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Spoilers New Picard TV Series and Litverse Continuity (may contain TV show spoilers)

Well it appears the ongoing continuity will indeed be scrapped. A sad day. The achievement our authors and editors over the last 20 years have made is monumental. They made an amazing use of the opportunity they were given to basically have free reign with the entire Trek universe for arguably longer than Paramount did in the 80s-2000s. No, obviously no one will confiscate my copies of The Fall, but we will at some point in the near future never see the continuing storylines we've followed for almost two decades continue to their next chapters.

What remains to be seen is how it will all shake out in the end. Tweets by a few authors have made it clear they have " a plan". I hope it's more coherent than the Cylon's was in nuBSG. Given the tight timeframe from now until when Picard premiere's I can't imagine what the plan is. My dream would be a massive crossover trilogy that includes the destruction of Romulus and disappearance of Spock and some kind of time travel element that resets everything back to Nemesis and propels the story forward in a way that will cause events to turn out differently.

If we are robbed of the Litverse version of the destruction of Romulus after all these years, it will be a huge letdown. And not giving this continuity a chance for one final story to wrap everything in a bow would be a real heartbreak. I am just not seeing how it can play out satisfactorily between now and Picard's premiere. Deep Space Nine seems likely to never have a chance at a conclusion. I don't understand what is going to happen with Kirsten's final Voyager novel at this point. Of lesser importance is seemingly no chance for a final New Frontier story either.

It's a real shame that the current situation, and the fact that we've still never gotten the fall of Romulus storyline, is all because of those protracted contract renegotiations. If they had happened just a bit faster, Treklit might be in just the perfect spot for a continuity reboot. I guess I have to be still hopeful that they receive permission to do my dream reset button storyline. The Litverse is dead. Long live the Litverse.

All that said, I am super excited for this series. When the casting announcements happened ahead of the trailer release this afternoon I got chills. And seeing Picard and Seven again was beyond wonderful. I eagerly await this series. THIS is Star Trek. More to me than anything since Nemesis. It is thrilling to me that I just watched actual filmed content depicting the 24th century again.

Today reminds of an article Den of Geek published last year that brought tears to my eyes. https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/sta...y-we-cant-wait-to-go-back-to-the-24th-century It was about being excited for this show...

"We are the next generation; the people who grew up with Picard and Sisko rather than Kirk and his crew. We can - and do - enjoy our journeys to Captain Kirk’s 23rd Century, but it’s not our home - not in the same way as the 24th had been. If Captain Picard, with all of his wisdom and compassion, is there to greet us upon our return to the Alpha Quadrant, so much the better – but don’t be fooled, CBS, he’s not the only reason we’re excited. Sometimes, it’s just nice to go home again."

I am thrilled to be only a few months from returning home.
 
ialfan said:
Still hopeful that the VOY and ENT Relaunches aren't entirely over but I'm not holding my breath.
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I could see the Enterprise novels being able to continue, but I don't really see any way the Voyager Relaunch could without retconning it's entire premise. It's just to cloesly tied into Destiny, not the mention the new show's going involve 7 of 9, so that would make using her in the novels hard.
 
JD said:
I could see the Enterprise novels being able to continue, but I don't really see any way the Voyager Relaunch could without retconning it's entire premise. It's just to cloesly tied into Destiny, not the mention the new show's going involve 7 of 9, so that would make using her in the novels hard.
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Yeah it's unfortunate since while some the series seemed to running out of steam the Voyager novels (since Full Circle) never disappointed. I know supposedly there was another Voyager novel (To Lose The Earth) contracted but Kirsten Beyer probably has zero availability to work on it these days if it's even still on the table.

The Rise of the Federation novels seemed to be approaching their natural conclusion but one or two more novels to lead up to Archer retiring and becoming an ambassador would be welcome.
 
I am not surprised, I still fondly remember Destiny and plan to re-read it soon.

What I am most disappointed in is we never got a novel depiction of the destruction of Romulus and its aftermath effects on the primeverse. If we had gotten a trilogy on that, I think I would be generally more content with a reboot as the rest of the prime verse timeline is while not clearly laid out, the trajectory of the future federation to the 31st century and beyond isn't too hard to imagine. Ever increasing progress and expansion, to some unknown ascension.

Not sure, if I will watch the Picard show, probably not. What this does make me indecisive over, is whether I should read any more of the novels at all.
 
