I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TNG.

[Jayson]

Am I the only one who thinks this would be a fun idea. A chance to do something that we will never see on tv. Perhaps do the Fall of the Federation idea people have talked about or heck do something else. Maybe go 20 something years in the future instead to the "All Good Things" future type of setting and do something in that timeframe. Heck you could do the adventures of the Enterprise J or something like that. Do the writeres have the freedom to basically define a whole era of the trek universe that has never been explored that much if at all in Trek. The reason why I ask is because I feel the writers of trek books do have more freedom to play with the universe. I was really fun seeing the Mirror Universe storyline expand and of course you have the ongoing series like Ds9 Relauch and Titan etc.


Jason

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Id love to see that era, theres a lot of stories to be done past TNG era. But the fall of the federation is never going to happen. Weve SEEN the federation in the 26th and 29th centuries.

 

[JD]

I would love to see that too. As for a story taking place 2x years after TNG, we are actually going to be getting that in the form of Star Trek Online.
Here's the description of the setting from Memory Alpha:

Years later, Andorian poets will describe this time as the "En'ock tu Ch'enock," roughly translated as "The calm before the inferno." [2]
The STO story starts around Stardate 77021.1, twenty years after Star Trek Nemesis, as the Alpha Quadrant rebuilds following the Dominion War. The Romulan Star Empire is on the brink of becoming close allies (or perhaps a member) of the United Federation of Planets while the Klingon Empire continues to be a strong ally of the Federation. More and more species are enrolling in Starfleet Academy to join the growing ranks of Starfleet personnel. Even the Borg are considered a manageable threat with technology brought to the quadrant by Captain Kathryn Janeway.

Such peaceful conditions have convinced the Federation president to divert resources of Starfleet towards the construction of a network of enormous transwarp conduits, which have been troublesome and expensive, but with great exploratory potential.

However, elements of Starfleet fear that the Federation is falling into a false sense of security and into a deceptive trap by one of its old enemies, or perhaps a new one. Thus, steps are secretly being taken to prepare for the conflict that is sure to come. It is up to you to choose your path for the coming century.

The Beta Quadrant will be the primary area of space where much of the gameplay will take place, with future game expansions opening up other areas. Initially accessible areas may include: the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingon Empire, Vulcan, Andoria, the Tholian Assembly, the Briar Patch, Bolarus, and perhaps the unknown enemy force. [3] The Borg will be one of the major antagonists, and the Q have been mentioned to be involved in the game in some capacity.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Jayson said:
Perhaps do the Fall of the Federation idea people have talked about

Ick. Why? What a downer. I really don't want to see former UFP members clawing back their utopia, or fighting amongst themselves to create a new order.

Not to mention that any text-based speculations a 100 years in TNG's future are likely to be entirely swept away, not just tweaked, by a canonical event set in the same time period.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

P0sitr0nic said:
Id love to see that era, theres a lot of stories to be done past TNG era. But the fall of the federation is never going to happen. Weve SEEN the federation in the 26th and 29th centuries.

No. You've seen a Federation.

Yes, it's a Federation with a Starfleet, but there's no evidence that the future Starfleets we have seen have continuity from the Starfleets that we know.

A Federation may exist in the 26th century, but that doesn't mean it exists in the 25th century. It could be like Poland; there are periods in history where Poland simply didn't exist, in particular between Napoleon and World War I. Or perhaps like how radically England was altered during the decade of the Protectorate. Governments change, sometimes radically. There's no reason to assume that the governments we see in the Star Trek universe wouldn't be subject to the same historical pressures we've known in the past.

Damn, that sounds almost psychohistorical.

 

[Christopher]

And who knows if the Federation we've seen in those futures has the same values as "ours"? The 29th-century folks in "Relativity" were willing to convict a man and rewire his brain because of crimes he might commit in his future, which is downright barbaric.


However, I'm not sure there's a credible way to move that far into the Trek future and keep it interesting. I mean, if we logically extrapolate forward from the technologies we've seen, the 25th-century Starfleet might consist largely of holograms (particularly in security) and every living crewmember would have a personal transporter in their combadge, so nobody would ever be in much danger from anything. Not to mention that anyone who did get killed could be resurrected via nanoprobes like Neelix was in "Mortal Coil."

