Novel set in the post atomic Horror

[Dave Scarpa]

So would anyone like to see a trek novel based in this time period?

I would like to see a good author tackle the subject

Let’s face it to even recover from a nuclear war in a 100 years and then go on to form starfleet, that would be a tough one to explain and document. But I’d like to see someone try

 

[JD]

After Enterprise I had assumed a lot of that rebuilding was thanks to the Vulcans' help.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

More than likely but wouldn’t mind reading about it

 

[Desert Kris]

I think Judith and Garfield Reeves-steven's Federation showed a version of it, featuring a different interpretation of Zephram Cochrane. I thought I remember the drugged soldiers from Encounter at Farpoint appear in it.

I would be keen to see some books showing humanity's turn around after first contact with the Vulcans.

 

[Christopher]

I would be keen to see some books showing humanity's turn around after first contact with the Vulcans.

A few years back, I pitched the idea of doing something filling in the time between First Contact and Enterprise. Margaret Clark didn't think it'd have enough appeal, that it wouldn't feel Trek-like enough or have enough familiar characters, so instead she suggested I do post-ENT instead, and that led to Rise of the Federation.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I get where she was coming from, but count me among that small audience who it would appeal to. I like see these gaps in explored canon get some light shone on them.

I’d still like to see like something about the formation of Starfleet, though, like something that could maybe “lead in” to the state of things at the start of Enterprise. Maybe involving a young Admiral Forrest and see him get to where he was basically one of the early heads of Starfleet.

I’d also like to see Zefram and Lily be revisited in some fashion, too.

 

[Desert Kris]

A few years back, I pitched the idea of doing something filling in the time between First Contact and Enterprise. Margaret Clark didn't think it'd have enough appeal, that it wouldn't feel Trek-like enough or have enough familiar characters, so instead she suggested I do post-ENT instead, and that led to Rise of the Federation.

That sounds like an intriguing story idea. Given Margaret Clark's reasons for redirecting you towards the post-ENT era, is it a story idea that could be made to work by including enough familiar Star Trek elements? The way you describe it, it sounds very far outside the box, but I think that is what makes it an exciting idea.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

After Enterprise I had assumed a lot of that rebuilding was thanks to the Vulcans' help.

It would have to be.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Would really like to read a trilogy or book series about it. I always wondered about what happened between 2063 and 2079, the time of the tribunal in "Encounter at Farpoint".

Would be really interesting to see what the Vulcans did in these years and how things finally got better on Earth.

 

[Christopher]

That sounds like an intriguing story idea. Given Margaret Clark's reasons for redirecting you towards the post-ENT era, is it a story idea that could be made to work by including enough familiar Star Trek elements? The way you describe it, it sounds very far outside the box, but I think that is what makes it an exciting idea.

I think we should avoid speculations that could cross into story-idea territory. I'll just say that the outside-the-box-ness of it, the chance to tell a different kind of story in the Trek universe, was what interested me, and trying to force as many familiar Trek elements as possible onto it to make it feel more conventionally Trekky would probably be awkward and contrived. I'm reminded of how I felt about the Gotham TV series -- I wanted a crime drama about young Jim Gordon cleaning up the GCPD, but instead it forced its pre-Batman setting to be as much like a conventional Batman story as possible, and I lost interest. If you set out to do a different take on a premise, you should embrace the difference, not try to paper it over with familiar elements. You can't do something well if you're afraid to commit to it fully.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I actuallly think of it as something that fills in the gaps between the rise and fall of Khan(Greg Cox) are you listening, thru what led to WWIII, thru the nuclear war, and humanity climbing out of the ashes and leading to the beginning of warp drive experimentation? Cause let’s face it, if your population is beaten and starving how do you justify space travel?

 

[Desert Kris]

I think we should avoid speculations that could cross into story-idea territory. I'll just say that the outside-the-box-ness of it, the chance to tell a different kind of story in the Trek universe, was what interested me, and trying to force as many familiar Trek elements as possible onto it to make it feel more conventionally Trekky would probably be awkward and contrived. I'm reminded of how I felt about the Gotham TV series -- I wanted a crime drama about young Jim Gordon cleaning up the GCPD, but instead it forced its pre-Batman setting to be as much like a conventional Batman story as possible, and I lost interest. If you set out to do a different take on a premise, you should embrace the difference, not try to paper it over with familiar elements. You can't do something well if you're afraid to commit to it fully.

I may have worded my question a little awkwardly, but your answer addressed what I was really curious about. Thank you for sharing that.

