Summer nuTrek novels pulled-TrekMovie.Com

[Paris]

I saw the listing for Out of the Cocoon on Amazon, but I can't find any other ebook collections that have been added to the 2010 schedule. What other ones are they considering? Maybe two SCE/COE collections? Maybe Slings & Arrows? Are there any others listed that I just missed?

 

[Christopher]

Then there's no point holding back the books. They can be contradicted in any number of ways.

That's assuming that the postponement has anything to do with continuity concerns. That's a speculation a lot of people have latched onto, but we have no evidence that it's actually true. In fact, Roberto Orci has debunked the assumption that he and his fellow writer-producers had anything to do with the decision. The bottom line is, we don't know why this decision was made.

 

[JarodRussell]

Maybe someone of TPTB decided the storylines and maybe even the styles were too close to the original universe stories. When I read the short descriptions, I myself was wondering what's so special and new about these stories that justifies an entirely seperate tie-in line?

But that's just a theory. I guess you all got positive feedback on your manuscripts?

 

[DimesDan]

Then there's no point holding back the books. They can be contradicted in any number of ways.

That's assuming that the postponement has anything to do with continuity concerns. That's a speculation a lot of people have latched onto, but we have no evidence that it's actually true. In fact, Roberto Orci has debunked the assumption that he and his fellow writer-producers had anything to do with the decision. The bottom line is, we don't know why this decision was made.

Now of course this won't be the case, but.....

Spoiler: a completely untrue reason

maybe someone just didn't like what you all wrote and canned them all for that reason

 

[TheAlmanac]

Then there's no point holding back the books. They can be contradicted in any number of ways.

That's assuming that the postponement has anything to do with continuity concerns. That's a speculation a lot of people have latched onto, but we have no evidence that it's actually true.

To be fair, though, the wording of the one brief official statement on the matter encourages such an interpretation.

 

[Paris]

^Agreed. When I read it, I thought it was definitely JJ & co. that had helped kibbosh the novels. It would be nicer if they were clearer, but I guess when it comes down to it, they didn't even really need to tell us anything.

 

[JD]

I saw the listing for Out of the Cocoon on Amazon, but I can't find any other ebook collections that have been added to the 2010 schedule. What other ones are they considering? Maybe two SCE/COE collections? Maybe Slings & Arrows? Are there any others listed that I just missed?

S&S has the next SCE collection, the What's Past miniseries, listed for the next month after OotC.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe someone of TPTB decided the storylines and maybe even the styles were too close to the original universe stories. When I read the short descriptions, I myself was wondering what's so special and new about these stories that justifies an entirely seperate tie-in line?

You can't tell much from one-paragraph descriptions, especially ones as inaccurate as those. What's new about the stories is the characters, the relationships, the background, the attitude and style -- all of which we intentionally strove to make as true to the new film as possible.

And it makes no sense to assume this would have anything to do with the stories. If it did, would they have suspended all four novels, written by four different authors with very little communication among them? That's a preposterously unlikely coincidence.

I don't think this is about the content of the books at all, since we got our outlines and manuscripts approved already. I think the reasons probably have to do with business or marketing or some such thing, rather than with creative concerns.

 

[Paris]

I saw the listing for Out of the Cocoon on Amazon, but I can't find any other ebook collections that have been added to the 2010 schedule. What other ones are they considering? Maybe two SCE/COE collections? Maybe Slings & Arrows? Are there any others listed that I just missed?

S&S has the next SCE collection, the What's Past miniseries, listed for the next month after OotC.

Sweet. Thanks JD. I looked further on Memory Beta and it looks like "What's Past" will collect #61-66 of SCE. There are also other non-numbered ebooks listed (Turn the Page,Troubleshooting, The Light, The Art of the Comeback, Signs from Heaven, Ghost, Remembrance of Things Past, Book 1, and Remembrance of Things Past, Book 2) as part of the SCE series. Is there a plan to collect these as well? Why aren't they numbered like the rest of the SCE books?

