Well, of course no one's under any obligation to do anything. But it is silly to stop supporting the novels just because we're getting a new show which nullifies nearly twenty years of continuity.
Spoilers Discovery and the Novelverse - TV show discussion thread
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
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What an odd thing to say. Sure, you don't have to read anything you're not interested in, but it's weird to phrase that as if it were some kind of boycott. The novels have to follow the lead of the TV shows. That's what they're under contract to do. Pocket had to drop its '80s continuity when TNG came along, but the books went on, and if any readers did walk away as a result, there were other, new readers to take their place.
So they're going to create a new but rather similar character to Rene?
Rene never sat well with me. Anyone know Gates McFadden's feelings about the new show?
More probably the whole question of Picard and Crusher having had a kid altogether, if the producers decide they don’t want to take Picard in that direction on the new show. Of course, they could simply move any theoretical offspring offscreen if they want to keep Jean-Luc rollin’ lone wolf a decade-and-a-half later, but we’ll see.
Come to think of it, after what happened in Solo, any change to the status quo is possible to incorporate as fait accompli, no matter how much it confuses the audience. Sure, Data's back, why not? You care how? Well, take your pick of ways it happened, there are, what, two and a half? Hell, there are probably more people who don't remember Data died in the first place than would wonder why he popped up for a cameo in The Picard Chronicles.
And as far as backstory, there's nothing terribly convoluted to bring in if they did just draft off the novelverse. They have to come up with a backstory for what happened in the past twenty years anyway, and who cares if the new kids on the block are the Typhon Pact, the Antares Alliance, or the First Order? (Heck, not to belabor the Star Wars comparison, but The Force Awakens probably would've been more comprehensible to the casual fan if they went with whatever constellation of ex-Imperial warlords existed at the corresponding time in the Star Wars EU than the ill-explained dynamic of the New Republic, First Order, and Resistance.) How much would people really miss if they just picked up with a novelverse interpretation? Picard and Crusher got together and have a son? Old-line shippers would eat that shit up. If they're off-screen the whole time, the fans fixated on "All Good Things..." being a reliable premonition get to feel smart, so even better. They might want the Borg back, but, then again, they might not. There was a reason the novels had one last big Bor-gy to make 'em scary again after Voyager, then knocked them off the board for good.
I'll admit, you make one of the more compelling arguments I've seen regarding sticking with novel continuity. But I feel absolutely certain the Borg are happening. After all, Disco's make-up people are absolutely frothing about creating Borg with modern capabilities. And while it certainly would not surprise me to see Borg on Disco, now that a 24th century show is happening, it seems more logical to use them there. And with this being a Picard story, they could always build off TBOBW and First Contact in some manner.
Mind you, I hope they're doing something more ambitious with a Picard centred 24th century revival than a sequel to TBOBW and First Contact, but it is a story I could easily see happening.
I love the Borg, and miss them. One of the reasons I began drifting away from the novels, that and an overabundance of small universe syndrome.
The Borg are a well-known race to the general public and regardless what some folks say about Voyager oversaturating them or whatever, there are still elements of fandom that are very much attached to them. Hell, they've even been featured twice in Kelvin Timeline tie-ins. Three times if you want to count Countdown's assertion Narada was enhanced with Borg technology.
It has been 16 years since we've seen them on-screen. I'm betting they come back in one form or another here soon.
Wow, I heard the rumors about potential new Picard show, but I didn't expect it to actually happen.
i'm hoping maybe this will be done in a way that the novels can adjust, but I'm not expecting it to follow the Novelverse completely. I've known from the beginning that there was a chance if the Prime Universe came back that the novels would get over written. It would be a bit frustrating to lose everything the Novelverse has built up, but at the same time I am happy to get more Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.
i'm hoping maybe this will be done in a way that the novels can adjust, but I'm not expecting it to follow the Novelverse completely. I've known from the beginning that there was a chance if the Prime Universe came back that the novels would get over written. It would be a bit frustrating to lose everything the Novelverse has built up, but at the same time I am happy to get more Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.
Wow. Just wow. I just didn’t think this rumor would come to fruition. This is crazy good and crazy bad at the same time.
When I was talking about this privately with @Leto_II and @Jinn, we acknowledged that the three biggest potential hangups would be the Borg, Rene, and Deep Space Nine. But within five minutes Jinn had come up with an interesting solution to the DS9 issue, so I’m sure that IF the will is there everything can be reconciled in the end.