I was thinking about it from the standpoint of stories that push the boundaries as far as to the point where some fans disconnect and feel like a story isn't a "proper" tie-in story. There were some well-written and challenging Doctor Who novels in the 1990's that pushed the envelop in that regard; minimal continuity references and head-on inclusion of content that wouldn't have been seen in the original television series. I've read a bunch of them, and they had a character called the Doctor, and the character was consistent with my impressions of the character from the television series (emphasizing some aspects of the character a little more); I recognized the character as being a believable rendering of title character. I could see how some fans regard those stories as Doctor Who in name only, but I felt like they were DW enough for me.

I've read plenty of tie-in novels that are continuity-happy, too. The aforementioned Federation novel introduced me to the character of Micah Brack, who I had never encountered before. I'm more charitable about the episode Requiem for Methuselah than I might have been otherwise.

Anyway, I like the sound of the proposal you describe. It sounds like it would have been an interesting reading challenge for Star Trek book enthusiasts.

 

[JD]

I think I'd be more interested in a WWIII miniseries, than something set after it. At this point it's probably the biggest historical event in the Trek universe that we haven't seen.

 

[Christopher]

I think I'd be more interested in a WWIII miniseries, than something set after it. At this point it's probably the biggest historical event in the Trek universe that we haven't seen.

WWIII was depicted to a degree in The Lost Era: The Sundered, and in the SNW story "The Immortality Blues" that's consistent with The Sundered. Federation also addresses an alternative version of it to some extent. So we have seen it in the literature.

 

[tomswift2002]

Strangers From The Sky’s 21st century portions take place after WWIII and between 2028-2065. However with the book originally being published in September 1987, it doesn’t reference anything from TNG.

 

[Little_kingsfan]

Also, "Hearts and Minds" covered the 2020s-2060s in very broad strokes through the lens of the US' encounters with aliens and/or time travel.

 

[JD]

I read Hearts & Minds earlier this year, and it kind of doesn't really go into a lot of depth about what actually happened during WWIII.

WWIII was depicted to a degree in The Lost Era: The Sundered, and in the SNW story "The Immortality Blues" that's consistent with The Sundered. Federation also addresses an alternative version of it to some extent. So we have seen it in the literature.

The Sundered is the only one of those I've read, and I don't remember it going into that much detail about WWIII either.

 

[Leto_II]

The Sundered is the only one of those I've read, and I don't remember it going into that much detail about WWIII either.

It definitely does -- and as a matter of fact, this novel was one of the biggest sources of information, either onscreen or off-, concerning many of the fine-detail specifics of the war, and not only were subsequent stories like "Mestral" and "The Immortality Blues" designed to be consistent with it, but even last season's DSC episode "New Eden" actually fits extremely well with the details presented in the book.

 

[Damian]

WWIII was depicted to a degree in The Lost Era: The Sundered, and in the SNW story "The Immortality Blues" that's consistent with The Sundered. Federation also addresses an alternative version of it to some extent. So we have seen it in the literature.

And the novelization to First Contact had some glimpses into WWIII as well.

I agree with JD to some extent, like the Romulan War, WWIII is the one oft mentioned event of Star Trek future history that has a big impact on that future history that we've never seen on screen. The Romulan War finally got it's day in the novels (though I continue to grouse that it got shortchanged in the 2nd book--I thought Michael Martin had a good start in book 1 but it should have gotten a trilogy of novels, but I digress). WWIII got glimpses in the novels but they are fragmented and contradictory in some ways.

I'd love to see someone take those pieces and form a unified whole. For instance, while large segments of "Federation" have been overwritten by First Contact, I really liked the idea of the Optimum Movement and some of the characters there. And some of that at least seems like it could work with the canon. They did give us a hint in the Terra Prime episodes of Enterprise that part of the background of WWIII had to do with genetic purity--which was basically the Optimum Movement at it's core.

I actually thought Dayton Ward was going to touch on WWIII in one of his novels since some of it took place in the mid 21st century, but alas, no such luck.

A few years back, I pitched the idea of doing something filling in the time between First Contact and Enterprise. Margaret Clark didn't think it'd have enough appeal

Hmm, too bad. I love gap filling stories. One of the reasons I love Lost Era and Lost Years novels.

In any event, I don't expect to see such novels at this point. With all the shows coming out I'm sure S&S will want to focus on tie ins to current shows and the original series. And they don't seem to be at a point of printing a novel a month yet (I wonder if staggered releases are the new norm for Star Trek novels-or are they working toward monthly releases again). But either way, there's only 12 months in a year so there's not a lot of room to add in non series related books.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Yeah, and as i said before i wondered how tribunals like the one in "Encounter at Farpoint" could still exist in 2079. After all the Vulcans at this point were already on Earth for around 16 years. And it seemed like from Q's words in the episode, these things were globally happening and he used this fact as one of the reasons for judging humanity...