IDW's newest plans

[darkwing_duck1]

And while it's disappointing IDW seem to be letting the prime reality die for them (with the possible exception of yet More TOS stuff!)

They're just doing what everyone else is doing, and what a lot of people were afraid they were going to do: put put non TOS Rodenberry Trek on the shelf and call it "over".

Anyone who thought that wasn't going to happen in the event JJ Trek took off (which it seems to have done somewhat) was deluding themselves.

 

[Christopher]

I just find it a bit boring for the same publisher, just months apart to, gives two different accounts of the formation of the Klingon-Romulan Alliance. That comes across to me as a lack of imagination, to mine the same idea twice so soon!

It's not really fair to call it a lack of imagination, because the ideas would've come from two different people or teams. Was it due to a "lack of imagination" that both Bill Leisner and Dayton Ward submitted Lucsly & Dulmur stories to Strange New Worlds II? No, it was just that two different writers independently decided to explore that subject. And the editor accepted them both because they were both deemed worthy of inclusion, and it wouldn't have been fair to scuttle one of them just because of the subject matter.

In this case, I believe the two "accounts" you're talking about are the one in D. C. Fontana's The Enterprise Experiment and the one in John Byrne's Romulan miniseries. Now, really -- we're talking about D. C. Fontana and John Byrne. These are people that are going to be given the freedom to tell whatever stories they want to tell. If they both independently, coincidentally decided to do stories that happened to touch on the Klingon-Romulan alliance, then so be it. If they want to tell stories that are out of continuity with other comics, so be it. Hell, Byrne's Romulan saga even contradicts canon, by claiming there was a Klingon emperor in the 2260s. And yet they let him get away with that, because he's John Byrne.

In regard to the new movie reality I think it is a bigger deal too. We have here an opportunity to see a version of the Star Trek universe crafted without all the baggage of a myriad of alternate continuities, I think it would be a shame to add in the sort of controversy that mires the prime reality when it could be avoided now.

Well, just because there's a general policy not to impose a universal continuity on the comics, that doesn't mean that any subset of comics would be required to contradict each other. Besides, we already have evidence that that's not going to happen with Abramsverse tie-ins. The probable reason that Pocket's four Abramsverse novels were shelved is that Bad Robot and/or Paramount specifically wanted to avoid the risk of having tie-ins that got contradicted by later onscreen material. It's not a certainty, just a best guess, but indications are that there is an impetus from on high to ensure consistency among Abramsverse tie-ins.

 

[8of5]

I just find it a bit boring for the same publisher, just months apart to, gives two different accounts of the formation of the Klingon-Romulan Alliance. That comes across to me as a lack of imagination, to mine the same idea twice so soon!

It's not really fair to call it a lack of imagination, because the ideas would've come from two different people or teams. Was it due to a "lack of imagination" that both Bill Leisner and Dayton Ward submitted Lucsly & Dulmur stories to Strange New Worlds II? No, it was just that two different writers independently decided to explore that subject. And the editor accepted them both because they were both deemed worthy of inclusion, and it wouldn't have been fair to scuttle one of them just because of the subject matter.

In this case, I believe the two "accounts" you're talking about are the one in D. C. Fontana's The Enterprise Experiment and the one in John Byrne's Romulan miniseries. Now, really -- we're talking about D. C. Fontana and John Byrne. These are people that are going to be given the freedom to tell whatever stories they want to tell. If they both independently, coincidentally decided to do stories that happened to touch on the Klingon-Romulan alliance, then so be it. If they want to tell stories that are out of continuity with other comics, so be it. Hell, Byrne's Romulan saga even contradicts canon, by claiming there was a Klingon emperor in the 2260s. And yet they let him get away with that, because he's John Byrne.

I understand creators don’t want to be held down by the many many things that have come before, especially in a constantly and long evolving franchise like Star Trek. But no matter who writes them there is editorial oversight over this stuff, and as an avid reader I find it rather boring that from everything we could get from the Star Trek universe we see the same things happening again and again. The Klingon-Romulan Alliance was just the worst example, they were literally released along side each other! I know it's not the writers’ fault they came up with stories that cover the same ground, but it is certainly an issue I have with editors allowing two stories to come out right next to each other. There are only so many new Star Trek stories coming out, and with all corners of the Trekverse not explored it's really frustrating as a reader to see repetition.

