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Crossovers in nuTrek: Yeah or Nay?

What do you think of Trek Lit Crossovers?

  • I think they're great!

    Votes: 19 76.0%
  • I think they're unrealistic.

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Meh, don't care.

    Votes: 3 12.0%

  • Total voters
    25

shanejayell

Captain
Captain
There's been a interesting debate going on in the 'Greater than the Sum' thread reguarding 'Event' stories and crossovers in Trek lit.

http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=130205&page=3

On one hand there is the feeling that 'events' derail ongoing plotlines in each series. Also some readers feel that it's unrealistic that crossovers should occur, considering the size of the Federation, it's allies and so on.

On the other hand some readers like that the various series set in the same era can interact, and that casts can crossover with each other. In a era with slipstream drive distances aren't THAT much of a problem, and a good writer can work around other issues.

Thoughts?
 
Well, the problem with basing a poll on that debate is that much of that debate is based on invalid definitions. The only full-on crossover Trek Lit has ever done is Destiny. Most of its "crossover events," including the current Typhon Pact, are really groups of standalone novels linked by common themes. They're specifically designed so that any book within the "crossover" can be read on its own without the others.

And they don't derail ongoing plotlines. In Gateways, for example, there were two series involved in the crossover with ongoing plotlines, DS9 and New Frontier -- three if you count Challenger, though that was only the second and final book in that "series." And in all three cases, the Gateways installments tied in far more strongly to the series' own ongoing plotlines than they did to one another. Yes, Demons of Air and Darkness involves the DS9 crew dealing with the Gateways crisis, but it's mainly a backdrop to the ongoing situations that are continuing from the previous books. Yes, "Horn and Ivory" results from Kira stepping through a gateway, but it's a very personal story deeply rooted in Bajoran history and Kira's own character arc. As for the NF installment, its connection to the overall Gateways crisis is rather indirect, with the antagonists supposedly connected to the antagonists in the other books but being rather different in their portrayal and actions. It's much more driven by stuff internal to NF than it is by the Gateways situation. And the Challenger book is only peripherally tied in to the rest.

And I question whether it's valid to say that even Destiny derailed any ongoing plotlines. In TNG, the various crew shakeups all took place in books set before and after Destiny, not during the trilogy itself. And Beverly getting pregnant (something which happened in Greater Than the Sum but was conceived -- so to speak -- during the development of Destiny) was not a derailing, but a logical progression of the Picard/Beverly plotline. As for Titan, Riker and Troi were already trying to start a family before the trilogy, so again it's a logical progression, not a derailing. True, a rather major change happened for Tuvok, the loss of his son, but arguably that fits neatly into his ongoing character arc in the series, augmenting it rather than derailing it.

Now, it's been argued that bringing Titan back to the Alpha Quadrant derailed its storyline of exploration in deep space... but 1) that's not a storyline, it's a premise, and 2) Titan was back in deep space again by the very next book after Destiny, so in the long term, nothing was derailed.

As for Voyager, the events of Destiny constitute a fairly small part of the storylines of Full Circle, doing little more than killing off a few minor supporting characters who would probably have been written out some other way anyway, as well as providing a justification for a return to the Delta Quadrant, which would probably have been done anyway, and which could be said to be putting VGR back on the rails it's been off of for years.

Although a case could be made that VGR was "derailed" by the death of Janeway in a TNG novel. I suppose that falls into the broad, non-"event" definition of a crossover, but one example doesn't make a pervasive pattern. There's also the decision to bring DS9 forward five years to sync up with the post-Destiny timeline. But those are the only cases I can think of where the progression of one book series has been substantially affected by events in a different book series. Generally, even when characters and concepts do cross over, each series follows its own path.
 
*lol*

I'm actually not arguing. I set up the poll to try to get the debate out of the 'Greater than the Sum' thread, as it's kinda WAY off topic.

Oh well.
 
It all comes down to feeling...

If the 'crossover' feels organic and not forced I'm okay with it, as long as it isn't overdone. YMMV.
 
Crossovers like the Enterprise saving the Defiant in a battle against a Borg cube are great and reasonable. But - especially in Treklit - they go often far beyond that and tend to scream "Small Universe Syndrome!". Starts with small things already. When there's an Admiral role to fill, instead of making up a new character to enlarge the universe, it's often again Jellico, Janeway or Nechayev. And of course the crews of all ships got intermixed. Tuvok aboard the Titan, for example. Shelby aboard the Excalibur. Ro Laren aboard DS9 (I mean, weren't O'Brien and Worf enough already?). And so on. These things are not bad taken for themselves, but seen together in the great picture, it just makes the universe so incredibly tiny. it seems like almost every Captain and Admiral in Starfleet has crossed paths with Captain Picard some way or another. I simply can't buy stuff like that.
 
^ I have to agree with the above. I'm probably a bit of a hypocrite on this, because I loved onscreen crossovers and thought that tv/ movie Trek had too few of them. But yes, in Treklit - and admittedly I haven't read as much over the last couple of years as I used to - there does seem to be a tendency exactly as described above.

It used to be when we got an appearance by a character from a different Trek series in a novel predominantly about another crew that it was special. Now it just feels everyday to the point of overdone. Based, as I say, on my admittedly limited experience of Treklit over the last few years.
 
I have not read the "Double Helix" books, but I am of the (probably erroneous) understanding that commanding officers and medical officers from TNG, TOS, DS9, VOY, and New Frontier all got together and solved some kind of medical mystery...if that's so, isn't that the first multi-line "crossover"?

I'm sure one of you (or several) will set me straight.
 
In #2, Vectors, Pulaski works with Dukat and Kira while on DS9

Book 4, Quarantine has Tom Riker teaming up with Chkotay and B'Lanna

#5, Double or Nothing is a team up between Calhoun and Picard.

Book 6 is The Stargazer crew and Tuvok.
 
Double Helix wasn't a crossover like Destiny. Like most Trek crossovers, it was six separate stories, set in different places and times, dealing with different occurrences of the same problem -- in this case, different outbreaks of the same disease. Like most Trek crossovers, each book told its own self-contained story with a beginning and end; the only continuing element is that the origin of the disease wasn't revealed until the last two books. Each book could be read on its own without needing to read the others.

The one thing that made Double Helix distinct from most other crossovers is that it wasn't one book per series, but was different mixes of characters from various series, always including at least one TNG character. Book 1 was straight first-season TNG (2364). Book 2 was Dr. Pulaski on Terok Nor, interacting with the DS9 characters who were on the station in 2366. Book 3 was mainly a Spock/McCoy book, but Dr. Crusher was in it too, and took place mainly in 2369. Book 4, as stated above, was Tom Riker working with Chakotay's Maquis cell in 2371, shortly before VGR. Book 5 was a TNG/New Frontier crossover in 2375, and Book 6 was a prequel set aboard the Stargazer in 2350, featuring a young Beverly Crusher and Ensign Tuvok.
 
When I first saw the title of this thread I though it was going to concern a cross-over between primeTrek and nuTrek (Roddenberry's Trek and Abrams's Trek), while such would be interesting, until nuTrek is better established, premature.
 
Since this thread started on an incorrect premise, I suggest we close it and keep it dead. See the topic for what killed the thread.
 
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