Spoilers New Picard TV Series and Litverse Continuity (may contain TV show spoilers)
- Thread starter chrinFinity
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Since the CBS one is geoblocked, for any Canadians, here's the same teaser posted by Space:
(This probably won't be viewable outside of Canada, I'm guessing, so apologies to everyone else.)
The likelihood of that happening is vanishingly small.
I know. It’s just a shame that this new show will ruin them.
Um, no they won't. They'll be put out of mainline continuity, but that was always tenuous anyhow. First Contact put Federation out of mainline continuity; "Second Chances" put Imzadi out of mainline continuity. It didn't "ruin" either novel -- in fact, both are still considered among two of the finer Trek novels ever written. So nothing's being "ruined."
So the novelverse as it know it, Destiny, The Fall etc etc is now an endangered species?
As in, should we assume that they'll not be continuing that particular continuity?
Or might it be one of those situations where they try to meld it into whatever Picard establishes between where we are in the novels and when the show starts?
As in, should we assume that they'll not be continuing that particular continuity?
Or might it be one of those situations where they try to meld it into whatever Picard establishes between where we are in the novels and when the show starts?
The shows have always ignored the books, though. The two exceptions to that have been the two Jeri Taylor novels during her time as showrunner, and that’s solely because she wrote them - after she stepped down, they were contradicted on multiple occasions.
The books are a supplement to the shows and movies, not the other way around, and the shows won’t shackle themselves to books that may well be long out of print and a casual viewer has never even seen, let alone read.
So the novelverse continuity gets officially shunted over to an alternate timeline. Big deal. This has happened before and will happen again. That doesn’t lessen the fact that they’re good stories. Hell, it doesn’t discount elements creeping back into the new lines that spring out of the new canon - how often have we seen 80s novel elements be included in more modern novels, even if just as a name drop or something?
My big concern is just going to be arranging things on the shelf, considering I’ve used a rough chronological order - we get new continuity set in the 2380s, it’s gonna throw things way off for me. But I’ll still have the older books, all those good stories will still be there to revisit.
The books are a supplement to the shows and movies, not the other way around, and the shows won’t shackle themselves to books that may well be long out of print and a casual viewer has never even seen, let alone read.
So the novelverse continuity gets officially shunted over to an alternate timeline. Big deal. This has happened before and will happen again. That doesn’t lessen the fact that they’re good stories. Hell, it doesn’t discount elements creeping back into the new lines that spring out of the new canon - how often have we seen 80s novel elements be included in more modern novels, even if just as a name drop or something?
My big concern is just going to be arranging things on the shelf, considering I’ve used a rough chronological order - we get new continuity set in the 2380s, it’s gonna throw things way off for me. But I’ll still have the older books, all those good stories will still be there to revisit.
Ha! You’re like me with my Star Wars novels. I decided to keep the Legends one on the shelf and the Disney ones under my bed.
As I have said before, it will be a shame if the litverse ends in its current form, but we will still be getting (probably) new novels from the authors we know and love.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was already working on a Picard novel to be published as soon as the show starts.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was already working on a Picard novel to be published as soon as the show starts.
My hope is that they'll do some kind of in-continuity reset, a la Crisis on Infinite Earths (although the DTI and Voyager novels have explicitly laid out that only the novelverse timeline ultimately prevails, this would likely have to be retconned or ignored), or at least some kind of finale where loose ends are tied up and we can call this version of the novelverse closed rather than cancelled.
There's probably a third option where the novelverse is fine up to a certain point where events referenced in Picard can't be ignored or retconnend away. At that point you have a branched continuity.
The releases in the contradicted novelverse branch would obviously stop at that point - they should get that wrap up novel out now while they still can !
However, other relaunch books either set before the branching or for other non contradicted parts of the novelverse like Voyager and DS9 could happily continue alongside and in continuity with the new Picard friendly TNG novels.
As much as I like many novels, I feel that an alpha canon series will naturally want to do its own take on Picard's history. Kurtzman's crew will undoubtedly not want to be bound by crises for Picard in the novelverse.
Well of course those works will be steamrolled. That is what canon, primary stories in the Star Trek franchise do. And Star Trek Online has never been heavy on worldbuilding in plausible detail for the future.
Uh, that is not quite how it works. Star Trek Online and IDW Publishing did not take Pocket novels into account because they wanted to do their own take on things, and different licensees are allowed to do that. Pocket novels have certainly ignored what happens in contemporary works from other licensees.
Sadly, I doubt that will happen. Consider if Picard brings in the Q. There is no way the showrunners will choose to be beholden to the novels' interpretation of how Q interact with spacetime physics, including the death of Q Junior, if and when Picard does its own take on the Q. After all, for comparison Discovery season 2 overrode Forgotten History, and I bet season 3 will throw more of what the DTI series established out the window, even accounting for the framework of timeline changes.
I can hardly wait to see Picard take on the Tholians or Breen or Tzenkethi.
