Spoilers New Picard TV Series and Litverse Continuity (may contain TV show spoilers)
- Thread starter chrinFinity
- Start date
Dax changed over to command in either one of the Avatars or Abyss. She had already moved over and was named XO of the Defiant before they went on the big Gamma Quadrant trip in the Mission Gamma books.
M
marlboro
Guest
My God, the Picard we've been watching all these years has been the Mirror Universe version the whole time!
But seriously, you make a good point. For now it's all speculation.
Being set further into the future the new series doesn't have quite as many constraints as the prequel series. I would love it if they really embraced the new in "new worlds, new life, & new civilizations" instead of timorously backtracking to where we've gone before.
Yeah, personally I hope the novel continuity doesn't get jettisoned precisely because the show is more forward looking and less worried about what happened in the past. Him having a son and the Borg being gone would be the two main baselines I think, otherwise a forward looking show would have really no reason to worry about everything Picard's been up to the last 20 years. A simple background that he finally had a son and that he left Starfleet 5 years before the series would be enough to preserve that background (well, unless he is still in Starfleet...I suspect he won't still be commanding the Enterprise-E if that still exists). If the basics are preserved, I'm sure our authors can find creative ways to bring the relaunches in line with the nu-TNG show, esp. considering it's years past the most recent novels still.
That seems very unlikely. This is Sir Patrick Stewart's triumphant return to the role, probably the last production in which he'll ever play Jean-Luc Picard, and one in which he has a great deal of creative control. Surely neither he, CBS, nor the audience would want it to be anything other than the definitive chronicle of the later life of the Picard we know.
And why would it be? Making something an alternate reality only makes sense if it's set alongside or before a previously told story, like the Kelvin films are. Maybe 98% of the audience has no awareness of the novels at all, or even of Star Trek Online. As far as most viewers will be concerned, this will be the one and only account they have of the Trek universe post-Nemesis. So what would it be alternate to? That doesn't even make sense.
They said it's different because it's not going to be about a captain and his crew exploring strange new worlds on a starship, and because it's a more contemplative piece rather than an action-centric show like Discovery. It's different because Picard is in a different stage of his life, doing different things.
Yeah, that was my interpretation as well. And I think they were discussing it in comparison to Discovery. They seem to want to do different things with Star Trek so I doubt it would be similar to Discovery. They'd probably want something considerably different then another current running show.
Despite my concerns about the novel continuity I am looking forward to the nu-TNG show. I hope some of the other characters make guest appearances at some point (I'd actually be surprised if there were no appearances---I figure it would be a great selling point in addition to Picard---next week Picard calls on his old friend Admiral Riker....or something to that effect). But yes, I hope the existing novel continuity can be preserved at the same time. I want my cake and I want to eat it too.
M
marlboro
Guest
Changing subjects slightly: what are some of the dangling storylines that have yet to be wrapped up?
Was that thing about the Andorians in Titan books ever straightened out? I haven't read the book, but I remember a couple of people saying there was a point about Andorians and a transporter or something.
And I guess we're never going to find out Lorgh was up to.
Anything else?
Was that thing about the Andorians in Titan books ever straightened out? I haven't read the book, but I remember a couple of people saying there was a point about Andorians and a transporter or something.
And I guess we're never going to find out Lorgh was up to.
Anything else?
Yeah, I guess you're probably right.
Yeah, the Andorian situation is resolved for the most part, which ties into the current Bashir story thread in the Section 31 novels.
As far as major storylines, there's always something going on. The Breen are trying to become the leading force of the Typhon Pact. The Gorn are more or less followers. The Romulans under Kamenor seem to want better relations with the Khitomer allies, though the Breen, Tzenkethi and Tholians are largely opposed (as are likely the Kinshaya at least where the Klingons are concerned).
I'll be interested to see how the destruction of Romulus is handled in the novel continuity as we are closing in on just a few months. That will obviously have significant ramifications for the Pact, which is one reason I hope it is featured in the novels and we can see the consequences.
Oh, hey, I just realized, 2019 makes ten years since ST09 and, thus, ten years of me waiting for "Countdown to Novels." Any day now!
I do believe if that were to happen they'd still let the novelverse take us to the destruction of Romulus. I think they know it's a key moment that readers have been waiting for and I don't think they'll disappoint us. I believe they'd at least take us that far, and probably a little beyond to address the immediate aftermath.
In fact we may not have to wait long. I have noticed we approached 2387 pretty quickly but then things slowed down a bit as we got closer, likely because of the whole Abramsverse licensing issues. I think that might give us a hint that S&S does want to cover the event in the novels but had to wait until that was all settled. I wonder who will be the lucky author that gets to cover that event. I can almost imagine them raising their hand saying 'pick me, me, pick me'
(ok, not literally but still, it'd be a huge event to depict).I wonder if they do indeed cover it what similarities and differences would their be with the Countdown comics. It's already taken a different road in some ways. Data is resurrected as he was in the Countdown comics, but not at the expense of B4 and he is no longer in Starfleet, Picard did once consider his future, possibly in diplomacy but thus far is still Captain of the Enterprise, Geordi so far has not created any experimental ships (that part seemed a bit far fetched the way the comics depicted it though I can see Geordi's work having an influence on the jellyfish ship in some way), red matter, and Nero's background and how he came to know Spock. I'd imagine in a lot of ways the novels will go in their own direction. I am also curious if they will adopt the Hobus name as it is not a canon name (though it's become so common in usage I wouldn't be surprised if whoever wrote the story decided to use it).