In regard to the new movie reality I think it is a bigger deal too. We have here an opportunity to see a version of the Star Trek universe crafted without all the baggage of a myriad of alternate continuities, I think it would be a shame to add in the sort of controversy that mires the prime reality when it could be avoided now.

Well, just because there's a general policy not to impose a universal continuity on the comics, that doesn't mean that any subset of comics would be required to contradict each other. Besides, we already have evidence that that's not going to happen with Abramsverse tie-ins. The probable reason that Pocket's four Abramsverse novels were shelved is that Bad Robot and/or Paramount specifically wanted to avoid the risk of having tie-ins that got contradicted by later onscreen material. It's not a certainty, just a best guess, but indications are that there is an impetus from on high to ensure consistency among Abramsverse tie-ins.

I really hope so!

 

[Christopher]

I understand creators don’t want to be held down by the many many things that have come before, especially in a constantly and long evolving franchise like Star Trek. But no matter who writes them there is editorial oversight over this stuff, and as an avid reader I find it rather boring that from everything we could get from the Star Trek universe we see the same things happening again and again. The Klingon-Romulan Alliance was just the worst example, they were literally released along side each other!

But what repetition are you talking about aside from that one thing? What other "same things happening" have you seen in IDW's Trek fiction?

 

[SeerSGB]

Think I'll bow out of IDW's stuff for a while. I love TOS, and I enjoyed the new movie; in the same way I enjoy Star Wars: popcorn entertainment. Though Countdown and Nero together make a pretty good gap-filler. But all that aside...I don't know, nothing about what's on the boards really wow me.

 

[JD]

I'm actually the complete opposite of 8of5 in this regard. I've always found it fun and interesting to see what happens when to writers deal with the same events in two different ways. I guess that's why I love the MyrU so much, that's what pretty much the whole series is about.

 

[kkozoriz1]

It's true that IDW & Pocket are two different beats but IDW isn't cutting back just based on sales. Paramount is pushing for NuUniverse. Perhaps a year or so don the line we'll see something similar happen in regards to Pocket. The timing of books and comics are different so it may take a while to filter through.

That's where the canning of the four NuTrek books comes in -can't go all-Nu when Nu gets canned.

IDW could be doing prequels, much like the upcoming YA novels.

Which raises an interesting question. Would a TOS novel that used elements from the movie such as the Kelvin be considered NuUniverse? It appears that Bad Robot is keeping a fairly tight grip on the NuUniverse. What about the period before the movie but set in the prime universe? Could they put the kibosh on a novel that was only slightly influenced by the movie?

 

[F. King Daniel]

No. The Needs of the Many has several STXI references and it got out just fine.

I don't think mention of the Kelvin in a prime-Trek novel will cause trouble. A USS Kelvin novel starring George and Robau, or a time-travel thing where Kelvin and TOS or TNG meet would be a different matter.

 

[Christopher]

We know that Pocket is putting out three YA Academy novels in the Abrams continuity, so clearly there's no kneejerk kiboshification of prequels. Rather, the studio and the publisher are working together on them as studios and licensees do. I'm sure the same would go for a Kelvin novel.

Again, to the best of our knowledge, the only reason our four ST'09 sequels were shelved is because the filmmakers wanted to maintain control over the determination of what came after the first movie. There's no reason to assume that would extend to prequels as well, especially since IDW has already published several prequels and Pocket is about to do so.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

What continues to make me sad is that IDW would be the ideal format to produce more "Expanded Universe" type material (different ships, crews, timelines, etc) but because the feeling (rightly or wrongly) seems to be that only "official characters" and that everything must relate somehow to "official" Trek we are bereft of many many opportunities for all new adventures and storytelling.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I always wished for IDW to do an ongoing monthly Trek book featuring a never-before-seen crew. Marvel did that back in the '90s with Starfleet Academy, and I remember thinking that it was great to have a book with main characters that could be killed or written off as the story demanded, something that you don't even get in a televised series too often.

I understand from a purely business standpoint, that TOS and Abramsverse minis is where IDW has to focus on, but I do like having an ongoing series where you don't know if everyone will make it through a particular story...

 

[darkwing_duck1]

^That's the name of the game now, CE...play it safe. Make more of the "sure thing"...which ultimately many people blame for the meltdown of the Rodenberry-verse to begin with.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^That's the name of the game now, CE...play it safe. Make more of the "sure thing"...which ultimately many people blame for the meltdown of the Rodenberry-verse to begin with.

The comics are selling terribly at the moment. Unless they concentrate on what does sell, things will only get worse.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

And they won't as it is? We've had several people right in this very thread say (paraphrasing) "More of the same? Count me out..."