Either the show makes an effort to incorporate the broad strokes of 8 years of the post-Nemesis world, or they work with Pocket enough to help them move things toward the new status quo. Even if it’s somewhat wonky a la DC TOS movie era comics.
If the will to do either of those two things exists, everything is fine. If not, at least I have way more interest in the concept of this show than in the concept of Discovery (which I did enjoy, despite some creative choices I could have done without). So if we loose the current Litverse, at least I have a cool Picard series.
Dayton’s comment has me hopeful. At the very least we know Pocket wasn’t caught unaware. That’s a good sign that there is great communication between them now. This isn’t a Starfleet Year One situation. Maybe the gap in books was a blessing in disguise. Maybe this was part of the cause of the gap. I don’t know.
On a side note...it’s going to take forever to get To Lose the Earth.
It’s going to be an interesting couple of years. Off to see how crazy it’s been on Star Trek Twitter all afternoon...
When I was talking about this privately with @Leto_II and @Jinn, we acknowledged that the three biggest potential hangups would be the Borg, Rene, and Deep Space Nine. But within five minutes Jinn had come up with an interesting solution to the DS9 issue, so I’m sure that IF the will is there everything can be reconciled in the end.
Either the show makes an effort to incorporate the broad strokes of 8 years of the post-Nemesis world, or they work with Pocket enough to help them move things toward the new status quo. Even if it’s somewhat wonky a la DC TOS movie era comics.
If the will to do either of those two things exists, everything is fine. If not, at least I have way more interest in the concept of this show than in the concept of Discovery (which I did enjoy, despite some creative choices I could have done without). So if we loose the current Litverse, at least I have a cool Picard series.
Dayton’s comment has me hopeful. At the very least we know Pocket wasn’t caught unaware. That’s a good sign that there is great communication between them now. This isn’t a Starfleet Year One situation. Maybe the gap in books was a blessing in disguise. Maybe this was part of the cause of the gap. I don’t know.
On a side note...it’s going to take forever to get To Lose the Earth.
It’s going to be an interesting couple of years. Off to see how crazy it’s been on Star Trek Twitter all afternoon...
This, basically, although it hit me just a short while ago that, probably some bleak afternoon next winter, I'm finally gonna have to sit down at my computer, open up my Microsoft Word personal-continuity document, and essentially "mass-swipe-and-delete" about 30 pages of material set after 2379.
Your books are not going away. They're not going to break into your house and steal them.I for one relish the prospect of being told that all those books I bought and read,all the time and money I invested in those new characters and stories...well,never happened.Suck on that baby...
The stories still happened in your mind.
Plus they were never canon in the first place, so they technically never happened in the show's continuity.
I do hope they acknowledge that more time has past in universe than in real life. If humans live longer in the 24th century, these 16 years for Patrick Stewart should count for alot longer for Picard. So hopefully the 20 years thing is true, or even rounding down.
I am beyond thrilled to have some new material moving forward the Star Trek universe. I have immensely enjoyed the novels over the past 16 years, but this was inevitable. It doesn't take away any enjoyment I had reading about new characters on the Enterprise, or Destiny, or the fact that Picard is married with a a baby.
I can only imagine we'll get some kind of larger TNG reunion. I'm sure I'll be satisfied with whatever they do just like I've been satisfied with the novels for the most part.
I can only imagine we'll get some kind of larger TNG reunion. I'm sure I'll be satisfied with whatever they do just like I've been satisfied with the novels for the most part.
It's not that difficult. Just have the characters briefly mention "the defeat of the Borg" many years ago. It wouldn't be the first time there was a major change in status quo with a Federation enemy offscreen. Next Gen debuted with the whole "we're allies with the Klingons after that treaty" thing. And Picard's life and legacy is about so much more than the Borg. It would be a shame (and I'm highly doubtful this is the case) if all Kristen Beyer could come up with for this revival miniseries/Next Gen grand finale is "Picard fights the Borg again... again!".
They could just do the multiverse rout and say the new show is set in a timeline that bridged out or is somewhat distinct from the novelverse-trek's more amenable to that than Star Wars.
As for Jacen Solo'ed as a verb-I still can't express my rage and deep deep bitterness over Kylo Ren being a pale shadow of Jacen solo-and yes I am very much a Jacen fan. But I wouldn't be surprised if something similar does happen in this new show.
As for Jacen Solo'ed as a verb-I still can't express my rage and deep deep bitterness over Kylo Ren being a pale shadow of Jacen solo-and yes I am very much a Jacen fan. But I wouldn't be surprised if something similar does happen in this new show.