I look forward to it and hope my suspicion is correct. I am especially curious to see how it impacts the Typhon Pact. One would thing that would leave the Breen in a prime position to take a significant role in the future of the Pact, which would likely mean more trouble for the Khitomer powers. You'd have 3 powers esp. hostile toward the Federation, Breen, Tzenkethi, and Tholians, and one hostile toward the Klingons, the Kinshaya, and no one except maybe the Gorn who might favor a less hostile approach.
Some things I would like to keep:
Destiny storyline
Picard and Riker married and have a kid
Voyager going back to the Delta
Somethings I wouldn't mind going:
Pretty much everything else. Most are stories that are bottle episodes, so they arnt' impacted by a great sea change. And were talking mostly 24th Cent. books, most of the 22, 23rd won't be affected, there more worried about discovery, which did contradict some books already, with it saying that the Klingons went in to a period of isolation from the foudning of the federation to the battle of binary stars, when the Lit verse had a whole number of incursions with the Klingons in that time. Just read one with Robert April having a skirmish with some Klingons..
Like with the Star Wars Legends line, theres some great stuff in the Post TNG Trek Lit, and I hope some of it gets moved to Canon level.
Destiny storyline
Picard and Riker married and have a kid
Voyager going back to the Delta
Somethings I wouldn't mind going:
Pretty much everything else. Most are stories that are bottle episodes, so they arnt' impacted by a great sea change. And were talking mostly 24th Cent. books, most of the 22, 23rd won't be affected, there more worried about discovery, which did contradict some books already, with it saying that the Klingons went in to a period of isolation from the foudning of the federation to the battle of binary stars, when the Lit verse had a whole number of incursions with the Klingons in that time. Just read one with Robert April having a skirmish with some Klingons..
Like with the Star Wars Legends line, theres some great stuff in the Post TNG Trek Lit, and I hope some of it gets moved to Canon level.
Well, there's never been as cohesive or unified a 23rd-century novel continuity as there is for the post-series 24th-century stuff. There are series like Vanguard and Seekers, but mostly the TOS novels are treated as standalones with optional continuity.
Besides, DSC quickly walked back that "no contact in 100 years" line in the premiere episode by mentioning the Battle of Donatu V in the second episode -- and of course it was built into Burnham's backstory that she'd lived through (IIRC) two different Klingon raids during that "no contact" period. There were raids and battles during that time, but no formal diplomatic contact between the governments.
Anyway, if there is a continuity issue, it's no worse than the one that's existed for decades with regard to the Romulans. TNG: "The Neutral Zone" said there'd been no contact with the Romulans since the Tomed incident 53 years earlier -- but that was mere weeks after "Angel One" had referenced a Romulan fleet buildup on the border, and then over the years we learned of Romulan activities during that period like the attack on Narendra III.
Yeah, that's one is very "exact words" reliant. It just about works if the ships were seen, but no communications signals were sent.
NB: I'm only about fifty-fifty on whether I believe that explanation, but it sorta works.
I was a bit puzzled by that line in Discovery myself. 100 years seemed a bit of a long time for no contact with the Klingons. After all that would take us basically to the final season of Enterprise. I always thought that was a bit of a mistake. And I was hoping they were going to show the Battle of Donatu V on the show, but apparently it already happened. I know one of the novels, I think by Ryan, covered the battle. But it was a battle referenced in the original series I thought for sure would be covered by Discovery.
But I suppose you're right, they can say that referred to official contacts. I sort of took the Romulan contact in the same vein on TNG. That they were referring to official contacts with ambassadors and that sort of thing, but that there were still incidental contacts. At Narendra III it was more between the Klingons and Romulans, the Enterprise came on the scene later but I figured that no official contacts were made after the battle between the Federation and Romulan Empires. It's probably why it's probably a good idea for episode writers to avoid absolute statements so they can avoid needless contradictions later. If they said 'no official contact' it would still leave the door open to incidental contacts and skirmishes.
In fact, if it were exactly 100 years, that would be 2156, the year after ENT's final season. So there's no inconsistency. And the actual line was "We've had only fleeting run-ins with them for a century," which could easily be rounded up from 90-ish years, since round numbers uttered in conversation can't be assumed to be mathematically precise. In Live By the Code, I have the Klingons begin a period of seclusion in 2165, 91 years before DSC, which is close enough. And "fleeting run-ins" does leave room for individual encounters here and there, as long as they aren't too frequent or extended.
Wrong timeframe. It was 23 years before "Tribbles," which would be 2245. For whatever reason, DSC's makers wanted it to be 2256.
Oh, I thought they said 100 years specifically. I checked the Memory Alpha info and they noted a century as well. It is a bit inconsistent with TUC where they state in that movie there have been 70 years of hostility which would go back to 2223. I guess they can wiggle out of that too.
I guess in Live By The Code it was just a happy coincidence that you had them begin a period of seclusion as well. I assume you didn't have any foreknowledge of Discovery at that time (I don't believe the show was even announced at that point). Sometimes things do work out....well unless the writers read your book before writing the show and decided to run with the idea
I'm not sure why I thought Donatu V was 10 years before the original series. The novel had it set during the 2240's as well. Duh.