They're driving away people who are CURRENT readers by not giving them something fresh and exciting.

 

[Defcon]

We know that Pocket is putting out three YA Academy novels [...]

Four according to Amazon. It popped up a few weeks ago.

 

[JD]

I would definitely pick up alot more of the comics regularly if IDW were to start it's own original ongoing series. Right now, I only pick up the TPBs of the ones that people here like.

I wouldn't put to much faith in that until you hear about more about it here or at Trekmovie. Amazon's not the most reliable source for this stuff, they're constantly putting stuff up for books that never existed or were canceled.

 

[captcalhoun]

or putting up two listings for teh same book...

 

[8of5]

But what repetition are you talking about aside from that one thing? What other "same things happening" have you seen in IDW's Trek fiction?

Well, the Byrne vs. Fontana front is also guilty of giving us repetition of how the Organian intervention eventually fizzled out.

But, guilty as charged when I scanned through, the only other really biggy I thought there was, Spock's first mission on the Enterprise being done twice, it actually turned out the two stories compliment each other.

More of a continuity glitch than a repeated story the other internal IDW thing that has bugged me is Gralmek being established as the first Klingon-disguised-as-a-Human, and then seeing them in operation years earlier in Crew!

Outside of IDW's control we also got two mirror-Kirk taking command of the Enterprise stories about a year apart. And more recently I believe Seven Deadly sins gave us yet another Klingon-Romulan Alliance history!

So yeah, guess I'm being picky, but still, I'd rather see something different than seeing the same little bits of the trekverse over-mined. Looking over the longer term with IDW we've had the last mission of the Enterprise under Kirk done before, other versions of the creation of the galactic barrier, and a different version of Khan's exile.

I'm actually the complete opposite of 8of5 in this regard. I've always found it fun and interesting to see what happens when to writers deal with the same events in two different ways. I guess that's why I love the MyrU so much, that's what pretty much the whole series is about.

I love the Myriad Universes, but that's a totally different thing, that series actively seeks to explore what would happen if things play out differently. The repetition I'm talking about is taking a slightly different angle rather than a complete tangent. Maybe it's just a lack of imagination on my part not letting my mind consider these stories could just be an alternate reality, but I'm a big fan of one consistent universe!

I wouldn't put to much faith in that until you hear about more about it here or at Trekmovie. Amazon's not the most reliable source for this stuff, they're constantly putting stuff up for books that never existed or were canceled.

They're also constantly putting up stuff that is entirely correct, more often than they make mistakes. It's just that we remember the errors!

 

[Christopher]

More of a continuity glitch than a repeated story the other internal IDW thing that has bugged me is Gralmek being established as the first Klingon-disguised-as-a-Human, and then seeing them in operation years earlier in Crew!

I think it's pretty much a given that the Byrne comics exist in their own continuity. As I said, they even diverge from canon in one or two respects. Byrne is a comics legend, and finally getting him to write ST comics after all these decades is quite a coup, so he pretty much has carte blanche to tell his stories however he wants, unrestricted by anyone else's ideas of continuity.

Outside of IDW's control we also got two mirror-Kirk taking command of the Enterprise stories about a year apart. And more recently I believe Seven Deadly sins gave us yet another Klingon-Romulan Alliance history!

So yeah, guess I'm being picky, but still, I'd rather see something different than seeing the same little bits of the trekverse over-mined. Looking over the longer term with IDW we've had the last mission of the Enterprise under Kirk done before, other versions of the creation of the galactic barrier, and a different version of Khan's exile.

Well, as I've said before, comics and prose aren't aimed at the same audience. There is overlap, so some people will get to see the same things told both ways, but for the majority of the audience, they'll only see one version of the story, either the prose version or the comics version. That's why neither publisher can or should be expected to base its own creative decisions on avoiding subjects the other publisher has already explored.

 

[Therin of Andor]

And they won't as it is? We've had several people right in this very thread say (paraphrasing) "More of the same? Count me out..."

They're driving away people who are CURRENT readers by not giving them something fresh and exciting.

Not necessarily. The comics can't survive if only diehard ST comic book readers buy them. They need to be bought by members of the general public, who saw JJ's film, loved it, and are looking forward to its theatrical sequel. Such comic spin-offs will be the only version of ST propped up by pre-publicity for the next movie, and the shops love nothing more than a comic that comes with its own free publicity buzz.