Star Trek XI has failed... Trek Lit

[Therin of Andor]

I also think it's a dodge. A back door in case the movie had failed, to revert back to the old continuity.

Nothing wrong with a good dodge. If the movie had failed, would you have appreciated that no dodge had been provided?

 

[Rosalind]

I find it quite interesting that we would accept alternative telling of real history, or even fictitious stories of real historical persons, but we argue about alternative stories in a fictitious universe.

 

[rahullak]

I find it quite interesting that we would accept alternative telling of real history, or even fictitious stories of real historical persons, but we argue about alternative stories in a fictitious universe.

An interesting point. But I would say that people will argue over just about anything to support their predispositions, prejudices, assumptions, emotions, egos or simply for the fun of it. History is no different and fiction almost personifies subjectivity.

Hard science and mathematics offer the greatest degree of objectivity, I think, although its not completely above board either. Everything else is considered "objective" based on what the "majority" (used loosely) think about something or on what is most influential or perceived to be a trustworthy source.

So as Christopher said earlier, when it comes to fiction, all that should matter is one's ability and willingness to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy and experience an imaginary world with imaginary events that may or may not have some basis in "reality".

 

[rahullak]

TO CONCLUDE:

Star Trek XI is like a breath of fresh air to the on-screen franchise while at the same time providing greater creative freedom to the authors to continue onward into the future.

In other words, Star Trek XI is a BOON to Trek Literature.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

TO CONCLUDE:

Star Trek XI is like a breath of fresh air to the on-screen franchise while at the same time providing greater creative freedom to the authors to continue onward into the future.

In other words, Star Trek XI is a BOON to Trek Literature.

Well, seeing as anything continuing on from the film is in a new continuity, it might be a boon to Trek literature but not to the mainstream Trek lit series and its continuity, which is where my obsessive love and loyalty lies . NuTrek literature will take up valuable slots on the schedules. Also, the only events from the film that will affect the old continuity are Spock leaving for good and Romulus exploding (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!). This might well be interesting, but as I've argued extensively upthread, I personally am quite disappointed that Romulus is going.

 

[rahullak]

TO CONCLUDE:

Star Trek XI is like a breath of fresh air to the on-screen franchise while at the same time providing greater creative freedom to the authors to continue onward into the future.

In other words, Star Trek XI is a BOON to Trek Literature.

Well, seeing as anything continuing on from the film is in a new continuity, it might be a boon to Trek literature but not to the mainstream Trek lit series and its continuity, which is where my obsessive love and loyalty lies . NuTrek literature will take up valuable slots on the schedules. Also, the only events from the film that will affect the old continuity are Spock leaving for good and Romulus exploding (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!). This might well be interesting, but as I've argued extensively upthread, I personally am quite disappointed that Romulus is going.

You're right about time being spent over nuTrek. But then, it's more Trek for us all to devour eh.

Romulus gone might well be the necessary evil needed to bring together the two Romulan factions (IRS and the original) , either within the Typhon pact or as allies of the Federation. Interesting politically.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

TO CONCLUDE:

Star Trek XI is like a breath of fresh air to the on-screen franchise while at the same time providing greater creative freedom to the authors to continue onward into the future.

In other words, Star Trek XI is a BOON to Trek Literature.

Well, seeing as anything continuing on from the film is in a new continuity, it might be a boon to Trek literature but not to the mainstream Trek lit series and its continuity, which is where my obsessive love and loyalty lies . NuTrek literature will take up valuable slots on the schedules. Also, the only events from the film that will affect the old continuity are Spock leaving for good and Romulus exploding (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!). This might well be interesting, but as I've argued extensively upthread, I personally am quite disappointed that Romulus is going.

You're right about time being spent over nuTrek. But then, it's more Trek for us all to devour eh.

Romulus gone might well be the necessary evil needed to bring together the two Romulan factions (IRS and the original) , either within the Typhon pact or as allies of the Federation. Interesting politically.

