Things you wished were mention in Trek novels

[Damian]

Honestly, it's a bit of a balancing act. You want to stay faithful to the original episodes while trying not to highlight the fact that, basically, you're writing a period piece set during a 1960s vision of the future.

I will say most of you guys do a good job with that, even offering explanations from time to time why something that may have appeared more primitive on screen really is not, in universe. It takes a little imagination but for the most part I think it works. When I'm reading an original series novels these days I try to envision things as presented by the remastered episodes, with the improved special effects and planetary settings. I find that helps keep it futuristic for me.

 

[JD]

I was looking around on Memory Alpha and Beta, and I was surprised to see none of the books or comics have ever dealt with Sito Jaxa's fate after Lower Decks. I've always thought her fate there was rather ambiguous, and they even planned to bring her back on both TNG and DS9 but never went through with it.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, there have been snippets about WWIII. It'd just be interesting if someone were able to tie it all together. ECON, what's been covered in the stories you mentioned, Colonel Green's involvement, the drugged soldiers shown in Encounter at Farpoint and the aforementioned Optimum movement.

The Optimum stuff is from Federation, whose version of 21st-century history is pretty incompatible with what First Contact established.

Like the Romulan War, it's the one event mentioned but a lot of it is still a mystery (who were the major actors, how did it start and what finally ended it).

Given how near-future it is, it's probably best to stay vague about that, because any specific prediction about the geopolitical state of the world just a few decades hence could end up looking pretty clueless. Like when the film version of 2010 assumed the Soviet Union and the Cold War would still be going strong in the 21st century, a prediction that fell apart just five years later.

When I'm reading an original series novels these days I try to envision things as presented by the remastered episodes, with the improved special effects and planetary settings. I find that helps keep it futuristic for me.

That's how I've always read Trek novels, basically. The advantage of prose is that you're always free to imagine things with better production values than TV can manage.

 

[Damian]

The Optimum stuff is from Federation, whose version of 21st-century history is pretty incompatible with what First Contact established

There are parts of Federation that are inconsistent now with First Contact, but I think the Optimum movement itself is still workable. They were an organization that believed in Eugenics, and Colonel Green was mentioned to be supportive of that as well in Enterprise. How that ties into the ECON vs. the US and it's allies I'm not sure, but even WWI and WWII had different actors, it's possible the Optimum movement could be a 3rd actor--or even allied with one of the other two. I don't think it's totally incompatible.

I do agree it's a bit risky since WWIII is supposed to start a few years from now (by some accounts, later by others). Of course we saw the original series predict the Eugenics Wars which never really happened in the 1990's (or did it, hmm, maybe Greg Cox knows something we don't ).

Someone could take elements of what we know and build a story around it. But yeah, it's a risky proposition because you're making predictions about events that take place a few years from now. And you'd have to create mostly unknown characters or lightly used characters on screen and from other novels. At least in the Romulan War novels, Martin had established characters from Enterprise to work with. It'd be hard to get people revved up for characters they've probably never seen or barely saw on screen.

The advantage of prose is that you're always free to imagine things with better production values than TV can manage.

True. And I always liked the streaking star effect from TNG-Enterprise series so that's how visualize the ship at warp (much like the Defiant "In a Mirror, Darkly"). I was sort of disappointed they didn't adopt that in the remastered episodes-though I realize they were trying to respect the original intentions of the creators of the episodes. I hated the tunneling effect of the Abramsverse movies--too much like Star Wars (I have nothing against Star Wars, but I don't need Star Trek to look like Star Wars).

 

[Damian]

It'd be hard to get people revved up for characters they've probably never seen or barely saw on screen.

Actually I take that back. A lot of books work with characters never seen on screen because they are totally original works. So I suppose it is possible, and I know in the relaunches there are a lot of original characters and I've grown to care what happens to them almost as much as the established characters.

 

[Christopher]

And you'd have to create mostly unknown characters or lightly used characters on screen and from other novels. At least in the Romulan War novels, Martin had established characters from Enterprise to work with. It'd be hard to get people revved up for characters they've probably never seen or barely saw on screen.

Which is exactly why Margaret Clark nixed my suggestion of a Star Trek: Beginnings book series filling in the time span between first contact with Vulcan and the launch of NX-01, and instead assigned me to the next big time gap after that with Rise of the Federation.

I hated the tunneling effect of the Abramsverse movies--too much like Star Wars (I have nothing against Star Wars, but I don't need Star Trek to look like Star Wars).

The whooshy thing in the two Abrams-directed movies isn't that good, but the way Beyond depicted a ship at warp was the most beautiful approach I've ever seen in Trek, and a delightful realization of the idea of a warp bubble. I really hope they keep that effect in future movies. I wish Discovery had adopted it.

 

[Damian]

It'd be a risky proposition to create a book series with mostly unknown characters, but I think it could be done. That is another lost era. How did Starfleet come about, what did Earth's space program look like before that, when did the cargo ships get their start?

The effect in Beyond was better. It was less tunneling and more unique. In TNG-ENT shows the effect was literally a warping effect, and it was sort of the first time they really distinguished how the stars appeared at warp vs. impulse. It was my personal favorite and the way I sort of visualize it when reading novels. But Beyond is probably a bit more accurate in how warp speed is usually explained.

