JD]

Reportedly, Bryan Fuller's original pitch to CBS was that the first season of the new TV series would be set in the Pike-era, but subsequent seasons would then push forward into the timeline, past the well-trodden paths of the 24th Century into an unvisited future era. Possibly the Enterprise-B/-C years would've been a part of this initial plan.

I'm really torn when it comes to the idea of a post-Nemesis series, on one hand I'd love to see the TV series move forward rather than backwards, but on the other hand I love the Novelverse and would hate to lose it since unless it jumped really, really far into the future any new post-Nemesis series would pretty much guarentee that the current Novelverse would come to an end.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm really torn when it comes to the idea of a post-Nemesis series, on one hand I'd love to see the TV series move forward rather than backwards, but on the other hand I love the Novelverse and would hate to lose it since unless it jumped really, really far into the future any new post-Nemesis series would pretty much guarentee that the current Novelverse would come to an end.

It's happened before. The 1980s novel shared continuity ceased to be with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Ann Crispin's Time for Yesterday was its final hurrah. There are differences between what the novels were like then and what the novels recently were. Back then, the novels shared characters but not plot threads, while recent novels shared both. Yet, with any tie-in, there's always a chance that something later on will come along and overwrite it. That doesn't make the books any less valuable. I mean, First Contact rendered Strangers from the Sky mostly fiction, but it's still one of my favorite books, and it still has an important place in my library. If there is, let's say, a 26th-century series, the novels haven't gone away from your library. The enjoyment you received from them isn't lessened. And they're always there for you to revisit.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

I mean, First Contact rendered Strangers from the Sky mostly fiction

I just love the fact that only after it's contrdicted by onscreen events is a book about alien contact considered "fiction"

 

[Greg Cox]

It's happened before. The 1980s novel shared continuity ceased to be with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Ann Crispin's Time for Yesterday was its final hurrah. .

And I referenced Ann Crispin's books in one of my TOS novels just a few years ago.

 

[Christopher]

It's happened before. The 1980s novel shared continuity ceased to be with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Ann Crispin's Time for Yesterday was its final hurrah.

There were still plenty of later books that fit into or referenced the '80s continuity. I'd say that roughly half the books that came out in the two or so years after Time for Yesterday connect to the '80s-verse to some degree -- Spock's World, Memory Prime, The Final Nexus, The Lost Years, Rules of Engagement, The Pandora Principle, Doctor's Orders, Prime Directive. It was only after those last two books (both in mid-1990) that we saw a pretty clean break, with the only subsequent books tying into the earlier continuity being the Lost Years sequels and Best Destiny.

I'd say, rather, that Time for Yesterday was the pinnacle of the '80s continuity. It was the one book that referenced the largest number of books by other authors and is basically the keystone of the whole thing, tying in a lot of books that don't connect in any other way. And it was the end of the most active period of the '80s continuity, before its decline over the next two years.

Yet, with any tie-in, there's always a chance that something later on will come along and overwrite it. That doesn't make the books any less valuable.

As I often say, all science fiction will eventually be overwritten by the advancement of science and the calendar. But we still write it and read it anyway.

 

[Damian]

I'm really torn when it comes to the idea of a post-Nemesis series, on one hand I'd love to see the TV series move forward rather than backwards, but on the other hand I love the Novelverse and would hate to lose it since unless it jumped really, really far into the future any new post-Nemesis series would pretty much guarentee that the current Novelverse would come to an end.

I honestly don't think you have much to worry about. Discovery is a hit from what I understand so I think they'll stick with it with some scenes with the Enterprise apparently.

As far as the 24th century, I honestly doubt you'll see that on screen at this point. I don't think there's much interest in following up TNG, DS9 or Voyager in any significant way by the studio. I can maybe someday seeing them jumping farther in the future so they can have a wholly original crew and mostly original story/mission.

 

[thribs]

This plan I was sure would have proven the death of the Litverse in its current form. Discovery has been pretty kind to us in that regard. It’s issues are far more with the reimagining of canon continuity itself than conflicts with the 24th century literary continuity.

It's only a matter of time until it's broken anyway.

 

[ryan123450]

I can see it as a definite possibility that “we get through Discovery unscathed.” Obviously not a certainty but possible. Then perhaps they could skip into the 25th century for a series, and again it would be a definite possibility that the current state of the Litverse could then be aimed toward that endpoint. Of course that’s all assuming the Litverse isn’t already dead.

 

[thribs]

As long as it isn’t like the Star Wars one where they replaced it with something drastically inferior

 

[ryan123450]

It probably would be.

 

[JD]

It's happened before. The 1980s novel shared continuity ceased to be with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Ann Crispin's Time for Yesterday was its final hurrah. There are differences between what the novels were like then and what the novels recently were. Back then, the novels shared characters but not plot threads, while recent novels shared both. Yet, with any tie-in, there's always a chance that something later on will come along and overwrite it. That doesn't make the books any less valuable. I mean, First Contact rendered Strangers from the Sky mostly fiction, but it's still one of my favorite books, and it still has an important place in my library. If there is, let's say, a 26th-century series, the novels haven't gone away from your library. The enjoyment you received from them isn't lessened. And they're always there for you to revisit.

Of course the books will still exist, my disappointment would be in the stories most likely not continuing. I personally would love to see it continue as an alternate universe, but I have a feeling CBS probably wouldn't want to do that since it could confuse people.
Something similar happened with The X-Files, before the new seasons started they were doing a official continuation comic that went in a totally different direction at IDW, and I think it actually did continue for a little while after the new seasons started. It was eventually replaced by a series that was spun off from the new episodes.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I can't remember for sure if it was one of the Treks, or something else, but I read an interview where a TV shows writer admitted the that they would purposefully write the craziest cliffhangers they could come up with as a challenge for whoever had to write the season premiere. They really hated it when they had to write the next season's premiere, because then they had to come up with the solution.

My favourite quote on the subject was from Chris Boucherr, about Blake's 7 (which pretty much introduced the TV SF season-finale cliffhanger), who went the opposite way. He says that the best piece of advice he got was from B7 creator Terry Nation, who told him "always try to write the first and last episodes of the season- that way if they repeat *any* episodes, they *have* to repeat yours!