Should they bring back Janeway?

[Steve Roby]

I think the best way to have your voice heard by Pocket would be to organize the BBJ fans into:

A: Buying the books Janeway appeared in. Not used. NEW. That shows an interest in seeing her further adventures in a way that Pocket cannot ignore. A purchase for a Janeway book is a vote for more Janeway.

I made a similar suggestion over a year ago. The Janeway fans didn't care for the idea, to put it mildly. Not even the ones who actually understood what I was saying.

I haven't bought a Voyager book in a long while now and I've never bought an Enterprise book. So, I'm doing more than just arguing with someone who I don't believe is old enough to have participated in the first letter writing campaign. Thing is, those stragegies don't work. All it does is cause them to stop selling and writing the books, so it gets now where, UNLESS they know what we do want.

This paragraph's not easy to parse, but I think you're missing the Admiral's point. Like I said last year, quoting the Talosians, "Wrong thinking is punishable. Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded." Do some rewarding along with the punishing.

BTW, the S.T. section at local bookstores here in my city has gotten smaller and smaller. Some places it's non-existent. Goes to show what not buying does.

Star Trek was hugely popular in the early to mid-'90s. This was an anomaly. I've looked at the number of Trek books published annually, as listed on my site, and unsurprisingly enough, the number of Trek books published in a year peaked around the same time Trek itself peaked, and the number of Trek books dwindled as DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise each got lower ratings than its predecessor. So it makes perfect sense that there are fewer books in the bookstores. What else would you expect?

 

[JD]

Ok, so just because you don't like to buy books online, on one else does either?

As for the shrinking Trek Lit selection in the physical stores, I think it's also worth keeping in mind that the overall selections in most books stores is shrinking at a pretty quick pace. I don't know about anyone else's stores, but the ones near me seem to slowly be carrying more and more side products, like DVDs, and games, and spreading out the books more and more. Not to mention that fact that most of them also now have coffee shops taking up a large portion of the store.

 

[Therin of Andor]

the ones near me seem to slowly be carrying more and more side products, like DVDs, and games, and spreading out the books more and more. Not to mention that fact that most of them also now have coffee shops taking up a large portion of the store.

Have you noticed, too, that almost every new picture book these days comes with almost-compulsory toys? The shelf for the book of "Where the Wild Things Are" not only has sticker books, "making of the movie" books, the cartoon DVD, the movie DVD and the soundtrack CD, but it is crowded with large monster toys. "Where's Waldo?" has Waldo figurines, jigsaws and DVDs overshadowing the "Where's Waldo" books". "Where is the Green Sheep?" comes in a box with a green sheep toy, and so on. And that's only the "W" shelf.

The Easter books all have fluffy bunnies and chickens (and here, bilbies!) to go with the books.

If there is a Star Trek section, it's just as likely to have trilling tribbles, phasers, tricorders and a few action figures jostling for room with the novels and tie-ins to JJ's movie.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I buy far too many books online. Personally, I'm not fond of online shopping. I rather go to the store, get what I want and bring it home.

The early adopters at Amazon weren't necessarily fond of it either; it was their need to have everything before the month of official release, or earlier, that turned them towards the concept of online shopping. Nothing worse than knowing that copies of the latest ST novel is sitting in a huge, mixed packing carton in the back room of a bookshop, waiting till the manager gets around to asking one of the assistants to price tag them and display them.

I used to have semi-official standing orders in about four shops. Each month, the shops would see me come in and boast they "had it first" as an air-freighted shipment - and I'd buy from whomever had it first. What made that scheme so annoying and inefficient, in the end, was that sometimes each shop would have official standing orders that exceeded supply, and I'd miss out completely and have to go online, or wait three months for the first sea freight deliveries. Not surprising that Diamond Distributors dropped the stocking of ST novels completely.

This kind of thing happens when collectors are involved. I used to know completist ST fans who never read any of the books. But they collected them religiously, as one would gum cards.

 

[pookha]

I am curious to see what pocketbook sales were like before and after janeway's death. Something tells me there won't be a big increase or decrease. Though there was a few years between Christie's relanch (not the best) and Kirsten's books (which is hands down better).

i know of some people who planned to buy the golden books but didnt because they were not overly impressed with them.

but with kirsten's i think she is attracting non voyager fans because they are so well written.
even though there are voyager fans who are now boycotting the line due to the death of janeway.

and while i dont like the death of janeway(they couldnt have killed off a male captain from one of the series) and especially how she was killed i wouldnt miss kirsten's books because of it.

personally right now i think they could use janeway..

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since they sorta just lost the admiral of the delta fleet..


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[Allyn Gibson]

Star Trek was hugely popular in the early to mid-'90s. This was an anomaly. I've looked at the number of Trek books published annually, as listed on my site, and unsurprisingly enough, the number of Trek books published in a year peaked around the same time Trek itself peaked, and the number of Trek books dwindled as DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise each got lower ratings than its predecessor.

