Any Trek authors pitched a post Romulus story to Pocketbooks yet?

[Dark Gilligan]

Technically, there's nothing in the film to suggest that the flashback, 24th-century portions of the film take place in the same timeline as the one Trek's been exploring for the last quarter-decade or so, and a fair amount that would suggest otherwise.

That's an interesting interpratation, but it's not what was intended. Nimoy himself is the anchor-point that links new trek with the old. His presence is to assure us that, yes, this really is the Spock we knew. That's certainly how he played it, and it's why Abrams was so strongly intent on bringing Nimoy aboard.

 

[DonIago]

Agreed. While the argument can be made and supported that the divergence point was prior to the Narada's misadventure, I think we all know what TPTB's intentions were.

Though I suppose an argument can also be made that this wouldn't be the first time the novels would go in a direction contrary to those intentions..

 

[Greg Cox]

Agreed. While the argument can be made and supported that the divergence point was prior to the Narada's misadventure, I think we all know what TPTB's intentions were.

Though I suppose an argument can also be made that this wouldn't be the first time the novels would go in a direction contrary to those intentions..

Nimoy's character was the Spock we grew up with. Anything else is denial or deliberate misinterpretation.

It's that simple.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, technically, the destruction of Romulus took place in the Prime Universe--not the new alternate timeline. So, theoretically, you could do a TNG book set in the Prime Universe dealing with the aftermath of the Romulus going boom.

Technically, there's nothing in the film to suggest that the flashback, 24th-century portions of the film take place in the same timeline as the one Trek's been exploring for the last quarter-decade or so, and a fair amount that would suggest otherwise. There's no need for Romulus to blow up in our timeline, anymore than the Abramsverse is bound by events in the original setting. They're seperate, independant things.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

I think you know how these things work. The books tend to conform to what is established in TV and film. "Our Universe" and that other one is what the Film's writers say it is.

 

[William Leisner]

Nimoy's character was the Spock we grew up with. Anything else is denial or deliberate misinterpretation.

It's that simple.

Put me down for deliberate misinterpretation, then.

 

[LightningStorm]

Lots of natural phenomena are unusual. That doesn't make them the purview of engineers. If a star's behaving in an unusual way, you send in astrophysicists. The only reason you'd send in engineers is if the physicists discovered some technological device causing the unusual effects.

One might also send engineers to devise a solution to the problem caused by the unusual effects of the natural phenomena.

 

[ConRefit79]

Wonder if Red Matter will be mentioned in future novels before 2387. I find it hard to believe they invented Red Matter in the short time from discovering Hobus was closed to going super nova and the actual explosion.

 

[Christopher]

The whole point was to make ST 2009 a story that was not a complete restart -- something that, despite being set before TOS in an alternate timeline, was nonetheless an outgrowth of events in the original Star Trek timeline. The idea was to make it a coda to what came before as well as a new beginning. That's the whole damn reason they did a time-travel story in the first place! If it were meant to be a wholly separate entity with no connection to the Prime timeline, they wouldn't have told the story the way they did! So it's really rather disingenuous to pretend that wasn't the intent.

This is the same kind of nonsense we were hearing a few years ago when some fans were insisting that Enterprise was intentionally branching off a whole new timeline that would have no connection to prior Trek -- an idea that the fourth season conclusively scuttled and that the books have ignored. And some of the same rationalizations were used, like citing differences in technology design and the odd continuity glitch as "proof" that it had to be a separate reality. But now the differences have to be chalked up to artistic license, because there's no question it's meant to be the same single continuity. The same thing will happen here. No matter how much some fans may want to pretend the new movie is totally unconnected to past Trek continuity, there is no way in hell that that revisionist notion is ever going to be accepted by any official production or licensed publication. So I wish the deniers would get over themselves already and stop mistaking their wishful thinking for concrete reality. They were wrong when they spun these cockamamie theories about Enterprise, and now they're not only wrong but forgetful, because we just went through this a few years ago.

