How many continuities are there in Trek Literature?

[Extrocomp]

There's the main Novelverse, the Shatnerverse, the Crucibleverse, the Rihannsuverse, the STOverse, the Hiveverse, the DarkPassionsverse, the Abramsverse, the FASAverse, the Decipherverse, the GoldKeyverse and the DCVol1verse.

It's hard to define exactly what a continuity is. All of the continuties I've listed above have their own unique traits that contradict stories from other continuities.

For example, the Shatnerverse has Kirk being alive, the Terran Empire being founded due to Cochrane telling everyone about the Borg, the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance being founded by Mirror Kirk, the Galactic Barrier being created to keep the Totality out.

In the Rihannsuverse, McCoy's middle name is Edward, the word "hominid" is used instead of humanoid and there are many non-humanoid aliens aboard the Enterprise.

 

[SPCTRE]

our own @Thrawn made this handy chart:

 

[Bibliomike]

I remember someone suggesting in an old Best of Trek book that every novel was its own alternate universe/continuity!

 

[ryan123450]

This thread topic is something I've wondered about as well. If anyone could probably come close to a good answer, it my be Christopher. It would be interesting to know, but will also be impossible to define concretely since some people will be willing to merge some continuities which others aren't. This could end up being a very in depth discussion.

 

[borgboy]

What is the Decipherverse?
I generally think Rhiannsuverse can work in the same continuity as the main Litverse. Things like a more diverse alien crew on the Enterprise doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem, as crew members change, and didn't that take place in a largely unexplored time period? I'm a little vague on the actual time setting though, but it's post TV series.

 

[Jinn]

What is the Decipherverse?

Decipher published some RPG Sourcebooks in the early 2000s IIRC.

I generally think Rhiannsuverse can work in the same continuity as the main Litverse. Things like a more diverse alien crew on the Enterprise doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem, as crew members change, and didn't that take place in a largely unexplored time period? I'm a little vague on the actual time setting though, but it's post TV series

If the OP includes The Final Reflection and other 80s novels in the Rihannsuverse that would already rule out them being in the same continuity with TNG. I guess that's what ryan meant when he said that some people will be willing to merge some continuities which others aren't.

 

[Christopher]

There are plenty of standalone books/comics that don't fit in any continuity but their own (notable cases being Spock Must Die! and Debt of Honor), so a comprehensive list would be prohibitive. And different people would disagree over what continuities are reconcilable with each other or not, so an exacting list probably isn't doable either.

I'd add several other comics continuities to the mix. DC Vol. 2, DC's TNG, and Malibu's DS9 comic not only had their own internal continuities, but crossed over with each other, theoretically forming a connected whole. IDW has the Byrneverse, the continuity linking all of John Byrne's Trek comics. Marvel's '90s comics were an interconnected continuity (a number of whose characters and species have been adopted by the novelverse, though they don't wholly fit together). I suppose the post-TMP Marvel series and the syndicated newspaper strips from the same era constitute their own distinct (if rather episodic) continuities as well.

In addition to Pocket's loose '80s continuity which includes the Rihannsu series, the early Pocket novels sometimes had mini-continuities consisting of two or more books by the same author, referencing each other but not being referenced anywhere else -- for instance, Robert Vardeman's two novels, or Jean Lorrah's, or Diane Carey's, or J.M. Dillard's. Most of these were eventually tied together by being referenced in Time for Yesterday, but Vardeman's pair was left out and still stands alone. Also, the collective works of Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath form their own mini-continuity spanning both Bantam and Pocket.

 

[Jinn]

our own @Thrawn made this handy chart:

There are plenty of standalone books/comics that don't fit in any continuity but their own (notable cases being Spock Must Die! and Debt of Honor), so a comprehensive list would be prohibitive. And different people would disagree over what continuities are reconcilable with each other or not, so an exacting list probably isn't doable either.