Steve, I'm curious. If you had to go to the calendar, when would you mark the point where Trek peaked? Recently, I've been thinking that the release of Generations was either the zenith of Trek's arc or the point where the engine cut out (where there was still some upward momentum, but not much), but that by the time the 30th-anniversary rolled around, Trek was in decline.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've been thinking that the release of Generations was either the zenith of Trek's arc or the point where the engine cut out (where there was still some upward momentum, but not much), but that by the time the 30th-anniversary rolled around, Trek was in decline.

Yeah, the other upward blip would have been "First Contact".

I think many fans who recall the excitement of the 20th anniversary celebrations, and then the 25th anniversary, were pretty Trekked out by the 30th. DeForest Kelly and Leonard Nimoy turning down the chance to return in "Generations" (but who can blame them?) was not really a surprise, but it suggested that maybe the good times were behind us all.

 

[pookha]

the death of kirk in generations made some of the fans of tos feel like they were not wanted any more.

even though over the years many had also became fans of tng.

and in a way i think the decline in quality of the films after first contract contributed to fans drifting away as much or more then the other series.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

personally right now i think they could use janeway..

,,

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,
,.
.
.
.
.
.

,
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since they sorta just lost the admiral of the delta fleet..


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Hmmmm....

 

[Mriana]

I buy far too many books online. Personally, I'm not fond of online shopping. I rather go to the store, get what I want and bring it home.

The early adopters at Amazon weren't necessarily fond of it either; it was their need to have everything before the month of official release, or earlier, that turned them towards the concept of online shopping. Nothing worse than knowing that copies of the latest ST novel is sitting in a huge, mixed packing carton in the back room of a bookshop, waiting till the manager gets around to asking one of the assistants to price tag them and display them.

I used to have semi-official standing orders in about four shops. Each month, the shops would see me come in and boast they "had it first" as an air-freighted shipment - and I'd buy from whomever had it first. What made that scheme so annoying and inefficient, in the end, was that sometimes each shop would have official standing orders that exceeded supply, and I'd miss out completely and have to go online, or wait three months for the first sea freight deliveries. Not surprising that Diamond Distributors dropped the stocking of ST novels completely.

This kind of thing happens when collectors are involved. I used to know completist ST fans who never read any of the books. But they collected them religiously, as one would gum cards.

Our problem with online shopping is that we've had a few packages stolen- that is the postmaster placed them on our porch and we found them open somewhere up the street. So, they were delivered, but when the mail person left them on our porch they got lifted.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Shit! That's awful. Do you have a gate?

 

[Mriana]

Shit! That's awful. Do you have a gate?

Nope! We rent, so adding it would be up to the landlord. My son got something from New Egg, found it open a block up the road, among other things we've ordered. It's a real pain in this neighbourhood.

 

[Therin of Andor]

when the mail person left them on our porch they got lifted.

That's what private mail boxes are for.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Hehehehe. We've just had another swoop attack on the poll. It now reads 90 vs 77, but only a few minutes ago it was almost even.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

when the mail person left them on our porch they got lifted.

That's what private mail boxes are for.

Those can be expensive and hard to get in the good ol' US of A. The USPS are regular mercenaries I tells ya!

 

[Mriana]

when the mail person left them on our porch they got lifted.

That's what private mail boxes are for.

Yes, with lock and key. If I lived in an apt building instead of renting a house, I would have a mailbox with lock and key, but not big enough for packages from Amazon, New Egg, or alike.

 

[seigezunt]

If they bring back Janeway and don't bring back Kirk, I'm boycotting the franchise.




Well, not really. But I wanted to see how it sounded.

 

[Thestral]

^ Did you even read his post? He was telling you to do exactly what you just said you should be doing - write letters.

And - once again - I PARTICIPATED IN A SUCCESSFUL LETTER WRITING FAN CAMPAIGN, so please get off your high horse. I'm plenty old enough to know how this works.

And didn't I say that was doing more than arguing with punks? And for the record, I don't have to believe every claim that comes along, not even yours.

... you're accusing him of lying?

 

[Thrawn]

From condescension to stating misunderstandings as fact to straight-up denial of reality in 5 posts flat. Gotta be a new record, even for a Janeway thread.

 

[aelius]

^ Did you even read his post? He was telling you to do exactly what you just said you should be doing - write letters.

And - once again - I PARTICIPATED IN A SUCCESSFUL LETTER WRITING FAN CAMPAIGN, so please get off your high horse. I'm plenty old enough to know how this works.

And didn't I say that was doing more than arguing with punks? And for the record, I don't have to believe every claim that comes along, not even yours.

I'm sorry, but that was rude and uncalled for. I have been on this board for a long time now, and while I do not always agree with Thrawn, his posts are always well thought out and coherent.
I am not quite old enough to have participated in the original letter writing campaign that got Star Trek its third season, but I have been watching since it went into reruns in '72. While Thrawn, and many of the other posters on the boards are younger than me, I have never looked down on them because of it. I find the need of some people to claim the true understanding of what Star Trek is because they have been fans longer to be absurd.
You are certainly entitled to your opinions about Star Trek and Janeway's death, but you should apologize to Thrawn for the punk remark.