Star Trek The Lost Series

[DarthPipes]

I think I once posted a thread about this book a few years ago but hey, why not another?

Who here has the Star Trek Phase II The Lost Series book? I bought it a number of years ago and it's always been a favorite of mine as its a fascinating look at a Star Trek that never was. I particularly enjoy to read the original pilot script In Thy Image every once in a while. I like it a lot better than The Motion Picture movie itself.

As I said, it's a fascinating look although I don't know if the original crew could have returned without Spock.

You know, Star Trek Phase II would make an interesting story to use for Star Trek Myriad Universes.

 

[Therin of Andor]

You know, Star Trek Phase II would make an interesting story to use for Star Trek Myriad Universes.

The character of Xon later appeared as a Starfleet Intelligence officer who was betrothed to Saavik in DC's Star Trek (DC volume 1) comic book series.

According to a Starfleet Academy personnel manifest in the background of the area outside of the Kobayashi Maru scenario simulator, a Captain Xon had an office located at #213. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) (Memory Alpha.)

The characters have appeared in their "Mirror Universe" incarnations in a novel:

In the mirror universe, Xon was a Vulcan male serving in the Imperial Starfleet in the late 23rd century.
By 2277, Ensign Xon was assigned as science officer to the ISS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Spock. In this year, Xon ... assisted the landing party in disarming the assassins and booby traps that had been layed in an attempt to assassinate Spock. In a final act before leaving Deneva, Xon and Saavik killed Commander Decker for his role in the attempted assassination. (TOS - Glass Empires novel: The Sorrows of Empire) (Memory Beta.)

 

[KingstonTrekker]

Many elements of the aborted Phase II series have been/are being incorporated into the web fan series episodes from New Voyages/Phase II (Crawley Productions.)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

You know, Star Trek Phase II would make an interesting story to use for Star Trek Myriad Universes.

In '98, John Ordover, then Pocket's Star Trek editor, asked on Pocket's Star Trek message board if there was any interest in "Phase II" novels.

I don't know what J.J. had in mind, and I'm sorry it never came to pass. I'd have liked to have read a "Phase II" novel or three.

 

[DarthPipes]

I'd be interested in reading them too.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'd be interested in reading them too.

I would be interested as well.

 

[JD]

Same here. Guess I should have gotten on here a few years earlier.

 

[Thrawn]

I'm interested in literally every single Trek line going right now, as well as all of them that I can think of that've been retired (I definitely plan on getting around to Stargazer & SCE, and I loved Gorkon), but I can honestly say I'm not even the slightest bit curious about Phase II novels.

Shrug.

 

[Pauln6]

I loved the novels that were set between the end of the series and TMP especially the one that focused on Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura, and I bought every novel that was set between TMP and TWOK so yes - I would really like to have seen a series of Phase II novels and I still would.

 

[Paris]

More stories from the second 5YM would be most welcome. Christopher's Ex Machina and the story from Mere Anarchy are not enough...

 

[Steve Roby]

In '98, John Ordover, then Pocket's Star Trek editor, asked on Pocket's Star Trek message board if there was any interest in "Phase II" novels.

I don't know what J.J. had in mind, and I'm sorry it never came to pass. I'd have liked to have read a "Phase II" novel or three.

Yeah, I remember that post, and I would love to have seen something come of it. As great as the Myriad Universes books are, Phase II is something that actually almost happened, and I'd love to see more exploration of it.

As for the Phase II fan films, I don't really enjoy fan films very much. I'd rather have novels.

 

[PaulSimpson]

More stories from the second 5YM would be most welcome. Christopher's Ex Machina and the story from Mere Anarchy are not enough...

Don't forget David R. George III's Crucible: McCoy, which has an alternate idea for the post-TMP period involving the Enterprise.

P

 

[Paris]

More stories from the second 5YM would be most welcome. Christopher's Ex Machina and the story from Mere Anarchy are not enough...

Don't forget David R. George III's Crucible: McCoy, which has an alternate idea for the post-TMP period involving the Enterprise.

P

I'm just reading DRG3's TLE book (my first DRG3 book ), and I'm one of the few people around here who still hasn't read the Crucible books. I was going to wait for the hardcover collection with the extra material, but since it has been delayed i'm just going to have to read the single novels. I was able to get them in a recent ebay auction, so they are now in the Queue.