 

[Christopher]

Those are the Corps of Engineers relaunch volumes, which weren't numbered.

 

[Deano2099]

Maybe someone of TPTB decided the storylines and maybe even the styles were too close to the original universe stories. When I read the short descriptions, I myself was wondering what's so special and new about these stories that justifies an entirely seperate tie-in line?

If that was the case, there'd be a real easy way to fill the publishing gap. Just stick the TOS logo on them and put them out.

I'm guessing they're putting out trade paperbacks for the SCE omnibuses, as while Out of the Cocoon is just 4 books and could fit in an MMPB, What's Past is 6, which would be a struggle, and splitting it seems silly.

 

[snakespeare]

Yes, but policies can change when new people are in charge. Although of course it's pure speculation that this decision has anything to do with canon or continuity.

Did you change your mind over the weekend, Christopher? Last I recall you were telling me that it is contradictory to say that the film writers wanted their creative freedom. You said I was contradicting myself because the novels are never canon. Or were you saying it was contradictory for me to speculate based entirely on what I would do if I were writing the script (i.e. make a trilogy that eventually restores the timeline to prime), and therefore stories set in the sub1 timeline would be invalidated?

Here are two more pence from my point of view.

There aren't only two levels, canon and non-canon. There are actually several levels to this:

Strictly canon: movies and TV shows.
Only mostly canon: novels, graphic novels, comic books, video games, and any other licensed item.
Not really canon, but almost "only mostly" canon: the opinions of the writers of the novels on messageboards.
Wannabe canon, and maybe could be "only mostly" canon someday: fanfic and filk songs.
Doesn't have a snowballs chance in Hell of ever being canon: opinions of the non-writers on messageboards, slash, rpgs, and cos plays.

I still hope I am right about a movie trilogy and the prime timeline, and if so, maybe these novels will come out with some tweaking. But I realize that I am in the snowball-in-Hell category, so I have nothing left but either hope or acceptance.

 

[Paris]

Those are the Corps of Engineers relaunch volumes, which weren't numbered.

Thanks for the info, Christopher . Do you (or anyone else for that matter) know if there is a plan to print these ebooks as well? Are they a straight up continuation of the other series? Could they be considered numbers #67-74? Thanks again...

 

[Christopher]

Yes, but policies can change when new people are in charge. Although of course it's pure speculation that this decision has anything to do with canon or continuity.

Did you change your mind over the weekend, Christopher? Last I recall you were telling me that it is contradictory to say that the film writers wanted their creative freedom. You said I was contradicting myself because the novels are never canon.

*sigh* I didn't change my mind, and there's absolutely no conflict between what I said to you and the statement above. In both cases, my point is that the people in charge of the franchise are the ones who define what canon is. You said that they might be "locked in" by what the novels did if they decided to treat the novels as canonical, but that's self-contradictory, because if they did decide to treat the novels as canonical, then it's the novels that would get changed to fit the next movie, not the other way around.

But of course, that's just disputing a logic error, and it probably has no real meaning anyway, because we now know that this decision was not made by the filmmakers. So I don't know why I'm wasting my time trying to explain this again.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Only mostly canon: novels, graphic novels, comic books, video games, and any other licensed item.

Not canon at all, simply "approved" for sale.

Not really canon, but almost "only mostly" canon: the opinions of the writers of the novels on messageboards.

Opinions of the authors are simply opinions but, as contracted individuals, these opinions are often based on experience and inside knowledge/insight.

Wannabe canon, and maybe could be "only mostly" canon someday: fanfic and filk songs.

Never has been, although some fan contributions have been known to become licensed, approved material. Winners of the "Strange New Worlds" contests and contributors to Marshak/Culbreath's "New Voyages" collections signed contracts and were paid. A few novels have been based upon an author's own fan-written material (eg. "The Vulcan Academy Murders").

Doesn't have a snowballs chance in Hell of ever being canon: opinions of the non-writers on messageboards, slash, rpgs, and cos plays.