I, too, was super excited to see more of the permise of the new Picard series. I think it will be a success, both with fans and with casual viewers. The consequences for the litverse remain to be seen and I don't share the pessimistic view of some.
Why can't there be the litverse with its established stories and chronology and, separate from that, the new Picard show or any other 24th century based show that might come up?
Still, I never fully understood why all literature series came to a de facto halt around 2 years ago, although there is much to be told (NF, VOY, ENT....; TNG at least gets one in fall) in many series? Yes, David Mack tweeted "we have a plan for that", but what is the plan?? Once a franchise is dead, it's hard to revive it and novels aren't certainly written overnight.
I'm looking at the matter with two hearts in my chest: very excited for the new show, sad that the future of the litverse is in dire straits (or even beyond that).
So, any thoughts where the litverse will be in 5 years?
 
Tie-in novels have to fit in with current on screen continuity. It's the nature of the beast.

However, some existing novels may be unaffected. If so, which ones ?

TOS, Enterprise, The Rise of the Federation most likely.

Titan, some of the pre Destiny/Typhon Pact TNG and DS9 possibly.

Early Voyager relaunch ?

DTI could easily reset themselves where necessary...
 
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Honestly I wouldn't mind at least a Romulus destruction novel, to at least cap off the novelverse. From there, you can use all the temporal mechanics retconning you want.
 
Relayer1 said:
Tie-in novels have to fit in with current on screen continuity. It's the nature of the beast.
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Sure, but I think the situation is different here. The litverse has established itself over the last 15 years and now it should all be screwed because CBS doesn't hold up to it? I think that's unfair towards all authors and readers.
 
Greg Cox said:
My prediction, based on no inside info whatsoever: it's a holodeck sequence.
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JoeZhang said:
Could be although I am reading that BS has said he is playing Data and not Lore or B4 - so I think they soft-retcon his body surviving in nemesis but being "dead" (which doesn't stop at the end it being a dream - trailers are often out of order).
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Data's katra gets transferred from B-4 to the holodeck Moriarty style is something I could see happening, and has a nice sense of irony about it.

Given that the facility in the trailer has had 5000ish days (16 years) without incident, the big question is how much of that facility being set up 16 years ago is gonna be told through the series, or is it gonna be the first tie in novel?
 
Picard87 said:
Sure, but I think the situation is different here. The litverse has established itself over the last 15 years and now it should all be screwed because CBS doesn't hold up to it? I think that's unfair towards all authors and readers.
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It's a pretty much a case of 'too bad' for the litverse. While I've enjoyed it, what was written in the last 15 years is not canon and is subservient to what is shown on screen in movies and tv shows. It has always been this way, even when Paramount was the sole handler of the Trek property, so stop trying to make like CBS is some big evil corporation trying to shit in peoples hats. It's business and the Litverse authors know that their work can be made irrelevant at any time and accept it as part and parcel of writing tie-in novels. They get to play in someone elses pool and that's it. I hope they keep some aspects of the litverse, but there is a lot of it i'm happy to do away with.
 
Two things I’ve been thinking

1) CBS has to approve all new novels and I feel they will want them to reflect what’s on screen

2) From a business point of view S&S has more of a chance of picking up new readers with novels reflecting what’s on screen rather than those that have a fifteen year backstory.
 
I'm sorry to see the old continuity go. Although it's true that 'we still have the stories', for someone like me that squints, and handwaves himself into screen and current literary Trek being all one coherent whole, this devalues it, for me at least.

And yes, I know they're all made up stories and it's a false distinction.

However, as readers we have to show at least some of the practicality and common sense of the authors who surely have more justification towards grievance should they choose. Which they don't. As I said earlier, it's the nature of the beast - the writers go into it with their eyes open, and so must we.

They get to work in a field that appeals to them (we should all be so lucky) and we get the enjoyment of their efforts. At this most basic of levels, I hope and presume this will continue with the tie-ins to the new shows. I hope I get sucked back in - though I thought I may venture back into Star Wars novels after their reset (I bailed years ago) but haven't.

With regard to the old continuity, it would be great if there could be a wrap-up that somehow deals with the big reset, and also if at least some of the existing novels could be folded into the new continuity.

Fingers crossed...
 
I wonder if anyone's lamenting that Brannon Braga's Hive miniseries has been contradicted, since Seven of Nine is obviously still alive.
 
I guess Countdown is toast too? its going to be difficult not considering it canon after a decade..
 
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