I know some people complain about that effect--that it was sort of a space lake effect I guess. I'd see comments like the ship only moved in a straight line, even though there are 3 dimensions. I was always like duh, even in 3-d the shortest distance between 2 points IS a straight line. Did they want the ship to bob up and down and twist and turn. They'd probably crash into a planet doing that.

 

[Damian]

I was looking around on Memory Alpha and Beta, and I was surprised to see none of the books or comics have ever dealt with Sito Jaxa's fate after Lower Decks. I've always thought her fate there was rather ambiguous, and they even planned to bring her back on both TNG and DS9 but never went through with it.

I thought she was dead. I guess it's true her body wasn't shown, but I don't remember there being any doubt as to her fate.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

I thought she was dead. I guess it's true her body wasn't shown, but I don't remember there being any doubt as to her fate.

And as much as I hated that such a great character was killed off, her death was the perfect end to a great episode. The scene where Picard announces her passing was very well done.

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[rafterman1701]

With PADDs, I think it's about multitasking. I often use my iPhone to text while I'm looking at a document on my iPad and a video is playing on my desktop. It's still just a device with one screen and they always seem to be reading one thing at a time on them. And maybe they're extremely disposable devices so you don't need an all in one?

 

[Leto_II]

There are parts of Federation that are inconsistent now with First Contact, but I think the Optimum movement itself is still workable. They were an organization that believed in Eugenics, and Colonel Green was mentioned to be supportive of that as well in Enterprise. How that ties into the ECON vs. the US and it's allies I'm not sure, but even WWI and WWII had different actors, it's possible the Optimum movement could be a 3rd actor--or even allied with one of the other two. I don't think it's totally incompatible.

During ENT's fourth season, plans were afoot to use the Optimum Movement from the Reeves-Stevenses' Federation novel and adapt it to the TV canon -- Malcolm Reed's great-grandfather would've been revealed as an associate of Colonel Green's back during the WWIII time-period, and part of the Optimum. However, Brannon Braga thought it was "too dark," and killed it:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Undeveloped_Star_Trek:_Enterprise_episodes#Colonel_Green_story

 

[Damian]

During ENT's fourth season, plans were afoot to use the Optimum Movement from the Reeves-Stevenses' Federation novel and adapt it to the TV canon -- Malcolm Reed's great-grandfather would've been revealed as an associate of Colonel Green's back during the WWIII time-period, and part of the Optimum. However, Brannon Braga thought it was "too dark," and killed it:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Undeveloped_Star_Trek:_Enterprise_episodes#Colonel_Green_story

That would have been interesting. Like I said, there are parts of Federation that were overwritten by later canon, but I think the Optimum movement in the novel can still be incorporated in the existing storyline. Colonel Green certainly sounds like someone that would be consistent with how that was presented in Federation. Too bad they killed it, though it was sort of incorporated into Terra Prime, at least from the Colonel Green perspective.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Yep, and as we saw in the "Demons"/"Terra Prime" two-parter, Colonel Green's 2055 speech clearly echoed some of the Optimum Movement's philosophy from the novel, regarding the "casting out" of "impurity," forced sterilization, etc. Manny Coto has said that Federation is one of his favorite Trek novels, so this was an interesting homage (plus he had the actual Reeves-Stevenses themselves on staff as story-editors during that year).

Unofficially in my head (and given the episode-premise that almost got filmed concerning Reed's great-grandfather), the Optimum Movement still existed in the filmed TV universe off in the background as an organization that Colonel Green belonged to, just in slightly adapted form from what we saw in Federation.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

While we're on the subject of Nova Squadron characters, Jean Hajar. She's apparently the only Nova Squadron member from "The First Duty" whose later life is unknown.

 

[JD]

And as much as I hated that such a great character was killed off, her death was the perfect end to a great episode. The scene where Picard announces her passing was very well done.

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Oh, I hadn't watched the episode in a while so I didn't realize it specifically said was killed. I just remembered that I had read before that they wanted to bring her back, and all Memory Alpha said was that the escape pod was destroyed. But, we didn't see a body and all we have is the Cardassians' word that she died, and I wouldn't put it past them to lie.

 

[Damian]

Oh, I hadn't watched the episode in a while so I didn't realize it specifically said was killed. I just remembered that I had read before that they wanted to bring her back, and all Memory Alpha said was that the escape pod was destroyed. But, we didn't see a body and all we have is the Cardassians' word that she died, and I wouldn't put it past them to lie.

It's been a while since I've seen that episode but I never got the sense there was any doubt as to her fate. But yeah, I guess it's possible since there was no actual body.

 

[JD]

Whenever these conversations come up I always think of Tony Almeda on 24. He seemed to be pretty definitively dead, but then later they decided that they faked his death and brought him back.

 

[Damian]

Whenever these conversations come up I always think of Tony Almeda on 24. He seemed to be pretty definitively dead, but then later they decided that they faked his death and brought him back.

Of course there's always the 'dream' season on Dallas--so maybe Deanna Troi wakes up and everything from season 7 was a dream (I love Dallas, but oy, that was the best they could come up with?)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Here's something that I don't think has ever been answered:

What exactly the hell happened at Garon II, that led to Ro Laren's court martial?

 

[Dayton Ward]

“Mistakes were made......”