Moving beyond the television shows

[Idran]

Yeah, there's definitely not less legal freedom for not using screen characters. If anything, there would be more legal freedom in doing a tie-in with no familiar screen characters, seeing as you'd be using less IP from the licensor and so putting more weight on aspects not under the umbrella of the license.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, there's definitely not less legal freedom for not using screen characters. If anything, there would be more legal freedom in doing a tie-in with no familiar screen characters, seeing as you'd be using less IP from the licensor and so putting more weight on aspects not under the umbrella of the license.

I'm not sure if that's true. As long as you're creating something under a tie-in license, every bit of it is legally the property of the licensor. You might have more storytelling freedom with an original character than a screen character, but that's just an issue of logistics and practicality. Legally, there's no distinction.


Anyway, it occurred to me to think about other tie-in lines I've seen, and yes, there have been examples of tie-ins that featured no screen characters at all. Back when the Alien Nation TV series was on, the small publisher Adventure Comics did several tie-in miniseries that were set in the universe of the movie/series, but featured entirely original chararacters. Indeed, I'm not sure they even had the license to use any of the characters, otherwise they probably would have. It may have been cheaper to license the general concepts and universe than to license the specific characters.

There have also been a number of different Planet of the Apes comics over the years that featured entirely original characters within the PotA setting.

So that would seem to settle it: No, you do not need to include a franchise's established characters in order to legally publish a work under that franchise's title. You just need to use what you're licensed to use, and that depends on the license.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Yeah, but that's a different question than the one we're discussing.

Then I am unable to contribute to this discussion.

If anything, there would be more legal freedom in doing a tie-in with no familiar screen characters, seeing as you'd be using less IP from the licensor and so putting more weight on aspects not under the umbrella of the license.

I disagree. If a tie-in moves too far away from its parent show, it essentially stops being a tie-in. I recall talking to Richard Arnold about this and he was very clear that a fan of a "Star Trek" show, buying a tie-in of that show, deserves to get a tie-in that is recognisable as being about that show.

Otherwise it becomes "Space Ship on a Mission".

 

[Christopher]

^That is just Richard Arnold's personal opinion, though. It is not a universal rule of the tie-in industry. Under Arnold's rules, things like Vanguard and IKS Gorkon and DTI would never have existed -- and clearly they do.

 

[Sci]

I think the clearest examples of American media tie-in fiction that do not feature on-screen characters would be the Star Wars novel line. Isn't there an entire line of SW novels set centuries before the films, during the era of the Galactic Republic, featuring no on-screen characters?

I would imagine that whether or not a licensed piece of media tie-in fiction could feature only original characters would be wholly dependent upon the contractual obligations placed upon the licensee by the licensor. Lucasfilm pre-Disney clearly was okay with it; do we have any data on CBS making any such requirements?

 

[Enterprise1701]

^What you say describes a lot of Star Wars EU material though admittedly EU material does tend to feature onscreen characters. But yeah, there's plenty of early Republic material and even a comic series set before the Jedi Order's founding.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Old_Republic

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Dawn_of_the_Jedi

 

[JD]

^There was also the Leagcy comic series set 100 years after A New Hope, although that did feature cameos by at least Luke, and R2 appeared eventually. But I'm pretty sure the majority of issues didn't feature any characters from the movie.

I personally wouldn't have an issue with getting a completely new crew on the Enterprise or Voyager, but I do have to question whether it would be allowed from a marketing standpoint. I could easily see an argument being made that for a story to be a TNG story it would need to have characters who appeared on TNG.
I'm trying to think how many screen characters are in each current series.
TNG: Picard, Beverly, Worf, Geordi, Data, Lal
DS9: Ro (introduced on TNG, now moved to DS9), Bashir, Quark. I haven't read past the Typhon Pact DS9 stories yet, but I believe more TV characters have come back since then.
VOY: Janeway, Chakotay, Kim, Torres, Paris, The Doctor, Barclay, Vorik,
ENT: Haven't read the Rise of the Federation yet
TTN: Riker, Troi, Tuvok, Pazlar
SCE: Gomez, Duffy, Lense, Stevens
GKN: Klag, Toq, Rodek, Leskit, Kurak

 

[Christopher]

ENT: Haven't read the Rise of the Federation yet

All the ENT regulars are still present in ROTF, just spread out across different ships and postings. Various onscreen guest characters are featured as well.