What stories MUST be told?

[ryan123450]

What stories, after more than 40 years, have still not been told? What eras have not been fleshed out? What tale do you most want to see told (or retold)?

My list:
The definative Temporal Cold War novel
Followup to the Xindi arc
The Founding of the Federation
The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain April
The end of Early Voyages
The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk
The years from Kirk's retirement post-TMP to the beginning of TWOK
Worf's first assignments
The year 2377
The Ascendent's conflict
The Dominion's current state of affairs
New Frontier during Destiny

Several things I would have put on this list have been told in the last few years like the Romulan War, the Occupation, and the return of Neelix and Species 8472.

What are every else's thoughts?

 

[Captain Robert April]

What stories need to be told?

Whatever story the author is just dying to tell.

 

[William Leisner]

What stories, after more than 40 years, have still not been told? What eras have not been fleshed out? What tale do you most want to see told (or retold)?

My list:
The definative Temporal Cold War novel
Followup to the Xindi arc
The Founding of the Federation
The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain April
The end of Early Voyages
The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk
The years from Kirk's retirement post-TMP to the beginning of TWOK
Worf's first assignments
The year 2377
The Ascendent's conflict
The Dominion's current state of affairs
New Frontier during Destiny

Several things I would have put on this list have been told in the last few years like the Romulan War, the Occupation, and the return of Neelix and Species 8472.

What are every else's thoughts?

I think I'll have another piece of cake.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

My choice out of these:

Followup to the Xindi arc.

I very much enjoyed the Xindi, and there's still a lot of potential there, I think. Their internal politics would make for quite a gripping story arc in Trek lit (plenty of ambiguity, interesting aliens, lots of potential for political intrigue, drama, action- I'm sure they could make it appeal to everyone in one way or another). They'd never be able to justify this, but personally I'd love a Star Trek: Xindi series .

I liked the presentation of a multi-species organization that is always this close to falling apart and which is essentially a five-way racial feud sitting around pretending to be an alliance, yet which is trying. They have a genuine sense of loyalty to one another, to the idea of Xindi as a collection of races, and they're trying to make it work, even if they can't actually stand each other. There's something very moving and noble in that, really, and I'd love a more detailed look at it. And the ability to explore not only five entire alien races (most of them quite non-human) and a sixth, combined culture built by all these different races in tandem would be exciting.

The history of the Xindi is screaming to be explored. They're in Enterprise, and then (so far) nothing until they show up in "The Sky's the Limit", seemingly as well behaved members of the Federation (and the Xindi character there was Reptilian, which is even better). What happened in between? Did they fall apart, fight among themselves, get back together and rebuild their alliance? What happened to their advanced technology- holograms and vortices, etc? How did Earth react when the Xindi popped up again at a later date and offered a hand in friendship (assuming that's how it happened)? How did the Xindi populace react to the "turns out Humans aren't the enemy but Guardians are, how about that?" revelations?

And the worldbuilding potential! I have a lot of questions about Xindi: Why didn't the avians survive, particularly when the Council Chamber on New Xindus/Council Planet suggests that they apparently make it off Xindus after all? Were the Reptilian warriors all male like Dolim, or were at least half female (these are reptiles after all, so they don't have to look "feminine" in any way)? How does an Aquatic "dynasty" work? What does "Xindi" mean- how did they decide that was their collective name, and seeing as it doesn't sound Aquatic or Insectoid, is it a sign of Primate or Reptilian ethnocenticism (they both seemed quite racist much of the time (the Arboreals less so, but then they were more reserved))?

Yes, basically, I want a Xindi novel or three. Preferrably a big political arc taking them from where we left them through to Federation membership. It won't happen, but I want it.

 

[TerraUnam]

I always wanted a Founding of the Federation novel, looks like we'll get it at the end of the current ENT arc.

Closing off the Temporal Cold War would be nice, but I won't hold my breath on that one.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Deranged Nasat not only picked what I was going for, but also summed it up better than I would have. Bravo.

