'Star Trek: Year Five' Coming in April from IDW

[Indysolo]

This new comic was announced today. The article is here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...ginal-missions-end-1177504?utm_source=twitter

One of the writers currently named is "Jodi" Houser, but it should be "Jody Houser". I hope THR fixes that.

Neil

 

[Christopher]

"Hidden chapter?" Most of the TOS tie-ins ever published over the past 40-odd years have been presumed to be in year 4-5 of the mission.

 

[Indysolo]

I'll have to re-read Year Four in case they have any elements that tie-in with that. No mention of that in the article.

 

[marlboro]

I think it's a smart idea to go with an "official" season 5 series. You hook the people who dismiss the books and comics "because they aren't canon" and are still completely free to ignore it when it suits you.

Pocket should have done this 20 years ago.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

"Hidden chapter?" Most of the TOS tie-ins ever published over the past 40-odd years have been presumed to be in year 4-5 of the mission.

The general audience of THR likely doesn't know that.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's a smart idea to go with an "official" season 5 series. You hook the people who dismiss the books and comics "because they aren't canon" and are still completely free to ignore it when it suits you.

What do you mean? This tie-in is no different from any other tie-in. They're all "official," a word that has nothing at all to do with canon status and only means they're legal and licensed merchandise. And it's just the latest of the many series IDW has published under the Trek license it's held for the past dozen years. They did Star Trek: Year Four in 2007-8, and now they're following it up with Year Five.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'd buy that Hildebrandt cover as a poster.

 

[marlboro]

What do you mean? This tie-in is no different from any other tie-in. They're all "official," a word that has nothing at all to do with canon status and only means they're legal and licensed merchandise. And it's just the latest of the many series IDW has published under the Trek license it's held for the past dozen years. They did Star Trek: Year Four in 2007-8, and now they're following it up with Year Five.

I mean I think slapping a worthless "official" label would boost sales. Telling people that the books and comics are canon would bring in a segment of the audience that would otherwise ignore them because "they aren't real." Does it make sense for people to think that way? No. But, they do. Take their money.

Rule of Acquisition #213: Everything is canon...till it ain't.

But seriously, I think a series of novellas that had a focus on getting the voices of the characters right and having the feel of a classic episode would do very well. Especially if it was marketed as "See what happens in season four!"

 

[Christopher]

I mean I think slapping a worthless "official" label would boost sales.

But where did you get the idea that this would have any such label? The word "official" does not appear anywhere in the article.

And again, "official" does not mean "canon." Canon means the original body of work from the original creators. "Official" means merchandise that isn't bootleg, that's produced with permission. It can apply just as well to a Hallmark ornament or a Funko Pop figure or a movie tie-in breakfast cereal as to a novel or comic book.

But seriously, I think a series of novellas that had a focus on getting the voices of the characters right and having the feel of a classic episode would do very well. Especially if it was marketed as "See what happens in season four!"

You're just describing how normal tie-ins work, and talking about it as if it were some new idea you just made up. We always try to get the voices of the characters right. That's part of our job.

 

[Leto_II]

Not that I won’t be checking this out, but... yet another “end-of-the-5YM” storyline (or rather, the final year of the 5YM)? When the TOS movie-era has lain largely fallow in the comics for nearly a full decade now, among other time-periods?

Plus, this seems kinda like oversaturation to me on IDW’s part, considering that most of John Byrne’s recent photocomics are also set in the final year of the 5YM as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in this, but how many more variations on, “Kirk does some deep soul-searching about his impending promotion to the Admiralty” can possibly be written at this point?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

But where did you get the idea that this would have any such label? The word "official" does not appear anywhere in the article.

FWIW, I took marlboro to mean nothing more than putting Year Five tales under a single banner along the lines of, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight from Dark Horse or Adventure Time Season 11 from BOOM!, a way of saying "these ongoing stories come next, after the end of the televised adventures," rather than a "these stories are 'canonical,'" because, as anyone who labors in the dilithium mines knows, Star Trek fiction isn't.

With IDW doing a Year Five, it would be nice if they brought Year Four back into print.

 

[Mysterion]

Ok. Fine.

A) There are already so many TOS-era stories that there is no way that even a large fraction of them (plus the aired episodes) could have all happened in five years. I'm not gonna sit down and do the math, but there's probably already enough TOS stories for a couple or three five-year missions.

B) I've always just assumed that the three seasons of TOS plus the two season of TAS were the five-year mission.