 

[Jayson]

Christopher said:
And who knows if the Federation we've seen in those futures has the same values as "ours"? The 29th-century folks in "Relativity" were willing to convict a man and rewire his brain because of crimes he might commit in his future, which is downright barbaric.


However, I'm not sure there's a credible way to move that far into the Trek future and keep it interesting. I mean, if we logically extrapolate forward from the technologies we've seen, the 25th-century Starfleet might consist largely of holograms (particularly in security) and every living crewmember would have a personal transporter in their combadge, so nobody would ever be in much danger from anything. Not to mention that anyone who did get killed could be resurrected via nanoprobes like Neelix was in "Mortal Coil."

Those are the reasons why I don't think a trek tv series would work going that far into the future. A book series though IMO would work because you can go into greater depth with the characters. I do think you would need to a John Crighton type of lead. A human from the present day or a human that we can relate to anyways so we can sort of see this new time period through his or her eyes. That or you could simply go the "Farscape" route and make things wierd but gritty which also tends to make things easy for us to understand. Or heck go "Battlestar Galatica" and regress the tech. Perhaps explore a human colony that has been seperated by events of the Trek universe who wants to join the Federation. Seems to me you can go in all sorts of ways.


Jason

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Jayson said:
That or you could simply go the "Farscape" route and make things wierd but gritty which also tends to make things easy for us to understand.

Way back in the early 80s, when I ran out of ST novels to read, I started reading Larry Niven's "Known Space" novels and short story collections - plus "Ringworld", mainly because the kzinti were in them. Not long after that "Ringworld Engineers" was released.

It was like reading ST books, but ones that differed a little from ST. Many SF series of that ilk could easily stand in for a ST series that was set 100 years ahead of TNG, either after a fall of the UFP or after a leap (or reversal) of a century's tech. I really don't see the need for Pocket to try to do such a series, ie. one that could head in any direction. The books should still take their lead from canonical ST, or they stop being ST.

There are hundreds of great SF series of novels out there. Why do ST that is not much like ST?

 

[Stevil2001]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Therin of Andor said:
The books should still take their lead from canonical ST, or they stop being ST.

I don't buy it. I mean, how much relation does something like Articles of the Federation or The Final Reflection or Andor: Paradigm hold towards canonical Trek? The show and movies never did a thing like any of them.

Star Wars is doing a comic series set 125 years after Return of the Jedi. Of course, in Star Wars the advancement of technology isn't a problem, since the technology never goes anywhere at all, as evidenced by Knights of the Old Republic.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Steve Mollmann said:
I don't buy it. I mean, how much relation does something like Articles of the Federation or The Final Reflection or Andor: Paradigm hold towards canonical Trek? The show and movies never did a thing like any of them.

AotF, TFR and "Andor: Paradigm" take aspects of canonical ST and extrapolate, but they still feel very much like Star Trek. In fact, you've picked three of my favourite ST novels. AotF builds on what little we know of UFP politics, TFR speculated on Klingon culture and was overruled by later canon (although it was always said to be a work of fiction framed by a TOS story) and "Paradigm" sweeps up into one story aspects of every Andorian onscreen appearance at the time of its writing. It even predicts a planet where the populace live in subterranean caves and are prone to massive flash floods, perfect for a (now) canonically icy world.

But you could read a Niven "Known Space" novel, or perhaps David Gerrold's "Dingiliad" trilogy, or "War of the Chtorr", or the "Starwolf" series and say "This is ST set in 100 years in TNG's future" and it's believable. When we know nothing about the UFP in a century's time, it's just too much of a blank slate, and simply becomes science fiction.

 

[Stevil2001]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Therin of Andor said:

Steve Mollmann said:
I don't buy it. I mean, how much relation does something like Articles of the Federation or The Final Reflection or Andor: Paradigm hold towards canonical Trek? The show and movies never did a thing like any of them.

AotF, TFR and "Andor: Paradigm" take aspects of canonical ST and extrapolate, but they still feel very much like Star Trek. In fact, you've picked three of my favourite ST novels. AotF builds on what little we know of UFP politics, TFR speculated on Klingon culture and was overruled by later canon (although it was always said to be a work of fiction framed by a TOS story) and "Paradigm" sweeps up into one story aspects of every Andorian onscreen appearance at the time of its writing. It even predicts a planet where the populace live in subterranean caves and are prone to massive flash floods, perfect for a (now) canonically icy world.

