NuTrek references in the novels

[Christopher]

There were people who hated the animated series and didn't want it to be part of "their" Trek. There were people who hated ST:TMP and TWOK and didn't want them to be part of "their" Trek. There were people who hated TNG and didn't want it to be part of "their" Trek. And so on. If the tie-in creators heeded purist fans' desire for building walls between old and new interpretations of the franchise, we wouldn't have two Trek universes now, we'd have at least half a dozen, all mutually incompatible and forbidden to share ideas. And that would be a much less interesting universe.

And you know what? I've managed to come up with interesting stories based on ideas from episodes I disliked. Just because a character or idea originated in an installment I thought was bad, that doesn't mean it can't be the basis of something worthwhile in a different context.

 

[Timewalker]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. As for "trace amounts" of crossover or "reimagined" stuff... I feel the same way when I see nuDune nonsense inserted into a story that claims to be Dune.

Write all the nuTrek books you want. Just don't try to pass them off as real Trek, and keep cross-contamination out of it. The nuTrek fans will be happy with the book and the people who loathe nuTrek can safely ignore it. After all, it doesn't help when a reader sees some mention of a nuTrek detail of a character's life in a TOS book and mutters, "WTF!!! This author doesn't know what he/she's talking about!" when it doesn't match real Trek details.

 

[Christopher]

"Real Trek." It's all made up, you know.

 

[Greg Cox]

And you know what? I've managed to come up with interesting stories based on ideas from episodes I disliked. Just because a character or idea originated in an installment I thought was bad, that doesn't mean it can't be the basis of something worthwhile in a different context.

Hell, I once used a character from Star Trek V . . . and, as far as I know, nobody threw it across the room because it was "contaminated" by the worst Trek movie ever!

 

[Masiral]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. As for "trace amounts" of crossover or "reimagined" stuff... I feel the same way when I see nuDune nonsense inserted into a story that claims to be Dune.

Write all the nuTrek books you want. Just don't try to pass them off as real Trek, and keep cross-contamination out of it. The nuTrek fans will be happy with the book and the people who loathe nuTrek can safely ignore it. After all, it doesn't help when a reader sees some mention of a nuTrek detail of a character's life in a TOS book and mutters, "WTF!!! This author doesn't know what he/she's talking about!" when it doesn't match real Trek details.

How would you know that something is a nuTrek detail if you loathe nuTrek, and therefore, presumably, have not seen nuTrek?

 

[Greg Cox]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. .

Umm, I was being sarcastic . . .

There's no such thing as "real Trek." Just old Trek and new Trek.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There were people who hated the animated series and didn't want it to be part of "their" Trek.

Indeed! I once knew people who were angered by the humorous Arex and M'Ress cameo in Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool".

And, as I once discussed with the late Janet Kagan, adding M'Ress to "Uhura's Song" might have given the search for the aliens' cure more interesting since they were also felinoids. She agreed, but hadn't much knowledge of TAS.

Of course, TAS fans remember the day when Arex and M'Ress were ordered to be written out of the DC Comic series, and (some of us) celebrated when they suddenly arrived in "Gateways: New Frontier: Cold Wars".

 

[SeerSGB]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. .

Umm, I was being sarcastic . . .

There's no such thing as "real Trek." Just old Trek and new Trek.

There is only Trek. The Trek is all. It surrounds us, binds us together, Trekkies are we not this crude genre splitting.

"Real Trek." It's all made up, you know.

BLASPHEMER! Not of the body! Lawgiver! Lawgiver!

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. As for "trace amounts" of crossover or "reimagined" stuff... I feel the same way when I see nuDune nonsense inserted into a story that claims to be Dune.

Write all the nuTrek books you want. Just don't try to pass them off as real Trek, and keep cross-contamination out of it. The nuTrek fans will be happy with the book and the people who loathe nuTrek can safely ignore it. After all, it doesn't help when a reader sees some mention of a nuTrek detail of a character's life in a TOS book and mutters, "WTF!!! This author doesn't know what he/she's talking about!" when it doesn't match real Trek details.

I have to ask, are you serious? If a book tells a good story and written well, wouldn't that concern override bits of minutia such as "what movie in the franchise" it's based on?

 

[Greg Cox]

Heck, I remember when a Star Trek novel was "contaminated" by characters from Here Comes the Brides.

Didn't hurt the book one bit!