Too bad it's unlikely. Maybe something will get announced. The tenth anniversary of the show is next year, so...

 

[Therin of Andor]

The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain April

Well, we did have a great pre-official-launch story ("Final Frontier" by Carey) and were introduced to the regular April crew in the bonus scenes of the Alan Dean Foster "ST Logs" adaptation of "The Counterclock Incident".

The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk

Why do you not count McInytre's "Enterprise: The First Adventure"?

 

[captcalhoun]

the launch of the Enterprise-C and the loss of the -B.

 

[F. King Daniel]

What Captain Robau, George Kirk and the rest of the Kelvinites were doing prior to stardate 2233.04.

What Spock Prime did after STXI (what do you mean Greg Cox already wrote it but some douchebag has put it on hold?)

What the 2009 Enterprise crew did next (what do you mean four stories have already been written...douchebag...hold... etc)

Novelizations of cancelled movies Star Trek: The Academy Years and Star Trek: The Beginning.

What William Shatner's Kirk did next at the academy.

An epic time-war story revealing who Future Guy really was, and what Daniels was up to (I realize it would probably be impossible since the Enterprise writers were making it up on the spot without a care as to whether it made any sense or not)

A universe-hopping culture-shock thing where someone is accidently and permanently transferred from the ruined Destiny universe to the paranoid, Undine-fearing STO universe. Dead friends live again but think you're an Undine.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The definative Temporal Cold War novel

Which I'd take to be the same as

An epic time-war story revealing who Future Guy really was, and what Daniels was up to (I realize it would probably be impossible since the Enterprise writers were making it up on the spot without a care as to whether it made any sense or not)

I pitched that a while back, (when Marco was still in charge!) but heard no more about it. Whether DTI next year will cover this, I've no idea.

The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk

Enterprise: The First Adventure, Vonda N McIntyre

 

[C.E. Evans]

At the top of my list is the Enterprise-B. Personally, I think that ship was in service longer than any starship with the name and may have had several captains at her helm. Serpents Among The Ruins had Demora Sulu take over after Harriman stepped down, but that still leaves decades of unaccounted Federation history before the supposed launch of the Enterprise-C in "The Lost Era" series.

Starfleet pre-ENT. Tucker made a reference that Starfleet hadn't been around that long by 2151, but that could be anywhere between 20 and 30 years, IMO. Starfleet in its total infancy with starships that could barely go past Warp 1 could be interesting, with probably stories about the early exploration/colonization of Sector 001 and first contact with the Denobulans perhaps...

Starfleet post-ENT/pre-TOS. An era without a starship named Enterprise. Leaves the door for another vessel to come forth and be the big "hero ship" in the timeframe between Archer and Kirk, IMO.

The Federation Timeship Relativity. I admit this one's more of a personal wish, rather than "a must be told" story. Relativity could offer a unique insight in that it could deal with multiple timelines in the Star Trek Universe, including the Prime and Abramsverse timelines.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

Post-ENT to Pre-TOS Era

Cardassian War Era- it must have been a big war, since it involved a number of major characters from TNG (Picard), DS9 (Sisko, O'Brien, Kira, Odo), and VOY (Janeway, Chakotay)

Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C stories

 

[F. King Daniel]

Something huge and awesome the USS Surak did shortly before "The Doomsday Bug" cruely killed off Dr. Chu-Sa, "Mister" Brinks and the rest of the crew.
Perhaps as part of The Anthology of Cameo Federation Sharships, also featuring adventures on the Kelvin, Enterprise's B and C, Grissom, Aventine, both Saratogas, Columbia, Reliant etc.

Some sort of Starfleet Academy reunion, telling us how T'Priell/Selke and co. turned out, and tying up lots of loose threads.

Worf's first assignments

The first two YA Starfleet Academy books, also featuring the academy days of a few New Frontiers characters, covered this.

It's a big shame about Lonemagpie's TCW novel going nowhere, especially coming up to the Enterprise 10th anniversary

 

[Lonemagpie]

It's a big shame about Lonemagpie's TCW novel going nowhere, especially coming up to the Enterprise 10th anniversary

Not so much going nowhere as they just liked another pitch better for now.

