Going forward: Emphasis on canon or original characters?

[Enterprise is Great]

I prefer a mix though I'd rather have it tilted more to the canon characters than original ones. With Star Wars I mainly like reading the movie characters over OCs because the SW writers haven't really made their new characters all that interesting. The Trek writers have a much better record with original characters so the mix works much better for me with ST.

 

[Thrawn]

I voted for a balance, but for me that means at least one replacement for Vanguard or Klingon Empire or Stargazer or NF - at least one series almost entirely devoted to original characters. That's part of the balance, for me.

Just like Star Wars had X-Wing alongside the books about the big 3, and all kinds of even more crazy shit lately, I think it's a kind of awesome part of having a huge tie-in franchise that you can open up new corners of it.

 

[Paper Moon]

I voted for focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on canon characters. The fact is that I read TrekLit first and foremost to see what's happening "now" to the characters I know and love from the TV shows and movies. I enjoy reading about new original characters, especially when they are interesting, but none have yet reached the level of interest that the canon characters have.

I disagree that the canon characters have all been "played out". Picard is moving into new territory vis à vis fatherhood, and the recurring hints that he might eventually retire. La Forge also seems to be becoming more of a leader than just a chief engineer, and would appear to be having more luck with women (Leah). The Voyager characters have hardly been played out, since most of them had very little development on the show anyway.

We know next to nothing about Hikaru Sulu in the 24th century (ignoring the Shatnerverse's President Sulu, which the current novelverse continuity seems to do, especially since nothing was said about him during AotF). We know nothing about most of the crew of the NX-01 after the Romulan War, and what we do know is basically broad strokes. You can't seriously tell me there are really interesting stories waiting to be told from Archer's post-war career:

Over the course of his career Archer earned many commendations, including the Medal of Valor, with clusters, the Star Cross, the Preantares Ribbon of Commendation, and the Federation Citation of Honor. For his service in the Romulan War he was promoted to the rank of Admiral, and by 2168, he had become Starfleet Chief of Staff. (ENT episode: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

In 2164 he was appointed an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard by General Shran. On January 1, 2169, Archer retired from Starfleet, continuing his work as a diplomat by taking on the position of Federation Ambassador to Andoria. (ENT episode: "In a Mirror, Darkly"; ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals)

He served as Ambassador until 2175, when he was elected to the position of Federation Councillor from United Earth. He ascended to the presidency in 2185, serving two terms. (ENT episode: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

An additional screen of biographical information created by Mike Sussman for the ENT episode: "In a Mirror, Darkly" (seen here), but not used in the final production, revealed that Archer died in his home in New York in 2245, one day after attending the christening of the USS Enterprise.

source: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Jonathan_Archer

Spoiler: original character dying in Raise the Dawn (and other stuff)

I mean, when Jeanette Chao died in RtD, I was actually glad that one character we knew died during the destruction of DS9. That was one flaw, possibly the one flaw in RtD: the destruction of the station with 630 Starfleet and 461 civilian casualities seemed too easy. Those are huge losses, and we basically felt nothing. So I was glad that Chao had died.

But if it had been

Spoiler: canon characters who don't die in RtD

Bashir or Ro or even Sarina

, fuhgedaboudit. I would've been pretty cheesed off. And that's my point: I tend not to care as much about OCs as about canon characters.

On the other hand, I do really like Hugh Cambridge, T'Ryssa Chen, Jasminder Choudhury, Nan Bacco, Thirishar Ch'Thane, Dr. Ree, several secondary characters from Titan... And Ian Keldon's out-of-the-box ideas are really cool.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I voted for balance, but more towards the introduction of new characters.

I mean with the Prime universe novel only from now on the canon non-canon distinction is kind of pointless, I don't get the whole one character is more important than another because they showed up on the TV show and the other didn't thing. I would perfer to think of it as old characters and new characters actually, and on that note I would point out that if Star Trek only used old characters we would have only gotten TOS and maybe the TOS films.

 

[Sho]

^ That's a nice way of thinking about it.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I voted a focus primarily on canon characters.

I haven't been too happy with a lot of non-canon characters. There have been some winners for sure but also a lot of stodge. KRAD does original characters very well.

I've definitely enjoyed the development of obscure on screen characters.

 

[JD]

But wouldn't the development of obscure on screen characters pretty much be the same as original characters?

 

[BillJ]

Wish they'd have explored the development of B4. Maybe brought Maddox aboard to serve as a guide. TNG hasn't felt right since Data died.

 

[DS9forever]

Canon characters should get a focus, but characters like Vaughn, Shar and Taran'atar have become nearly as important to me as canon characters, so there is some room for literature-only characters to be featured.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

^ That's a nice way of thinking about it.

Plus now that I think about it the novels are currently in 2384 or 2383 which means their getting closer to the The Visitor/All Good Things/Endgame future era (though hopefully they use better uniforms) which means the canon characters are going to be getting up their in the age department so eventually they may end up needing to be phased out as it becomes more and more unbelievable that they would be active at their increasingly older ages.