Possibly. My hope is that the authors can make the best of it and give us a really good story when we finally get to 2387. I trust them, certainly, but I really wish it didn't have to happen. Sadly, "much of the Romulan Star Empire gets irradiated and the capital blows" is not too appealing to me, particularly following the (very, very good) "Destiny" trilogy. At this rate, all that'll be left of the Beta Quadrant is a wasteland. Political and cultural unity or alliance achieved through some of those cultures being decimated seems cheap to me (not that this is anyone's fault, of course: Romulus blowing was a plot point in a film, and the literature simply has to be true to that film). I still maintain that Romulus being lost will remove a key component from the political/cultural web of Vulcanoids and this risks weakening these storylines. Oh well, I'll look on the bright side: as you imply, the authors will surely make it interesting; they have rarely let me down so far!

 

[Christopher]

Well, seeing as anything continuing on from the film is in a new continuity, it might be a boon to Trek literature but not to the mainstream Trek lit series and its continuity, which is where my obsessive love and loyalty lies . NuTrek literature will take up valuable slots on the schedules.

Why assume it's a zero-sum game? If the movie brings in a new audience for ST, it would potentially be an audience for all of ST. Strong sales for an Abramsverse book line would mean profit and attention for Pocket's Trek fiction program as a whole.

Also, the only events from the film that will affect the old continuity are Spock leaving for good and Romulus exploding (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!).

Not necessarily. We now know that in the original history, George and Winona Kirk served under Captain Robau aboard the USS Kelvin. We also know a couple of new things about how Vulcan society is organized, such as the existence of a Katric Ark wherein the Vulcan High Council watches over Vulcan's cultural legacy -- implicitly meaning the katras of great Vulcans such as Surak. Those are things that could potentially be explored in the original continuity. Indeed, any Kelvin tales set prior to 2233 would be part of both continuities.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Well, seeing as anything continuing on from the film is in a new continuity, it might be a boon to Trek literature but not to the mainstream Trek lit series and its continuity, which is where my obsessive love and loyalty lies . NuTrek literature will take up valuable slots on the schedules.

Why assume it's a zero-sum game? If the movie brings in a new audience for ST, it would potentially be an audience for all of ST. Strong sales for an Abramsverse book line would mean profit and attention for Pocket's Trek fiction program as a whole.

Hmmm, you're quite right. I didn't think of that...

[

Also, the only events from the film that will affect the old continuity are Spock leaving for good and Romulus exploding (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!).

Not necessarily. We now know that in the original history, George and Winona Kirk served under Captain Robau aboard the USS Kelvin. We also know a couple of new things about how Vulcan society is organized, such as the existence of a Katric Ark wherein the Vulcan High Council watches over Vulcan's cultural legacy -- implicitly meaning the katras of great Vulcans such as Surak. Those are things that could potentially be explored in the original continuity. Indeed, any Kelvin tales set prior to 2233 would be part of both continuities.

I overlooked that, too. You're quite right.

 

[DevilEyes]

I think it's giving readers far too little credit to think they'd be confused by the existence of more than one continuity within a totally imaginary franchise. The Marvel movies are in totally different continuities from the comics, but that hasn't created any kind of "confusion" that's hurt the sales of the comics. Same with the animated series that are in yet another continuity and yet still manage to draw an audience.

As KRAD often says, you can't assume that the comments of a few people online are representative of the audience as a whole. The people who post on BBSes are generally members of the relatively narrow subset of people who give a damn about timelines and continuity in the first place. Most people don't care about that niggly technical stuff. They don't worry so much about the details of continuity or internal consistency or whether series X is compatible with series Y. They only want entertaining stories about the characters they know and like.

And really, I think it's giving people far too little credit to think they'd care if one work of fiction "erased" another work of fiction. Oooh, so these totally unreal stories are now less real than these other totally unreal stories? Aaaah, burn them, burn them! Come on. All that matters to most people is that the stories are enjoyable. It doesn't matter whether they think of them as a viable alternate history or simply an alternative way of imagining a made-up bunch of characters.

QFT.