If neither DTI next year, or any other future books, cover the same ground in the same way, I can always retool it for the 15th anniversary...

 

[JD]

My list:
The definative Temporal Cold War novel

I enjoyed the arc in Ent. and would really like to see more a conclusion to it than what we got on the show.

Followup to the Xindi arc

I'd also really like to know how the Xindi went from trying to destroy Earth to being (possible) Federation members.

The year 2377

They made it sound like this year was pretty eventfull in The Good That Men Do and I wouldn't mind seeing why that was.

The Ascendent's conflict

I know alot of people think we're never going to see the Ascendants conflict, but I find it hard to believe the editors and authors would set up an arc like that and then never finish it.

The Dominion's current state of affairs

I'd love to know what happened with Odo and Laas after Olympus Descending.

New Frontier during Destiny

I'd love to see this, but sadly it would probably have to be somebody other than Peter David, since he doesn't really seem to follow along with what the rest of the books are doing.

The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk

Why do you not count McInytre's "Enterprise: The First Adventure"?

And there was also an issue of DC's first TOS series.

 

[TerraUnam]

I always thought the era from First Contact in 2163 to 2154 was compelling as Earth matured, unified under one planetary government, set off on the colonization of Alpha Centauri and developed interstellar relations.

 

[ryan123450]

They made it sound like this year was pretty eventfull in The Good That Men Do and I wouldn't mind seeing why that was.

It always bothered me that TNG skipped over this year to move ahead to A Time To..., especially since Vulcan's Soul and New Frontier provided all kinds of interesting things that happened in that time.

The first adventure of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk

Why do you not count McInytre's "Enterprise: The First Adventure"?

The First Adventure just has too many "errors" and false presuppositions compared to modern continuity. This is something so important that it deserves a modern, definative retelling. The only big problem is "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the My Brother's Keeper trilogy showed how the main characters joined the crew slowly over time, by I guess the WNMHGB crew must have had a big beginning to their mission also.

The first two YA Starfleet Academy books, also featuring the academy days of a few New Frontiers characters, covered this.

I meant after the Academy, what happend to Worf before he was transferred to the flagship of the fleet.

Cardassian War Era- it must have been a big war, since it involved a number of major characters from TNG (Picard), DS9 (Sisko, O'Brien, Kira, Odo), and VOY (Janeway, Chakotay)

This was covered in part by the Terok Nor trilogy and the Jeri Taylor Voyager novels.

 

[Warp Coil]

More than anything, I just want a continuation of the DS9 relaunch. I want to know what happens with the Ascendants arc, what happens to the Dominion, etc (four or five books to bring the DS9 continuity in synch post-Destiny that covers all of the major story arcs would be A-Okay with me!). I'm also surprisingly interested in seeing where the VOY story goes after Full Circle and Unworthy.

 

[SicOne]

How come I get snarked at for "giving story ideas", but y'all get to toss 'em out willy-nilly?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

World War III.

I mean a full-out epic, like they're doing now with the Romulan War.

Such as:

- Who started it, and when, and why

- Exactly who the ECON (Eastern Coalition) were, and who the other players in the war were

- How Earth managed to recover so quickly. Who else survived the war, apart from the USA? (cf. "The Royale", TNG) Did the Vulcans help in the cleanup?

- How did Colonel Green figure in all of this?

- How this led to the Traite d'Unification in 2123

Side note: I feel I must once again mention the excellent Fan Fiction right here, First Contact: The Iron Horse.

Also: Remember in DS9's "Past Tense" when Kira and O'Brien are hopping through time? At one point O'Brien speaks of seeing the mid 21st century (the alternate, Gabriel Bell-less timeline), and he says that Earth had its rough spots, but "never THAT rough." What could he have possibly seen that was, in that timeline, WORSE than World War III in the regular timeline? What could possibly be worse than World War III?