Right. They all went into areas where canonical Trek had basically said nothing at all, extrapolated like the dickens, and turned out fantastic stories, that were like nothing the parents series would (or even could) do and yet were still unequivocally Star Trek. Which is hopefully exactly what a TNG+100 series would do as well.

 

[nickyboy]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

yeah i would like to see a book about 100 years after tng, even if it was touted as a "what if", or matbe someone should make a novel about the proposed animated series in the 25th century with captain chase.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Steve Mollmann said:
Which is hopefully exactly what a TNG+100 series would do as well.

I think it would still reek of "What if...?"

I believed every word of AotF, TFR and "Andor: Paradigm" as I read and, even if I disagreed with the authors' extrapolations (and i sometimes did), I could see exactly how they came to those conclusions. Similarly, "Ex Machina" - even though I hated what Christopher did to one one TMP character - was so cleverly drawn from canonical and publicity material evidence, I found I could not be outraged by his conclusions. What he did improved the story, and it was the story and characters that kept me engrossed.

I'm really not so sure that an original ST novel, set a century beyond known facts, is going to be as instantly recognizable as ST. It may as well be any SF novel. I fail to see the appeal in jumping ahead 100 years when there's so much more familiar territory to keep extending.

Canonical TNG had a reason for jumping 78 years. It needed distance from the canonical TOS behemoth. 100 more years is a long time, especially when we see 21st century tech changing so fast around us as to be unpredictable. The jobs of the kids I currently teach haven't been invented yet, and yet I must empower them how to utilize technology to access information and to function in society.

Whether Starfleet and the UFP fall and try to rise again, or whether there's 100 years of peace, it is all so open to new ideas such a novel may as well be a science fiction story set in a whole new universe altogether. And my local SF bookshop is filled to overflowing with them.

 

[Christopher]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Therin of Andor said:
I think it would still reek of "What if...?"

What's wrong with that? Pocket is publishing a whole duology of "What If..?"-type short novels in a few months.

And you've never been one to dismiss the worth of old novels that have been contradicted by canon, that have been retroactively made "What If" stories of a sort. I thought you agreed that just because a story is of questionable canon-consistency, that doesn't have any bearing on its worth as a story.

I'm really not so sure that an original ST novel, set a century beyond known facts, is going to be as instantly recognizable as ST. It may as well be any SF novel.

Why? Every setting is defined by its history. A 25th-century Trek novel would still involve the Federation, Starfleet, Vulcans, Klingons, Andorians, Ferengi, (trans)warp drive, holograms, and other elements drawn from the Trekverse's existing centuries of backstory. By its very nature, it would have to be recognizable as ST.

For what it's worth, various people have said that my Orion's Hounds, The Buried Age, even "Friends With the Sparrows" could work as original SF if you took out the Trek elements. In the case of OH in particular I was deliberately trying to write a novel that explored new ideas and wasn't primarily driven by existing Trek elements or storylines. And yet you've never said that it didn't feel like ST. I think a novel set in the 25th-century UFP proper would have even more recognizable ST elements than Orion's Hounds did.

I fail to see the appeal in jumping ahead 100 years when there's so much more familiar territory to keep extending.

What's the appeal of jumping ahead to the post-TMP era when there are so many more 5-year-mission stories to tell? Everything's going to appeal differently to different people, so I don't think any potential setting can be ruled out.

Canonical TNG had a reason for jumping 78 years. It needed distance from the canonical TOS behemoth. 100 more years is a long time, especially when we see 21st century tech changing so fast around us as to be unpredictable.

Isn't that just as valid a reason for gaining distance from the TNG era? A lot of our technology is already equalling or surpassing, not just Kirk's technology, but Picard's as well. We'll have realistic androids, advanced virtual reality, working combadge and tricorder equivalents, and the like within a decade or two. Not to mention advances in genetic engineering and nanotech. Imagine the potential of Trek fiction not limited by the 24th century UFP's Luddism toward genetic engineering, say. Or not limited to travel within this galaxy.

Sure, I said above that it would be difficult to make it work. But I'd be willing to try.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Christopher said:
What's wrong with that? Pocket is publishing a whole duology of "What If..?"-type short novels in a few months.