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From what little we know so far, the focal point for this series is going to be whatever happened "15 years ago" (presumably the Hobus supernova). If that is the jumping-off point for this series, maybe they will simply not say too much about what happened between "Nemesis" and Hobus. I have no idea how likely that is, but it doesn't seem impossible.
If they mostly ignore that time period, maybe much of the events of the relaunch will remain. Even if not intact, maybe the broad strokes will not be contradicted. Of course, as has often been noted, one reference to the Borg still being around, or Picard never having a family, or his giving up command of the Enterprise just after the events of "Nemesis" would obviously rule out major parts of the relaunch with a few strokes of the pen (or taps of the keyboard). Again, I and most of us on the board have no idea how likely or unlikely any of this is.
Assuming that any of this is at all close to the actual situation, it seems possible that the immediate plan is for David Mack to wrap up the current storylines (Picard's role in the Control/Section 31 shenanigans, the mission to the Odyssean Pass, etc.) in Collateral Damage and then take a pause, at least with TNG novels, until ST: Picard concludes. I've heard several times that it's planned as a limited run of just two or three seasons, so it won't be too long until its story is told. At that point, the editors at Pocket can assess what was contradicted or placed in doubt and determine what to do going forward. Maybe the contradictions will be limited enough that the relaunch can continue with some "course adjustments" to reflect the content of Picard. Just trying to be hopeful. In the meantime, we've got a new Star Trek TV series to enjoy!
If they mostly ignore that time period, maybe much of the events of the relaunch will remain. Even if not intact, maybe the broad strokes will not be contradicted. Of course, as has often been noted, one reference to the Borg still being around, or Picard never having a family, or his giving up command of the Enterprise just after the events of "Nemesis" would obviously rule out major parts of the relaunch with a few strokes of the pen (or taps of the keyboard). Again, I and most of us on the board have no idea how likely or unlikely any of this is.
Assuming that any of this is at all close to the actual situation, it seems possible that the immediate plan is for David Mack to wrap up the current storylines (Picard's role in the Control/Section 31 shenanigans, the mission to the Odyssean Pass, etc.) in Collateral Damage and then take a pause, at least with TNG novels, until ST: Picard concludes. I've heard several times that it's planned as a limited run of just two or three seasons, so it won't be too long until its story is told. At that point, the editors at Pocket can assess what was contradicted or placed in doubt and determine what to do going forward. Maybe the contradictions will be limited enough that the relaunch can continue with some "course adjustments" to reflect the content of Picard. Just trying to be hopeful. In the meantime, we've got a new Star Trek TV series to enjoy!
I think there are far more Star Trek Online players than book readers, and the devs will likely, to stay relevant, change the game to match the show. Even if Q has to do it.
However, the marriage to Beverly and Rene Jacques Robert Francois Picard were in the 'Needs of the Many' Star Trek Online novel, supposedly written by Jake Sisko. That novel will likely have to be jettisoned, and I don't think there are references to it directly in the game anyway.
I'm not even saying or wanting the Borg to appear in the Picard show but it's just commercial reality that if they continue to make Star Trek shows in this time-frame, the borg will show up one way or the other...
As for The Needs of the Many - I don't think that makes any reference to Picard being an Admiral does it?
It's 100s of little cuts that will kill off the Novelverse let alone a few bit changes.
As for The Needs of the Many - I don't think that makes any reference to Picard being an Admiral does it?
It's 100s of little cuts that will kill off the Novelverse let alone a few bit changes.
That's all true. And it's amazing really that we've had more than 15 years of a continuing story in the relaunches (going back at least to when DS9 got the ball rolling), and even Enterprise got in on the continuing stories acts (and in some ways even tied into the 24th century stories).
And it's not like CBS is coming to your house to confiscate your novels because they likely won't fit the new Picard show continuity (BTW, I wish they came up with a more nuanced name--but at least I can stop calling it the nu-TNG show
).What's a bit sad is the relaunches will stop at that point (I mean, unless by sheer stroke of luck the show doesn't do anything to contradict the general continuity of the novelverse--but I find that doubtful). After all these years I've grown a bit attached to the storylines and characters in the relaunches. I was sad when Choudhoury was killed. I've grown to like characters like Elfiki, Taurik and Chen. Ditto for new characters in the DS9 and Voyager novels (and Titan for that matter). On the one hand it's amazing they've continued as long as they have, and on the other hand it will be sad to think there will be no new stories in that continuity in the very near future (probably).
My hope is the novels take the relaunches at least to the destruction of Romulus. It'll be a shame if we don't get to see how that affects the novelverse. What repercussions will it have for the Typhon Pact, and it's relations with the Khitomer powers? If the relaunch continuity has to end, how great would it to be to end it with an explosive trilogy centered around the destruction of Romulus?
While the relaunches will stop once they are contradicted, books being currently written will continue to be published...and I could see a scenario where Pocketbooks is allowed to close out the relaunches even if Star Trek: Picard has already started.