 

[DonIago]

If a book tells a good story and written well, wouldn't that concern override bits of minutia such as "what movie in the franchise" it's based on?

This line reminds me of that "Should Trek go back to the Prime universe" thread where the implication seemed to be that even the worst Primeverse story would be preferable to anything that could possibly come from the NewVerse.

 

[Therin of Andor]

This line reminds me of that "Should Trek go back to the Prime universe" thread where the implication seemed to be that even the worst Primeverse story would be preferable to anything that could possibly come from the NewVerse.

And, for their punishment, write out "Warped" and "The Laertian Gamble" 100 times. With a yellow crayon.

 

[nightwind1]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. .

Umm, I was being sarcastic . . .

There's no such thing as "real Trek." Just Trek.

Fixed it for ya, Greg.

 

[JD]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. As for "trace amounts" of crossover or "reimagined" stuff... I feel the same way when I see nuDune nonsense inserted into a story that claims to be Dune.

Write all the nuTrek books you want. Just don't try to pass them off as real Trek, and keep cross-contamination out of it. The nuTrek fans will be happy with the book and the people who loathe nuTrek can safely ignore it. After all, it doesn't help when a reader sees some mention of a nuTrek detail of a character's life in a TOS book and mutters, "WTF!!! This author doesn't know what he/she's talking about!" when it doesn't match real Trek details.

What if a book was set solidly in the Prime Universe, but had some scenes with a member or members of Keenser or Madeline's species? What if a novel had bald

 

[Christopher]

There's no such thing as "real Trek." Just old Trek and new Trek.

And all of old Trek was once new Trek. Or rather, "old Trek" is a loose, imperfect assemblage of multiple successive "new Treks," each of which was rejected by purists when it was new, but eventually embraced as part of the whole by the next wave of purists.

 

[JD]

Perhaps we should put stickers on the books:

"Warning: Part of the same franchise that also produced the most recent movies. May contain trace amounts of NuTrek. People severely allergic to reboots should be aware of the possibility of cross-universe contamination. Proceed at your own risk."

Seriously, NuTrek isn't plutonium. Trace amounts never killed anybody.

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. As for "trace amounts" of crossover or "reimagined" stuff... I feel the same way when I see nuDune nonsense inserted into a story that claims to be Dune.

Write all the nuTrek books you want. Just don't try to pass them off as real Trek, and keep cross-contamination out of it. The nuTrek fans will be happy with the book and the people who loathe nuTrek can safely ignore it. After all, it doesn't help when a reader sees some mention of a nuTrek detail of a character's life in a TOS book and mutters, "WTF!!! This author doesn't know what he/she's talking about!" when it doesn't match real Trek details.

What if a book was set solidly in the Prime Universe, but had some scenes with a member or members of Keenser (called the Roylan in the Abramsverse comics) or Madeline's species? What if a novel had bald, tattooed Romulans (I think one did already)? Would those be OK?

 

[Stevil2001]

I remember a bunch of people being aggravated that Dayton and Kevin contaminated their A Time to... novels with Enterprise cameos. How dare you reference things I don't personally enjoy!

 

[BillJ]

Yeah, I could live with a warning like that. .

Umm, I was being sarcastic . . .

There's no such thing as "real Trek." Just Trek.

Fixed it for ya, Greg.

You just killed my dreams of sling-shotting myself to the 23rd century and serving aboard Kirk's Enterprise!

 

[SeerSGB]

How does that work when it's reversed? The Reboot Team used the novels for a lot of the backstory and fill in the gaps for some of the characters: Kirk a little prick that was always in trouble comes from the novels years (2 decades, I'm thinking) before the reboot. So does that mean the Prime Universe contaminated the Reboot-Verse?

 

[Greg Cox]

Heck, I've seen people object to "Assignment: Earth," and even insist that it's not a real Trek episode, because it's actually a backdoor pilot for another series. Was Trek "contaminated" by Gary Seven and Robert Lincoln?

Look, there are characters and episodes in every Trek series that I'm not particularly fond of, but I'm not going to take offense if a novel references "The Alternative Factor" or "Friday's Child" or whatever. "How dare you remind me of that sucky episode!"

Like it or not, it's all Trek. The new movies included.

So, yeah, Romulus is toast.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Pah, it's not real fucking Star Trek if it doesn't have Chris Pike, Number One, Dr Boyce. Fuck these apocrypha going along with that bullshit that Spock speaks softly and doesn't have a limp!