Besides, let's look at this from the novelists' perspective. It's our job to build on anything in the whole of Trek continuity that gives us potential for new and interesting stories. How bizarre is it to think we would ignore something with as much potential as the destruction of Romulus?

 

[DonIago]

FWIW I think the vast majority of...well, everyone...agrees with you. Including myself.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I will post this diagram whenever this subject comes up:

Official Star Trek Timeline Chart

Just replace "Star Trek Online" with "novels".

As Christopher said, this is exactly the same stuff that came up when Enterprise started. Did anyone complain that Destiny was "wrong" to feature the NX-02 and the 1701-E in the same timeline?

 

[Xenu Cruise]

I will post this diagram whenever this subject comes up:

Official Star Trek Timeline Chart

Just replace "Star Trek Online" with "novels".

What is the story with the dissolving of the Klingon/Federation Peace Treaty? Where was that established?

 

[kkozoriz1]

"Last of the Romulan Empire" seems to indicate that there's not many left. If the empire fell after Romulus was destroyed but there were many Romulans left on colonies there'd be a bunch of people who were "Last of the Romulan Empire". Maybe Vulcanoids don't like to colonize. After all, there are less than 10,000 Vulcans left out of 5 Billion in the NuUniverse.

 

[DonIago]

Xenu, I'd assume that's in STO.

 

[F. King Daniel]

"Last of the Romulan Empire" seems to indicate that there's not many left. If the empire fell after Romulus was destroyed but there were many Romulans left on colonies there'd be a bunch of people who were "Last of the Romulan Empire". Maybe Vulcanoids don't like to colonize. After all, there are less than 10,000 Vulcans left out of 5 Billion in the NuUniverse.

I suggested something similar a while back (that most Romulan worlds only had a few hundred or thousand Romulans running the local governments of conquered worlds), but apparently some novels feature Romulan colony worlds with Romulan populations in the billions.

I think it's possible that without the homeworld and seat of power the entire Romulan Empire could collapse after the Hobus disaster. I would hate for the supernova to be ignored as a minor hiccup without massive consequences.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Perhaps the colonies were close to Romulus and the conquered worlds were farther away. The supernova could have destroyed the colonies too, leaving just a few garrisons on planets with subject races ready to rise up.

 

[BrotherBenny]

It seems to me to be rather disingenuous that the galaxy continues to suffer from one politically altering event every few years, at least in the latter half of the twenty-fourth century.

The Romulans coming back from their self imposed exile.
The Cardassian/Bajoran affairs...
...The Klingon-Federation and Klingon-Cardassian war...
The Dominion War
The Borg Invasion
The Hobus supernova

The Borg invasion killed 60 billion people and left parts of the Federation and allied space in ruins. And yet, approximately six years later, one of the members of the Typhon Pact has their homeworld obliterated by a supernova.

I think it would be interesting to see if Pocket Books go the same route at STO in what caused the supernova. After all, nothing much is known about the Iconians.

 

[JarodRussell]

Wasn't Trip Tucker's death also canonical?

So why get rid of Romulus?

 

[JD]

Well all that was actually canonical was that the holodeck program Riker watched showed Trip dying. All the authors had to do was say the program was a lie. I don't see there being anything like that for the destruction of Romulus.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wasn't Trip Tucker's death also canonical?

So why get rid of Romulus?

Trip's still officially "dead".
The "death" of one man vs the destruction of an entire planet. One's a lot easier to get around.

 

[Christopher]

So why get rid of Romulus?

Because stories are about crises and challenges, not the eternal preservation of the things we're nostalgic for.

Personally, I wasn't comfortable with the idea of bringing back Trip just out of a desire not to lose the character. But "These Are the Voyages" had enough glaring logic holes that you could validly find a story to tell that arose from them, so it wasn't purely an exercise in nostalgia. That's always the priority, or should be: not sentiment, but whether there's a story to be told. And I'd say the destruction of Romulus opens up all sorts of story possibilities.