 

[DarthPipes]

For anyone whose read it, what are your opinions of the "In Thy Image" script from The Lost Series?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm interested in literally every single Trek line going right now... I can honestly say I'm not even the slightest bit curious about Phase II novels.

Shrug.

I don't see "Phase II" novels happening now. Ordover floated his trial balloon in '98, and nothing ever came of it. He's left Pocket far behind, and the novel line is under a different regime now, with different goals than he had.

I suspect that Ordover's reason for considering "Phase II" was that it opened up a New Frontier-like storytelling possibility for the original series characters. New Frontier had launched the year before, and it had been extraordinarily successful. He was probably looking to catch lightning in the bottle again, and "Phase II" offered possibilities. Xon, Decker, and Ilia could all be defined because they were, essentially, original-to-novels characters. Also, because this was an alternate timeline, literally anything could happen to the other characters. Much like the new movie did, the storytelling slate was wiped clean.

Ordover had an interesting view about TOS that I gleaned from conversations online over the years. There were only two periods that he saw as being worthwhile as a storytelling setting -- the classic five-year mission, and post-Star Trek VI. Unless the story absolutely demanded that it fit anywhere else (like New Earth could only go after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though more for the amount of time it spanned rather than anything intrinsic to the story that was told), the story would default to either the classic period or the end of the movie era. His argument against books set post-TMP or post-Star Trek V was that there was nothing inherently unique about them, except that the characters were older. So a standard, run-of-the-mill boldly going novel should go in the 2260s, while a novel that tries to grow the characters, much like a post-finale novel we'd see today, would have to go at the end of the movies. And also, it had to have Kirk in it. The Generations prologue was the end of the line, and The Captain's Daughter's poor sales showed that audiences wouldn't buy classic Star Trek novels if they didn't have the captain front and center.

Now, it's entirely possible that I misread J.J. over the years, yet that's the view I had of his editorial philosophy where the original series was concerned. Which is why, I think, he found "Phase II" an idea at least worth considering. It gave him the benefits of an original-to-novels series like New Frontier, with recognizable characters who were still young and vibrant. Years later, he would latch onto the "lower decks" approach.

A decade-plus on, I still wonder what he had in mind. I know how I'd have launched a "Phase II" series. It would have been really cool. A little fanwanky. But still cool.

 

[Christopher]

^Wow. Makes me glad I pitched Ex Machina to Marco instead of Ordover.

But then, I never really did agree with Ordover's editorial approach to much of anything.

 

[Thrawn]

I do remember being really surprised that the DS9 relaunch was being done by multiple authors; Ordover seemed to like trying ongoing series, after New Frontier's success, but he'd only give them to one author (Carey for Challenger, Golden for VOY-R, Friedman for Stargazer).

 

[Pauln6]

^Wow. Makes me glad I pitched Ex Machina to Marco instead of Ordover.

But then, I never really did agree with Ordover's editorial approach to much of anything.

Ex Machina was the last Trek book I bought and I only bought it because it was set during the second 5-year mission. Kudos for using the stills of the Rec-Deck scene to flesh out some supporting characters too.

I haven't boought anything since, not because I think the other novels are inferior but because I have so much Trek stuff already I needed a way to control myself Of course if they did write more novels set in this period, I would be compelled to buy them...

I do think that one weakness of the novelisation approach is the difficulty in people re-using characters that were originally invented by someone else. I'd feel more invested if we had a wider recurring cast.

 

[Christopher]

Ex Machina was the last Trek book I bought and I only bought it because it was set during the second 5-year mission. Kudos for using the stills of the Rec-Deck scene to flesh out some supporting characters too.

Thanks. Actually I didn't use stills; I used the freeze-frame and zoom functions on my DVD player. The still images on my website were obtained by me taking pictures of the TV screen. I'm still surprised by how well that turned out.

 

[Pauln6]

Ex Machina was the last Trek book I bought and I only bought it because it was set during the second 5-year mission. Kudos for using the stills of the Rec-Deck scene to flesh out some supporting characters too.

Thanks. Actually I didn't use stills; I used the freeze-frame and zoom functions on my DVD player. The still images on my website were obtained by me taking pictures of the TV screen. I'm still surprised by how well that turned out.

Wow yeah they were pretty good. I reviewed the high definition stills on Trekcore and they are surprisingly clear. You can even spot an artcturian and another rhaandarite hidden at the back. Apparently there were close ups of the people on the balcony that ended up on the cutting room floor too. I love that scene.