You poor bastard. Ugh.
What are you least favorite Star Trek novels?
- Thread starter mattburgess
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You poor bastard. Ugh.
Hmm. I've been thinking about what Sybok might be up to in the new film continuity, but I hadn't considered Stephen's whereabouts...
To my surprise, and not prompted, the film's writers raised Sybok's existence in the new timeline in the Q and A they've done for issue 22 of STM...!
Unless I've overlooked a Strange New Worlds story, Sybok's only appearance outside Star Trek V, film or novelization, is in Star Trek Annual #6 from DC Comics.^I'm totally getting that issue. Sybok's "timeline" has been an interest of mine for awhile. I don't think he's been tackled in any of the books...at least none that i've read...
Susan Shwartz, about ten years ago, said that Sybok wasn't allowed to be referenced in Vulcan's Forge's flashbacks (where he would have been entirely appropriate) because of the "apocryphal" status of the film.
Mind Meld's cover copy suggests that Teska is going to be Sybok's daughter, but in the text of the book she's actually a distant cousin of Spock's.
^I'm totally getting that issue
I hope you will anyway - but this is simply a mention of the character raised with reference to George Kirk jnr...
^I'm totally getting that issue
I hope you will anyway - but this is simply a mention of the character raised with reference to George Kirk jnr...
As a matter of fact, I was likely going to get it anyways. I've really been enjoying the magazine over the last bunch of issues. A Sybok reference by Orci & Kurtzman, no matter how fleeting, makes it that much harder to pass up
.
Unless I've overlooked a Strange New Worlds story, Sybok's only appearance outside Star Trek V, film or novelization, is in Star Trek Annual #6 from DC Comics.^I'm totally getting that issue
Um Sybok has a cameo in The Chimes At Midnight, the first story in Myriad Universes: Echoes And Refractions.
Why not? Trek fiction has played with genres before. We got Sam Cogley as Perry Mason in The Case of the Colonist's Corpse. A Hard Rain was an attempt to do a hardboiled detective novel with Dixon Hill. So what's so shocking about the idea of taking ST characters and telling a superhero-team type of story with them? After all, a lot of Trek characters do have powers equivalent to superheroes' powers. Superstrength, telepathy, telekinesis, enhanced senses, shapeshifting, invisibility -- most of the major superpowers are represented to some degree. Why is it implausible that some people with special gifts might put those gifts to use to protect the innocent?
It wouldn't surprise me. They would be a special mission team of sorts.
Yeah, except neither one of those books was very good, or did well.
Because books shouldn't be based on a "fad," the story is what should come first. And also, because if we're gonna get an(other) x-men star trek book/series, why not just rip off every other series ever created. Star Trek Doctors, Star Trek Batman, Star Trek Calvin & Hobbes...
^Fad? What are you talking about? Superhero fiction is a storytelling genre that has existed for over 70 years, and is inspired by mythological tales going back millennia. I think you're taking the X-Men comparison too literally.
^I'm referring to when people think "this over here is doing really well, and this over there is doing really well, so even though they are totally unconnected, let's mash them together."
I'm also referring to the fact that I find it hard to believe anyone could argue that creating a special Starfleet team of "super soldiers" is in any way in keeping with the original idea of what Star Trek is.
I'm sure this is my own personal problem, and something that I will have to deal with, but whenever I glance at my trek lit collection, TNG Xmen always stands out on the shelf in a bad way.
Why on earth someone decided to cross those over, I'll never understand.
I'm also referring to the fact that I find it hard to believe anyone could argue that creating a special Starfleet team of "super soldiers" is in any way in keeping with the original idea of what Star Trek is.
I'm sure this is my own personal problem, and something that I will have to deal with, but whenever I glance at my trek lit collection, TNG Xmen always stands out on the shelf in a bad way.
Why on earth someone decided to cross those over, I'll never understand.
I think you're making some unverified assumptions about the motivations here. I saw it more as a creative experiment: "Instead of constantly doing the same old familiar kinds of Trek stories, let's see what happens if we tell a different category of fiction within the Trek universe."
What? Who said anything about "super soldiers?" I thought we were talking about superheroes. To quote the cover blurb of Genesis Force, "a group of extraordinary men and women -- some old friends, some new faces -- have been assigned the job of getting the devastated planets back on their feet." That sounds more like a super-FEMA than "super soldiers."
Again, I think you're taking the X-men analogy way too literally here.
For one thing, because Marvel had the Trek comics license at the time and they and Pocket decided to do a cross-promotion. For another, because thematically they're natural partners. X-Men is about a diverse team of heroes who fight to conquer prejudice and build a better future. Star Trek is about a diverse team of heroes who live in a better future where prejudice has been conquered. They're spiritual sister series.
Kinda like "It's Wagon Train... to the stars!"
Because they've both got Patrick Stewart in them, of course!
(Sorry, couldn't resist
)In that case, it must just be my own personal aversion to the idea, but you've all made some excellent points.
Thanks
Thanks
I've found that impulse -- take character X and put them in story Y -- to be a great source of creative energy. An author doesn't need to use it for its crossover potential, but sometimes it can be a great starting point for telling a story. Put an atypical character type into an already existing situation. Unless I'm misremembering what Christopher has said about Greater than the Sum, Trys had her origins in that kind of thinking.
For what it's worth, I think Planet X is one of Mike Friedman's best books. Certainly in his top five.
Why not? Okay, I would have vastly preferred to see the Star Trek/Superman crossover that DC was interested in doing in the early 90s. And I would write a Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover in a heartbeat. Some stories you tell, not to reveal the great truths of human existence, but because they're fun.
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