I'd add several other comics continuities to the mix. DC Vol. 2, DC's TNG, and Malibu's DS9 comic not only had their own internal continuities, but crossed over with each other, theoretically forming a connected whole. IDW has the Byrneverse, the continuity linking all of John Byrne's Trek comics. Marvel's '90s comics were an interconnected continuity (a number of whose characters and species have been adopted by the novelverse, though they don't wholly fit together). I suppose the post-TMP Marvel series and the syndicated newspaper strips from the same era constitute their own distinct (if rather episodic) continuities as well.

In addition to Pocket's loose '80s continuity which includes the Rihannsu series, the early Pocket novels sometimes had mini-continuities consisting of two or more books by the same author, referencing each other but not being referenced anywhere else -- for instance, Robert Vardeman's two novels, or Jean Lorrah's, or Diane Carey's, or J.M. Dillard's. Most of these were eventually tied together by being referenced in Time for Yesterday, but Vardeman's pair was left out and still stands alone. Also, the collective works of Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath form their own mini-continuity spanning both Bantam and Pocket.

I think we need a bigger flowchart...

 

[borgboy]

Decipher published some RPG Sourcebooks in the early 2000s IIRC.


If the OP includes The Final Reflection and other 80s novels in the Rihannsuverse that would already rule out them being in the same continuity with TNG. I guess that's what ryan meant when he said that some people will be willing to merge some continuities which others aren't.

I see what you mean. I wasn't including The Final Reflection in with the Rihannsuverse novel. Possibly some of those books work in two or more continuities.

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't get this thread. It specifically asks how many continuities are in Trek Lit, but then most examples are from outside Literature. The Trek franchise's tie-in material related to the Prime Universe is only divided into two continuities: the novel continuity and the STO continuity. There is also a tie-in continuity related to the Abrams movies in the form of IDW's comics.

 

[Christopher]

I don't get this thread. It specifically asks how many continuities are in Trek Lit, but then most examples are from outside Literature.

No, most of the cited examples are from prose or comics. The only exceptions I've seen mentioned so far are STO, FASA, and the Decipher RPGs.

The Trek franchise's tie-in material related to the Prime Universe is only divided into two continuities: the novel continuity and the STO continuity.

That's completely wrong. There are several different continuities within Pocket's body of works alone, as discussed above. Each comics publisher has had its own continuity or continuities. STO is just one of many Trek computer games with their own takes on the universe.

 

[Idran]

The Trek franchise's tie-in material related to the Prime Universe is only divided into two continuities: the novel continuity and the STO continuity.

Literally the OP's own post disproves this.

There's the main Novelverse, the Shatnerverse, the Crucibleverse, the Rihannsuverse, the STOverse, the Hiveverse, the DarkPassionsverse, the Abramsverse, the FASAverse, the Decipherverse, the GoldKeyverse and the DCVol1verse.

Even if you discount anything not coming from prose-form Trek fiction, there are still the five mentioned continuities I've bolded that come entirely from Star Trek prose and that are definitively not in a shared continuity with one another.

 

[JD]

Don't forget the Myriad Universes stories, each of which is in it's own continuity:
A Less Perfect Union: Terra Prime was successful, and Earth didn't join forces with the Vulcans, Andorians, and Telerites.
Places of Exiles: Voyager never joined forces with the Borg in Scorpion
Seeds of Disent: Khan won the Eugenics Wars
The Chimes at Midnight: Thelin served on the Enterprise instead of Spock
A Gutted World: The Cardassians never left Bajor
Brave New World: A universe filled with Data style androids
The Last Generation (comic):No Khitomer Accords and Klingons conquer Earth
The Embrace of Cold Architects: Picard not saved from the Borg
The Tears of Eidanus: No Vulcan/Romulan split (I think I vaguely remember a reference to Surak dying before his teachings took off)
Honor in the Night:Tribbles didn't discover Arne Darvin

 