Nothing at all. I'm looking forward to them. But they are labelled as "What ifs". I do like "What ifs". But the original poster suggested a series of original novels set 100 years in TNG's future. Not a "what if" story.

I thought you agreed that just because a story is of questionable canon-consistency, that doesn't have any bearing on its worth as a story.

Exactly, but Jayson's idea just tempts fate too much. Too much for my liking. I'm not excited about a novel-generated new universe of ST stories, because it can literally go anywhere. I sense a lack of... something.

Why? Every setting is defined by its history. A 25th-century Trek novel would still involve the Federation, Starfleet, Vulcans, Klingons, Andorians, Ferengi, (trans)warp drive, holograms, and other elements drawn from the Trekverse's existing centuries of backstory. By its very nature, it would have to be recognizable as ST.

Yeah: "What if...?" ST! I'm just telling you the idea does not excite me at all; it feels unnecessary (to me). In the main, ST novels excite me. This idea does not.

For what it's worth, various people have said that my Orion's Hounds, The Buried Age, even "Friends With the Sparrows" could work as original SF if you took out the Trek elements.

I agree! That's because they are excellent ST and excellent SF.

What's the appeal of jumping ahead to the post-TMP era when there are so many more 5-year-mission stories to tell?

For me, the appeal was that novels set in this period started embracing the elements newly-introduced by the movies, something several of the early Pocket novels did, then the pattern got lost for a few years. I guess I prefer my extrapolations to be short term ones, and the movie era allowed this to happen in many ways. I love novels in this period, and they made me less excited (for a long time) to see new novels set in the TOS TV era.

Everything's going to appeal differently to different people

Exactly. And I'm putting in my vote that the idea of jumping 100 years holds no appeal to me. Now, if a canonical ST comes along that does jump 100 years, I'll be very intrigued to see what the novelists do with that period.

Isn't that just as valid a reason for gaining distance from the TNG era?

Maybe. And if such a novel comes along I shall read it. But that period does not excite me, nor even intrigue me. Yet. My gut reaction is "Ho hum..."

Imagine the potential of Trek fiction not limited by the 24th century UFP's Luddism toward genetic engineering, say. Or not limited to travel within this galaxy.

Nah. Not yet.

Sure, I said above that it would be difficult to make it work. But I'd be willing to try.

And if you do I'll read it. But there's so much else I'd rather see and read in the ST universe first.

 

[Jayson]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Even if 100 years is to far why not go 20 something years in the future. The timeframe is already established somewhat with "All Good Things" etc. I would love to see Captain Nog in action for example or you could do a book about Captain Picard's death.

Jason

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Captain Nog is featured in the ENT novel, "The Good That Men Do". It's great. And I'm sure he'll return.

I don't really wish to see all the Picard fans turned off by a book featuring the - gasp! - death of Picard. The death of Data didn't do much to satisfy the fanbase in "Nemesis", nor the several resurrections of Kirk in the Shatnerverse.

 

[BrentMc]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

Therin of Andor said:
Captain Nog is featured in the ENT novel, "The Good That Men Do". It's great. And I'm sure he'll return.

Ooch I hope that is not a goos surprise appearance because I haven't read that one yet.

 

[BrentMc]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

I would go for a series set 100 years in the future. I am open to just about any idea as long as the writers have some good ideas of what they would do with it.

A downfall of the Federation in the future would kind of ruin all other Star trek for me...I guess I would have a feeling like "too bad Picard works so hard for peace in this story, and he doesn't know it is all going to go down the tubes..."

I would also go for more books in other time Periods such as The Enterprise B or C. I really liked the Lost Era Books. As long as there are interesting stories to be told I am very open to new Ideas (or fill in the gaps books like Lost Era).

I think I kind of tend the prefer reading books with at least some characters I have seen on screen. It helps me make them come alive in my imagination as I read. I hear Picard's voice when I read his dialog. Does that make me crazy? LOL
I have heard that speed-reading courses teach you to not "hear" inside your head when you read, and I just don't think I can. it's getting late and I am rambling sorry...

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Re: I would like to see a book series set 100 years after TN

BrentMc said:

Therin of Andor said:
Captain Nog is featured in the ENT novel, "The Good That Men Do". It's great. And I'm sure he'll return.

Ooch I hope that is not a goos surprise appearance because I haven't read that one yet.

It's not, his is the first character to even appear in the book.