What Ifs of Trek:Myriad Universe ideas

[SicOne]

After reading the Myriad Universe books, I did not find even one of those Treks Not Taken that sucked. It makes me wonder what other wonderful stories didn't make the cut, as well as possible ideas for other stories.

Pardon if this was done in an earlier thread, but would some of the authors like to discuss some of the What Ifs of Trek that didn't fly, or discuss the evolution of their own stories (i.e. how they got from their original idea to what actually appeared in the books)?

 

[Defcon]

Pardon if this was done in an earlier thread, but would some of the authors like to discuss some of the What Ifs of Trek that didn't fly,

I doubt any author will do that, since there's a chance that there will be more than the two published and the one scheduled Myriad Universe books in the future, and who knows if a idea which was rejected now for some reason won't get another chance in the future.

 

[SicOne]

Figure it's worth a shot to ask about the ideas that were shot down, as odds are they would continue to be shot down in the future.

And I'm interested in the evolution of the idea; while some is covered in the Myriad Universe authors notes themselves, I am hoping they expand on them here.

Isn't there supposed to be another Myriad Universe book coming out later this year?'

 

[PaulSimpson]

Figure it's worth a shot to ask about the ideas that were shot down, as odds are they would continue to be shot down in the future.

And I'm interested in the evolution of the idea; while some is covered in the Myriad Universe authors notes themselves, I am hoping they expand on them here.

Isn't there supposed to be another Myriad Universe book coming out later this year?'

Different editors might go for different approaches to the same concept - STM is a factual magazine about Star Trek, but has been radically different under John Freeman, Toby Weidmann and myself in the last 10 years, and an article unsuccessfully pitched to one of my predecessors might fit exactly with the plans I have. Just because Marco and/or Margaret weren't predisposed to an idea in recent times doesn't stop its validity for a story in 10 years time...

 

[MichaelS]

After reading the Myriad Universe books, I did not find even one of those Treks Not Taken that sucked.

Well, they do say that the third time's the charm ...

 

[David R. George III]

^ Geez. No pressure, huh?

 

[William Leisner]

After reading the Myriad Universe books, I did not find even one of those Treks Not Taken that sucked. It makes me wonder what other wonderful stories didn't make the cut, as well as possible ideas for other stories.

Pardon if this was done in an earlier thread, but would some of the authors like to discuss some of the What Ifs of Trek that didn't fly, or discuss the evolution of their own stories (i.e. how they got from their original idea to what actually appeared in the books)?

This was actually asked before, and I had answered in a very superficial way about the ones that didn't make it. As Defcon said, it's better not to get any more into that, so as not to screw over any future authors.

As for the evolution of A Less Perfect Union? It was really pretty straight forward. I had wanted the opportunity to do a story that showed how the ENT era lead into TOS, and I jumped at this chance, even though it wasn't in the real universe. I knew I wanted an old T'Pol on the NCC-1701, and I wanted a certain couple of TOS guest characters to have their face-to-face scene. Everything else pretty much fell into place from there.

 

[KRAD]

My original notion was Borg-focused, but given how much other Borgy things were happening in the fiction, Marco asked me to pitch something else.

So I did.

 

[Man of Steel]

Hey,

Could we get a mirror story featuring Q or even a Myriad one? Pretty Pwease...

 

[Scott Pearson]

After reading the Myriad Universe books, I did not find even one of those Treks Not Taken that sucked.

Well, they do say that the third time's the charm ...

^ Geez. No pressure, huh?

Stop that fighting back there! I will turn around this BBS and take you kids straight home, no Dairy Queen!

To answer the OP, for my story in Myriad 3 I was trying to think of an unlikely turning point that would nevertheless have serious ramifications. It occurred to me that the comedy of "The Trouble with Tribbles" tends to overshadow the seriousness of the underlying situation and things could have easily gone very wrong there with a small change. The more I thought about it from Nilz Baris's point of view, the more I thought Kirk was being a huge jerkweed on K-7. But Kirk plays a very small role in the novella, which spins out the ramifications over the century following what happened (differently) on K-7.

As for what didn't make the cut, Marco really liked two of my other pitches, but thought one covered some themes too close to an earlier Myriad story, and thought the other was too close in subject matter to a story already chosen for Myriad 3. He liked that one so much he thought we might be able to revisit it in a future anthology . . . of course, sadly, Marco is gone from Pocket Books now, so who knows what will happen. I certainly would have loved writing that one too. It was pretty cool.

 

[MichaelS]

Marco really liked two of my other pitches, but [...] thought the other was too close in subject matter to a story already chosen for Myriad 3.

Sorry about that. It wasn't deliberate! (That's our story, and we're sticking to it.)

 

[Scott Pearson]

Marco really liked two of my other pitches, but [...] thought the other was too close in subject matter to a story already chosen for Myriad 3.

Sorry about that. It wasn't deliberate! (That's our story, and we're sticking to it.)

It all worked out in the end.

Of course, if I hadn't gotten in, then the both of you would have been dead to me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When is Myriad 3 coming out?

 

[Scott Pearson]

When is Myriad 3 coming out?

It's going to be awhile. It got bumped to August 2010 from an original release date of November 2009.

After the belt-tightening layoffs that left Margaret Clark with a large pile of Marco's projects in her lap, they needed to spread things out a bit.

I like to think it will be worth the wait.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Will there be three stories in Myriad 3, like the last two, or will there be more of them (like the third MU anthology)?

And until M3 comes out, I don't suppose we could have any other spoilers as to what the other stories are about? I must admit I'm intrigued as to what could happen if "Trouble with Tribbles" went wrong (I wonder if Sisko and crew appear?).

 

[Stevil2001]

There will be three stories: one by Scott Pearson, one by David R. George the Freakin' Third, and one by m'self and Michael Schuster.

My carefully chosen hint: our story contains the furthest-back divergence point of any Myriad Universes story thus far.

 

[David R. George III]

^ That's Mr. George the Freakin' Third to you, buddy.

 

[LutherSloan]

My carefully chosen hint: our story contains the furthest-back divergence point of any Myriad Universes story thus far.

Age of Surak? Romulans leaving Vulcan? Something to do with Kahless?

 

[Christopher]

My carefully chosen hint: our story contains the furthest-back divergence point of any Myriad Universes story thus far.

Hmm. I have a MyrU idea where the divergence point is at least several thousand years in the past... I wonder how it compares to yours. (And I wonder if I'll ever get to pitch it.)

 

[SicOne]

Spoiler: story idea

Worf is accidentally sent through the Guardian of Forever to the time of the rise of Kahless, only to find that Kahless is a mental-defective and a coward and Worf must assume his identity and create the legend that is Kahless to found the Empire.