[Christopher]

Don't forget the Myriad Universes stories, each of which is in it's own continuity:

I see them (the prose ones, anyway) as alternate timelines within the novelverse's narrative continuity. Certainly the Mirror Universe books are, and concepts from The Tears of Eridanus and possibly others have been referenced in Prime-novelverse books.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Tears of Eidanus: No Vulcan/Romulan split (I think I vaguely remember a reference to Surak dying before his teachings took off)

Actually I don't think Surak existed at all in that timeline.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Don't forget the Myriad Universes stories, each of which is in it's own continuity:

Those aren't alternate continuities. They're parallel (for the lack of a better word) timelines in the modern Pocket continuity.

STO, as different continuity for instance, has its own take on the many parallel timelines.

Actually I don't think Surak existed at all in that timeline.

Yup, I don't recall Surak being mentioned at all in The Tears of Eridanus. In fact, the katra who Demora Sulu meets is S'task, who in the prime timeline was the prime forbear of the Romulans.

 

[JD]

Ah, I thought continuity was just another world for universe, my mistake.
Maybe it wasn't revealed in the book then, but Michael Schuster did say that Surak's death was the diverging point in an Unreality SF interview.

The point of divergence for The Tears of Eridanus is “the death of an obscure young computer scientist called Surak who died in a surprise terrorist attack,” Michael reveals. “Consequently, his place in history is empty, but it is soon occupied by somebody else who will be familiar to readers of certain Vulcan-related novels. The result is that the planet is embroiled in a millennia-long period of clan warfare, preventing its people from shaping and affecting interstellar affairs as they did in the ‘original’ universe.”

Wow, I honestly am kind of amazed I actually remembered that.

 

[Idran]

Ah, I thought continuity was just another world for universe, my mistake.

Nah, it's kind of a subtle distinction so it's an easy point of confusion since sometimes they do sort of overlap. A continuity usually means a set of works consistent with one another that form a shared universe. So, like, Ultimate Universe is a continuity but "What if Spider-Man Kept the Black Costume" isn't.

(Of course, on the other hand, a set of a single element is trivially continuous, so maybe there's an argument to be made...? )

 

[The Wormhole]

Even if you discount anything not coming from prose-form Trek fiction, there are still the five mentioned continuities I've bolded that come entirely from Star Trek prose and that are definitively not in a shared continuity with one another.

Actually, a lot of those aren't really what I call "continuities." Okay, the Shatnerverse is, but that hasn't been active for eight years now. Crucible is just a trilogy that isn't part of the main novel continuity, that doesn't automatically make it its own continuity. Ditto Dark Passions, except that's a duology, not a trilogy. To be honest, I've never read the Rihannsu novels so I won't comment on them, save to say I was under the impression that they just depict Romulan culture and history in a manner later contradicted by the shows, that does not necessarily mean it's a whole other continuity. Regardless, like the Shatnerverse it hasn't been active in years.

 

[Christopher]

Ah, I thought continuity was just another world for universe, my mistake.

Nah, it's kind of a subtle distinction so it's an easy point of confusion since sometimes they do sort of overlap. A continuity usually means a set of works consistent with one another that form a shared universe. So, like, Ultimate Universe is a continuity but "What if Spider-Man Kept the Black Costume" isn't.

The problem is that "universe" has both an in-story meaning (a physical spacetime continuum, or one of assorted parallel timelines of that continuum) and a narrative meaning (the setting of a series of fictional works), so the overlapping use can be confusing. A narrative universe/continuity can encompass more than one physical universe/continuum -- for instance, the Star Trek universe includes the Prime Universe and the Mirror Universe, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe includes the normal universe and Dimension X.

What we're talking about here, though, are not different universes, but different conjectural interpretations of the same universe. All the different tie-in continuities present themselves as extensions of Trek canon, and try to be consistent with it as it was at the time of their publication, although they aren't consistent with each other.