Spoilers Discovery and the Novelverse - TV show discussion thread

You should see the Facebook Trek Timeliners Group...

 

I feel the same way. As long as the stories are good and are internally consistent I couldn’t give a damn if they’re not consistent with what we’ve seen on screen.

Not that I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the shows anyway.

 

I think the record might go to the comic book Star Trek Countdown, which released in the 4 months leading to the 2009 film and then was contradicted by the film itself. That comic clearly shows Spock sitting around on Vulcan when the Hobus supernova destroys Romulus, yet the 2009 movie itself shows Spock in the Jellyfish starship flying around in space trying to stop the supernova and watching his viewscreen in horror as the supernova destroys Romulus.

As such, I only have issues 1 and 2 in my headcanon (up to the point where Romulus is destroyed and no clear contradiction of where Spock is).

 

Even the first two issues are pretty massively contradicted by the film, since they depict a pre-existing friendship between Spock Prime and Nero prior to the Hobus detonation, whereas the movie itself shows Nero introducing himself to Spock Prime seemingly just after Romulus goes boom and right before the two ships get sucked into the singularity (“He called himself ‘Nero, Last of the Romulan Empire’...”).

 

Well we could let that slide, I mean Nero was probably unrecognizable after all those tattoos, so he had to identify himself again...

 

There's no such thing as hard or soft canon. Either something is canon or isn't.

 

Well, sometimes there is soft canon; some things are pretty much officially treated as pseudo-real unless they're specifically contradicted. For instance, Paramount/CBS have long required Trek tie-in authors to remain consistent with the chronological conjectures in the Star Trek Chronology even though the shows and movies themselves were free to contradict them.

The problem is, people want there to be one universal way that canon works everywhere, and that's nonsense, because it depends on the individual franchise.

 

Heh! I'd love to, actually, but I've never personally run across it. Is it invite-only or something?...

 

There is on occasion semi-hard canon, but there are pills for that now.

 

And I seriously doubt the novelverse as a whole will get any more consideration vis-a-vis The Picard Show.

 

You say that almost as if … I don't know … you've been paying attention, or something.

 

One interesting thing about Discovery is that, by bringing Section 31 in as a known entity within 23rd century Starfleet (not clear how it will be reconciled with the secret group no one knows about in the 24th), it allows the Star Trek Year Four comics to more easily fit into canon.

Kirk asks an officer, "What section are you with again?" (I think it was the last issue of Year 4: Enterprise Experiment, but not sure), the officer replies "31", and Kirk doesn't even react or ask for more details--he acts like he already knows it.

 

Although Section 31: Cloak is pretty much screwed, I think.

 

That's the one where Kirk is giving Bashir a run for his money in trying to bring down Section 31 right? Yeah, that's just gone into the "no way it can be canon bin".

To be fair, I think far more people read the Year Four comics by DC Fontana than the Section 31 novel, but then comics generally get wider readership than books I think?

Considering how much mileage Discovery has gotten just by hinting at Spock's upcoming appearance (he hasn't even shown up yet!), I really wouldn't be surprised if Kirk is featured in the 31 show, if that's till in production.

 

It’s actually the other way round.

 

Oh ok. I have to admit I find that surprising. Myself (and everyone I know) having a full time job and just not enough hours in the day, it's far faster to get through a comic book than a novel.

 

Comics used to be very widely read when they were sold on newsstands, but the direct-market system narrowed it to pretty much just the serious fans. Although I'd assume online services like Comixology have opened the market up somewhat again.

 

My personal headcanon has always gone games first, then comic books, then whatever novels can fit. Games take very high precedence in my headcanon due to the work of Trek actors (Shatner, Plummer, Warner, the entire TOS and TNG casts in 25th Anniversary/Judgment Rites/Final Unity etc.)

One thing that ticked me off about the Romulan War books was that the Star Trek Legacy game very clearly stated Mayweather was about the Enterprise NX-01 during the Romulan War (a date was given in the game as well), yet the novels made it clear Mayweather wasn't aboard at that time due to some fight he had with Archer. And as soon as I read that, I was like--ok, these novels aren't canon to me anymore , I feel the game actually voiced by Scott Bakula has precedence...

Chang and Gorkon's history from the Klingon Academy game automatically takes precedence for me over whatever happened to them in the novels.