 

[Claudia]

Voted for focus primarily on canon characters.

I got into TrekLit to read more stories about the characters depicted on screen. I don't mind original novel-series within the Trek-universe. But if a novel is labelled as f.e. TNG, I'd like to read about the TNG-TV-characters, and not about the 3 or 4 characters left and the rest all new characters. Titan had a lot of potential in the original characters, but that somehow got lost...

 

[Markonian]

[...] which means the canon characters are going to be getting up their in the age department so eventually they may end up needing to be phased out as it becomes more and more unbelievable that they would be active at their increasingly older ages.

This is the 24th century. These people can still be active action heroes until their centennial.

 

[DrCorby]

[...] which means the canon characters are going to be getting up their in the age department so eventually they may end up needing to be phased out as it becomes more and more unbelievable that they would be active at their increasingly older ages.

This is the 24th century. These people can still be active action heroes until their centennial.

Yes, but it can still be carried to possibly-ridiculous extremes. We've had Uhura and Chekov (I believe) running around in action-hero derring-do in, what, their 130s? And McCoy's still around, even older. Now, I love the TOS characters, but at some point, it just becomes credulity-straining. Unless you introduce something like Niven's boosterspice into the society-at-large. But Star Trek, in all its incarnations, has been pretty inconsistent at really showing how old Federation citizens can live. But most of it has shown "older" people slowing down as they reach their 80s to 90s (The Deadly Years, Sisko's father, the admiral from Too Short a Season [yes, I know he also had a degenerative disease; still], Dr Soong). It's advanced medical science, not magic. Please don't strain our willing suspension of disbelief...

/rant

 

[Sho]

You might be surprised what "advanced medical science" will get us in that department over the next couple of decades, tho'. I agree about the in-franchise inconsistencies, however.

 

[DrCorby]

You might be surprised what "advanced medical science" will get us in that department over the next couple of decades, tho'. I agree about the in-franchise inconsistencies, however.

And I may be proved wrong. But going by televised Star Trek, they were pretty conservative on life expectancy predictions.

What did McCoy say in The Omega Glory? I can do more for you with exercise and a good diet than medical treatment? True now and probably in the future...

 

[Christopher]

Yes, but it can still be carried to possibly-ridiculous extremes. We've had Uhura and Chekov (I believe) running around in action-hero derring-do in, what, their 130s?

I think Uhura's role in the 24th-century novels was strictly administrative. She was masterminding events from her office at Starfleet Intelligence, not running around delivering high kicks.

But Star Trek, in all its incarnations, has been pretty inconsistent at really showing how old Federation citizens can live. But most of it has shown "older" people slowing down as they reach their 80s to 90s (The Deadly Years, Sisko's father, the admiral from Too Short a Season [yes, I know he also had a degenerative disease; still], Dr Soong).

It was never canonically specified how old Dr. Soong was upon his death. Memory Beta says he was 88, but that's based on the wildly inaccurate FASA Next Generation Officer's Manual, hardly an authoritative source for anything. Then again, Immortal Coil seems to say he was not quite 20 years old as of 70 years before the novel, which would put his birthdate about 6 years later than the TNGOM put it, making him only around 82 at his death.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

[...] which means the canon characters are going to be getting up their in the age department so eventually they may end up needing to be phased out as it becomes more and more unbelievable that they would be active at their increasingly older ages.

This is the 24th century. These people can still be active action heroes until their centennial.

And DS9 mentioned the problems with that in regards to Elias Vaughn reaching 102 and how sooner or later he would have to give up active duty.

 

[NrobbieC]

You might be surprised what "advanced medical science" will get us in that department over the next couple of decades, tho'. I agree about the in-franchise inconsistencies, however.

And I may be proved wrong. But going by televised Star Trek, they were pretty conservative on life expectancy predictions.

I think it's about 140, based on what Dax said to O'Brien.

 

[JD]

It was never canonically specified how old Dr. Soong was upon his death. Memory Beta says he was 88, but that's based on the wildly inaccurate FASA Next Generation Officer's Manual, hardly an authoritative source for anything. Then again, Immortal Coil seems to say he was not quite 20 years old as of 70 years before the novel, which would put his birthdate about 6 years later than the TNGOM put it, making him only around 82 at his death.

Didn't they say somewhere in the episode that he had some kind of an illness? It didn't say anything about it on Memory Alpha, but I still swear I remember a quick line about him being sick.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

[...] which means the canon characters are going to be getting up their in the age department so eventually they may end up needing to be phased out as it becomes more and more unbelievable that they would be active at their increasingly older ages.

This is the 24th century. These people can still be active action heroes until their centennial.

And DS9 mentioned the problems with that in regards to Elias Vaughn reaching 102 and how sooner or later he would have to give up active duty.

If its not an overused character i am okay with some people going to Cerberus II and doing some rejunevation.