 

[Christopher]

I've always just assumed that the three seasons of TOS plus the two season of TAS were the five-year mission.

Well, TAS's two seasons combined are only 22 episodes, two less than season 3 of TOS. So TAS can be the fourth year and there's room for tie-ins in the fifth year.

 

[Mysterion]

Well, TAS's two seasons combined are only 22 episodes, two less than season 3 of TOS. So TAS can be the fourth year and there's room for tie-ins in the fifth year.

Well, if you factor in time that needs to be in-between 79 live-action and 22 animated episodes to account for travel times, refits (there had to be a least some minor amounts of downtime there somewhere with everything that happened to that ship), the amount of time a few episodes took (i.e. The Paradise Syndrome eats at least a couple months or so), etc. then I think you're getting pretty close to filling up five years.

 

[Damian]

Well, if you factor in time that needs to be in-between 79 live-action and 22 animated episodes to account for travel times, refits (there had to be a least some minor amounts of downtime there somewhere with everything that happened to that ship), the amount of time a few episodes took (i.e. The Paradise Syndrome eats at least a couple months or so), etc. then I think you're getting pretty close to filling up five years.

Oh, God yeah. With the novels alone it'd be impossible to fit them all in with the episodes of the series in 5 years. There's probably half a dozen 5 YM's stories worth frankly, maybe more. Some novels took place over several weeks as well, if not longer.

 

[ryan123450]

Ok. Fine.

A) There are already so many TOS-era stories that there is no way that even a large fraction of them (plus the aired episodes) could have all happened in five years. I'm not gonna sit down and do the math, but there's probably already enough TOS stories for a couple or three five-year missions.

I at least did part of the work. I’m not counting the lengths of every mission!

https://startreklitverse.yolasite.com/how-many-5ym-adventures-are-there.php

In regards to the subject matter, I will take a 5YM series with overt continuity over another string of standalone adventures any day of the week.

 

[Stevil2001]

"Hidden chapter?" Most of the TOS tie-ins ever published over the past 40-odd years have been presumed to be in year 4-5 of the mission.

As the article says:

This isn’t the first time that the end of the five-year mission — the first three years of which form the three seasons of the original Star Trek television series — have been featured in Trek fiction [...]. However, Year Five will be the first extended storyline set definitively during the conclusion of the original mission, and the series has, according to landing, “a beginning, a game-changing middle, and a definite end.”

That "first extended storyline" caveat is doing a lot of work.

Anyway, I'm kind of amused by this. I assume like a lot of big bold IDW relaunches it will peter out into oblivion once attention isn't focused on it anymore.

As posted on this very forum almost exactly eleven years ago:

Although we've made no definitive plans about this, it seems likely that Year Four will be composed of several different miniseries--probably four total, with issues numbering six/five/six/five. That would make 22 issues total, just like 22 episodes of what would have been Year Four of the TV series.

When we've reached 22 issues total of Year Four, we will almost certainly want to transition into Year Five, and may very well likely follow the same miniseries format as Year Four. So, barring unforeseen circumstances, TOS will have a mainstream "anchor" title for quite some time, though there will likely be short breaks between the different miniseries so that the writers & artists can regroup.

Andrew Steven Harris
Editor
IDW Publishing

I wonder why this new round of publicity doesn't mention Year Four at all?

And who can forget the blistering success that was "Second Stage"?

 

[Mysterion]

I at least did part of the work. I’m not counting the lengths of every mission!

https://startreklitverse.yolasite.com/how-many-5ym-adventures-are-there.php

Well done, Sir.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

There are already so many TOS-era stories that there is no way that even a large fraction of them (plus the aired episodes) could have all happened in five years. I'm not gonna sit down and do the math, but there's probably already enough TOS stories for a couple or three five-year missions.

The only way to fit all of the stories of that period -- television, comics, novels -- into five years is to leave Newtonian space-time altogether.

Another five-year mission before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which some of the novels assumed, makes things so much easier to fit.

And who can forget the blistering success that was "Second Stage"?

Damn, that's a deep cut there.

To be fair to IDW, almost everything they announced for "Second Stage" came out, but the labeling fell by the wayside. But, man, this quote: "We want each title to have the significance of a Star Trek film, so that each series is a seminal comics event." There's hype... and then there's that.

 

[Mysterion]

Another five-year mission before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which some of the novels assumed, makes things so much easier to fit.

True. It would also account for the full ten years of aging the cast did between the end of TOS and the premiere of TMP.