Our opinions are often lacking the experience and inside knowledge, but not always. We can have fuun speculating, though, and some of us do have unique insights, experience and rememborances of things past.

I have nothing left but either hope or acceptance.

What many people seem to lack in this thread is... patience.

Licensing is rarely done on a whim; there are usually very good $$$$ and legal reasons why marketing and editorial decisions are made. In the old days (70s and early 80s), we wouldn't have even known these four books had been commissioned, titled, written or approved, let alone postponed. They would have suddenly, magically, appeared on bookshop shelves (after a brief listing of month, title and author in "Locus" maybe six weeks earlier).

 

[snakespeare]

Yes, but policies can change when new people are in charge. Although of course it's pure speculation that this decision has anything to do with canon or continuity.

Did you change your mind over the weekend, Christopher? Last I recall you were telling me that it is contradictory to say that the film writers wanted their creative freedom. You said I was contradicting myself because the novels are never canon.

*sigh* I didn't change my mind, and there's absolutely no conflict between what I said to you and the statement above. In both cases, my point is that the people in charge of the franchise are the ones who define what canon is. You said that they might be "locked in" by what the novels did if they decided to treat the novels as canonical, but that's self-contradictory, because if they did decide to treat the novels as canonical, then it's the novels that would get changed to fit the next movie, not the other way around.

But of course, that's just disputing a logic error, and it probably has no real meaning anyway, because we now know that this decision was not made by the filmmakers. So I don't know why I'm wasting my time trying to explain this again.

Oh. Well, go back and read what I wrote. I did not say what you think I said.

I said many times they might FEEL locked in, they would FEEL their creativity hampered. There is a big difference between someone feeling something and it being true. I never, ever said they would have to change their script. I said that they might want the novels changed to fit the story they haven't yet written.

You misread me. That is why you are wasting your time, because you are arguing with something I never said. I said they may wish to write their script BEFORE READING THE NOVELS, and then they might want to tweak the novels.

So chill out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Do you (or anyone else for that matter) know if there is a plan to print these ebooks as well? Are they a straight up continuation of the other series? Could they be considered numbers #67-74?

Because the rebranding of the eBook instalments coincided with the move of the hardcopy SCE reprints to trade-sided books, the old SCE titles took on CoE as their new title.

For reprint purposes, yes, those last few eBooks would fit as #67-74.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I said they may wish to write their script BEFORE READING THE NOVELS, and then they might want to tweak the novels.

In the world of Hollywood filmmaking and screenwriting, the luxury of reading four as-yet-unpublished novel manuscripts that won't aid in getting their job done any faster is just that: a luxury/chore they really don't need.

One of the screenwriters of the 2009 movie read many ST novels - as a fan of Star Trek - long before he became so busy/famous.

Even Gene Roddenberry rarely read ST novels and novel manuscripts. He paid people like Susan Sackett and Richard Arnold to read them for him, then write memos.

 

[snakespeare]

... read the novel , read the crib notes, it amounts to the same thing in this hypothetical case.

But since Roberto Orci said he had nothing to do with the decision, I guess we should all assume that no creative person involved with the script had anything to do with the decision. So I guess we shouldn't even think about any of this anymore.

I think they are very secretive about where they want to go with the story. No interviewer can get squat out of them. They tease the damn interviewers, even, with false leads. So maybe (look, it's just a guess, please try to be nice) they want to publish them later, with tweaks.

 

[Paris]

Do you (or anyone else for that matter) know if there is a plan to print these ebooks as well? Are they a straight up continuation of the other series? Could they be considered numbers #67-74?

Because the rebranding of the eBook instalments coincided with the move of the hardcopy SCE reprints to trade-sided books, the old SCE titles took on CoE as their new title.

For reprint purposes, yes, those last few eBooks would fit as #67-74.

By "hardcopy" do you mean actual hardcover books or the soft cover reprints? I've never seen any hardcover SCE reprints. Not even when I was looking on ebay to fill some of the holes in my collection...